The Transhumanist Movement

237 Pages·2021·2.295 MB·English

by  Francesco Paolo Adorno

The
Transhumanist
Movement
Francesco Paolo Adorno
The Transhumanist Movement
Francesco Paolo Adorno
The Transhumanist
Movement
Francesco Paolo Adorno
Dipartimento di Scienze
del Patrimonio Culturale
Università degli Studi di Salerno
Fisciano, Italy
ISBN 978-3-030-82422-8 ISBN 978-3-030-82423-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82423-5
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 TheTranshumanist Movement 13
2.1 The Word 13
2.2 The People 15
2.3 The Organisations 26
2.4 Declarations 30
2.5 The Definitions ofTranshumanism 33
References 37
3 Transhumanism Between Humanism
and the Posthuman 41
3.1 Introduction 41
3.2 Humanism 45
3.3 TheTheories of the Posthuman 48
3.4 IsTranshumanism a Form of the Posthuman? 52
3.5 IsTranshumanism a Form of Humanism? 55
References 65
v
vi Contents
4 Theory and Practice ofTranshumanism 67
4.1 Enhancement 67
4.2 The Aims of Enhancement 74
4.3 What Needs to Be Enhanced? 80
4.4 Body Enhancement 82
4.5 Cognitive Enhancement 85
4.6 Moral Enhancement 91
4.7 The Search for Immortality 101
References 114
5 Problems ofTranshumanism 121
5.1 Criticism of Enhancement 121
5.2 Therapy vs Enhancement 129
5.3 Medicine andTranshumanism 136
5.4 The Instrumentalisation of the Body 141
5.5 An Anthropology of Disability 146
5.6 Becoming a Cyborg 153
5.7 Legitimacy of Becoming a Cyborg 158
5.8 The Morality ofTechnology 165
References 170
6 Transhumanism and Biopolitics 175
6.1 Introduction 175
6.2 Biopolitics andTranshumanism 179
6.3 Biopolitics as Life Economics 184
6.4 The Economics, Morality and Politics
of Enhancement 187
6.5 Wellbeing Between Medicine and Politics 190
6.6 Enhancing to Manage and Govern 194
References 200
Bibliography 203
1
Introduction
As stated in the title, this book deals with the transhumanist movement.
Itoffersthereadernotonlyadescriptionoftranshumanismbutalsoand
aboveall anassessmentofitsunderlyingtheory.Inordertoachievethis,
several notional choices have been made.
First, transhumanism is considered as a movement underpinned by
the concepts and theories expounded to a greater or a lesser extent by
all the authors discussed. Like every choice, this entailed a process of
selection and elimination: certain concepts were selected as the primary
focus while others were partially or totally excluded.This in turn meant
selecting the material to analyse, which was not restricted to concepts
andtheoriesbutalsoinvolved theeliminationofsomeconcretefacts.As
a result, the map of transhumanism presented in Chapter 2 is far from
complete.Transhumanismnowencompassessuchaspatiallyandtempo-
rally vast array of names, organisations, movements, trends, groups,
newspapers, fanzines, publications, conferences and meetings that it
would be impossible to take them all into account.This is not intended
as an apology but rather as an acknowledgement of responsibility for
a choice that is partly justified by the fact that, despite the limitless
©The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1
Switzerland AG 2021
F. P. Adorno,TheTranshumanist Movement,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82423-5_1
2 F. P. Adorno
materialtostudyorsummarise,mostoftheworksonandfromtranshu-
manismareboringlyrepetitiveandredundant.WhetheritisCalifornian
biohackersworkingoutofgarages,Australianbio-artists,Oxforduniver-
sityresearchers,Italianneo-futuristsorFrenchtechno-socialists,thebasic
ideas are broadly the same.
Second, it is worth recalling how in reality transhumanism acts on
two levels: a first level regards the direct enhancement of the human
body through the use of all kinds of prostheses that allow for a better
control of individual biological processes. The second level of develop-
mentoftranshumanismrelatestoanindirectenhancementofthehuman
body through a substantially uncontrollable increase in human intelli-
gence which, according to its theorists, will lead to its replacement with
a still indefinable form of artificial intelligence. It is argued that the pace
of technological progress is so rapid that we will soon enter a phase
definedas“singularity”inwhichthisacceleration,originatingfromweak
human capacities, will be such as to transform human nature in an irre-
versible and fundamentally unpredictable way. The brain, powerful as
it is, is limited in the same way that other parts of the human body
are, so despite all the creativity it possesses, it seems to have reached
its maximum expansion. Notwithstanding this, it has had the ability to
initiate a movement of technological progress that seems unstoppable
and that, above all, can transcend the biological limits of the human
organ, which it still is, creating higher forms of intelligence. Before the
end of the twenty-first century, our intelligence will be implemented on
anon-biologicalsupportbillionsofbillionsoftimesmorepowerfulthan
the biological support offered by neuronal matter, with consequences
that are completely inconceivable at the present stage of our knowledge.
This second-level transhumanism presents a difference, along with an
analogy, with first-level transhumanism that explains why we will not
deal with it directly. The difference is that, on the one hand, singu-
larityisalargelypredictivetheorythatfocusesonthelong-termeffectsof
