Transhumanism - the coming digital slavery

By Rod Knight

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From its historical roots to the 21st century, technical revolution is transforming human lives across the globe. So what is it, and what effects will it have on humanity?

 

Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates for the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies able to greatly enhance longevity, mood and cognitive abilities, and predicts the emergence of such technologies in the future. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the ethics of using such technologies. Transhumanists believe that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with abilities so greatly expanded from the current condition as to merit the label of posthuman beings.

 

History

One of the early precursors to transhumanist ideas occurred in 1637. In his book Discourse on Method, René Descartes envisioned a new kind of medicine that could grant both physical immortality and stronger minds.  In William Godwin's first edition of Political Justice, published in 1793, he included arguments favouring the possibility of "earthly immortality.” This would now be referred to as “physical immortality.” Godwin explored life extension and immortality in his Gothic novel St. Leon, which became both popular and notorious at the time of its publication in 1799 but is now mostly forgotten. St. Leon may have provided inspiration for his daughter Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein.

 

In the late 19th century a society called X-Club was founded by a group of scientists in England. The "X" in the title of the club, where Charles Darwin gave lectures from time to time, symbolised change and evolution according to his esoteric beliefs (beliefs understood by only a chosen few). The most famous members of the club, known as “X-men”, were social Darwinist Herbert Spencer and biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. In fact, Huxley was the one who asked Darwin to pen the theory of evolution he had shaped in his mind for years. Along with the theory of evolution, Darwin introduced to the world of science the notion that the human mind would develop into a god as a result of evolution, and he built the infrastructure of this belief among scientists. The club, supported by capitalists with very strong connections, did its best to ensure that the theory of evolution was accepted by the public, after which it began to appear in English textbooks.

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Fundamental ideas of transhumanism were first advanced in 1923 by the British geneticist J. Haldane in his essay Daedalus: Science and the Future, which predicted that great benefits would come from the application of advanced sciences to human biology and that every such advance would first appear as being blasphemous or perverse. He was particularly interested in the creation and sustainment of life in an artificial environment and the application of genetics to improve human health and intelligence. His article inspired both academic and popular interest.

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 J. D. Bernal, a crystallographer at Cambridge University, wrote The World, the Flesh and the Devil in 1929, in which he speculated on the prospects of space colonisation and radical changes to human bodies through bionic implants which would enhance knowledge, perception, memory and judgement. These ideas have been common transhumanist themes since that time.

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In the 1960s computer scientist Marvin Minsky wrote on relationships between human and artificial intelligence. In the succeeding decades this field continued to generate influential thinkers, who oscillated between the technical arena and futuristic speculations in the transhumanist vein.

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The concept of technological singularity – or the ultra-rapid advent of superhuman intelligence – was first proposed by the British cryptologist I. J. Good in 1965. He said . . . Let an ultra-intelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man – however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultra-intelligent machine could design even better machines. There would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.

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The contemporary meaning of transhumanism was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of futurology, who changed his name to FM-2030. In the 1960s he highlighted new concepts of the human when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and world views transitional to post-humanity as being transhuman. The assertion would lay the intellectual groundwork for British philosopher Max More to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a futurist philosophy in 1990, and to organise in California a school of thought that has since grown into a worldwide transhumanist movement. Influenced by science fiction publications, the transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives, including philosophy and religion.

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Inspired by Darwin and by examinations of his ideas, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche introduced the idea of übermensch – or superman – taking humanity to the next stage in evolution: the improvement of the human species by controlling hereditary factors . Hitler, who was a fan of Nietzsche and regarded himself as a superman, began to work toward the creation of a superior race. The scientists who carried out these studies  and experiments in Germany escaped to the US following World War 2 and established the Cybernetics Group under the control of the Central Intelligence Agency – or CIA. Research would no longer be focused on race but on medicine and technology.

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In 2017 Penn State University press, in cooperation with philosopher Stefan Lorenz Sorgner and sociologist James Hughes, established the Journal of Post-human Studies as the first academic journal explicitly dedicated to the posthuman, their goal being the clarification of the notions of transhumanism and humanism as well as comparing and contrasting both.

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The Fabian Society

The Fabian Society was founded on the 4th January 1884 as an off-shoot of the Fellowship of the New Life, and founded the London School of Economics in 1895. It is Britain’s oldest political think tank, one of 20 socialist societies affiliated with the Labour Parties of the world (including Australia) and has been at the forefront of the development of Leftist political ideas and public policies for 138 years.

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The name 'Fabian' derives from Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, the Roman general famous for his delaying tactics against Hannibal during the Second Punic War. Early Fabians rejected the revolutionary doctrines of Marxism, recommending instead a gradual transition to a socialist society. They were radicals for their time but their views reflected the age in which they lived. However, leading members of the society held racist prejudices which were not in keeping with the society’s commitment to equality for all: they engaged in debates on eugenics and were racist towards people of Jewish, black and Asian origin.

