Transhumanists advocate continuing the progressive transformation of the human condition, especially (but not exclusively) through technological means. The word transhumanism consciously evokes the tradition of humanism, i.e. the secular view of man as the "center" of the moral universe. However, transhumanism goes beyond humanism, because it does not accept some immutable, fundamental "human nature" as a given, but rather looks to continuing -- and accelerating -- the process of expanding and improving the very nature of human beings themselves.
While there is a diversity of views and values within what can be loosely called the transhumanist community, participants in this cultural movement share a view that mankind has been engaged in a process of technologically-driven self-transformation since its inception. Fostering that process is an action agenda for transhumanists.
There is no questioning mankind's unique place among life forms on earth. Humanity has far exceeded the power of any other life form of which we are aware to understand, express, alter and control its environment and, most importantly, itself. This has been due at first to our singular combination of brain size and structure with our bipedal morphology and sophisticated vocal apparatus. But from even before the emergence of homo sapiens, the development of our lineage has been a process of positive feedback with our technology, broadly defined as those created tools we use that are not part of our simple genetically endowed physical structure or behavioral repertoire. From the time of the simplest stone tools and most primitive linguistic constructs, humanity has been engaged in extending its capacities through the use of increasingly powerful "artificial" tools. Transhumanism sees the present time as one in which the power and subtlety of our tools has grown to the point where we can now turn our tools on ourselves to augment our very nature, a project that promises a super-acceleration of potentiality often referred to as "the singularity". Transhumanists see the near future as a time in which our technological power of self-transformation will lead to a real transcendence of "human nature" itself. Thus transformed, the far future of humanity holds essentially limitless vistas of expansion into the universe.
In its embrace of humanity's self-transforming and world-transforming use of technology, transhumanism rejects the pessimism and more or less explicit moral guilt of modern humanistic thinking. Transhumanists do not see mankind as a fallen angel, somehow divorced and alienated from a romanticized "nature", but rather as simply one instance of the process of evolution's continuing action in the natural world, and thus as very much a part of nature. This process, begun with the first instance of so-called self-organized criticality following the formation of the universe, and accelerating in successive waves of increasingly complex self-organization through natural selection in biological systems, reached a new level of spontaneously-ordered sophistication upon the evolution of mankind's ability to formulate and carry out complex social and technological planning. Mankind as "the teleological animal" is seen by transhumanists as simply nature's own spontaneously generated means of knowing and ordering itself. With the development of tools to explore and manipulate the fundamental elements of matter and consciousness, we now stand at the brink of a new shift to an even greater level of complexity and consciousness. Seeing and embracing this new challenge, the transhumanist world view is a redemption of the optimism of the Enlightenment of the 18th Century, a New Enlightenment reinvigorated by a deeper understanding of consciousness as an integral part of natural evolution.
The dynamic optimism that comes with transhumanism's insight into the accelerating self-transforming power of technology is best expressed in the extropian philosophy. Extropy, a word intended to convey the opposite of (and opposition to) entropy, has been defined as "the extent of a system's intelligence, information, vitality, diversity, and capacity for improvement." The history of the universe has been a process of the development of systems with increasing potential for "intelligence, information, vitality, diversity, and capacity for improvement". To date, mankind is the ultimate extropic system. The extropian philosophy points to new horizons in this process, ultimately horizons far beyond the reach of humans in their present form.
Extropians see a natural harmony and synergy growing out of the various elements of the transhumanist world view. Rejecting the pessimism that grew out of the Romantic era's disenchantment with reason, extropians seek to apply the core of the scientific method -- systematic doubt -- to all aspects of human life. In doing so, they reject many of the accepted "truths" of human life: Limitations on human life span and augmentation, the unchallenged power of the nation-state and many superstitious conventions limiting individual liberty.
Starting as they do from a rejection of the traditional humanistic moral foundation of the idea of an immutable "human nature", extropianism accepts the challenge of developing a new moral and ethical framework, one compatible with the reality of a constantly expanding and changing "nature" of humanity. Conscious of the potential dangers, physical and moral, inherent in the Promethean power of transhumanistic technological self-transformation, extropians see moral issues as fundamental in this age of ever-accelerating potential.
As they explore and develop a new moral philosophy of transhumanism, extropians apply a broad definition of "technology" to their view of the transformation of the human condition, including within their approach to human technology such mental constructs as law and principles of social order. Looking to the natural sciences as a rich text-book of ideas for the structures of societies transformed by transhumanist technologies, they advocate decentralized forms of social organization that mimic the flexible spontaneous orders of the living natural world. Extropians see that a game-theoretic analysis of such "bottom-up" systems of social organization tend toward a natural evolution of cooperation as the most effective means of individual action. An ethics of reciprocity and respect naturally develops from such a view, harkening back to the wisdom of the "Golden Rule". In this way, extropianism comes full circle to reinvigorate the best of traditional moral philosophy as a guide to living in a transhuman -- and ultimately posthuman -- world.
| Transhumanist and Extropian Resources on the Web |
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August, 1997 (505 E.E.) June, 1998 (506 E.E.) January, 2000 (508 E.E.) |
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