Category: Transhumanism | Page 2

Office building top view background in retro style colors. Manhattan buildings of New York City center - Wall street

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Peter Biles
Date
May 21, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Transhumanism

Tagged
Arts & Culture, capitalism, HBO Max, immortality, media, New York, transhumanism, TV shows, Wall Street}

HBO’s “Succession” Goes Transhumanist

_{The popular show about a family owned media empire hints at the desire to live forever} _{Peter Biles
May 21, 2023

3

Arts & Culture, Transhumanism}

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead] The highly-watched HBO show “Succession” tells the story of a media empire ruled by a cantankerous, manipulative businessman, Logan Roy, and his three children who are hardly any better. Most of the show is a commentary on the corrupting effects of wealth and the power dynamics involved in the media empire’s core leadership. In the dramatic fourth season, Logan Roy dies from what seems to be a stroke while he’s flying to Norway to discuss a giant merger deal with another media mogul. From there, the three Roy children, Kendall, Roman, and Shiv (along with a half-brother Connor who doesn’t care as much about his place in the kingdom) scramble to figure out the leadership, direction, and Read More ›

Moving Forward to Metaverse, New Technology, Web3.0, Blockchain and the Next Layer of the Internet Concepts. Man Steps into Future Door. Futuristic Tone.

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Eric Holloway
Date
April 17, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), immortality, mind, religion, soul, transhumanism}

For BitHeaven’s Sake

_{A satirical short story on the transhumanist quest (and failure) to achieve immortality} _{Eric Holloway
April 17, 2023

8

Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism}

Bob and Sue were on their way to church one morning. On their way they ran into their friend Fred. Fred was very wealthy, a billionaire in fact. Fred waved hi. Bob and Sue waved back. They asked Fred to come with them to church. Fred said no, he had more important things to do. “What is so important,” asked Sue. “I’m off to the real deal,” beamed Fred. Bob looked confused. “Real deal about what?” “You have a fake promise of eternal life. I’m about to get the real thing.” “You can’t be serious. Start talking some sense.” “Seriously. Here’s my voucher, see it right here.” Sue grabbed the piece of paper from Fred and read it aloud. “Good for one digital immortalization Read More ›

A room with round glass window overlooking beautiful landscape background . Hotel futuristic showroom with modern interior . Sublime Generative AI image .

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Wesley J. Smith
Date
April 10, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Atheism, Christianity, Eastern Orthodox, Materialism, Nihilism, religion, Technology, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith, Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism}

Transhumanism’s Vain Search for Immortality

_{Transhumanism promotes its own defeat-of-death eschatology} _{Wesley J. Smith
April 10, 2023

2

Transhumanism}

April 9th was Easter Sunday for the Western churches. Next Sunday, for Eastern Orthodox churches. For believing Christians, whether Eastern or Western, celebrating Christ’s Resurrection joyfully commemorates the permanent defeat of death and entrance into eternal life. Transhumanism, which is a quasi-religion that worships at the altar of technology, promotes its own defeat-of-death eschatology. Instead of the New Jerusalem for which Christians yearn, transhumanists hope to live indefinitely — if not forever — in the corporeal world through the wonders of AI and other human-invented methods of technologically defeating death. And it could be here by 2050! From the Daily Mail story: Despite the setback, that same year, a prominent futurist predicted that ‘electronic immortality’ would be available to humans by 2050. Dr Read More ›

Cell repairing nanobot technology, illustration

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News
Date
March 29, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
Altos Labs, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Daily Mail, Elon Musk, Google, immortality, Jeff Bezos, Nanotechnology, transhumanism}

Pre-order Immortality Now (It’s Only 8 Years Away, Apparently)

_{A Google engineer predicts the "singularity" is coming and that we should get on board} _{News
March 29, 2023

3

Transhumanism}

Ray Kurzweil, a former Google engineer, thinks that humanity is a mere “eight years away” from achieving immortality. No, he’s not a spiritual leader predicting the eschaton. He’s not telling you to seek union with God and achieve immortality the old-fashioned way. He thinks we’ll be able to live forever via age-reversing “nanobots.” These “tiny robots” will correct damaged cells and make us immune to disease, thus leading to radically increased human longevity. Stacy Liberatore writes at Daily Mail, Now the former Google engineer believes technology is set to become so powerful it will help humans live forever, in what is known as the singularity. Singularity is a theoretical point when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence and changes the path Read More ›