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Big brother

The Fabian Society in England wanted to establish the socialist New World Order under the control of the capitalists. However, they did not want to do it the same way as in Soviet Russia: they sought to carry out revolutions using an evolutionist approach. The members of the society did not remove Nietzsche's works from their aspirations. This society, which involved Thomas Huxley's science fiction student H. G. Wells, included two famous writers who put forward two visions of the future of the world – George Orwell and T. Huxley's grandson Aldous Huxley. In both Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, the world is ruled by a certain party; a certain class. The concept of family disappears and a socialist order dominates society. The main difference between the two novels is that people in 1984 are forcibly enslaved by the party while in Brave New World the characters love slavery. The ideas raised by these thinkers were explored in the science fiction of the 1960s, most notably in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey in which an alien artefact grants transcendent power to its wielder.

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While Aldous Huxley was conducting research on LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide – a hallucinogenic drug) to control the human mind in the US, his brother Julian introduced the term 'transhumanism' to the literature in his book Religion Without Revelation. According to transhumanists, since human evolution had ceased it was necessary to push it forward using drugs and machines. One of Julian's favourite friends was the Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the first UNESCO director. Chardin was known as “The Catholic Darwin.” He was heavily involved in the Piltdown Man fraud, in which a human skull and an orang-utan jaw were combined to demonstrate the transitional form in evolution. He firmly believed that the minds of all people would unite at a higher level of consciousness, which he called the "mind sphere."

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Internet

Studies in the US bore fruit in a short time. Personal computers brought the internet into our lives and the ubiquitous www – the English "www" transliterated into Hebrew is "vav vav vav", which numerically is 666. Revelation 13:18 says “Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six.” PCs have replaced LSD. The network, which the aforementioned Jesuit de Chardin called “mind sphere” and H. G. Wells called the “world brain,” was thus brought to life through computers and other electronic devices.

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All the conversations we have over the internet: all the messages and pictures we send: all the links to topics of interest we click: all the information that introduces us better than we ourselves is collected in the back-ground. This is called Big Data. When a sufficient level of knowledge and technology is reached, the plan is for Big Data to turn into Big Brother thanks to artificial intelligence – the god of transhumanists – that will take its place at the top of the pyramid and take control from human hands.

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Although they have esoteric beliefs, transhumanists do not believe in the soul and instead see the human brain as a machine. They believe immortality will be possible only by transferring the human mind to servers or machines. There are agnostics in this community, as well as atheists like Max More (the head of the Alcor society) who uses cryonics in order to resurrect people in the future through technology: cryonics being the practice of preserving life by pausing the dying process using subfreezing temperatures, with the intention of restoring good health with medical technology in the future. Cryonics sounds like science fiction, but it’s based on modern science. Life can be stopped and restarted if its basic structures can be preserved. Vitrification can preserve biological structure very well – much better than freezing. Methods for repairing biological structure at the molecular level can now be foreseen. Part of Alcor's advertising reads: We’re making cryonics accessible to everyone. With low monthly dues and an insurance policy, you’re all set. When the time comes, we’ll perform your cryopreservation at our state-of-the-art facilities. Patients are kept in secure long-term cryogenic dewars until revival. Welcome to your future.

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In his article In Praise of the Devil Max More says: "Lucifer means 'light-bringer’ ... The story is that God threw Lucifer out of heaven because he had started to question God ... Lucifer is actually the embodiment of reason, of intelligence, of critical thought. He stands against the dogma of God and all other dogmas. He stands for the exploration of new ideas ... God also hates it when we enjoy ourselves. If we let ourselves experience too much pleasure then we might lose interest in obeying him. Join me! Join Lucifer in fighting God and his entropic forces with our minds, our wills and our courage.” (Entropic has several meanings, the most relevant here being 'inevitable social decline and degeneration').

 

Cyborgs

A cyborg is essentially a man-machine system in which the control mechanisms of the human portion are modified externally by drugs or regulatory devices so that the being can live in an environment different from the normal one. Today, many projects are carried out by transhumanists with the aim of transforming people. Since there are still places in the world that do not have internet and electricity, Google's X Company and Facebook are spending millions to ensure that those who do not even have clean water to drink can benefit from the blessing that is the internet.

 

Former X Company employee Mary Lou Jepsen is striving to develop a magnetic-resonance-imaging machine (MRI) that can be worn as a beanie and read minds. Elon Musk – the owner of Tesla and Space-X – is working on a Neuralink project in which microchips and electrodes will be added to the brain and body to connect us to the network like computers, stating that Neuralink hopes to start implanting its brain chips in 2022 – later than he'd originally anticipated. DARPA Research and Development Agency, which serves the US Army, is now experimenting with cyborg soldiers with microchips in their brains. The X Prize Foundation of Transhumanists organises competitions in the hope of reaching the New World Order as soon as possible.

