Dr. Janina Loh Contactandinformationby merging with nanobots, and eventually be immortalized through uploading the human mind onto a computer. But this vision of the technologically

THE UTOPIA OF UNIVERSAL CONTROLCRITICAL THOUGHTS ON TRANSHUMANISM

CPG Annual Conference – Governing theFuture: Digitalization, AI, DataismOctober 19, 2019, Bangkok, Thailand

Dr. Janina Loh Contact and information:University Assistant (Post Doc) [email protected] of Technology and Media http://philtech.univie.ac.at/team/janina-loh-nee-sombetzki/

mailto:[email protected]

http://philtech.univie.ac.at/team/janina-loh-nee-sombetzki/

AGENDA

1. Introduction

2. Critique of Transhumanism3. Conclusion

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1. INTRODUCTION

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1.1 Transhumanism (TH)

1.2 Technological Posthumanism (tPH)1.3 Critical Posthumanism (cPH)




1.1 TRANSHUMANISM (TH)

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o METHOD: developing, enhancing and perfecting man by technologically transforming her or him into a posthuman being.

o THE POSTHUMAN: a ›new human being‹, a human being 2.0, or to be more precise, a human being x.0, since from a transhumanist point of view the potential evolution of man is necessarily unfinished. The »trans« in TH refers to the attempt to create a new and better mode of human existence, in working one’s way ›through‹ the current human.

o TECHNICS: medium and means for the purpose of optimizing the human to a human being x.0.o CHARACTERISTICS: immortality and radical life extension; cryonics; methods of human

enhancement; transhuman beings and cyborgs; virtuality and space as potential spheres of posthuman existence.


1. INTRODUCTION



1.2 TECHNOLOGICAL POSTHUMANISM (TPH)

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o THE POSTHUMAN: PH in general is no longer primarily interested in man. The vision of the posthuman in tPH is an artificial alterity/an artificial superintelligence/a strong AI/universal AI, that in the end will surpass man by constituting a new species – evolution’s next step.

o METHOD: On their way to the Singularity human beings will profit from technological achievements, and modify and enhance themselves by means of these advances, for instance, by merging with nanobots, and eventually be immortalized through uploading the human mind onto a computer. But this vision of the technologically transformed human being is merely an automatic step on man’s way towards the posthuman era, rather than the ultimate ambition.

o TECHNICS: primarily seen as end, aim and purpose.o CHARACTERISTICS: artificial superintelligence; Singularity; mind uploading.


1. INTRODUCTION



1.3 CRITICAL POSTHUMANISM (CPH)

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o THE POSTHUMAN: PH in general is no longer primarily interested in man. The vision of the posthuman in cPH is an understanding of man that is to be located ›post‹ today’s essential concept of man.

o METHOD: cPH questions the traditional and mostly humanistic dichotomies such as woman/man, nature/culture, and subject/object, that are fundamentally constitutive of our current understanding of the human and the cosmos in general. cPH attempts to go beyond man by breaking with conventional categories, as well as with their associated vocabulary and thinking.

o TECHNICS: the principal category (besides culture and the sciences) for criticizing humanist and other traditional categories; promises an emancipatory potential.

o CHARACTERISTICS: struggling with humanism; overcoming anthropocentrism; questioning essentialism and (philosophical) anthropology; critique of the culture of knowledge; and a strong appeal to political action.


1. INTRODUCTION



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TRANSHUMANISM TECHNOLOGICAL POSTHUMANISM CRITICAL POSTHUMANISM

METHOD Transformation via technolog. enhancement

Overcoming via creation Overcoming via critique

ROLE / FUNCTION OF

TECHNICS

Medium and means; in genereal very positive

(primarily) Aim, ends, purpose; in general verypositive

Main category of critique; in generalneutral

THE POSTHUMAN Human being x.0 (primarily) Artificial alterity New understanding of the human

CurrentProponents (e.g.)

Nick Bostrom, Max More, Stefan Sorgner, James Hughes, Simon Young

Frank Tipler, Marvin Minsky, Hans Moravec, Ray Kurzweil, Vernor Vinge

Katherine Hayles, Rosi Braidotti, Cary Wolfe, Karen Barad, Neil Badmington, Patricia MacCormack




2. CRITIQUE OF TRANSHUMANISM

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2.1 Controlling the Human – Oversimplification

2.2 Controlling the Transhuman – Passivation2.3 Controlling the Posthuman – Category Error




2.1 CONTROLLING THE HUMAN – OVERSIMPLIFICATION

Page 9/172. CRITIQUE OF TRANSHUMANISM

o Numerous transhumanists such as Simon Young and Nick Bostrom explicitly refer to humanism as the basis of TH or even understand TH as humanism with primarily technological means, as technological humanism.

o Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's speech on human dignity (1496) is often referred to.o Nick Bostrom even traces the roots of TH back to the Mesopotamian prehistory of the Gilgamesh epic

(approx. 2,400-1,800 BC). His argument is based on the anthropological assumption that ›the human being‹ has always been anxious to overcome ›his‹ natural conditionality. King Gilgamesh of Uruk, driven by his desire for immortality, had already gone to the underworld to break through the boundaries of human existence.

o Referring to the authority of history to justify one's theories is a common element in transhumanist thinking.




