This is not about the $6 Million Man. You might call it the 6,000-year quest. Transhumanism is not fiction. Today, in 2014, transhumanism is a vibrant scientific and philosophical movement. And its accelerating rapidly. Genetically-engineered foods? Old news. Human-pig hybrid embryos? Years ago. Spider-goats? Done. Actual synthetic life? Its called Synthia, achieved last year by the J. Craig Vitter Institute. The race to perfect technologically-enhanced life forms reached breakneck speed in 2007, and its ongoing in labs around the world. Much of the work is government-funded but much is within the private sector. You can learn about some of the progress in official reports and in the proceedings of academic and scientific conferences. But quite a lot is hidden from view - either for reasons of military secrecy or in the sphere of corporate researchers working feverishly to patent genetic forms most of the public could never imagine. Narrating the spellbinding new documentary Transhumanism, author and publisher Tom Horn opens a window into a field of technology that presents profound challenges in the areas of public health, ethics and religion. Researchers are combining human and animal DNA in order to solve a multitude of health problems and stay ahead in the arms race to develop soldiers with stronger battlefield capabilities. There are obvious potential benefits from enhancing human physiology: cures for disease, relief from pain, and longer life. Who would argue if a stricken loved one was offered the $6 million promise: We can make him better? But the implications are staggering. Already, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is developing policy guidelines for dealing with part-human organisms. If a pig, rabbit, feline or hominid was 1% human, would it require special legal classification? What about if 40% or 70% human? At what point does the Bill of Rights apply? The potential for new forms of disease engendered by DNA experimentation and particularly as it involves the crossover between species is but one public health risk current science may be unable to address. More alarming may be the rapidly-growing philosophical/spiritual transhumanist movement aspiring to use human enhancement technologies to create a new form of the human species. Singularity - or the merging of mans biological thinking and existence with technology to the point that there is no distinction between human and machine - is the goal of this strand of the movement, which is expected to achieve a major breakthrough between now and 2019 because of the pace of technological advancement. Proponents of these efforts hold out the promise of virtual immortality if the entirety of human consciousness can be uploaded and spread throughout time and space. Historian Francis Fukuyama has warned of a hell scenario in which we no longer struggle, aspire, love, feel pain, make difficult moral choices, have families, or do any of the things that we traditionally associate with being human. Yet there are huge incentives - military, scientific, and financial - for this work to continue, and therefore it will not stop, and as with all human technology it will increase in efficiency and sophistication. Transhumanism gives you a thorough overview of this phenomenon: How we got to where we are, who the major players are, as well as the philosophical underpinnings of the movement. It is not solely about science, but about the future of the human species. You can get the new DVD Transhumanism at an exclusive discount price from the WND Superstore. If the documentary has gotten your attention
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 16:38:21 +0000
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