Transhumanism

[tecoyah]

In need of a religion atheists?

Transhumanism is an atheist religion. They are materialists who believe science will figure out how to cure death, and computers will become more intelligent that humans.

Google has invested billions in cure for death research. Transhumanism could be the religion of the progressive elites who are working on forming a global government. Run by them, of course. The rest of us are too stupid to understand any of it.

There are very few obstacles remaining before transhumanism succeeds in its mission to free rich humans from death, and to create super-intelligent computers:

1. Science still doesn't know what life is.
2. Science still doesn't know how the brain works.
3. Science still doesn't understand most DNA.
4. Science is no closer to curing cancer than it was decades ago.
5. The causes of most age-related diseases are still unknown.

Well, um, there are some more obstacles, but those are the main ones. Science will overcome those obstacles any day (year, decade, century) now. Just hold your breath. Keep believin' brother, amen.

What makes you think Atheists want a Religion? ALSO:

1. Science still doesn't know what life is. Yes it does.
2. Science still doesn't know how the brain works. Yes it does.
3. Science still doesn't understand most DNA. Yes it does.
4. Science is no closer to curing cancer than it was decades ago. Yes it is.
5. The causes of most age-related diseases are still unknown. Nope.

 

[Good4Nothin]

What makes you think Atheists want a Religion? ALSO:

1. Science still doesn't know what life is. Yes it does.
2. Science still doesn't know how the brain works. Yes it does.
3. Science still doesn't understand most DNA. Yes it does.
4. Science is no closer to curing cancer than it was decades ago. Yes it is.
5. The causes of most age-related diseases are still unknown. Nope.

If you disagree without giving any reason, then your opinion is worthless.

 

[Good4Nothin]

Transmetropolitan is an excellent graphic novel/comic series based around a lot of trans-humanist ideas.

Each issue generally explorers some new concept such as reanimating people who were frozen in the past, simulated environments from history, actual mental transference to a nanomachine body (or an non-human animal body, real or imagined,) freedom from all disease, ubiquity of drugs (addiction is no longer a problem, because there's a cure for everything,) extreme media evolution, matter compilers, extreme corruption, etc.

The main character is functionally Hunter S. Thompson living in the future, so fans of his might enjoy it, also. It's screamingly funny at times and often insightful.

Personally, I think we seriously over-rate ourselves these days. We're about three steps out the cave, thinking we're enlightened.

Maybe it's fun as science fiction. But too many are taking it seriously.

 

[Good4Nothin]

Atheism IS a religion.
They can't help but try and make new converts on any and all situations.
Someone needs to tell them they can still be an atheist without also being a prick about it, and trying to shove their beliefs down everyone's throat, and attacking other people's beliefs.

George Carlin's first commandment is....Keep thy religion to thyself.
Atheists....stop shoving your religion on the rest of us, OK?
Yet a week does not go by when some atheist makes another " I hate your beliefs " thread.
Shut up...OK?

The militant atheists believe that religion is the major cause of conflict. So for them, nothing is more important than stamping out religion.

Even though all the communists revolutions showed that you can stamp out religion without solving anything.

 

[Good4Nothin]

Atheism is not a religion. As for the rest of your post, irony meters explode.

Your usual debating technique. No brain required.

 

[Good4Nothin]

You have no clue at all. Your entire approach to the world seems to be to be determined to spread as many lies as possible.

https://fullfact.org/health/cancer-...BEhT6jYAqeI9U_FwjPpD_B6-KGHugNrUaAl72EALw_wcB

I already said the goal of most cancer treatments now is to extend life by a year or two.

And, usually, they extend life by poisoning the whole body so that all cell growth is slowed. Tumors grow more slowly so take longer to kill.

You can't restore the health of a biological system by poisoning it.

By the way, I am NOT saying there are better ways of curing cancer. Just that modern medicine does NOT understand life and therefore does NOT understand cancer.

 

[tecoyah]

If you disagree without giving any reason, then your opinion is worthless.

Apparently you are incapable of typing things into a search engine and I am not willing to do it for you. So yeah....I am worthless to you.