Sci-fi fantasy futuristic background art scifi artwork tech technology Architecture digital illustration art wallpaper future concept dystopia cyberpunk

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Peter Biles
Date
February 15, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
AI, Applied Science, C.S. Lewis, education, Limits, media, mortality, Salvo, Tech, The Abolition of Man, transhumanism, virtue}

Humans Have Limits. Transhumanists Want to Overcome Them

_{The prophetic words of C.S. Lewis still strike home today} _{Peter Biles
February 15, 2023

4

Transhumanism}

This article originally appeared as a blog post at Salvo on May 13th, 2022. C.S. Lewis wrote an apt and prophetic line in his book The Abolition of Man that feels even more prescient today: “There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.” I think it’s safe to say that today, the world’s elites in government, tech, media, and education embody precisely the opposite of Lewis’s understanding Read More ›

Fragment of a medieval sarcophagus with a figure of a knight

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Wesley J. Smith
Date
February 2, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism}

The Dead Hopes of Digital Immortality

_{If eternal life is attainable, it will be found by working on one’s soul in faith, not by developing ever-more-advanced AI computers} _{Wesley J. Smith
February 2, 2023

2

Transhumanism}

Reprinted from National Review with permission from the author. Transhumanists pursue the dream of immortality by hoping to upload their minds into computers — as if the mimicking software would be them. No, it would be a computer program, nothing more. They would still be dead and gone. And here’s another somewhat less ambitious approach to the same goal. Apparently a company is developing technology that would allow you to speak to loved ones after you shuffle off this mortal coil. From the Vice story: The founder of a top metaverse company says that the fast-moving development of ChatGPT has pushed the timeline for one of his most ambitious and eccentric projects up by a matter of years. In an interview with Motherboard, Somnium Space’s Artur Read More ›

Abstract image of Artificial Intelligence

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Peter Biles
Date
January 27, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
AI, Altos Labs, Biology, immortality, Jeff Bezos, meaning, transhumanism, Wired}

Do You Really Want to Live Forever?

_{Organizations like Altos Labs are funding research in cell rejuvenation and biological longevity} _{Peter Biles
January 27, 2023

4

Transhumanism}

2023 is expected to yield “breakthrough” research in aging treatments, led by the Palo Alto medical company Altos Labs. Jeff Bezos is among the donors of the organization, which notes on its homepage that its mission is “to restore cell health and resilience through cellular rejuvenation programming to reverse disease, injury, and the disabilities that can occur throughout life.” A Wired article is optimistic about the direction of the research and compares its potential to the development of antibiotic treatment. Andrew Steele writes, In 2023, early success of these treatments could kickstart the greatest revolution in medicine since the discovery of antibiotics. Rather than going to the doctor when we’re sick and picking off age-related problems like cancer and dementia Read More ›

Aerial view of Frankenstein Castle in southern Hesse, Germany

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Peter Biles
Date
January 7, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Transhumanism

Tagged
Andrew Klavan, Arts & Culture, Featured, Frankenstein, Literature, Machines, Mary Shelley, Materialism, science, Science fiction, transhumanism}

The Prophecies of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

_{Andrew Klavan explores the world of the Romantics in new book and finds special insight in Shelley’s classic horror story} _{Peter Biles
January 7, 2023

4

Arts & Culture, Transhumanism}

Andrew Klavan, acclaimed novelist and host of the Andrew Klavan Show at the Daily Wire, wrote a book about his profound encounters with the Romantics of the 19th century, called The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England’s Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus. The Romantics include literary figures like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and John Keats. While it’s common to highlight the Romantics’ veneration of nature, they were also living in the throes of the Enlightenment, in which atheistic materialism was becoming a minority alternative to theism. Klavan writes, “The wonderful success of science at explaining the material world threatens to create in scientists a bias towards Read More ›

