Is Transhumanism Uncomfortably Tempting?
An ethicist asks us to stop and reflectJacob Schatzer identifies three issues in the essay, “The Allure of Transhumanism,” that might prompt some queasy recognitions in all of us, at times.
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2019 AI Hype Countdown #5: Transhumanism never grows old
The idea that we can upload our brains to computers to avoid death shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the differences between types of thinkingComputers are very effective but they operate with a very limited set of causal abilities. Humans work from an entirely different set of causal abilities. Uploading your brain to a computer is not a question of technology. It can’t work in principle.
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Would You Want Immortal Life as a Cyborg?
Would you give up your right arm for a robotic device that performs better? Think about itTranshumanism can mean uploading one’s mind into cyberspace. But some transhumanists hope to slowly morph into “immortal cyborgs” with endlessly replaceable parts. Five years ago, we were told, we were all turning into cyborgs: Did you recently welcome a child into the world? Congratulations! An upstanding responsible parent such as yourself is surely doing all you can to prepare your little one for all the pitfalls life has in store. However, thanks to technology, children born in 2014 may face a far different set of issues than you ever had to. And we’re not talking about simply learning to master a new generation of digital doohickeys, we’re talking about living in a world in which the very definition of “human” Read More ›
Transhumanism—Is It a Dangerous Idea?
Some Silicon Valley greats hope to merge with machines to live forever. But what then?The late philosopher Jerry Fodor (1935—2017) said that the reason “we’re all materialists” is that the alternatives seem even worse. Transhumanism, had he lived to see it develop, would give him pause for further reflection.
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But Could Techno-Immortality Ever Be the Real Thing?
Oxford mathematician John Lennox looks at Ray Kurzweil’s techno-immortality from a Christian perspectiveIn these excerpts from the podcast, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks talks with John Lennox about an AI immortality where we are told, for example, that we won’t need tongues because we can tap right into our taste buds.
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Bingecast: John Lennox on the Promise and Threat of AI
Natural and artificial intelligence can be discussed from a number of viewpoints, including philosophically, technically and theologically. Robert J. Marks and Dr. John Lennox address AI from all of these points of view today on Mind Matters. Show Notes 01:10 | Introducing Dr. John Lennox 03:33 | Bacon and Erdős numbers 05:38 | Should we fear artificial intelligence? 06:10 | Read More ›
Tech pioneer Ray Kurzweil: We Will Merge with Computers by 2045
For computers, “Even the very best human is just another notch to pass,” he told the COSM Technology SummitAdvocates point to the success of Kurzweil’s past predictions as evidence that his Singularity is indeed Near, as his 2005 book predicts or Nearer, as his forthcoming one (June 2020) does. But questions bubbled to the surface.
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Silicon Valley’s Strange, Apocalyptic Cult
Key Valley figures hope to beat death the transhumanist way. Oh, by the way, YOU are doomedEverything has a history, including Silicon Valley. According to a new media theorist, an influential Valley philosophy might underlie the current attitudes, values, and beliefs: There is a Silicon Valley religion, and it’s one that doesn’t particularly care for people — at least not in our present form. Technologists may pretend to be led by a utilitarian, computational logic devoid of superstition, but make no mistake: There is a prophetic belief system embedded in the technologies and business plans coming out of Google, Uber, Facebook, and Amazon, among others. Douglas Rushkoff, “The Anti-Human Religion of Silicon Valley” at Medium In an excerpt from his new book, Team Human (2019), Rushkoff traces the history to a post-Cold War collaboration centered on Read More ›
Transhumanism, the Lazy Way to Human ‘Improvement’
Transhumanists don’t seem much interested in such real improvements in the human condition. They want quick, easy technological fixesThe transhumanist movement swoons over increasing intelligence. If I had to choose between increasing the intelligence of the human race versus enhancing our capacity to love, the human race would be far better off embracing the latter than the former. There is no brain implant for that.
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John Lennox on AI: What is Trans-Humanism?
Nothing is New Under the SunShow Notes 00:46 | Introduction; Dr. John Lennox 01:47 | Trans-humanism 03:00 | Kurzweil and Human Enhancement 06:24 | Chips and Biometrics 07:35 | Trans-humanism and Gnosticism 09:25 | Nothing New Under The Sun 11:15 | More Than Exceptional 13:50 | Forthcoming Book 14:30 | Economy and Personal Security
Will AI shatter human exceptionalism?
Proving that humans are just another animal might help save the planet, writer saysThe advantage of adding talk of evolution to transhumanism is that it turns a perennial tale of immortality just out of reach into a chronicle of inevitable ascent, like the fabled “Ascent of Man.”
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Tales of an Invented God
The most important characteristic of an AI cult is that its gods (Godbots?) will be created by the AI developers and not the other way aroundA book on the new pop science religion might well be titled “Tales of the Invented God.” Its author would likely be challenged to keep up with all the non-events breathlessly documented. After all, the technocrats who invent their future gods can change, re-envision, replace, upgrade, eliminate them at any time.
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Claim: Yes, you can upload your brain
Fine print: They might have to kill you first
Attend your own funeral!
It’s easy if you upload your consciousness to the cloud, says futurist
Can we cheat death by uploading ourselves as virtual AI entities?
Transhumanism is a curious blip in a science and technology culture in which it is otherwise axiomatic that humans are merely evolved animalsCheating death is a serious goal of some transhumanists. Futurist Ray Kurzweil (now a Google innovator) calls such a digital fate the Singularity, as in his book, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Published in 2006, it is still in the top ten in artificial intelligence and biotechnology. In 2017, he announced, 2029 is the consistent date I have predicted for when an AI will pass a valid Turing test and therefore achieve human levels of intelligence. I have set the date 2045 for the ‘Singularity’ which is when we will multiply our effective intelligence a billion fold by merging with the intelligence we have created. It sounds rather like avoiding death by becoming something that isn’t actually alive. Read More ›