Have A Nice Day

 

[Good4Nothin]

Transhumanism is about a stupid a concept as I have ever heard....

It's stupid even though you agree with it? What does that make you?

 

[Bodi]

It's stupid even though you agree with it? What does that make you?

I don't agree with it... as I clearly stated... so we know what that makes you...

 

[Bodi]

If you disagree without giving any reason, then your opinion is worthless.

Your usual debating technique. No brain required.

It's stupid even though you agree with it? What does that make you?

Just look at these examples of High Quality Debate!

 

[Good4Nothin]

Apparently you are incapable of typing things into a search engine and I am not willing to do it for you. So yeah....I am worthless to you.

Have A Nice Day

So if I type "Why does tecoyah disagree with me about transhumanism" I will get the answer?

 

[tecoyah]

So if I type "Why does tecoyah disagree with me about transhumanism" I will get the answer?

Have A Nice Day….just so you know is a dismissal.

 

[WillyPete]

Maybe it's fun as science fiction. But too many are taking it seriously.

I think it's natural enough. In the 50's and 60's people got all excited about how nuclear energy was going to fix everything (thinking of the Jetson's now, and other period sci-fi) and here we are today, still barely scratching the surface of it's potential, largely because we're afraid of it. Certainly it was important for the early pioneers to take it seriously, even if their most elaborate visions haven't come to pass.

Me, I'm happy being a standard model human, but if some others want to modify themselves in various ways, that's their choice. Doubtful many will be 100% satisfied, but someone has to blaze the trail if there's to be progress. Might as well use volunteers.

 

[Conaeolos]

Transhumanism is an atheist religion.

I don't think it inherently is either atheistic nor a religion although obviously could be treated as such in some form.

And one certainly doesn't have to be a materialist to think science will figure out ways modifying what it means to die or end the limits of the 120 year current human genetic lifespan.

Computers are capable of being more intelligent than humans in many ways - they simply lack a conscious structure.

We both believe that spark is a connection to a soul. I wonder though why do you think a soul couldn't join a computer? If I replaced my biological body 99% machines - you think that 1% remaining contains some special sauce? of course not, it's just a vessel.

We spiritualist already believe we are transhuman. The only question then is time scale(then/now vs when), an illusion of space and location via movement.

Transhumanism could be the religion of the progressive elites who are working on forming a global government. Run by them, of course. The rest of us are too stupid to understand any of it.

Industrialists/government can not contain what is coming. Enthorphy break any control over any degree of time. Even a matix-esk simulation would be broken with time. If you live to the next tipping point, you will simply witness the small g gods. Just as you ancestors witnessed powerful new technologies and seemingly insurmountable and personal natural forces before and called them by the same name.

What was once the hard limit of what is possible. Can be broken. This is most often conveyed in the story of the 4 min mile.

1. Science still doesn't know what life is.

Nor does it try.

2. Science still doesn't know how the brain works.

Consciousness is not in the brain, but it is a pattern. A pattern can be repeated and abstracted.

3. Science still doesn't understand most DNA.

It is a way of encoding data and expressing it. What more does one need to know past that? What you describe is not a scientific problem its an engineering problem.

4. Science is no closer to curing cancer than it was decades ago.

Cancer like death is naturally occurring and exists due to the mechanism of imperfection in the unfoldment of life. This mechanism is a critical difference between biological and artificial. In the same way, water and distilled water can be the same yet different.

In a healthy biological system these transcription errors due to deterioration or outside influences get corrected. Junk DNA is one such natural protection for example. Telomeres then are directly tied to the leading cause of cancer. Cancer afterall is a process more than any one specific error.

So again its not a not a scientific problem its an engineering problem. Even if one didn't perfectly understand cause or method of the DNA error what is missing is more a way to apply any method of artificial correction. There currently only exists indirect ways. A matter of technological improvement specifically nano-technologies and more bio-friendly materials and controls. That is not a question that is stalled in its progress.

