16 July 2012

Posthumanism Again

Nearly two years ago I posted here on the "posthumanism" phenomenon. It seems that work to preserve human minds forever hasn't ceased per a lengthy article from The Chronicle of Higher Education here. What I noted before still pertains: Even if possible, why would (1) a future generation want to pay the freight to keep out minds going and (2) why would we want to persist indefinitely in the sinful, corrupt condition in which we find ourselves?

To be sure, those who believe--against all evidence--that human beings are innately good might not take my second objection seriously but even they should wonder just a little about my first. But perhaps the desire to live on as we are betrays something deeper, the reality of what the Apostle Paul observes in the first two chapters of his Epistle to the Romans: that both the truth of God's existence and the reality of his justice is know to all. How fearful it will be to fall into the hands of a wronged and wrathful God. How humans will scurry about to do all they can to avoid it. How futile those efforts are.

3 comments:

  1. dcbyron7/17/2012 9:20 AM

    Why is indeed the key question. Also worth pondering is the extraordinary, unappreciated difficulty of How: And everyone gets a robot pony.

    Key quote: "We can’t even start on this problem, and here are philosophers and computer scientists blithely turning an immense and physically intractable problem into an assumption."

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  2. Dave Lamp7/17/2012 12:13 PM

    Scott...Thanks for the reminder that the desire to live autonomously usually ends up being dependent! However, I'm wondering whether the Christian is the "true" PostHuman due to the Incarnation. If "the former things have passed away" and we are indeed a "new creation" wouldn't it hold true that we are being restored to a personhood that is beyond the current definition of a human being? No longer do we need to be paralyzed by fear, limited by time, and driven by selfish self-worship? There's a group of people who spend time thinking about this concept in what is known as TransHumanism. I think that there is real value in joining this conversation but with the perspective that reconciliation must accompany restoration and that then as children of God, adopted into His family, guided by the Spirit, we are able to experience the rest of eternity and the joy of seeing His kingdom transformed as we move through His good creation.

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  3. pryorthoughts7/17/2012 2:11 PM

    "Christianity--Transforming Human Nature for 2000 Years." "Christians--The Real Transhumanists"

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