Creating Utopia: A return to eden or babel?

1. Creating Utopia: A return to eden or babel? Considering the implications of building a perfect society without God.

2. Session 8 Utopia: Transhumanism (Part 1) remaking man in OUR image

3. The framework of this study was laid out by Dr. Heiser in a presentation given at the 2013 “Future Congress” Conference. The title of the presentation was: “Thinking Theologically About the Utopian Impulse as a Perversion of the Judeo-Christian Worldview” It can be viewed on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/yl4wR-EW00Y

4. For more of Dr. Heiser’s work listen to his: “Naked Bible Podcast” http://www.nakedbiblepodcast.com Or visit his primary website at: http://drmsh.com

5. Overview • What is Transhumanism? • The 2045 Initiative • Why the push for Transhumanism?

6. –1 Corinthians 15:42-44 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

7. what is transhumanism?

8. What is transhumanism? • Transhumanism: “a philosophy that explores human transcendence above or beyond organic, corporeal limitations through technological and philosophical evolution.” • This is the idea of manipulating the human body and mind so that it is no longer based in biology but based by in technology. • G.R.I.N. technologies: Genetics, Robotics, artificial Intelligence, and Nanotechnology. • Related concepts are “humanity 2.0” and post-humanism.

9. What is transhumanism? • Transhumanism is essentially Transcendent Humanism • Humanism is the basic philosophy and moral foundation underpinning transhumanism. • Transhumanism is the enterprise of humans attempting to perfect the human being. • Transhumanism is the attempt to correctly identify and realize what an entirely new form of humanity should look like and how it should operate.

10. Fundamental questions • How do fundamentally flawed beings create perfection? • Is transhumanism essentially eugenics repackaged in a technological wrapper? • How would transhumanism increase human happiness? • How do we define what it means to be human? • Can humanity be modified to the point it is no longer human?

11. – Wesley J. Smith, Senior Fellow, The Discovery Institute “Transhumanism is a Utopian and a neo-eugenic social movement that presumes that it will be able to create a post-human species for the betterment of human-kind.”

12. – Dr. Natasha Vita-More, Chairman of Humanity+ “You have the right to enhance your body, live longer, adjust your physical makeup and performance, and those who do not want to be enhanced ought never be coerced to enhance.”

13. –Dr. Leon Kass, (former Chairman of the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics) Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity; 2004 “Human nature itself lies on the operating table, ready for alteration, for eugenic and psychic ‘enhancement,’ for wholesale redesign. In leading laboratories, academic and industrial, new creators are confidently amassing their powers and quietly honing their skills, while on the street their evangelists are zealously prophesying a posthuman future. For anyone who cares about preserving our humanity, the time has come for paying attention.”

14. – Joel Garreau, Lincoln Professor of Law “Now for the first time, we are aiming inward at modifying our minds, memories, metabolisms, personalities, progeny, and possibly our mortal souls.”

15. – Dr. James Hughes, The Tranhumanist and Spirituality Conference 2010 “Should we seek dialog with paranoid Christian fundamentalists who rant against h+, or should we seek more than dialog, maybe even mock them?”

16. The Four Elements of Transhumanism • Radical Self-design • Immortality • Procreative Redesign • New-diety Project

17. The Four Elements of Transhumanism • Radical Self-design • Redesign ourselves as we see fit. • Change designs as desired.

18. The Four Elements of Transhumanism • Immortality • Radical life extension through medicine and nano-technology. • Transferring the conscious mind to a machine body that can be maintained indefinitely. • Transferring the consciousness to an advanced consciousness to live on in a virtual world.

19. The Four Elements of Transhumanism • Procreative Redesign • Our children can be design to meet our needs. • Perceived flaws can be removed from humanity. • Perceived benefits can be engineered into humanity.

20. The Four Elements of Transhumanism • New-diety Project • We would exist in a way that our ancestors would have seen as god-like. • We would have the ability to reshape ourselves into whatever image we wished. • We could create any new life as we see fit.

