Trans-humanism and the 2045 Movement: A Calling Of Some Deep Ethics

    There is a new movement brewing in the world today. It's called trans-humanism. Futurists have proven that technology moves at an exponential pace. Civilization is evolving at a rapid rate. Computing power doubles every eleven months. The thing of it is that with the advent of having the entire human genome mapped out and now possible for anyone to get their entire personal genetic makeup loaded onto a disk for about a thousand dollars, it has broken down medicine into computer science. There are still many ethical considerations being hashed out but the technology is there. This technology is expanding and merging, making biology and computer science unified fields. Computer technology in the coming years will be able to rewrite codes and turn off certain genes and custom create others in our bodies. This has dramatic implications. For instance, they will be able to one day cure all diseases and cancer, reverse and eliminate all signs of aging, and possibly one day indefinitely extend our lifespan. Not only that but in the coming decades they will be able to enhance memory and intelligence as well as physical strength, making us super-humans. Computer chips will be the size of blood cells and will be able to repair damaged cells in the body, freeing us of even the slightest blemishes and keeping us forever young. The year in which it is expected that humans will merge with computers completely is 2045.

    There is a movement called the 2045 movement. It deals with preparing humanity for the coming changes and endorsing trans-humanism. They plan to be able to replicate each of our brains, our entire personality and consciousness and load it into an artificial, yet supremely advanced robotic body upon our death, making us "immortal." They say that all emotions and ethics are a primary focus for the minds of these robots that will be created to carry on our image. By the year 2029, it is said that there will be robot brains just as intelligent and capable of emotion as our own minds. By 2045 the brains will be far more intelligent than our own and past that date, it is difficult to see where technology will be, due to technology being literally a billion fold more advanced than it is today.

    I feel the right vision is in place except for a couple unanswered issues. I don't feel that consciousness is the same as the soul. Therefore, by transferring someone's memories and capabilities into a cyber body, it's no different than cloning a brain. I will never feel that living inside a non-biological shell makes me immortal. Only the image of who I was before my mind was copied and uploaded into said shell would live on. My soul is eternal and even a billion years into the future, the technology to copy a soul will not exist. I am deeply spiritual and not religious. Believing your soul can be transferred into another body without dying is beyond egotistic. God's love places your soul into the body of another baby after you die, in turn beginning the process of my new incarnation. No marvel of science shall ever recreate reincarnation. It is not something that can be done. The 2045 ideas are awesome and I love the angle of peace, ethics, and equality for all. It is good that they support choice.

    I also believe that with all the advances which will be made over the next 40 years with upgrading the biological body, such as defeating all illnesses, diseases, and ending suffering while reversing aging, both biological and physical. They are all great ideas and beg the question. If we can have superhuman strength, look young, have the brains of super-geniuses, and learn to love each other unconditionally then why bother "upgrading" to a non-bio shell? Only way I might want to do that is if my perfect body is destroyed beyond repair. I would rather be immortal in the flesh and still experience the pleasures as such than live inside a false robotic shell. I guess the point is knowing that in some way, your image lives on long after your soul has passed into another vessel.

   The idea of having worlds with perfect avatars where we can control everything by thought is the coolest video game ever. But in my opinion, that is all it is. A really awesome, mind-blowing video game. When I'm dead, I could have a version of myself in that world if I choose to. But, it will never be me and that makes the term immortal come with a big exception. It's not immortality. It's only digital/robotic immortality. Even if you have the most advanced robot/mimic/shell on the market and can process at petabytes per nanosecond. No matter how real it seems. It is still only the illusion of reality. That shell will never possess the most important element to being human. The soul.

By Christopher Storm
-aka- "The Stormcaller"