5. The causes of most age-related diseases are still unknown.

But you get exponential return. So for example with the aforementioned telomeres for example. A deterioration processed solved in your reproductive cells with known enzyme telomerase. Let say we had a deployment method which through keeping DNA full doubled the current best results of restricted calories diets. That may expand the average human lifespan to say 180, limit of 240 and boost mental age of research say to 21-160. That little extension increases the likelihood of the next step by factors. So on and so forth.

I wouldn't take transhumanism lightly. Nor think it some type of false hope.

 

[RAMOSS]

Science knows it doesn't know everything. If it did, it would stop.

Science is merely a methodology. Most scientists know that they don't know everything, and indeed, knowing everything would be detrimental to the practice of science.

 

[Manc Skipper]

Science is merely a methodology. Most scientists know that they don't know everything, and indeed, knowing everything would be detrimental to the practice of science.

That's what I said, but condensed, with a comedic twist.

 

[Rich2018]

...transhumanism is an atheist religion...

Another oxymoron


Atheism is not a belief system

QED, Atheism is not a religion


An Atheist simply says that he/she doesn't believe in god
Not that god doesn't exist.

 

[Northern Light]

In need of a religion atheists?

Transhumanism is an atheist religion. They are materialists who believe science will figure out how to cure death, and computers will become more intelligent that humans.

Google has invested billions in cure for death research. Transhumanism could be the religion of the progressive elites who are working on forming a global government. Run by them, of course. The rest of us are too stupid to understand any of it.

There are very few obstacles remaining before transhumanism succeeds in its mission to free rich humans from death, and to create super-intelligent computers:

1. Science still doesn't know what life is.
2. Science still doesn't know how the brain works.
3. Science still doesn't understand most DNA.
4. Science is no closer to curing cancer than it was decades ago.
5. The causes of most age-related diseases are still unknown.

Well, um, there are some more obstacles, but those are the main ones. Science will overcome those obstacles any day (year, decade, century) now. Just hold your breath. Keep believin' brother, amen.

There is emerging research that shows EMF fields are harmful to biological life. We're seeing it in the 5G networks being rolled out. The research is scant enough that there is still plausible deniability, but it's there. For this reason, I have my doubts about the technological evolution of humanity. Some scriptures, like the Vedas, describe the technological age of humanity as the most degenerate because it divorces us from the subtle spiritual realm through artificial energy. The "age of the machine" is supposedly the last age and the downfall of humanity, before the Golden Age. As long as our reach exceeds our grasp, technology will harm us.

The other thing is that not all research into consciousness is materially reductionist like in the western nations. Russia and China for example have done research showing the trans-physical properties of consciousness. There's a possibility that MK-ULTRA never ended, it just became more advanced in secret. I only mention this because the spiritual nature of humanity, although distorted by religion, is still very much valid. The problem is that western empiricism and naturalism arose in direct opposition to Christianity, so it has that culture embedded in it of not wanting to look beyond the material world.

Humanity may be able to extend the human life time. We may even live for thousands of years one day. Eventually though, all life dies. Everything is temporary. What then?

I feel like transhumanism is trying to antidote the existential emptiness that is a direct result of anti-theism, but it never will. Humanity's spiritual nature is inherent and nothing will supersede the spirit world.

 

[Conaeolos]

the technological age of humanity as the most degenerate

Isn't that the crux of the controversy. With power comes responsibility. Absent the moral fortitude and discipline to handle that power and it will possess and consume us all.

Our politics, an expression of our collective psyche, a testament to questionable status of our readiness for the technological leaps at our cusp.

Unbeknown to most, it is actually this that most prevents would be discoveries from pushing the limits. In fact often it is those least mentally capable who push a key technology naive as to its implications.

Lucky for us creativity and intelligence often go hand in and hand and ones most capable of pushing too far wise enough to temper their ambitions.

 

[PleasantValley]

The militant atheists believe that religion is the major cause of conflict. So for them, nothing is more important than stamping out religion.

Even though all the communists revolutions showed that you can stamp out religion without solving anything.

Even the communists in Russia never stamped out the Russian Orthodox Church. They just went underground.
They had that church since Peter The Great's time and they never really stamped it out.

 

[Northern Light]

Isn't that the crux of the controversy. With power comes responsibility. Absent the moral fortitude and discipline to handle that power and it will possess and consume us all.

