Each day I attempt to decipher the myriad of ways in which humans and society are evolving currently. I assume that most humans have absolutely no idea what is happening, exactly how we are evolving, or why. However you feel about posthumans, transhumans, or humans in general, it's undeniable that our pace of evolution is accelerating exponentially. Evolution is about survival and the long-term survival of humans points to inevitable transhumanism. We used to create technology to transform the world around us but now we are creating it to transform ourselves. Are we entering a posthuman reality or have we become transhuman without being entirely conscious of it? Transhuman thinking started during the onset of the Digital Age and Wikipedia states:
The contemporary meaning of the term "transhumanism" was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the human" at The New School in the 1960s, when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and worldviews "transitional" to posthumanity as "transhuman". This hypothesis would lay the intellectual groundwork for the British philosopher Max More to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a futurist philosophy in 1990 and organizing in California an intelligentsia that has since grown into the worldwide transhumanist movement.
The evidence that we have already progressed beyond the 'human-phase' as a species seems too obvious to narrate. By this point in time you have most likely succumb to many of the following characteristics of our 'new society' which I define as:
Everywhere – Seas of people virtually-connected within psychotic semi-global pre-formatted consumer-markets fostering fear, narcissism, manipulation, and control.
Everyone – Alpha-version software-experiments selfishly-fashioning runaway-consumerism while stripping individuals of their happiness and raping Earth's resources.
I recently heard a lecture with Bay Area neurologists/futurists discussing the latest developments in neuroscience and nanoscience. In the near future, neurologists/physicists/technologists will be connecting the human brain to a digital-interface and this combined with new developments in biomedical-gerontology will thrust our species well into the transhuman-realm. Our rapidly approaching future will soon be offering Microchip Implants (virtual and otherwise) for various human forms and functions that we simply "cannot live without".
I often claim that technology is dehumanizing society, but this might predicate the natural or necessary progression towards transhumanism. It is fascinating to witness how entire populations grapple with our rapid evolution. Reflecting upon everything I have experienced to date blows my mind exponentially. I'm San Diego born and 'grown' on ocean/dial-up/Atari/TI-99/4A-Basic, now running on air/wi-fi/AWS/Android/Git/Wiki/FitBit and gearing up for AI augmented-Smart-Contacts and unlimited options of bio-implants.
Many scientists claim that transhumanism is something that we must become accustomed to if we have any hope of surviving as a species (or new species) elsewhere in the universe. Planet Earth will not be around forever and we are already designing our emergency escape hatch in an effort to 'save ourselves'. To adapt to harsh new settlement planets, we will inexorably evolve many fundamental forms of our human bodies and consciousness. Things that we take for granted as humans here on Planet Earth including oxygen, water, food, sunlight, temperate climate, and radiation shielding may not be applicable everywhere therefore we need to adapt accordingly (or die).
This transitional-human state is a global phenomenon that is already profoundly affecting many humans. Entire continents are currently in survival-mode resulting from the fast and furious onslaught of technology. I continually hear many people expressing the phrase "I'm in survival mode". I hear this everywhere from everyone including parents, professionals, beggars, coders, artists, and leaders. Unfortunately, most of the human population does not devote much time to engage with life (much less each other) to adequately design and engineer our fast approaching transhuman-future. Therefore, soon many humans will unequivocally feel the vast repercussions resulting from our awkward global transition.
Humans are simply part of nature (a really weird part) and a human re-format is now upon us as nature sporadically evolves. We are on the precipice of a new reality, evolving relentlessly and manufacturing nature ourselves to ensure our continued survival. I remain attuned to analyzing this adroit transformation and I will attempt to make conscious decisions to model our optimal-survival.
