Table Of ContentA Realistic Future?
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A Realistic Future?
Jean-Pierre Fillard
World Scientific
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Published by
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
TRANSHUMANISM
A Realistic Future?
Copyright © 2020 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
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ISBN 978-981-121-138-6
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Contents
About Jean-Pierre Fillard vii
Introduction ix
Part I Where Does Transhumanism Come From? 1
Chapter One The Origins and Further 3
Chapter Two The Theories 23
Chapter Three New Ways of Life 43
Chapter Four Favorite Goals of Transhumanists 61
Part II Possible Pledges 79
Chapter Five Present Achievements and Transhumanism 81
Chapter Six Information, Communication, and Artificial
Intelligence 99
Chapter Seven Energy and Civilizations 121
Part III Problems to be Solved 137
Chapter Eight Man and Men, Issues To Be Faced 139
Chapter Nine Robots & Co. 155
Chapter Ten What About Space and the Post-Human Realm? 173
Conclusion 189
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b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads
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About Jean-Pierre Fillard
I came from the University of Algiers when Algeria
was a full French territory. I initially specialized in
nuclear physics but soon turned to the study of solid
state electronics. At that time the “transistor effect”
had just been discovered and the buzz was about
understanding the electronic mechanisms inside mat-
ter. One of the topics was to understand the key issues
of the atomic defects lying in the starting semicon-
ductor crystals. This was the field which motivated
for me three decades of research.
Now that activity has turned to pure technology, following an endless
Moore’s law. So I tell people that I was, scientifically, born with the tran-
sistor and I died with it! Incidentally, I was elected a fellow of the British
Institute of Physics in 1978 and belonged to a flurry of international sci-
entific associations.
In 1967, I obtained a full thesis from the University of Montpellier in
France where I was soon upgraded to a full Professor and launched a
research laboratory in the field of solid state physics. I am the author or
co-author of some 300 publications, communications or collective books
and a personal book — Near Field Optics and Nanoscopy (World
Scientific, 1996). In 1985 I initiated a series of international conferences
DRIP (Defect Recognition and Image Processing) which continue around
the world every two years.
vii
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viii Transhumanism: A Realistic Future?
During these three decades of intense research work, I had the
opportunity to visit many places in Europe, the US, Israel, Japan, and
even stay in China as invited lecturer. I retired in 1998, as a Professor
Emeritus, after winning a cancer episode and I, then, became interested
in the evolution and the new prospects opened up by Science and
Technology 2.0. This was an opportunity for me to write some books in
collaboration with World Scientific and Transhumanism: A Realistic
Future? is the fourth one.
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Introduction
“Transhumanism is an international philosophical movement that advocates for the
transformation of the human condition by developing and making widely available
sophisticated technologies to greatly enhance human intellect and physiology.”1
This is the broad definition of transhumanism that can be found on the
internet.2 This “philosophy” especially deals with the benefits (and dan-
gers) we could currently expect from the extrapolation of technologies
already available which can deeply change our human nature along with
the corresponding environment. Such a thesis is not a new one but one that
has resulted from a process of maturation by philosophers. It is not to be
confused with science fiction.
From Gilgamesh to the Ubermensch of Friedrich Nietzsche, a recur-
rent dream has been access to a different (better) being, and how this can
be done. This mainstream thinking converged in the search for ways and
means to bring an end to old curses like ageing and death. But are we now
facing a philosophical or a science prospect, or both?
Transhumanism can be considered a culmination of continuous evolu-
tion from the Big Bang. Darwin theory says that genetic evolution occurs
with the millenaries, aimed at making the species more closely adapted to
the requirements of the environment. This is the universal rule Nature
1 “A history of transhumanist thought”, Nick Boström, Journal of Evolution and
Technology, February 21, 2006. Available at https://nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
ix
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