A True Definition of Transhumanism– Part I

In past articles, we’ve looked at the appeal of transhumanism, how it relates to society’s downward secular spiral, and the only rational response to transhumanism.  Transhumanism is the threat of our age.

But what exactly is transhumanism?  The available definitions leave much to be desired in terms of the teleological and ontological vision of transhumanism – which is to say, how does transhumanism relate to the meaning and purpose of humanity.  Put differently, just because we can evolve ourselves into really smart toasters, should we?

There is no universal definition of transhumanism but Encyclopedia Britannica, old stalwart that it is, takes a trusty stab:

Transhumanism – social and philosophical movement devoted to promoting the research and development of robust human-enhancement technologies.  Such technologies would augment or increase human sensory reception, emotive ability, or cognitive capacity as well as radically improve human health and extend human life spans.  Such modifications resulting from the addition of biological or physical technologies would be more or less permanent and integrated into the human body.

And here’s slightly a different take:

According to transhumanists, a “transhuman” is a “transitional human” who aims at becoming posthuman and takes appropriate steps (e.g., technological enhancement) toward that end—whereas a “posthuman,” the ideal for and goal of transhumanists, is a being so radically different in physical, cognitive, and emotional capacities from normal or current humans as to be no longer unambiguously human (Bioethics and Transhumanism, Allen Porter, ed.).

The underlying claim that transhumanism will improve existence through alteration of our human nature (as opposed to authentic medical interventions that simply restore injuries or deficiencies) is at its core a lie.  Both the means (that we can be “transformed” through bio-digital technology) and end (we will be “improved”) are lies.  First, we can’t be transformed into something “posthuman”.  We can’t become not-human.  God created each of us to be human; the most we can do if attempting to escape our humanity is to kill ourselves; anything else we do will only deform our humanity, not transform it.   As for the end (being “improved”), we do not become better or happier, in the Christian sense of the word, by becoming less human but by becoming more human (by overcoming our fallen nature through God’s grace).

In this article (and in Part II) we’ll formulate a true definition of transhumanism.  True in that it conforms to the reality of God’s plan for each of us.  Our definition will help give insights into what is really going on behind transhumanism.

To arrive at our definition, we’ll begin with the problems the transhumanists claim to solve – the problems of pain, suffering, meaning, and death.  The lynchpin is that they plan to solve these without God.  Christians, of course, are of the belief that God sorted everything out 2,000 years ago.  In Part I, we will set the stage with God’s solution to humanity’s problems.  In Part II we’ll compare that with the God-less approach, which will bring us to our true definition of transhumanism.

The Problem to be Solved- The Messiness of being Human

Who can deny that humanity is a messy affair?  Oh, we have our moments.  But for every King Louis IX, there are umpteen Chairmen Mao’s.  The difference, of course, is Christianity.

Every philosopher must grapple at one point or another with the problem of being human.

Christian anthropology gives the most incisive descriptions of the symptoms of our disease.  For starters, the effects of the fall on our soul are threefold:

• Our intellect is darkened – we don’t readily understand God’s Truth.
• Our will is weakened – even if we do understand God’s Truth, we don’t choose it.
• Our passions are disordered – we are naturally attracted to lowly things.

What’s more, our bodies are subject to corruption; our parts break down and eventually we die.

Those are all symptoms – the ultimate diagnosis of humanity’s problem is that we have a broken heart – because of the fall, our relationship with God is severed.

We can attempt to mask the symptoms of our fallen intellect and corruptible bodies with distractions, or drugs, or, say, by turning ourselves into really smart toasters, but none of those will cure the underlying disease because none of them will restore the severed relationship.

God’s Solution- Turn the Curse into a Blessing

At Easter, we proclaim, “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!”

Two foundational concepts underlie those words: (1) the fall was necessary; and, (2) it brought about something even greater than the lot of Adam and Eve (it was a “happy fault”).

God, it seems, had a plan for humanity even grander than the Garden.  But to achieve that plan required our fall so that we could be redeemed.  It is indeed a happy fault because through our redemption we are elevated above the stature of Adam and Eve.

Scripture tells us we become united to Christ in his mystical body.  St. Augustine words this as forming “the whole Christ.”   Dom Bruno Webb builds on St. Augustine this way (Why Does God Permit Evil?):

Instead of restoring man to what he had been, God has bent down from His eternity, taking him into His arms and pressing him to His heart in an embrace so close that the gulf between Creator and creature has been bridged, God and man henceforth forming in the order of grace a single being, ‘the whole Christ.’

Ours is an incarnational faith.  We are redeemed through our human nature.  Christ took on our humanity.   He was like us in all ways but sin.  He experienced everything we experience – every range of human emotion and limitation.  Why?  So he could sanctify our humanity.  Every bit of it.

Do you get fatigued and worn out with the demands of life?  Spend time with Christ as He goes off in solitude to renew Himself.  Are you struggling with a particularly heavy burden?  Spend time with Christ in the garden.  Are you going to be getting together with friends?  Spend time with Christ as He visits with Martha and Mary.  Have you been betrayed by friends?  Christ shares that pain with you.  Does attending Mass seem to lose its power and become routine at times?  Spend time with Christ at the Last Supper.

We can share everything we experience in life with the incarnated Christ.  As the classic formulation goes, Christ shared in our humanity so that we could share in His divinity.

Note that He didn’t share in our transhumanity.

The Purpose of Life:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God (Gaudium et Spes 19 #1).

The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.  But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: ‘Whoever loves me’, says the Lord, ‘will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him’ (CCC 260).

Joining in the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity (and with them our Blessed Mother, the Angels, and Saints) is also called Heaven.  “Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness (CCC 1024).

This brings us to the purpose of life on earth – working out our salvation.  The means of our salvation is simply this – “to know, love and serve Him.”  The end is communion – “to spend eternity with Him in heaven.“  And as CCC 260 points out, we are meant to get a taste of that communion in this life.  In fact, it is the act of entering into that communion in this life that leads us to full communion in the life to come.

Not to beat a dead transhuman horse, but what happens to us in heaven?

• Our intellect is perfected.
• All of our faculties are reordered and harmonized – we are no longer at war with ourselves – it becomes perfectly natural to love what God loves.
• Our bodies are incorruptible.
• We’ll be 33 and skinny – no matter how many donuts we eat.

Our life in heaven seems much like the transhumanists’ dream of becoming “posthuman”.  Hmmm.

The problem is solved.  Give ourselves to Christ in this life and enjoy eternal human perfection and communion with the Trinity in heaven.

So why isn’t that solution good enough for everyone?  Because that solution has two mandatory constituents: God and self-sacrifice.

The transhumanists seek to substitute science for God.

What of self-sacrifice?  The transhumanists solve that as well with “enhancements” that are peddled as easy and painless.  And that might be true in a physical sense.  But the transhumanist vision demands a different sort of sacrifice.

This brings us to satan’s plan for transhumanism, which we’ll consider in Part II, and from which will come our true definition of transhumanism.