Abstract
Transhumanism seems to be inevitable. There seems to be no way to stop the developments leading humanity to transhumanism. As Heidegger puts, technological determinism rules, rather than social determinism. In other words, the technology controls the society, not the other way around. Therefore, in a short time period, people will be forced to face the challenges of transhumanism. It is therefore the right time to prepare for those challenges before they became mainstream. Tomorrow, it will be too late. Academicians, educators, politicians, philosophers, intellectuals, psychologists … etc. all should concentrate on the issue. This chapter will try to answer such questions and many others. A philosophical approach is used. After all, ethics is a branch of philosophy. Since, this is a futuristic topic, it is hard to find first-hand data and conduct survey analysis etc. Therefore, this is a theoretical chapter.
TopBackground
Due to the rapid technological developments, transhumanism is fast becoming a reality. Each year, enhanced people are seemingly appearing as a close possibility rather than science-fiction. Although, the ordinary people are not fully aware of the phenomenon, experts know the issue well.
In fact, the great majority of technological developments follow an exponential path. Initially, the developments are very slow, but then it accelerates gradually. Finally, technological change is very rapid. The case of transhumanism is no different. Today, transhumanism is not a top agenda among leading media outlets, however in the future, it will be much different.
Transhumanism present numerous opportunities for humanity but there are also a lot of ethical problems to be solved. After becoming a synthesis of biological and non-biological portions will humans stay as human or transform into a new type of creature? What will happen to those who do not want to be enhanced and prefer to stay as classical humans? Will they be able to finance their lives and find jobs in a world where super-humans called transhumans set the rules?
Some experts predict that humans will be divided into two different species, one is enhanced, the other is un-enhanced. This may cause social clashes, wars, famine etc. Will classical humans have place in future’s world or will everyone be forced to transform into the new form of the humans? Some people may find transhumanism against to their religious beliefs and resist the transformation. In that case, enhanced people will have a definite advantage in passing exams, learning new material and finding new jobs.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Brain Implant: The activity of intervening brain’s structure. Patients are treated via this method and scientific studies are being made to explore the working principles of other mammals.
Big Data: Is a concept related to dealing with really high amounts of data. Traditional databases can not store and analyze such big amounts of data.
Basic Income: Due to the technology-driven unemployment, some countries consider to give a certain level of money to all their citizens to protect them against the adverse effects of unemployment.
IQ: Intelligence quotient. Measures intelligence level and a is score obtained from certain standardized tests.
Cyborg: A living organism with electromechanical parts. This organism may be a mammal or any other organism.
ICT: Is an acronym for Information and Communication Technologies.
Technological Singularity: If artificial intelligence (AI) reaches such a point that it can produce more capable machines than itself then intelligence explosion will occur and then it is impossible to predict what will happen afterwards.
AI (Artificial Intelligence): Is the intelligence of machines as compared to the intelligence of humans or animals.
RFID: Is an acronym for Radio Frequency Identification. RFID chips can be used to identify a good, an animal or a human being. Its use has become widespread as the costs went down.
Transhumanism: Is the movement that supports the view that human body and intellect should be greatly improved by means of sophisticated new technologies.