Hi everyone my name is Francesca Ferrando. I'm a professor of philosophy here at NYU in the program of Liberal Studies and it's very exciting for me to talk in a video about the posthuman. So in our first video we talked about “what does posthuman mean” and we said that there are many different schools of thought talking about this notion right now. One of these schools of thought is Transhumanism. So in this video we're going to address Transhumanism, specifically “what is Transhumanism”?
First of all, I should clarify the fact that Transhumanism also should be not seen as only one movement, but is formed by many different schools of thought. That's why we can add an "s" and say Transhumanisms. What are we talking about when we say Transhumanism? We are talking, for instance, about Democratic Transhumanism. We are talking about Libertarian Transhumanism. We are talking about Extropianism. We are talking about the singularity. So what do all these movements share? They share one goal. The goal of all these related movements is human enhancement. So how can we achieve human enhancement according to Transhumanism? The answer is as follows: there are two assets of reformation of the human that can bring human enhancement, according to Transhumanism. These two assets are science and the other one is technology. Now, when you think of Science and Technology, do not only think of the science and technology that are happening right now. You can also think of speculative frames--for instance, cryonic or regenerative medicine. So, definitely we have an open notion of Science and Technology as well. Why are these movements different? Well, again, they do share the main goal, which is human enhancement. That's why if you go online the main platform to discuss transhumanist ideas is humanity plus (H+) which, you can see in the symbol H + : "H" is human or humanity and "+" is enhancement. Again, they share the goal which is human enhancement but with different approaches.
For instance, according to Democratic Transhumanism, yes we should embrace human enhancement, but these kinds of technologies in sciences that bring human enhancement should be accessible to everyone so the people should not be discriminated against based on their class or on their economic power, sex, or gender; everyone should have access to human enhancement in a democratic way. So these technologies are okay but it's important that they are not only available to people, for instance, with money.
Another group is Libertarian Transhumanism. One interesting aspect about Libertarian Transhumanism is that in 2016 we had one candidate for president which was Zoltan Istvan and he was a libertarian transhumanist who was actually running for governor of California in 2018 and their main approach is the idea that we should embrace human enhancement but a free market should be kept in order to have the best development or the best outcome when we talk about human enhancement. So for Libertarian Transhumanism, a free market is the best guarantor to the development of human enhancement.
Again, there are different groups here like Extropianism and singularity but before getting into more details about each, for a moment I want to share a very important aspect. Where does transhumanist come from? What are the roots of Transhumanism? According to transhumanist declaration, the roots are found in the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment shares some specific goals that are still very much embraced by Transhumanism. We’re thinking, for instance, of progress and rationality. Keep this in mind for our next video because, for instance, Posthumanism, which is a related but a different movement, does not share the same roots. So we have the roots of Transhumanism in the Enlightenment. Now, going back to the connection of our first video, in the second one “what does posthuman mean” we should clarify that the way Transhumanism addressed the notion of the posthuman is very specific. We are not posthuman yet; we used to be human, some of us are transhuman now (so this era could be defined as a transhuman era in people both through their bodies but also through their philosophy. They're embracing technology and the notion of human enhancement, transforming the human in different ways). But, according to Transhumanism, we are not posthuman yet. Some of us may become posthuman in the close future, so this is something that is not happening yet but is going to happen very soon. An example of the posthuman according to Transhumanism is, for instance, mind uploading. We are talking here about a speculative technology according to which in the close future humans could be able to download their consciousness onto a machine. Now this machine that has a human consciousness, could it be defined as human? No, because humans have biological bodies. Could it be defined as something that is just a machine? No, because it's a machine that has human consciousness. So this type of hybrid that goes beyond the notion of the human or the machine could be, for instance, defined as posthuman. Or you can also think, for instance, of migrating to Mars, becoming a species that is going to stay on Mars. They're not going to come back to planet Earth, and eventually, generation after generation they may adapt to the condition of Mars and develop into a species that is not human anymore. Here, for instance, we can bring in the notion of post-humanities.
