Human Augmentation: [Blurring Out The Line Separating Biology And Technology]

in #steemstem7 years ago (edited)

Just like I have always said repeatedly:

The future world could favour technology over biology

Some might not quite understand what this statement actually means, but I'll try to explain it with few examples.

As a way of introduction, I would love to remind us that technology is evolving rapidly in a repeated pattern; and humankind is currently in the edge of a major technological evolution. And in my own term, I have referred to this as the evolution of the human machines (or you can call it mechanical humans). I welcome us to the era of human augmentation.

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Before now; in the field of bionics for example; bionics and prosthesis were only seen and used therapeutically for people with certain form of medical conditions; until recently when people began to willingly subscribe to bionic augmentations. And as simple as this sounds, these augmentations are pointing out to one direction, which is; Merging humans with machines.

There are actually many sides to human augmentations, but we will be focusing on very few of them that could potentially blur out the dividing line between humans and machine.

Remember this phrase:

A perfectly advanced technology is almost indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke

A time is coming when it would be almost impossible to distinguish between organic humans and bionic humans.

Evolving beyond human

The next phase of human evolution has been heralded, and this is the phase that will transition humans into something beyond humans, This is referred to as Posthuman; which some call Transhuman (Human+, H+).

Though posthumanism and transhumanism are used interchangeably, here's a little difference between them. Transhumanism is majorly used to describe the way technological advancement interacts with humankind through modifications of some biological functions. While posthumanism could be seen as the transition from humankind into something beyond or above humans. In other words, posthumanism could be a resultant effect of transhumanism.

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Posthumanism beckons with postmodernism

You won't be totally wrong to infer that humankind is in the last days of their existence as an absolute organic being. The rate at which our bodies are being altered has simply thrown the world into awe. In this era, the "voice" of technology has been seen to sound louder than ever.

As a result of the imperfectability associated with human, and the underlying limitations with the human abilities; it has been speculated that the only way to circumvent this challenge is to move beyond humanism. But at what expense? Sure you guessed right; at the expense of our humanity.

Just like one of the proponents of posthumanism rightly pointed out:

Posthumanism is set to move humans at the zenith of their existence, but the ability of free will could be lost forever. - Manuel de Landa [Paraphrased by me]

"Free will" has been one of the features that has separated humans from machine. But as it has been said; with the merging of humans with technology; it could be lost to posthumanism.

That means, the totality of our existence could be dependent on mechanical devices, and these devices could dictate the pace for us. But looking at the fair side of it; since these devices are inside us; remotely, we're still the ones responsible for these actions and inactions. Now this part is really getting weirder.

I won't also have you ignorant of the fact that mechanical devices are not the only thing turning humankind into Human+. Let's look at another aspect of Transhumanism.

Transhumanism meets Transmutation

Advances in genetic transmutation has greeted this era with awesome feats. Now editing can be made to humans at the gene level.

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We are currently evolving into the era where we can create the kind of humans we want, with the traits we desire. Thanks to advanced genetic engineering.

Come to think of this scenario: When genetically modified organic human is further tweaked with other bionic devices; it would be total farewell to "human as usual" and welcome to "human unusual".

A particular feat struck me and I feel  like sharing it here before concluding:

In the later part of 2017, a team of researchers led by Professor Kathy Niakan edited a five-day old embryo right in its mother's womb in UK. They successfully edited out a particular gene which they believed would result in an early development, using advanced CRISPR  (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat) genome-editing tool.

Does this strike you with anything? Well, in my own opinion, I would say that the battle for superiority between "technology" and "biology" could ultimately be won in favour of technology.

Conclusion

I would conclude this post on a lighter mood with a humorous remark made by one of my friends concerning this particular topic:

Machines could be better than humans, but the only advantage humans would have over machine is the ability to lie :)


Thanks for reading

References for further reading: Ref1, Ref2, Ref3, Ref4, Ref5 

gif by @foundation

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we are currently evolving into the era where we can create the kind of humans we want, with the traits we desire....

Is this ethical?

Well, it depends on your definition of "ethics" :)

It really depends on what the purpose is. So long as no one is being hurt and the patient is giving informed consent then how can it not be ethical?

I was just wondering. Thanks for your contribution.