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o TRIVIAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF TH: The »instinctive drive« (Simon Young) to self-transformation, self-perfection and self-transcendence constitutes the essence of human nature – nothing else.

o SENSE AND PURPOSE: easier comprehensibility for a broader public and controllability of the human being.o OBJECTION: The transhumanist understanding of the human being is subcomplex. But if TH would

understand humans as complex in their needs and not always clearly transparent, it would be difficult to determine an unambiguous positive development of humanity towards a posthuman age. Therefore, transhumanists (tend to) have a simplified definition of human nature.

o CONSEQUENCE: Since a simplified anthropology is important from a transhumanist perspective on the one hand, but on the other hand can only be argued for with difficulty, the transhumanist trivial-anthropological premise usually comes in a fatalistic ›garb‹. Developmental fatalism and technological determinism in TH are supported by a call for active participation in order to accelerate the development into a posthuman being.


2.1 CONTROLLING THE HUMAN – OVERSIMPLIFICATION




2.2 CONTROLLING THE TRANSHUMAN – PASSIVATION

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o The self-commitment to humanism does indeed go very far in TH. o Thus, with regard to the probably most important method of transhumanistic

optimization processes, namely human enhancement, transhumanists repeatedly remind us that this is ultimately only a further development of the humanistic ideal of self-education.

o However, if humanism is ultimately limited to pedagogical and cultural methods, TH continues (to follow the transhumanist argument here) the humanistic program of self-cultivation and self-design with technical means.

o So, from a transhumanist perspective, humanistic education and cultivation on the onehand and human enhancement on the other, are basically the same!





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TYPES OF ENHANCEMENTS: methods of genetic, medical, neuro-, generally technical optimizationAlready existing:1. Physical modifications: e.g. cosmetics, implants, prostheses and training,2. Mental optimizations: e.g. pharmaceutical products that improve mental functions and extended-mind technologies

that enhance mental competencies such as computers, navigation devices and mobile phones,3. Reproductive technologies: e.g. preimplantation diagnostics.Mostly still up in the air, however, for TH especially relevant:4. Genetic enhancement (human genetic engineering): interventions in the germ line,5. Neurotechnologies: e.g. mind uploading, brain implants, neural implants,6. Moral enhancement: the suppression of morally reprehensible (e.g. particularly aggressive) behaviour, the

strengthening of morally desirable (e.g. prudent and reserved) character traits, above all through genetic changes or with the aid of specific pharmaceuticals.






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o DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENHANCEMENT AND EDUCATION: at each point in time the human being remains the agent of education, whereas enhancement degrades her to the passive material of design and transformation.

o HUMANISTIC EDUCATION: no control over the person to be educated; no control after the completion of the educational process.

o HUMAN ENHANCEMENT: control of the person to be improved; control of their enhancement after completion of the enhancement process.






2.3 CONTROLLING THE POSTHUMAN – CATEGORY ERROR

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o Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's speech on human dignity (1496) is often referred to. o To the extent that Pico della Mirandola does indeed describe a gradual development of the human

being from a »chameleon« (by definition without place or character) to a heavenly being (thanks to ethics, dialectics, and natural philosophy or metaphysics) which finally becomes a »divine being« (with the help of theology) this transhumanist interpretation of Pico della Mirandola is to be agreed with.

o Pico della Mirandola in his Oration on the Dignity of Man gives a purely formal definition of the human being: Humans have no specific essence and give themselves a form via self-determination.

o »If you see a man dedicated to his stomach, crawling on the ground, you see a plant and not a man.« o »And at last […] we shall be, no longer ourselves, but the very One who made us.«





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o TH THESIS: Similar to Pico della Mirandola, humans (according to TH) are also distinguished by their ability to self-perfection. At some point the human being 1.0 will have radically transformed her- or himself and will have abilities that we today are not able to imagine. That is the posthuman. The posthuman is in the transcendental realm.

o PROBLEM: In TH, the posthuman is not understood as an abstraction or figure of thought but as a real mode of existence in the future. Many transhumanists give indeed very concrete descriptions of the posthuman (cf. Nick Bostrom). Pico della Mirandola, on the other hand, gives no detailed description of the divine being that humans can become.

o OBJECTION: Transhumanists make a category error out of the urge for control, which consists in trying to infer with human categories something beyond the reach of human cognitive faculties.


2.3 CONTROLLING THE POSTHUMAN – CATEGORY ERROR




3. CONCLUSION

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o PART 1: In trans- and posthumanism there are three strategies to transcend man: (1) TRANSHUMANISM tends to enhance man to a human being x.0; (2) TECHNOLOGICAL POSTHUMANISM primarily creates an artificial alterity; and (3) CRITICAL POSTHUMANISM questions the categories that have been conventionally used to define man.

o PART 2: TH fundamentally embraces a utopia of universal control, which is reflected in three core elements of transhumanist thinking: the transhumanist understanding of the human being, the transhuman, and the transhumanist vision of the posthuman.




Page 17/17THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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