Our politics, an expression of our collective psyche, a testament to questionable status of our readiness for the technological leaps at our cusp.

Unbeknown to most, it is actually this that most prevents would be discoveries from pushing the limits. In fact often it is those least mentally capable who push a key technology naive as to its implications.

Lucky for us creativity and intelligence often go hand in and hand and ones most capable of pushing too far wise enough to temper their ambitions.

There are a lot of amazing technological inventions that have already happened. They tend to be invented by individuals who are eccentric geniuses who work on their own. Some have no formal education whatsoever. These inventors all have one thing in common, their works were absconded with by the government, classified, and then they themselves either remained in obscurity or they were killed.

The technology to solve all the world's problems already exists, but it won't do humanity any good if consciousness is not evolved enough to see the wisdom of implementing it. Our politics and mundane level societal discourse all indicate that we are still very much operating on a near-animal level.

I sort of agree with the OP that there are elites who are using it while the rest of the world is kept in the dark because frankly most humans are too stupid to understand it; however, they're stupid by default because the elites keep them that way. It's probably apparent to them that it'll be impossible to organize humanity into a coherent cooperative any time soon, so the best they can do is pacify them as a working force so that they can build capital for the knowledge class who are using all the good stuff.

 

[Good4Nothin]

Science is merely a methodology. Most scientists know that they don't know everything, and indeed, knowing everything would be detrimental to the practice of science.

Transhumanism is a faith that human scientists can potentially solve the big problems.

If the universe is mindless, and if lifeless matter can generate life, and if intelligence is created by brains, than human scientists could potentially know everything.

Transhumanism is materialist faith. It is NOT science.

 

[Good4Nothin]

Another oxymoron


Atheism is not a belief system

QED, Atheism is not a religion


An Atheist simply says that he/she doesn't believe in god
Not that god doesn't exist.

There are different kinds of atheists, as I explained in another post. Some of the despise religion and want to eradicate it. Their belief system is materialism. They disbelieve in god(s), but they also disbelieve in any form of spirituality.

Some atheists are spiritual and do not despise religion. So it depends which type of atheist you mean.

 

[Good4Nothin]

There is emerging research that shows EMF fields are harmful to biological life. We're seeing it in the 5G networks being rolled out. The research is scant enough that there is still plausible deniability, but it's there. For this reason, I have my doubts about the technological evolution of humanity. Some scriptures, like the Vedas, describe the technological age of humanity as the most degenerate because it divorces us from the subtle spiritual realm through artificial energy. The "age of the machine" is supposedly the last age and the downfall of humanity, before the Golden Age. As long as our reach exceeds our grasp, technology will harm us.

The other thing is that not all research into consciousness is materially reductionist like in the western nations. Russia and China for example have done research showing the trans-physical properties of consciousness. There's a possibility that MK-ULTRA never ended, it just became more advanced in secret. I only mention this because the spiritual nature of humanity, although distorted by religion, is still very much valid. The problem is that western empiricism and naturalism arose in direct opposition to Christianity, so it has that culture embedded in it of not wanting to look beyond the material world.

Humanity may be able to extend the human life time. We may even live for thousands of years one day. Eventually though, all life dies. Everything is temporary. What then?

I feel like transhumanism is trying to antidote the existential emptiness that is a direct result of anti-theism, but it never will. Humanity's spiritual nature is inherent and nothing will supersede the spirit world.

Yes I agree. Except where you said human life might be extended. We have absolutely no reason to think it ever will be. Without understanding life you can't extend it. And there is no reason to think they ever will understand it. And they certainly won't understand it within the materialist perspective.

If they could extend human life, that would be a disaster because our species has overrun the planet already. But they can't, and thinking they will is just a transhumanist fantasy.

 

[Logician Man]

There are different kinds of atheists, as I explained in another post. Some of the despise religion and want to eradicate it. Their belief system is materialism. They disbelieve in god(s), but they also disbelieve in any form of spirituality.

Some atheists are spiritual and do not despise religion. So it depends which type of atheist you mean.

I know more theists that despise religion than I know atheists who despise religion.