Now, in our third video of these miniseries about the posthuman we are going to talk about the posthuman according to another philosophical movement which is Posthumanism.
I thank you for your kind attention and I invite you to please visit my website which is www.theposthuman.org for more information about these and related topics. Thank you so much.
First of all, I should clarify the fact that Transhumanism also should be not seen as only one movement, but is formed by many different schools of thought. That's why we can add an "s" and say Transhumanisms. What are we talking about when we say Transhumanism? We are talking, for instance, about Democratic Transhumanism. We are talking about Libertarian Transhumanism. We are talking about Extropianism. We are talking about the singularity. So what do all these movements share? They share one goal. The goal of all these related movements is human enhancement. So how can we achieve human enhancement according to Transhumanism? The answer is as follows: there are two assets of reformation of the human that can bring human enhancement, according to Transhumanism. These two assets are science and the other one is technology. Now, when you think of Science and Technology, do not only think of the science and technology that are happening right now. You can also think of speculative frames--for instance, cryonic or regenerative medicine. So, definitely we have an open notion of Science and Technology as well. Why are these movements different? Well, again, they do share the main goal, which is human enhancement. That's why if you go online the main platform to discuss transhumanist ideas is humanity plus (H+) which, you can see in the symbol H + : "H" is human or humanity and "+" is enhancement. Again, they share the goal which is human enhancement but with different approaches.
For instance, according to Democratic Transhumanism, yes we should embrace human enhancement, but these kinds of technologies in sciences that bring human enhancement should be accessible to everyone so the people should not be discriminated against based on their class or on their economic power, sex, or gender; everyone should have access to human enhancement in a democratic way. So these technologies are okay but it's important that they are not only available to people, for instance, with money.
Another group is Libertarian Transhumanism. One interesting aspect about Libertarian Transhumanism is that in 2016 we had one candidate for president which was Zoltan Istvan and he was a libertarian transhumanist who was actually running for governor of California in 2018 and their main approach is the idea that we should embrace human enhancement but a free market should be kept in order to have the best development or the best outcome when we talk about human enhancement. So for Libertarian Transhumanism, a free market is the best guarantor to the development of human enhancement.
Again, there are different groups here like Extropianism and singularity but before getting into more details about each, for a moment I want to share a very important aspect. Where does transhumanist come from? What are the roots of Transhumanism? According to transhumanist declaration, the roots are found in the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment shares some specific goals that are still very much embraced by Transhumanism. We’re thinking, for instance, of progress and rationality. Keep this in mind for our next video because, for instance, Posthumanism, which is a related but a different movement, does not share the same roots. So we have the roots of Transhumanism in the Enlightenment. Now, going back to the connection of our first video, in the second one “what does posthuman mean” we should clarify that the way Transhumanism addressed the notion of the posthuman is very specific. We are not posthuman yet; we used to be human, some of us are transhuman now (so this era could be defined as a transhuman era in people both through their bodies but also through their philosophy. They're embracing technology and the notion of human enhancement, transforming the human in different ways). But, according to Transhumanism, we are not posthuman yet. Some of us may become posthuman in the close future, so this is something that is not happening yet but is going to happen very soon. An example of the posthuman according to Transhumanism is, for instance, mind uploading. We are talking here about a speculative technology according to which in the close future humans could be able to download their consciousness onto a machine. Now this machine that has a human consciousness, could it be defined as human? No, because humans have biological bodies. Could it be defined as something that is just a machine? No, because it's a machine that has human consciousness. So this type of hybrid that goes beyond the notion of the human or the machine could be, for instance, defined as posthuman. Or you can also think, for instance, of migrating to Mars, becoming a species that is going to stay on Mars. They're not going to come back to planet Earth, and eventually, generation after generation they may adapt to the condition of Mars and develop into a species that is not human anymore. Here, for instance, we can bring in the notion of post-humanities.
Now, in our third video of these miniseries about the posthuman we are going to talk about the posthuman according to another philosophical movement which is Posthumanism.
I thank you for your kind attention and I invite you to please visit my website which is www.theposthuman.org for more information about these and related topics. Thank you so much.