Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic.
Custom-grown replacement organs, regenerated limbs, even bioluminescent tattoos — these are but a few of the dazzling new enhancements to our human bodies and minds that may be available very soon.
Ever since the earliest human donned an animal skin, we've used our native resourcefulness and creativity to enhance our security, comfort, and efficacy. From the loincloth to the toga to the modern suit, from Ben Franklin's bifocals to contact lenses to laser eye surgery, and from powdered wigs to toupees to blue hair, it's all basically the same.
George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard University, believes genetic enhancement may find wide and rapid acceptance as soon as it becomes technically possible and available at a reasonable price. For many characteristics, it could prove more effective to adapt a child, whose basic characteristics are already evident, than to estimate the probable effect of genetic changes on a new embryo.
"In certain cases it would be easier to engineer a [living] child or adult than the next generation," according to Dr. Church, "and the effects would be felt much more quickly."
The traits concerned might range from physical appearance to intelligence. This would be a non-medical application of gene therapy, which involves adding new genes to cells or tissues in particular parts of the body, such as the blood or brain, which would not be passed on to future generations.
"Some people say intelligence is too complex to influence in this way, but I have not seen any evidence for that," says Dr. Church, who directs Harvard's Lipper Center for Computational Genetics and is a leading figure in the international human genome project.
In modern marketing, products are commonly promoted as “natural”. But what is natural? And what is unnatural? By the most precise definition, everything that occurs in our world—whether synthetic or not—is natural, because humans are a part of nature and therefore the products of our hands—or our machines—are also part of nature.
That is not, however, the meaning of natural that most people intend. Rather, they are referring to products, events, or occurrences not made or caused by human beings. Thus, milk would be classified as “natural”, while Kool-Aid would not. (Never mind that the milk we buy in cartons at the store has been pasteurized, homogenized, and vitamin fortified; because it originally came from a cow, it must be natural.)
Less trivial debates surrounding the word natural arise when considering modifications that might be made to human beings. Some people say, for example, that it is not natural—and therefore wrong—to potentially extend the human healthspan by decades or even centuries.
It is interesting to note that numerous other measures developed by science to improve the human condition have initially been scorned as unnatural and intolerable by many, only to later be accepted almost universally. Examples include anesthesia, blood transfusions, vaccinations, birth control pills and organ transplants. Consider what the world might be like without these and hundreds of other improvements that may not fit the popular definition of “natural”.
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Tooth decay is natural — should dentistry be outlawed? |
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Polio is natural — should we ban the Sabin vaccine? |
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Cholera is natural — should we allow epidemics to rage unchallenged? |
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Death is natural — must it continue to wreak its dreadful havoc? |
Transhumanists believe we should use all available means to improve the human condition. This is nothing new—we have been doing it for ages with fire, farming, steam, electricity, antibiotics, vaccines, dental prosthesis, organ transplants, etc.
Taking this common sense approach to its natural conclusion, transhumanists believe that modern science and technology can safely improve the human condition by overcoming natural limits, and that they should be used to this end. So if today we say "yes" to therapeutic cloning and cryonics research, tomorrow we will say "yes" to aging reversal and intelligence enhancement. You can’t decide whether something is good or bad simply by asking whether or not it is natural.
Let’s have a look, then, at some of the enhancements available now or awaiting us in the near future:
Humans have been using technology to improve their vision since at least the Middle Ages. Eyeglasses were known in Europe then, and possibly even earlier in China. In 1508, Leonardo da Vinci drew the first design for contact lenses. Practical technlogy, unfortunately, was centuries behind his brilliant ability to conceptualize. It wasn't until the 1970's that contact lenses became commonly worn.
The next major step forward was laser eye surgery, which began to achieve widespread success and popularity in the 1990's. New and better methods are daily being developed, but the ultimate in vision correction is a few more years away. When nanotechnology matures, it will become routine to restore perfect vision without invasive surgery—not to mention adding infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, telescopic, and other exotic forms of vision. Even those blind from birth—or rendered blind through disease or accident—should have the hope of receiving normal sight.
