Transhumanist Philosophy Essay -- Future Science Fiction

Imagine that you atomic number 18 able to teleport to the not too distant future. In this earth you discover that disease and poverty ar no longer causes for tender suffering, world hunger has become eliminated from society, and space travel is as halcyon as snapping your fingers. Cryonics, nanotechnology, cloning, genetic enhancement, artificial intelligence, and brain chips are all mutual technologies at a doctors office. You gasp as a friendly sounding electronic voice cries out, Welcome to the future vivid You are unsure of whether organism called a Natural is an insult or not, so you feign a half-hearted hello at the posthuman in confront of you. Getting over the initial shock you ask the posthuman, Who are you? The posthuman gives an electronic sounding chuckle and shakes his head. He replies, I am a Posthuman, and you Natural, are in Utopia. Welcome. Sounds pretty science-fiction based right? Well, to those who follow the Transhumanist philosophy, a Utopian world could be a reality. Susan Schneider a philosophy professor at University of Pennsylvania defines Transhumanism as a philosophical, cultural, and political movement which holds that the human species is at once only in a comparatively early phase and that its truly evolution will be altered by developing technologies (271). In simple terms, transhumanists believe that the human species is in its early phase. Our species is a get going in progress and our evolution will be altered by advancing technologies. With these advancements in technology, transhumanists have optimistic plans about the future. Transhumanists hope that as our current technology advances we will soon be able to perform superhumans or posthumans. According to the World Tanshumanist Association a... ...d, working definition of what a person is, enhancing will be newest fad. Humankind is on an irreversible evolutionary journey where super-intelligence will be the normal IQ for children, war and deat h are no longer terms in the english dictionary, and being 1,000 years old is considered young. It is a bright and prosperous future looking through the lens of a transhumanist. One that I cannot wait to converge through bionic eyes. Works CitedBrooks, R. A. 2003. Prologue, In Flesh and Machines How Robots Will tilt Us, Vintage. Elliott, C. 2003. Humanity 2.0. The Wilson Quarterly, 27(4) 13(8).Schneider, S. 2008. Future Minds Transhumanism, Cognitive Enhancement, and the Nature of Persons. Forthcoming in Penn Bioethics Reader. Accessed online July 20, 2010http/repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1037&context=neuroethics pubs