Transhumanism

This blog will explore the idea of transhumanism, the combining of the human body with technology. Technologies have always been adjunct to the body with technologies enebling us to do and perform things with more efficiency and are about enablement. However, technologies have now began to re-engineer the human body, engaging with the body in a way that they are begining to hybridize and merge. As Karl Marx stated,

"We sell our body to the highest bidder and do what it tells us"

An example of this sort of practice is by the australian artist 'Stelarc'. Stelarc surrenders his autonomous body, pushing it to the limits by plugging technlogical prosthetics into his nervous system.

These enable him to perform functions at his command, in a way that increases his functionality. This is a form of an idea called 'transhumanisn'. This is a philosophy that,

"Humanity can, and should, strive to higher levels, both physically, mentally and socially" (http://www.aleph.se/Trans/  )
 
It encourages research into areas such as life extension, physical and mental enhancements and areas such as uploading human consciousness into computers. There are six basic principles that most transhumanists agree on. These are,
1.Transcend-they strive to remove the evolved limits/physical limits.
2.Pragmatism-they use whatever tools prove effective towards there goals.
3.Memetic propogation-they support the proliferation of transhumanist principles and goals.
4.Achievement-they strive to achieve individual ambitions.
5.Diversity-they promote human efforts to grow and adapt to an ever changing universe.
6.Evolution-they believe these priciples should evolve.

Transhumanist Stelarcs work explores and extends the concpet of the body and its relationships with technology through human machine interfaces. He states,

"Bodies are both zombies and cyborgs. We have never had a mine of our own and often perform involuntarily- conditioned and externally prompted" (http://www.stelarc.va.com.au )

In this case, Stelarc externally prompts his body to move through prosthetics plugged into his nervous system, making his body dance to the tune of the machine. Sterlacs engagement with the body is one of which is a hybridization of the human body and technology. Another person who has used this form of hybridization is Kevin Warrick, who embedded devices within him, letting him open doors etc. This type of work looks at the acceleration of the body by technology. It believes that we can improve our human bodies, by for instance, installing improved artificial organs or by adding a third hand (like stelarcs).

Is this what a future human will be like?

Stelarc believes that we need to start re-engineering the body.

"What we really need is a design approach. If you have a heart that wears out after 70 years, this to me is an engineering problem. We should start to re-engineer the body". (http://www.fiv.edu/~mizrachs/Stalarc.html)

His work, although seeming far fetched, has brought into focus the possible fate of the body in a post-human age, a world in which boudaries between humans and machines are blurred. His work has shown us the extent to what technological possibilities may lie ahead in the future, giving us a glimpse of how future generations may live. Many may find the ideas of machines taking over frightening, a threat to the planet. However, the fact is that machines are already a vital and dominant part of our world, ever changing and developing. Maybe we should push aside our paranoia and think that, if these machines are enabling us and helping us to become more efficient, will a future world in which our bodies and machines can hybridize be such a bad thing? For as Stelarc believes,

"We are developing with technology anyway, so we might as well start thinking about how to exert a measure of control over the whole process" (http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/Stelarc.html )