Concept of a program for a smartphone to translate from different languages

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News
Date
November 4, 2022

Categorized
Language, Transhumanism

Tagged
Darshana Narayanan, Yuval Noah Harari}

Neuroscientist Takes Aim at Yuval Noah Harari’s Claims re Humans

_{Behavioral neuroscientist Darshana Narayanan says that much of what Harari writes “sacrifices science for sensationalism” and is “riddled with errors”} _{News
November 4, 2022

4

Language, Transhumanism}

Many readers have read our article last June on historian and transhumanist Yuval Noah Harari’s musings on what to do with the people that artificial intelligence is rendering “useless.” Now, first off, what Harari envisions is not happening. As business prof Jay Richards is fond of noting, AI enables more people to craft the jobs they want, with AI doing the traditional drudgery. Despite automation (or because of it),there are still plenty of Help Wanted signs out there. Call the argument Homo Deus vs. The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines, if you like. But at Current Affairs, behavioral neuroscientist Darshana Narayanan offers another critique. Apart from having a disturbing attitude to fellow Read More ›

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News
Date
October 30, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Transhumanism

Tagged
2084 (book), Abolition of Man (book), C. S. Lewis, Featured, John Lennox, Max Tegmark on transhumanism, New Soviet Man, That Hideous Strength (book)}

John Lennox: Transhumanism Versus Traditional Humans

_{In the second part of his bonus feature for Science Uprising, Oxford mathematician Lennox compares transhumanism with traditional claims to transcend humanity} _{News
October 30, 2022

10

Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Transhumanism}

In the second part of Oxford mathematician John Lennox’s bonus interview for the Science Uprising series, “John Lennox on the Transhumanist Claim AI Will Turn Humans into Gods” (October 17, 2022), Lennox talks about claims that we will merge with computers (artificial intelligence) to achieve immortality. How plausible is that? Lennox is the author of 2084:: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (2020). A partial transcript and notes for the second half follow (the first half is here): The AI concept of transhumanism? (13:45) John Lennox: The origin of the word “transhumanism,” interestingly enough, is not secular at all. It wasn’t first used by a scientist but it was used in a translation of one of the books of Read More ›

AI risk and artificial intelligence technology as a human and machine concept with advanced tech or robots taking over humanity and people merging with a cyborg as an existential risk

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Peter Biles
Date
October 9, 2022

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
Featured, Immortality in transhumanism, Life extension}

Technology as the New God, Before Whom All Others Bow

_{Transhumanists want to replace God with the Machine, tapping into a deep religious impulse of the human race} _{Peter Biles
October 9, 2022

5

Transhumanism}

Some of the world’s predominant religions, such as Christianity and Islam, suggest ways to live forever. In Christian theology, Christ resurrects from the dead in an imperishable body, promising his disciples eternal life. Within such a religious framework, the material world fails to “save” us. We need a transcendent Other who can enter our situation and offer immortality as a gift. But what about people who reject the transcendent and hold to a fundamentally materialist concept of the universe? Is their religious impulse to seek immortality squelched? Not surprisingly, the opposite appears to be true. The transhumanist movement seeks immortality unbound from religious concepts — if we “merge with machines,” we can upload our consciousness and outlast death. We become Read More ›

Robot with Artificial Intelligence observing human skull in Evolved Cybernetic organism world. 3d rendered image

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News
Date
October 4, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Transhumanism

Tagged
Berit Brogaard, J. Scott Turner}

Computer Takeover Won’t Happen, Say a Scientist and Philosopher

_{Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith say that the Singularity advocates are missing something fundamental about computers vs. humans} _{News
October 4, 2022

3

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Transhumanism}

Scientist and entrepreneur Jobst Landgrebe and philosopher Barry Smith published a book last month that directly challenges the claim AI is becoming capable of human type thought and will run our world whether we like it or not. Here’s what critics are saying about Why Machines will Never Rule the World: Artificial Intelligence without Fear (Routledge, 2022) It’s a highly impressive piece of work that makes a new and vital contribution to the literature on AI and AGI. The rigor and depth with which the authors make their case is compelling, and the range of disciplinary and scientific knowledge they draw upon is particularly remarkable and truly novel. – Shannon Vallor, Baillie Gifford Chair, Edinburgh Futures Institute, The University of Read More ›

