Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Posthuman?

A posthuman at present appears to be some sort of Science Fiction Ideal. And I suppose people will invent their own religions around this sort of idea in the future or combine the posthuman philosophy with their present religions somehow in various ways.

The capacity through genetic modification and other ways to change what a human being basically is could be considered horrific or natural progression depending upon your cultural background or point of view or religious persuasion. 

However, physiological and psychological changes are inevitable because of medical technology and the fact that some will want to modify themselves here on earth. What this will mean to all our futures is anyone's guess at present.

begin quote from Wikipedia:

 

Posthuman future

As used in this article, "posthuman" does not necessarily refer to a conjectured future where humans are extinct or otherwise absent from the Earth. As with other species who speciate from one another, both humans and posthumans could continue to exist. However, the apocalyptic scenario appears to be a viewpoint shared among a minority of transhumanists such as Marvin Minsky[citation needed] and Hans Moravec, who could be considered misanthropes, at least in regards to humanity in its current state. Alternatively, others such as Kevin Warwick argue for the likelihood that both humans and posthumans will continue to exist but the latter will predominate in society over the former because of their abilities.[7] Recently, scholars have begun to speculate that posthumanism provides an alternative analysis of apocalyptic cinema and fiction, often casting vampires, werewolves and even zombies as potential evolutions of the human form and being.[8]
Many science fiction authors, such as Greg Egan, H.G Wells, Bruce Sterling, Frederik Pohl, Greg Bear, Charles Stross, Neal Asher, Ken MacLeod and authors of the Orion's Arm Universe,[9] have written works set in posthuman futures.

Posthuman god

A variation on the posthuman theme is the notion of a "posthuman god"; the idea that posthumans, being no longer confined to the parameters of human nature, might grow physically and mentally so powerful as to appear possibly god-like by present-day human standards.[6] This notion should not be interpreted as being related to the idea portrayed in some science fiction that a sufficiently advanced species may "ascend" to a higher plane of existence—rather, it merely means that some posthuman beings may become so exceedingly intelligent and technologically sophisticated that their behaviour would not possibly be comprehensible to modern humans, purely by reason of their limited intelligence and imagination.[10]
 end quote from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman#Transhumanism


No comments: