Transhumanists

TRANSHUMANISTS

There are powerful arguments on both sides of the debate about human genetic engineering.

But there's one group for which there seems to be no doubt about it.

They're the d-human "wannabes"… and they're called the Transhumanists.

TRANSHUMANIST DECLARATION

"We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth."

Source: The Transhumanist Declaration

tRANSHUMANIST VIEW OF D2 AND D3 HUMANS

"Within two generations children around the world will be born with the caprices of evolution corrected through human reason and design. In 100 years the discovery of DNA will have helped create a growing diversity of posthumans .

As [James] Watson asked in 1998… "If we can make better humans... why shouldn't we?"

- James Hughes, Transhumanist advocate

WHAT TRANSHUMANISTS SEEK

"We seek personal growth beyond our current biological limitations.

- radical extension of human health-span
- eradication of disease
- elimination of unnecessary suffering
- augmentation of human intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities
- space colonization
- creating superintelligent machines."

Source: Nick Bostrom (format modified)

TRANSHUMANIST VIEW OF FUTURE SOCIETY

"In this century we will need to build a Transhuman democracy to hold together unimaginably different citizens, from humans 1.0 and intellectually enhanced animals to a growing variety of genetically-enhanced posthumans ."

- James Hughes

Check out other resources on the web about Transhumans at Links on the Road to D-humans.

TRANSHUMANIST VIEW OF HUMANITY

"Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that …we shall eventually manage to become posthuman, beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have."

- Nick Bostrom , co-founder, World Transhumanist Association.

WHAT TRANSHUMANISTS DO

"Some transhumanists take active steps to increase the probability that they personally will survive long enough to become posthuman , for example by choosing a healthy lifestyle or by making provisions for having themselves cryonically suspended in case of de-animation."

Source: Nick Bostrom

Human cryo -preservation unit. Source: Cosmos Magazine