21. THE 2045 INITIATIVE

23. evolution of the avatar • Robot: “a machine that resembles a human and does mechanical, routine tasks on command.” • Android: “an automaton in the form of a human being.” • Cyborg: “a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependent on a mechanical or electronic device.” • Avatar: “Hindu Mythology. the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form or some manifest shape; the incarnation of a god.” • Non-physical or multi-physical existence. • Group consciousness.

24. VIEW THE 2045 VIDEO “A NEW ERA FOR HUMANITY”

25. thinking critically about 2045 • Problem Statement: “The time we have to make the right decisions is shorter and shorter.” • Time has been reduced because: • “The speed of data transmission has increased by multiples of millions.” • Exponential growth in the rate of globally significant: • Events • Discoveries • Crises

26. thinking critically about 2045 • The Solution: “Historic crises show that to break the deadlock we need technological revolution.” • Technology will provide the necessary change. • Enhancements in our technology will lead to “the deepest social transformation.” • The Assumption: The historical record shows that technology changed deadlocks for the good of humanity.

27. thinking critically about 2045 • “[focusing] on the technologies of the future…Doing so will allow us to find new sources of energy, create fundamentally new architecture and transportation, allow unprecedented developments of human cognitive abilities, refine artificial intelligences and brain-computer interfaces, simulate complex systems, create humanoid robots and cyborgs, and with the help of Nano-robots we may develop manageable matter, find ways to transfer one’s personality to an artificial carrier.”

28. thinking critically about 2045 • “what we need is not just another technological revolution but a new civilizational paradigm. We need new philosophy, and ideology, new ethics, new culture, and new psychology, and even new metaphysics.”

29. thinking critically about 2045 • “We must reset our limits; go beyond ourselves…”

30. thinking critically about 2045 • “Humanity does not have a master plan of its development.”

31. thinking critically about 2045 • “We intend to create a new vector for civilization aimed at constant human development and evolution.”

32. thinking critically about 2045 • “May everlasting spiritual ideals and values help us avoid going astray.”

33. thinking critically about 2045 • “Our project will give new meaning to the millions of people on Earth who have become a result of their joint creativity and will lead us out of the impasse; away from the murder of nature and physical death. Forward to the realm of freedom and creativity, to the depths of the oceans and to the stars, to the infinite universe of our inner world.”

34. –Genesis 3:4-5 (NIV) “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

35. why the push for transhumanism?

36. Healing is good business • G.R.I.N technologies promise to provide: • Sight for the blind. • Hearing for the deaf. • Speech to the mute. • Cures to the diseased. • Mobility to the lame. • New limbs to the broken. • Immortality to the Mortal.

37. taking soldering to a new level • G.R.I.N technologies promise to provide soldiers: • who never get tired. • who can carry immense loads. • who can withstand significant punishment and damage. • who can be salvaged, repaired, and remotely controlled. • with superhuman senses and even new non-human senses. • that can be overridden or switched off. • with no fear of death. • with reduced psychological reaction from killing.

38. Boiling it down • Undeniable elements fueling the Transhumanist movement: • Utopian minded thinkers and idealists. • A faulty view of the historical impact of technology on human well-being. • Broken people looking for healing and extended life. • Businesses looking to make immense profits. • Militaries looking to create super-soldiers.

39. –1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (NIV) “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

40. Summary • God had a utopian master plan for humanity. We must personally reengage Him in that plan through salvation. • History provides no example of human endeavors leading to long term development of the human being. • History provides many tragic examples of how technology has been misused and caused immense human suffering. • Transhumanism assumes that somehow more technology will cure the ills that have been caused my mankind using technology. • Until we return to the will of our Creator we will continue to fail.

41. For more of Dr. Heiser’s work listen to his: “Naked Bible Podcast” http://www.nakedbiblepodcast.com Or visit his primary website at: http://drmsh.com