 

Spirituality

Although many transhumanists are atheists, agnostics and secular humanists, some do have religious and/or spiritual views. But despite the prevailing secular attitude, some transhumanists pursue hopes traditionally espoused by religions (such as immortality) while several controversial new religious movements from the late 20th century have explicitly embraced transhumanist goals of transforming the human condition by applying neurotheology and neurotechnology for the alteration of mind and body. They firmly believe that future understanding of these will enable humans to gain greater control of altered states of consciousness which were commonly interpreted as spiritual experiences, whilst gaining more profound self-knowledge in the process. Transhumanist Buddhists have sought to explore areas of agreement between various types of Buddhism, Buddhist-derived meditation and mind-expanding neurotechnologies, but have been criticised for appropriating 'mindfulness' as a tool for transcending 'humanness'.

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Some transhumanists believe in the compatibility between the human mind and computer hardware, implying that human consciousness may someday be transferred to alternative media. This technique is commonly known as 'mind uploading'. One extreme formulation of this idea, in which some transhumanists are interested, is the proposal of the “Omega Point” by Christian cosmologist Frank Tipler. Drawing upon digital idealism, Tipler has advanced the notion that the collapse of the universe billions of years hence could create the conditions for the perpetuation of humanity in a simulated reality within a mega-computer, and thus achieve a form of posthuman godhood. Viewed from the perspective of some Christian thinkers, the idea of mind uploading represents the denigration of the human body characteristic of gnosticism, a prominent heretical movement that combines ideas derived from Greek philosophy and Oriental mysticism.

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The first dialogue between transhumanism and faith was a one-day conference held at the University of Toronto in 2004. Religious critics alone faulted the philosophy of transhumanism as offering no eternal truths nor a relationship with the divine. Transhumanists responded that such criticisms reflect a failure to look at the actual content of the transhumanist philosophy which, far from being cynical, is rooted in optimistic and idealistic attitudes that can trace their history back to the Enlightenment. Following this dialogue William Bainbridge – a sociologist of religion – conducted a pilot study which was published in the Journal of Evolution and Technology. It suggested that religious attitudes were negative to the acceptance of transhumanist ideas, indicating that individuals with highly religious world views tended to perceive transhumanism as being a direct (though ultimately futile) affront to their spiritual beliefs. However, in spite of the efforts of these 'religious zealots' to thwart transhumanism The Mormon Transhumanist Association has sponsored lectures and conferences on the intersection of religion and technology since 2006, and The Christian Transhumanist Association was established in 2014.

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New World Order

We have stepped into the new world with new advents like robots, genetic engineering, virtual reality, brain and space exploration, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, cybernetics and synthetic biology, to name a few developments. Esoterics who were unable to evolve spiritually due to being on the wrong path are realising it physically and synthetically through technology. Well, what will we do when the day comes when a microchip is implanted into our brain like in The Matrix, or when drugs in the movies “Lucy” and “Limitless” appear on the market? Will we resist or will we form queues in front of stores, which occurs all too often when a new mobile phone becomes available? Perhaps the second possibility will become a reality. After all, we live in a Brave New World, one in which slavery is relished and we are unwilling to give up our phones and internet access even after reading this article. As Elon Musk has said, we have already turned into cyborgs thanks to computers and smartphones, without which we cannot operate. All that remains is to install these wonderful technologies beneath the skin's surface.

A lecture on transhumanism by Chuck Missler

On 24 July 2013 Chuck Missler spoke about us moving into what some call the age of the hybrids, an aspect of which is transhumanism. He touches on four technologies associated with transhumanism, each of which have been accelerating so fast that breakthroughs are appearing on almost a weekly basis. Interestingly, he adds that these technologies are converging, which basically means that they are all headed in the same direction. As they progress they are merging and becoming part of one another. These four technologies include:

• Genetics and Microbiology

• Robotics

• Nanotechnology, and

• Artificial Intelligence

 

If you consider for a moment what these technologies might look like if they were to come together, you might begin to understand why Chuck says that we are on a journey from the myths of yesterday to the realities of tomorrow. In the following summary that was presented at the meeting, it is worth bearing in mind that, over the past several decades, technology has consistently proven to advance exponentially – perhaps to an even greater extent in the case of these particular technologies. This means that the level of technology we are at today should far transcend the understanding presented by Chuck eight years ago.

 

Regarding Genetics and Microbiology, scientists were cited as having created sheep with human hearts and livers, pigs with human blood and several other horrifying scenarios of animals growing extruded human limbs. In this topic he gave a warning over the potential for self-replicating mutations from what is being created, raising the lack of safeguards in place over experimentation and research with genetic and micro-biological technology, leaving the door open for abuse and errors.

