TRANSHUMANISM: MODERN HUMANS Introduction The aim of this paper is to discuss transhumanists creating modern humans and the

issues relating to it. The future is yet uncertain, but due to the fact that many scientists and engineers invent and develop a lot of things as of today, some already hypothesize the future. Some fear the future, some not. We dream of a future that has an advanced technology.

Background Transhumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. The contemporary meaning of the term transhumanism was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of futurology,FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the Human" at The New School of New York City in the 1960s, when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and worldviews transitional to "posthumanity" as "transhuman".This hypothesis would lay the intellectual groundwork for the British philosopher Max More to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a futurist philosophy in 1990, and organizing in California an intelligentsia that has since grown into the worldwide transhumanist movement. According to Nick Bostrom, transcendentalist impulses have been expressed at least as far back as in the quest forimmortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as historical quests for the Fountain of Youth, Elixir of Life, and other efforts to stave off aging and death. Computer scientist Marvin Minsky wrote on relationships between human and artificial intelligence beginning in the 1960s. Over the succeeding decades, this field continued to generate influential thinkers, such as Hans Moravec and Raymond Kurzweil, who oscillated between the technical arena and futuristic speculations in the transhumanist vein. In 1986, Eric Drexler published Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, which discussed the prospects for nanotechnology and molecular assemblers, and founded the Foresight Institute. As the first non-profit organization to research, advocate for, and perform cryonics, the Southern California offices of

the Alcor Life Extension Foundation became a center for futurists. In 1988, the first issue of Extropy Magazine was published by Max More and Tom Morrow. In 1990, more, a strategic philosopher, created his own particular transhumanist doctrine, which took the form of the Principles of Extropy, and laid the foundation of modern transhumanism by giving it a new definition: Transhumanism is a class of philosophies that seek to guide us towards a posthuman condition. Transhumanism shares many elements of humanism, including a respect for reason and science, a commitment to progress, and a valuing of human (or transhuman) existence in this life. Transhumanism differs from humanism in recognizing and anticipating the radical alterations in the nature and possibilities of our lives resulting from various sciences and technologies.

Practice of Transhumanism Transhumanists are often concerned with methods of enhancing the human nevous system. Some propose the modifications of the nervous system, but the brain being the common denominator of personhood, thus, many transhumanists ambitions focus on the brain. It is a body modification in which the transhumanists tend to use existing technologies and techniques that are designed to improve health and longevity. The transhumanists support the emergence of different technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science, and hypothetical future technologies such as stimulated reality, artificial intelligence, superintelligence, mind uploading, chemical brain preservation and cyonics.

Discussion Transhumanists aims to challenge the limitations of a human. Many disagree with this ideology because they said that transhumanists creates beast. a beasts that have been predicted a long time ago, according to the bible Revelations 13:15 and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. This means that Man is now the Creator; we are now surpassing the God that creates the mankind. What was once science fiction is now becoming reality! This is now new anymore, based on the articles that Ive read there are successful scientists that created a rat cyborg. This rat cyborg have a micro-chip that is connected to their cerebellum that controls the basic stimuli of the rat. Even though it is just the basic stimuli, they

they have succeeded and further on they will enhance this chip that later on it can control a whole rat. But not just the rat, if theyve become successful with creating the rat cyborg, imagine those microchip will be inserted to us humans. Thus, creating a human cyborg. We only saw such things in science fiction movies, but fictions are now becoming reality. Those simple dreams of some people that have a wild ideas in mind have gone far. Some may say it is good, because some wants to live for long but some are not, afraid of what will happen to us humans if those things are created.

Some argues that if those things are created, the humankind will be endangered. Cyborgs are just one of the examples; others are the cloning and genetically modified organisms. So when the dawn of these creatures rises, what will happen to us humans? Thats the questions most of the cons in this ideology fear of. Of course, the church disagrees with this ideology because for them, death is a natural phenomenon in ones life so we should not contradict it. By creating transhmans, we are already contradicting the church. For them, creating the transhumans is a taboo. It is forbidden, for only god is the creator. He is the only one that can create humans and all the things around us.

Billions of people around the world would love to upgrade their bodies, extend their youth, and amplify their powers of perception, thought, and action with the assistance of safe and tested technologies. Its not hard to convince people to become stronger and healthier if it truly is within their grasp. Another issue in transhumanism is that, if people can grasp the ability to modify their own self is that selfish people will have the option of becoming even more

selfish. Also, there will be racism in the future if this advanced technology is within grasp. Divisions between the rich and the poor will rise. If the rich can avail the modernization, how about the poor? The poor will become poor and abused even m more. It is highly questionable whether we can get an I/O of sufficient bandwidth relying on electronic devices that just sit on top of the surface of the brain. Whether this device will be accepted by the brain or not. And another question is that, where will we get the materials to create such device. When magnified aggression and machismo lead the way into the future, the future becomes uncertain. In my opinion, transhumanism is good but there are ups and downs in this ideology. Once this technology is within grasp, as it is discussed, the division between the rich and the poor will rise. The poor will be even more suppressed and abused. Also, if this technology falls into the wrong hand, there will be chaos around the world. So if they still want to pursue the research about transhumanism, severe precautions are needed.

References: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/israeli-researchers-build-ratcyborg-packing-digitally-derived-cerebellum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism http://www.transhumanism.org/resources/transhumanism.htm http://defendproclaimthefaith.org/blog/?p=1148