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Transhumanism and the "Will to Evolve"

Smith cover.jpegI am covering a conference on transhumanism, about which I will write at some length later.

For now, I have to say that my previous opinion of transhumanism as a materialistic religion — or perhaps better stated, a worldview that seeks to obtain the benefits of religion without submitting to concepts of sin or the humility of believing in a Higher Being — is being substantially borne out.

It is interesting how important evolution seems to be to the entire concept. However, transhumanism seeks to transform human evolution from a purposeless phenomenon to one steeped in meaning. As one participant stated:

Transhumanism is a thrust toward transcendence. It is not classical mysticism but seeks a temporal transcendence. The driving force behind this is evolution…

What is reality? Reality is evolution. It has a direction from the simple to the complex; the most complex [outcome] is intelligence. Thus evolution is aimed at intelligence.

We should thus have a will to evolve. We have a moral responsibility to increase evolution and do so by continually striving to expand our abilities throughout life by acting in harmony with the evolutionary process…

Science and technology move us toward Utopia. One of the most exciting things about transhumanism is that all will be fixed.

Tellingly, from my perspective, we have seen no real discussion of love at the conference — except an oblique reference to a "Christian transhumanist" (not present) who disagrees with the thrust toward intelligence.

For now, I want to focus a bit on what could be called transhumanism’s will to Utopianism, perhaps the most alarming ideological drive of the movement.  

Religion isn’t the source of evil. Neither is atheism, agnosticism, or other -isms. But all of these can become very dangerous when they presume that advancing their views into wide acceptance is of such importance as to justify all means of doing so. That leads to horror and tyranny, as in the French Revolution, a secular movement — and Al Qaeda, a religious movement.

Thus, I am not overly concerned with the technological aspirations of transhumanism. For example, I don’t believe we will ever upload our minds into computers. But I do worry about the value system and the zeal to achieve a materialist New Jerusalem that transhumanism can engender.

Utopian transhumanism is also profoundly opposed to human exceptionalism. First, it holds that there is nothing special about human life per se. And it presumes the license to seize control of our own evolution and remake ourselves in our own image.

I don’t see any way that can lead to a positive outcome. We don’t have the wisdom to intelligently redesign ourselves into an inherently different being — as contrasted with, say, using technology as a tool to improve our present lives by, for example, the grafting of a prosthetic arm after amputation.

We are, after all, the species that built the unsinkable ship Titanic.

Cross-posted at Human Exceptionalism.

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.

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