These two are little genius . Mixed media

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News
Date
August 12, 2022

Categorized
Biology, Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism

Tagged
Featured, Michael Denton}

Why Breeding Smarter Humans Won’t Work: Basic Genetics 101

_{Biochemist Michael Denton explains that, in human genetics, everything is connected to everything else; geneticists call it pleiotropy} _{News
August 12, 2022

4

Biology, Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism}

Recently, we looked at the question of whether human IQ could be artificially increased via genetic engineering. One proposal was to mass produce human embryos, implanting only the smart ones and discarding the rest. All other issues aside, it’s unclear how to determine which kids will turn out to be the smart ones. Now biochemist Michael Denton, author of a number of books including the recent Miracle of Man (2022), writes to tell us that the idea won’t work due to fundamental genetics. Noting that theoretical physicist Stephen Hsu, who advanced the idea of discarding embryos above, is not a medical geneticist, he told Mind Matters News, Its true there are many genes involved in brain development but most genes Read More ›

Surreal 3d illustration of multiple faces in a wall. Concept of post-human and transhumanism ideas.

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News
Date
August 8, 2022

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
Featured}

Epitaph for Transhumanism: But It’s Far From Dead!, Advocate Says

_{George Dvorsky embraced it as a religion but he sees public interest waning amid growing criticism of Big Tech’s side effects} _{News
August 8, 2022

6

Transhumanism}

Oxford University transhumanist Elise Bohan finds the benefits of transhumanism (leaving the human body behind for a genetically engineered and largely AI future) easy to list: Ageing cured. Death conquered. Work ended. The human brain reverse-engineered by AI. Babies born outside of the womb. Virtual children, non-human partners. The future of humanity could be virtually unrecognisable by the end of the 21st century, according to Elise Bohan – and that’s if we get the transition right. If we get it wrong, well. Celina Ribeiro, “Beyond our ‘ape-brained meat sacks’: can transhumanism save our species?” at The Guardian (June 4, 2022) Bohan, author of Future Superhuman: Our Transhuman Lives in a Make-or-Break Century (2022), is anxious to get on with new Read More ›

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News
Date
June 19, 2022

Categorized
Religion, Transhumanism

Tagged
Elaina George, Featured, Tower of Babel, Transhumanist Bill of Rights, Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism}

Transhumanism as a Cool New Secular Religion

_{It includes such ventures as endowing plants — via genetic engineering — with the capacity for human-like thought and giving them rights…} _{News
June 19, 2022

12

Religion, Transhumanism}

In a recent Living in the Solution podcast with otolaryngologist and broadcaster Elaina George at Liberty Talk radio, Wesley J. Smith, lawyer and host of the Humanize podcast at Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism tackled the question of “Can You be a Christian and Believe in Transhumanism?” (June 4, 2022) Transhumanism or H+, as it is sometimes called, is a movement to create immortality through new biotechnology or merger with artificial intelligence (AI). In the first portion of the podcast, which we covered last Sunday, they talked about the way being a human, a computer, or an animal is viewed by transhumanists as all just a choice now, thanks to new technology. In this portion, we look at the Read More ›

Portrait of a man with pixel dispersion effect

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Gary Varner
Date
June 18, 2022

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism

Tagged
Evelyn Caster (character in Transcendence), Featured, Max Waters (character in Transcendence), Ray Kurzweil and Singularity, Will Caster (character in Transcendence)}

Review: Transcendence — The Soul Meets the Singularity

_{In Part 1 of my review of the 2014 classic, we start with the question: Can a human mind be completely transferred to a computer?} _{Gary Varner
June 18, 2022

6

Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism}

Since Johnny Depp has been all over the news lately, this would be a great time to review his contribution to the world of sci-fi, Transcendence (2014), or as I like to call it, “Oh Great. Now, We Have to Kill the Internet.” The movie plays on two themes. First, there is the idea that futurist Ray Kurzweil calls the Singularity, a moment where AI surpasses humanity. Second, the movie explores two closely related questions: Is there a soul, and does this soul reside within the brain? Johnny Depp’s character, Will Caster, does not believe in the soul, but he does recognize that there is some unmapped region within biological life that allows a human to distinguish between right and Read More ›

Humanity Plus theme with abstract network lines and patterns

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News
Date
June 12, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Religion, Transhumanism