There are already millions of cyborgs among us—if you define a cyborg as someone whose body combines the digital with the biological. Every person with a pacemaker or other implanted medical device is one. MORE
Each year, worldwide, physicians implant 200,000 pacemakers, 100,000 heart valves, one million orthopedic devices (artificial joints), and five million intraocular lenses. Approximately 70,000 hearing-impaired people throughout the world have had hearing restored through cochlear implants. MORE
Although the technology and information carried in such devices is highly advanced, even more sophisticated medical devices are making their way into other parts of the body, including the brain, cementing our cyborg destiny. MORE
Once the stuff of science fiction, the idea of engineering replacement parts for the human body is making its way toward reality. Scientists around the world are working on all kinds of bionic spare parts, including groundbreaking technologies that communicate in near-real time with the brain. MORE
But it's when these devices are connected to the Internet that things will become truly interesting. MORE
The first successful human organ transplant—a kidney—took place in 1954. The first successful heart transplant was in 1967, and since then thousands of people have had their lives extended through the receipt of donor organs. Many humans have also been the recipient of organs transplanted from other animals, including chimpanzees, baboons, and pigs. But that was just the opening act.
Life in perpetuity will be secured by "rejuvenative medicine"—repairing the body by developing new tissues and organs as the old ones wear out—and nanotechnology, according to Dr. William A. Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences. He sees rejuvenative medicine growing out of "regenerative medicine," all of which will unfold in four phases.
The first phase is using the body's own signaling factors to stimulate healing processes. Human Genome Sciences has discovered a wound-healing factor, keratinocyte growth factor-2, which causes three layers of skin to form. It regenerates the connective tissues and induces new blood vessels to grow into the healed area.
The second phase "kicks in when the body is injured beyond the point of repair, at which point you want to put in a new organ," says Haseltine. Tissue engineers have already learned to grow sheets of skin and have started to produce three-dimensional structures, like bladders and blood vessels. These are constructed with mature cells grown on special matrices outside the body. In the future, they may use the patient's own adult stem cells.
The third stage is the use of embryonic stem cells for "rejuvenative medicine"—replacing all the body's adult stem cells as their powers start to fade.
In the fourth phase, nanotechnology will merge with biological systems. Artificial devices are likely to improve to the point that they will eventually interface with evolution's form of engineering. MORE
"It is the year 2031, and the age of advanced nanomedicine is here. A young man arrives at his physician's office with a mild fever, nasal congestion, discomfort and a cough. The physician pulls from her pocket a lightweight, handheld device resembling a pocket calculator. She unsnaps from it a cordless, self-sterilizing, pencil-sized probe and inserts it into the patient's mouth as if it were a tongue depressor. On the tip of the probe are billions of molecular assay receptors, mounted on hundreds of self-guiding retractile stalks. Each receptor is sensitive to the chemical signature of a specific kind of bacterium or virus.
"'Ahhh,' says the patient, and a few seconds later a three-dimensional, color-coded map of his throat appears on the display panel of the device. Beneath the map scroll columns of data, revealing the unique molecular signature of a known and unwelcome bacterial pathogen.
"With the diagnosis complete, the infectious microorganism can be exterminated. No need for antihistamines, cough drops and a week-long course of antibiotics. The physician keeps several generic classes of nanobots on hand for just such a circumstance. Using a desktop appliance in her office, she programs billions of nanobots to find, recognize and destroy the particular microbial strain. The nanomachines are suspended in a carrier fluid that the patient inhales into his lungs, after which the mobile devices march down the patient's throat, propelled on tiny legs.
"Following a search pattern, the nanobots ingest and destroy the harmful bacteria they encounter using mechanical and chemical phagocytosis. The patient feels nothing—nanobots are the size of bacteria, which constantly crawl on and inside the body without ever being noticed. After several minutes, the physician activates an acoustic homing beacon to guide the nanobots back into the patient's mouth, where she retrieves them through a collection port on the tip of the homing device. A further survey with the original diagnostic probe reveals no evidence of the pathogen."
(from "Robots in the Bloodstream" by Robert Freitas Jr.)
Research being conducted at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Iowa in the United States suggests that within a few years we may have gene therapy that will convert a patient's lungs into a living, breathing medicine factory. This revolutionary approach could eliminate regular drug doses for diabetics, hemophiliacs, and others suffering from protein imbalances or deficiencies.
Scientists say the lungs could be used to pump out virtually any therapeutic protein, such as insulin or growth hormone. The lung is an ideal organ for churning out drugs. Patients could inhale therapeutic genes easily in aerosol sprays. Once taken up into the cells of the air sacs, a rich supply of blood could carry off any medicinal protein that they secrete. MORE
Within 20 years, elementary nanomedical devices could be used to diagnose illness. Chemical tests already exist for this purpose; nanomachines could be employed to monitor the internal chemistry of the body. Mobile nanobots, equipped with wireless transmitters, might circulate in the blood and lymph systems, and send out warnings when chemical imbalances occur or worsen. Similar fixed nanomachines could be planted in the nervous system to monitor pulse, brain-wave activity, and other functions. Ultimately, artificial antibodies, artificial white and red blood cells, and antiviral nanobots might be devised. MORE
The most advanced nanomedicine involves the use of nanobots as miniature surgeons. Such machines might repair damaged cells, or get inside cells and replace or assist damaged intracellular structures. One ambitious group of scientists is developing a long-range plan for replacing human blood with some 500 trillion nanorobots. Others foresee nanomachines that could correct genetic deficiencies by altering or replacing DNA molecules.
Such is the world of medicine awaiting those of us still alive in another two or three decades. MORE
Anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, attention deficit correction—Prozac, Zoloft, Ritalin—and now Provigil, a new medication that keeps the mind fully awake and attentive without the euphoric "buzz'' or jittery nerves of amphetamines and caffeine. It could prevent deadly mistakes by sleep-deprived truck drivers, doctors and other nighttime workers.
As scientists probe deeper into the brain's chemistry, they are learning more about what makes people feel alert, energetic, depressed, angry or serene. The tools and technologies—from drugs like Provigil to implantable brain chips, neuro-imaging techniques and brain-scan equipment—offer new ways to alter and explore human cognition.
In the future, new medications may enhance the mind by boosting memory. Scientists also predict that compounds developed to treat Alzheimer's will lead to substances that increase intelligence.
But it's not just pills that could change us for the better. In recent research using electrodes, a monkey at Brown University wore a fingernail-size brain implant allowing him to move a cursor on a computer screen just by thinking. The drive behind such research is a humanitarian one—finding better ways to help people disabled by injury or stroke communicate. It raises the hope that paralyzed people might one day be able to control complex devices with their minds. MORE
Take a walk through the bohemian districts of New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, or any of a hundred other major cities, and it's likely you will see many transhumans. What do they like? Most of them look like freaks.
The transhumans are the ones with multiple piercings, unnatural hair coloring, and huge swaths of artistic tattoos. It's a good bet, of course, that practically none of them have ever heard of transhumanism. But that doesn't change the fact that they are on the cutting edge of a new wave of humanity.
"Whether we look at today's manipulations of our bodies by face-lifts, tattoos, pierced ears, or [performance-enhancing drugs], the same message rings loud and clear: if medicine one day enables us to manipulate our biology in appealing ways, many of us will do so—even if the benefits are dubious and the risks not insignificant. To most people, the earliest adopters of these technologies will seem reckless or crazy, but are they so different from the daredevil test pilots of jet aircraft in the 1950s?"
(from "The Last Human" by Gregory Stock)
One of the most compelling aspects of transhumanist philosophy is its insistence that changing ourselves—modifying our minds, our attitudes, our bodies and our appearances—is not a bad thing. In fact, when those changes lead toward transcendence of our human limitations, it is by definition a good thing.
Granted, blue hair and pierced eyebrows may not lead directly to transcendence, but they are powerfully symbolic. Messing with the standard model of human appearance is actually a huge step forward, the beginning of a process of breaking down barriers.
As we see more and more "freaky people" on the streets, in the stores, in movie theaters, schools, trains, and in our workplaces, we will become inured to their strangeness; they will no longer seem strange to us. And then the next step will also be easier to accept: the day a few years hence when a co-worker shows up with a cell phone implanted in her forearm. Before long, we will think nothing of seeing people with sockets for net access implanted in their necks, health workers with lasers or surgical instruments grafted onto their hands, or even security personnel with literal eyes in the back of their heads.
Today all this may seem bizarre, even unthinkable. But change will occur; those kids with 15 or 20 piercings in their face will one day be running companies; adults with unnatural hair colorings will outnumber those without; and if you don't have an implant of some kind, you will be the freak!
