Transhumanism

>>18760526
The statement "all men are created equal" is flat out wrong anyway.

There's nothing wrong with transhumanism. It's simply the next step in things we are already doing. Pacemakers? Surgery? Specific diets and exercizes? All in the same vein as transhumanism

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>>18760547

>>18760531
I believe in a certain degree of inequality myself and have nothing against certain inequalities that are natural, whether on the basis of wealth, gender, etc., but what my concern with that statement was referring to is having humanity essentially be controlled by a bunch of transhuman supermen. Now, this sounds great, almost like a benevolent dictatorship, but it would have the same problems as a benevolent dictatorship today. What happens when those supermen decide they want to keep all this science to themselves? What happens when you have the ruling class start hoarding all this technology for their own purposes? You can look at the various socialist movements or the rise of feminism as examples of what wealth inequality and gender inequality can cause in terms of societal instability, imagine how unstable society would become if we basically were ruled by a bunch of transhuman overlords.

I think that in that respect, transhumanism is not a continuation of what we've been doing because pacemarkers, surgeries, diets, these all manipulate ourselves, but they don't try to fundamentally alter our nature and make us play God.

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>>18760558

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>>18760568
>humanity essentially be controlled by a bunch of transhuman supermen.

They already do.

>>18760568
so what's the solution? we can't just bury our heads in the sand and do away with technology all together.

>>18760600
I think some restrictions on the practice of eugenics would be smart. I'm not normally inclined to say government regulation, but perhaps a government-managed use of these technologies would be good?

Also, to be frank, as a religious person, I'm really not comfortable with all these attempts at playing God. But at the same time, trying to convince the Chinese or other nations to not use cloning to their advantage seems like a dead effort, at least until China gets the largest Christian population in the world around 2030.

>>18760600
But also you can use advances in pharmaceuticals and exercise equipment as a personal alternative for these. Wearable technology isn't always attractive to people, for instance, the less than stellar performance of the iWatch.

For military applications, rather than investing in transhuman like technology, we could just invest in battlesuits that, rather than give individual humans large powers, give the wearers superhuman strength and those types of attributes.

>>18760623
what do you think of prosthetic bodies and cyborgs like in ghost in the shell?

>>18760640
I'm fine with prosthetic limbs for people who legitimately need them, like the disabled or veterans and that sort of thing. What bothers me is the rise of these transabled people (http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/02/meet-the-transabled-able-bodied-people-who-identity-as-disabled/) who will voluntarily lob off a leg so they can get a prosthetic one. That is really what turned me off about transhumanism.

>>18760613
Who would enforce these restrictions?

>>18760675
lol the world is crazy.

>>18760684
Presumably government and religious authorities?

I'd say focus more on my second reply, in that, rather than rely on community/social values to restrain our behavior, developing reasonable alternatives seems like a good path. Forbes had a good article about this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/08/16/will-humans-even-want-to-be-transhuman/#13e52af8609b

>>18760526
So the bioengineering side of transhumanism? I don't think it's bad at all and will inevitably happen. We should help to enhance every creatures life as much as possible.

I don't see why everyone shouldn't be allowed access to it. The only one that may be a problem is the life-extension technology. This is a problem for environmental sustainability. The solution would realistically be space colonization.

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>>18760696
There's also this case, which is even more fucked up. Some guy wants to transform himself into a genderless alien using our existing technologies: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4274396/Man-spends-50-000-transform-genderless-ALIEN.html

>>18760707
huh
how about that.

but i'm not that impressed, people have had a desire for the weird since forever.

>>18760719
yeah I don't really want to live in a society that lets a bunch of degenerate losers pursue their whim and undermine certain aspects of traditional life

I mean for fucks sake, that thing even wants to adopt children: http://www.dailywire.com/news/14152/genderless-alien-wants-adopt-children-should-work-amanda-prestigiacomo

>>18760704
I'd say there's a difference between enhancing someone's life in a responsible way, for instance, pharmaceuticals, diet and exercise, etc., and opening up the Pandora's Box that is cloning and transhumanism. Society wouldn't collapse entirely if suddenly the government decided to hoard all the ritalin, adderall, and chemo drugs for itself, it wouldn't lead to a massive inequality that could risk social stability with those who have drugs and those who don't. Yet transhumanism seems to risk this from the start. All it takes is one power hungry transhuman """benevolent dictator""" to control all the transhuman technology and virtually submit all of us to his/her leadership.