progress in artificial intelligence and that, at least in the terms in which
it is presented, are far in the future. On the other hand, the problems
posedbythedevelopmentofartificialintelligencegofarbeyondwhathas
beendiscussedinaspecifically transhumanistcontext.Theanalogyisthe
particularly negative representation of human biology, proposed by both
1 Introduction 3
these groups of transhumanists, even though they can be distinguished
and isolated. At the bottom of all the branches of transhumanism, there
is the belief that human biological processes—the living as such, not
to mention natural life—have too many limitations, too many obsta-
cles, that make no sense and that can now be eliminated without any
difficulty.Startingfromthiscommondiagnosis,“biological”and“singu-
lar” transhumanists focus on two different but parallel ways of achieving
the same goal which consists of imagining the humanity of the future.
That means that the issues discussed are essentially the same, but the
means on which to act to produce and think of a posthuman humanity
are diverging. For “biological” transhumanists, it is the human body
in its diversity and materiality; for “singular” transhumanists, it is the
brain that has the evident characteristic of being a biological part of
the human body, but it also has the specificity of producing intangible
objectssuchasthoughts,emotionsandfeelings.ThereasonswhyIprefer
to avoid discussing issues related to singularity starting from artificial
intelligence are, hopefully, understandable: from the more concretely
biological perspective, focusing on singularity would have been redun-
dant with respect to our problems; from the more specifically cognitive
perspective, such a focus would have led us to discuss problems that are
largely beyond the transhumanist perspective.
With virtually no facts, few names and a great deal of theory, the
assessment of a movement cannot be a mere repetition of the almost
identical claims its authors make all around the globe. It must not be
limited to merely highlighting the implicitly introduced and employed
concepts, the more or less implicit justification strategies and the more
orlessskilfullyexploitedhistoricalreferencesinordertogainthereader’s
approval. Instead, it must also shift through all the theoretical material,
evaluate it and point out any inconsistencies, issues, logical and theoret-
icalerrors,inaccuracies,misstatementsandthemoreorlessquestionable
approximations that it allegedly identifies in its theoretical corpus and,
above all, it must consider any resulting practical and theoretical conse-
quences. Despite an equidistance in principle, this book is far from
proposing an apology for transhumanism, which the shelves of book-
stores and libraries are full of. On the contrary, after a first reading, it
will appear as excessively negative and critical of transhumanism. The
4 F. P. Adorno
fact is that the author is a philosopher who is convinced that the role
of his discipline is above all to criticise, to problematise and to show
the more or less evident implications of concepts, theories and move-
ments to eliminate unreasonable prejudices, while also offering readers
some arguments to rationally justify a choice for or against the theses
of the transhumanists. Consequently, a point of view was chosen which
is this: a comprehensive critique of transhumanism will be developed
through the analysis and articulation of a series of arguments that tend,
asmentioned,tohighlighttheshortcomingsandcriticalitiesofthetopic;
if the reader considers that these arguments are valid then his or her
rejection of transhumanism will be justified by a solid and substantial
reasoning and not only by the dread of transformations and changes,
the fear of the new, or by a prejudice favourable to the status quo. If,
on the other hand, these arguments are considered weak, inconsistent,
inconclusiveoruseless,thereaderwillbereinforcedinhisorherpositive
conception of transhumanism.
Chapter 4 sets out a detailed overview of the concepts and prac-
tices of transhumanism, starting from what appears to be its pivotal
concept: enhancement. This is a word used frequently and inaccurately
in everyday language, as indicated by the existence of various synonyms,
and whose scope indicates such embedded practices that there seems no
point in further analysing its meaning. After all, who does not work or
acttoimprovethemselves?Whodoesnotseektobetterthemselvesfrom
everypointofview?Trivialisingenhancementinthisway—unintention-
ally perhaps but certainly without sparing a second thought—obviously
means that it can be excluded ipso facto from any kind of debate or,
worse,delegitimised.Whatsensewoulditmaketocriticisetheenhance-
ment proposed by transhumanists if almost all human actions aim at
self-improvement? All this would achieve is a paradoxical questioning of
human history. Yet things may not be as clear-cut as they first appear,
because transhumanist enhancement differs somewhat from humanity’s
thirst for improvement and gives rise to concerns that have never been
raised before. Concentrating on the purpose of human actions, which
arealwaysinvariablygearedtowardsimprovinganindividual’scondition,
distractsattentionfromthemeansbywhichthesearetobeachievedand
hinderstheproperassessmentoftheirvaliditybecauseitreducesthegap