Transhumanism or Posthumanism is in the very near future . At first, this may seem to be a desirable development, unfortunately it is not. Machines are programmable, integration of machines within the human body will ultimately lead to loss of free will, just like your regular computers whoever's in charge may decide to shut you off remotely if you show any form of dissent. Memories can even be altered via this technology. in the end what we will have is a sterile society devoid of human spirit. a society were slavery has been perfected. the only people who will gain from this technology are the people at the very top. Just as genes for eyes color can be altered, genes that code for psychological traits like assertion, contrarian thinking, and intuition can also be breeded out to produce a new generation of perfect slaves, completely subservient humans that will never challenge authority and that will actually gain pleasure from their own enslavement

This technology is already been sold to us via Hollywood movies and TV series and people are already buying into it. Advances in A.I, Automation will soon make average humans obselete, atleast in the areas of productivity.it is our duty to defend ourselves from this people and their technology. it will be naive to think they have our best interests at heart.

integration of machines within the human body will ultimately lead to loss of free will,

This is not necissarily true. Not all machine parts are programmable, just electronic components. Not all electronicl components either! The key is to make sure the parts remain directly controlled by the body they're attached to. There's no evidence to suggest this will necisarily lead to a

sterile society devoid of human spirit

This is sort of just fearmongering and failing to understand technology before deamonizing it.

What i am trying to say is that, there is a particular ideology that governs the decision made by the technocratic elite. this ideology is one of control. there is nothing inherently wrong with the technology, all i am saying is they will obviously use it to further their own objectives. To think that they have your best interest at heart, even with a fundamental understanding of human nature is naive. Do your homework

" technocratic elite."... this is a new made up concept? Sorry but this is just made-up lol. Illuminati stuff

Let us agree to disagree

@tfcoates If you cannot see the point @manofmiracles is making, then i don't see the analytical prowess you're trying to prove you have.

I can see the point he's trying to make, I can also see it's based on nothing but a fundamental misunderstanding of how the world works. There is a stark difference between these.

At what point was anyone here trying to 'prove' anything. Stop trying to force conflict mate.

@tfcoates I'm sorry, what misunderstanding are you talking about here? From my observation, the only one who seems to have a misunderstanding is you. I saw your replies to other people's comments advocating Transhumanism. Whether you don't understand the implications of this existential threat to Humanity, or whether you're pushing the idea on purpose, which i think you are, because i don't see how just anyone would take the pains to push this idea so much, taking the liberty to leave replies doing just that in the comment section; my stand on you is the same. I will not allow you to further perpetuate this extremely dangerous narrative of yours, trying to convince people that this is a natural development and something beneficial to Humanity! I promise to drag this out with you if you continue to write such here any longer! Try me! #freespeech #standforhumanity #rejecttranshumanism #saynototranshumanism #transhumanismisevil #transhumanismiscorruption #saynotomicrochips #freedomfighter #humanityisfree #killuminati #deathtocorruption #exposecorruption #liberationforhumanity

"existential threat to Humanity" lol. You seem to have confused progress with some delusional fear you have of losing your freedom.

I leave replies because my opinion is that progress is a good thing. Fuck staying 'natural' cancer is natural, so are botox and anthrax and 80% infant mortality rates.

"try me!" lol you've tagged "killiluminati" and "freespeech". Do you just love feeling embattled or do you actually believe this crap?

Machines could be better than humans, but the only advantage humans would have over machine is the ability to lie :)
Hahaha😂😂😂
That's true.

Thanks dearie :)

As machines advances humans will forget their true nature and rely more on machines for everything. If a generation is highly dependent on machines, technology may advance but human intellect may go backwards. Anyways nice article. :-)

Lol. Thanks for the comment

Machines could be better than humans, but the only advantage humans would have over machine is the ability to lie

From the above statement, what if the machine malfunctions? I think humans are reliable than machines.

Lol. My friend was just being sarcastic there :)

Humm
Humans... Technology... Biology.
It all seems weird to me.
The human race is in a race...

Interesting post

Lol. The human race is in a race

nice and wonderful writeup,you are a shining star,keep it up,@samminator

Thanks for the kind words

That's a pretty awesome article but I think, the next phase of human evolution will be through genetics. We will be able to control cell re-generation to prolong our healthy life span and a time will come when humans will start to live forever.

Well, future will tell. Thanks for dropping by

Or both? There is already development on mechanical/ stem cell grown hearts!

The caliber of enhancements that could be made on the human body and mind are astonishing. I predict that they are inevitable, at least to some degree, and I support the transhumanist agenda to speed them along. I have my worries though...

New technology is expensive, which means the rich will have access to it first and they will assuredly try to hoard it, like they do with everything else. I don't want to see the class divide exacerbated. Ultimately, though, progress is inevitable (at least until the human race exterminates itself) and all we can do is ensure that it develops in a safe and effective way. Of course, there are also plenty of steps we could take to combat the class war, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

Thanks for the comment

well written post!
Machines could be better than humans, but the only advantage humans would have over machine is the ability to lie :)
currently, tech industry is working on how to detect when human is lying, if they are able to achieve this difficult and currently challenging issue in AI, then they are almost there

Lol Thanks for the nice comment