Tagged
Elaina George, Featured, Immortality in transhumanism, Transhumanism (and Christianity), Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism, Zoltan Istvan}

Transhumanism: Human, Computer, Animal — All Just a Choice Now…

_{AI and Big Biotech spawn the hope (in some) of merging with a computer or with a bat, maybe…} _{News
June 12, 2022

11

Ethics, Religion, Transhumanism}

In a recent Living in the Solution podcast with otolaryngologist and broadcaster Elaina George at Liberty Talk radio, Wesley J. Smith, lawyer and host of the Humanize podcast at Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism tackled the question of “Can You be a Christian and Believe in Transhumanism?” (June 4, 2022). Transhumanism or H+, as it is sometimes called, is a movement to create immortality through new biotechnology or merger with artificial intelligence (AI). Dr. Elaina George: I think transhumanism seems to be the next wave of things that are hip and now … As a Christian, is it something that we should even consider? Wesley Smith: Well, it depends on which transhumanists are talking. Most transhumanists are atheists and Read More ›

Factory closed.Workers stressed that the factory closed. unemployed workers. Industrial and industrial workers concept

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News
Date
June 9, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Transhumanism, Work

Tagged
Featured, Free will vs. totalitarianism, Great Reset, Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism, Yuval Noah Harari}

A Great Reset Historian Muses on What To Do With “Useless” People

_{Transhumanist Yuval Noah Harari, a key advisor to the World Economic Forum, thinks free will is “dangerous” and a “myth”} _{News
June 9, 2022

6

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Transhumanism, Work}

Historian Yuval Noah Harari an advisor to Klaus Schwab, co-author with Thierry Malleret of COVID-19: The Great Reset, and head of the World Economic Forum, had some interesting things to tell the movers and shakers of the world about ordinary people last April: Again, I think the biggest question in maybe in economics and politics of the coming decades will be what to do with all these useless people? The problem is more boredom and how what to do with them and how will they find some sense of meaning in life, when they are basically meaningless, worthless? My best guess, at present is a combination of drugs and computer games as a solution for [most]. It’s already happening… I Read More ›

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Wesley J. Smith
Date
March 27, 2022

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
Featured, Transhumanism (characteristics), Transhumanist Bill of Rights, Zoltan Istvan}

The Impossibility of Christian Transhumanism

_{Transhumanists seek the right not only to manipulate their own bodies but also those of their children, including mind clones, monoparent children, or benevolent AI} _{Wesley J. Smith
March 27, 2022

6

Transhumanism}

This article is reprinted with permission from First Things (March 24, 2022) So-called “Christian transhumanism,” or the attempt to blend the transhumanist agenda with the precepts of Christian theology, has been around for some time. But there has been a recent resurgence of interest in the project. The book Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics, published in 2019, claims to offer “first-hand testimony to the value of the transhumanist vision perceived by the religious mind.” The volume includes contributions from a number of Christians. The “Christian Transhumanist Association” (CTA), formed in 2014, is actively dedicated to promoting transhumanism as a means of “participating with God in the redemption, reconciliation, and renewal of the world.” The problem with these efforts is that the transhumanist worldview and Read More ›

AI Cyberpunk Konzept: Transhuman / Cyborg Kopf mit Sonnenbrille; Neon beleuchtet + leuchtend | 3D Render Illustration [4K]

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J.R. Miller
Date
March 20, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Transhumanism

Tagged
Featured}

Why the Imago Dei (Image of God) Shuts the Door on Transhumanism

_{As the belief that technology promises us a glorious post-human future advances among scholar who profess Christianity, we must ask some hard questions} _{J.R. Miller
March 20, 2022

6

Ethics, Transhumanism}

Transhumanist ideology is advancing among scholars who profess Christianity so the question must be asked, is the dream of a post-human (Human+) existence compatible with the Christian faith? More specifically, is transhumanism (H+) compatible with the doctrine of Adam and Eve as the first humans created in the “image of God” (imago Dei)? The answer is no. The biblical doctrine that God’s image exists in every human person — and also in humanity as a whole — shuts the door to transhumanism. We can see this if we look at what the Bible teaches about anthropology, ethics, and salvation in Christ alone. Anthropology: Who does the Bible say that we are? First, the transhumanist history of human origins and Human+ Read More ›