I was considering laser eye surgery for a while, until I figured out that I would need to rob approximately 25 convenience stores to come up with enough money. Still, I love the idea of it. I love how we as a species can modify our bodies, to correct flaws, or even have a sex change. I'm an avid transhumanist, and I would download whatever you wish to call the contents of my brain into a machine without a moment of hesitation.
Yet, I fear humanity is doomed. We like to think of ourselves as the dominant species, yet we do not direct our evolution towards even greater perfection. We are still limited by our most basic instincts, hence we produce more offspring than our environment can support, all the while medical advancements increase our lifespans (ie overpopulation and world hunger). We continue to let the alpha male rule instead of the smartest. We have environmental crises that are hardly addressed, because of our inherent disinclination towards cooperation with other tribes/nations/people. We still fight wars out of petty ideological differences. Religion still exists. We rely on finite resources for our economies.
At the same time, the collective knowledge of humanity grows exponentially. We have been to the moon, probes are at the edge of our solar system, we have glanced inside the atom, and inside things that make up the atom, we are developing fusion reactors, we have a world wide communication system, and we have supercomputers that can do calculations that would have been impossible a mere 20 years ago.
What I'm trying to say here is this: transhumanism is a literal term for me. I wish to transcend all the limitations of our species, our instincts, our pitifully limited intellect, our weak senses, our mortality. I truly do see it in this order. Instincts, then intellect, then sensory augmentation, then immortality. Ultimately we will have to do this, as a species, to ward off extinction. Overcome the self, then behold a universe of opportunities.
(man, I read too much Nietzsche...)
