Immortality & Crisis in Post Humanism

FORMAT | Presented paper

LANGUAGE |English

HOW TO CITE| SANDU, Antonio. (2013). Immortality & Crisis in Post Humanism. Prezentată la 5th International PHEADE (Philosophy of Engineering and Artifact in the Digital Era) Conference, Universitatea Ştefan cel Mare din Suceava, 30 noiembrie – 1 decembrie 2013, Suceava.

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ABSTRACT

In this article we aim to distinguish between the transhuman and posthuman condition, according to their anthropological, ontological, and ethical natures. We will show that the current historical moment can be considered the beginning of a transhuman civilisation, given that the characteristics of the transhuman are already present in today s human being. We will show that a series of decisive limitations for belonging to the human condition are in the process of being transcended due to acquisition of attributes of divinity that human beings do not currently possess: omnipotence, omnipresence (ubiquity), ex nihilo creation starting from the divine creative ideation and immortality. Humans are increasingly taking on the attributes of divinity in the process of human enhancements.
We will discuss the ways in which technology allows the human to overcome these limitations, elevating humans past their current condition, in a process in which they gain technological transcendence. Excepting immortality, all other limitations, once exceeded, generate a transhuman condition. Immortality generates a posthuman condition, since it can only be obtained by modifying the human ontological status from that of a biological being to that of a resident being in informatics networks. In order to clarify this process, we will discuss the concepts of everlastingness and artificial life prolongation.

KEYWORDS:

social anthropology, immortality, posthuman conscience, virtualization, life prolongation, enhancement, bioethics, environmental threats, technological transcendence