According to Max More, transhumanism is a belief or theory of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond what it is now and its limitations by means of science and technology. It can be also viewed as an extension of humanism from which it is partially derive. A few examples of transhumanism are the elimination of aging, enhancing the intellectual , physical and emotional capacity. Transhumanism just not restricted to human but the way of life itself by promoting better principles and values.
But are we marching towards transhumanism or away from it? Signs that we are moving towards it are already here. One obvious sign we can see is the artificial assistance in our daily life. This can come in the form of artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Google Deepmind invest heavily in the artificial intelligence research to develop programs that can solve any complex problem without the need to be taught. If this is a success, it is considered to be the most advanced scientific discovery human has ever made. Another sign is the increase in average lifespan of every human being on earth. Over the past decades human lifespan has improved dramatically with Japanese having the longest life expectancy. This is due to the improved health care and a better understanding of human body. It is estimated that when the expected lifespan exceeds 120 years, the condition of transhumanism has arrived.
But we have to admit human still have a long way before transhumanism can be attained. However, the criteria of transhumanism mentioned above is a great indicator that we are stepping forward and eventually achieve them sometime in the future.
Remember what happened in Wall-E and the Matrix? Please do not lose humanity like Data from Star Trek did. We lose ourselves while merging with technology.
Good point
There are certain subsets of transhumanist thinking and not all of your criteria match with every transhumanists beliefs/ideas:
https://www.mind-difference.com/pages/what-is-transhumanism
A lot of trends show that transhumanism is not so far as we think about it. Digital economy disruptions like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Digital Labor, Internet of Things shows that we are moving very fast. In fact, in the digital world human being is immortal until somebody maintains his/her account. The border between virtual and physical world is diminishing.
Yeah true, technology is developing exponentially.
Thank you for your reply. You absolutely right. But the main that the further development will give us convergence of virtual and physical world, and we must not to lose the perception.
I know at some point that there will "enhancements" available to the human brain, merging it with a supercomputer. And doing so would be very tempting for many. For me? No way.
That is a very interesting topic you raise there about supercomputer. I will talk about it soon.