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On the topic of Robotics he speaks of the Brain-to-Computer-Interface (BCI) moving towards people who are actually beginning to connect devices to the human brain. While skin has been a limitation in the field of robotics, limiting the ability for a robot to feel what it is touching, recent advances include the creation of a synthetic skin so sensitive that it can feel the footprint of a fly! This technology has opened up new ways of communication with robotics and given great advance in the area of robotic limbs.

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In the field of Nanotechnology we're given an understanding of the scale of the industry as Chuck explains that the thickness of a piece of paper is about 100,000 nanometres. Nanotechnology is talking about molecular sized machines and involves the manufacture and manipulation of materials at the molecular - or atomic – level, certainly nothing that man can do outside of programming. Consider wanting to assemble the actual production line at the Ford Motor Company, but being able to do so at a molecular level using a nano-scale device that combines individual molecules to create a nano factory. It is possible to then use that nano factory to build another one twice the size, then again, and continue that process until you have a full size factory! He speaks of having these nano factories inside of you, able to find a place within your body and intelligently manufacture then deliver micro-doses of medicine as defined by the programming given to it! Advances in the field of Nanotechnology were cited as being extremely difficult to keep up with as it is moving so fast.

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Regarding Artificial Intelligence, Chuck speaks of a blurring distinction between man and machine. Technology has moved into a place where computers can scan our brain and our mind and identify thoughts without even needing to physically connect to the brain, but reading the brain through other devices. He again discussed progress in the more invasive method of brain-to-computer-interface, where computers were physically being placed inside the human skull. Another leap forward were computer processing chips designed for a new generation of computers capable of learning from what is going on around them. Termed cognitive computers, they are able to receive multiple inputs similar to sight, hearing,  smell and touch through a sensor-studded glove for self-programming. Remember, he was telling us about this eight years ago!

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The concept of exponential technological growth can be visualised if you plot on a graph the progress of technology (vertical) against time (horizontal). Advancing technological progress means that the curve of progress against time is getting steeper and steeper as time goes on. If you were to project this into the future, there is a point when the curve of progress becomes a vertical line. This point is termed the 'singularity' and is where computers will exceed the capacity of the human brain. The singularity is a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence, and has the ultimate aspiration of allowing the ability to exchange 'consciousness' between bodies.

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In considering this concept, consider that similar advances in the realms of genetics, biology, robotics and nanotechnology are all headed in that same direction. All of a sudden we have a path to immortality. Taking it to an even greater level, consciousness can begin to be united together into one body. When leading scientists in these fields were asked if they believe there is a God, their answer was: not yet. They believe they are creating god.

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Considering the concept of transhumanism and the goal to obtain eternal life through technology, let us see how this relates to the narrow path which the Word of God describes as the way to eternal life. Scripture tells us that our bodies are merely a tent, a tabernacle, a house: a place in which our soul resides for a time before it goes back to the eternal realm from which it came.

• Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)

• Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. (2 Peter 1:13-15)

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We should seek to know where we were when God knew us before He formed us in the womb, and where we are going. It is certainly very evident that the kingdom of God is not currently on earth. Jesus answered . . . My kingdom is not of this world … now is My kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36). Jesus is clearly making a distinction between His kingdom from which He came, and what is of this world. And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above: You are of this world; I am not of this world.” (John 8:23). Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:15-16). In John 17:14-16 Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said to the Father . . . I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

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Scripture is telling us that people who do not know Him are of this world: that all of our desires, lusts and wants are of his world: that all of the things in the world are of this world. Alternatively, Scripture does tell us what is not of this world: Jesus is not of this world, His kingdom is not of this world, the Word of the Father is not of this world, where He is now is not of this world. But we do well to note that none of this is talking about physical location, because it is clear where Jesus says that His disciples were not of this world, even though they were physically still in this world.

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The path to eternal life can only be through correct understanding of the Word of God because anything else, even if it is phenomenal progress of technology that is able to remove our consciousness from the corruptible flesh given to us at the fall by extracting it into digital form, is in the world, from the world and of the world, so cannot be part of the kingdom of heaven.  What this technology is trying to re-house, is our soul. What good is it to create a technology that can take something that is eternal, and make it synthetically eternal? Why create a new synthetic container for a synthetic copy of an eternal soul? Why do we want to try to contain our soul in the place it was sent to learn? Why do we want to stay in a fallen state in a fallen realm separate from the Creator of all things?

 

As science is seeking to achieve eternal life through technology they are condemning themselves to hell; creating a false god, making themselves god. The true path to eternal life is through God's Anointed One - Jesus Christ.  For He said of HImself, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No man comes unto the Father except by Me."  Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour?  If you would like to talk more about God's remedy for your sin, please contact us.