>>18760729
the price of tolerance is you end up with a lot of incompatible cultures living in close proximity to each other. conflict results.

>>18760743
It would have to be made available to as many people as fast as possible. There would be some inequality at first as the nonenhanced humans would still be around in the early years. But even we could be enhanced with gene therapy despite already being born.

>>18760743
i think your concerns are right, but I also think many people will be trying to achieve these technologies regardless if it's good for society. outlawing it would drive it underground but it would still be there.

I'm more worried about robots and AI taking over the world.

>>18760755
So assuming we have a market economy structure, which I personally support but I don't want to derail things here, there will probably be a disparity between the quality of medical services that the rich are able to access and the quality that the poor are able to access. With things like cancer drugs or normal pharmaceuticals, this doesn't risk social stability because cancer drugs aren't turning the rich into some kind of all powerful Ubermensch. However, with transhuman techologies, it seems that this would happen.

Granted, I'm not devaluing the ability of the market economy to deliver goods cheaply and efficiently. I'm just saying that there would be a disparity, similar to that already present in our medical system for reasons that are just inherent to the medical field.

Unless we go to a government-provided system, which risks further control of transhuman tech by those holding power.

>>18760760
Wouldn't transhumanism risk this as well? Couldn't AI manipulate the fact that we're all human computers when they start to take over the world?

what augs you want senpai?

i would like to jump high and have super strength

i'd like to have my vocal chords removed and replaced with wires connected to a little pipe organ sticking out the top of my head.

>>18760819
>>18761223
Why? Personal satisfaction doesn't really seem like a good justification for these technologies.

>>18761733
there was a character like that in alistair reynolds' Revelation Space trilogy. It dealt heavily with a humanity that had split into a number of different factions in a transhuman era, one of which was obsessed with boddy modding and highly eccentric because they also spent so much time away from the mass of humanity on near-lightspeed spacecraft in cryo sleep.

really interesting books if you're interested in the subject, as well as fun with the great filter / fermi paradox.

>>18760526
>look, I found out about this movement that's not political in the traditional sense
>takes no place on the political spectrum
>has no stances about the economy, class, or nationality
>wants to use technnology to actually help humanity, as opposed to kill each other
>make living easier
>make the human experience better
>it must a conspiracy
>let's be against them

Never change, /x/. Never change.

>>18760526
its bound to happen. Inequality under capitalism is natural. As technology advances, it will only be magnified.

They want to hook us all up to an AI that controls us remotely. Truly a hivemind.

>>18760526
Pretty sure 3301 are transhumanists, so that's a good thing

>>18760600
adapt or die, we are slaves to this

>>18760729
If someone wants to look like a genderless alien, let them. How in what way does their way of life effect you?

It is of no matter. There is a specific market that caters to that and it makes money, so you'll find yourself to see more and more people like that. Better get used to it.

>>18761733
>Why? Personal satisfaction doesn't really seem like a good justification for these technologies.

So?

>>18764120
bro that's just crazy

>>18764228
Look around and ask yourself if you feel hooked.

>>18764238
what does hooked mean?

>>18760526
if there is, it's probably just the same one going on outside of transhumanism, feminizing men, eliminating whites

I have thought of the implications of brain hacking.

land,sea,air,space,cyber,neural.

new theaters

>>18760526
It is said, that towards the end it will be as in the days of Noah.

It is foretold there would be a return of the nephalim & gibborim.

There is a perversity in the whole matter. Super humans & aryan archetypes are the least of things to worry about.

There will surely be giants on the earth again, and sooner than we think. I also expect chimeras.

Truly, a terrifying time is coming......

I was told via thought suggestions that I was already a post-transhuman.

I was told I was an Annunaki descendent and that the Annunaki are post-transhumans from our distant/past future. I get the impression they hate transhumanism.

I was also told that people with smart phones are sort of pre-transhumans but some are already transhumans due to annumaki/Elohim genetics.. The people who survived the war John Titor talks about become the Annunaki of the ancient middle east. They are Americans but not from our timeline. They also consume a lot of our old digital culture via Archive.org so be careful what you upload or post. You may influence the past/future. They also read 4chan and many are otaku..