A couple of those terms are either foreign to you or greatly sparked your curiosity. Terms like "transhumanism", "meta-intelligence", and "neo-humanity" likely caught your attention more than simply not knowing what they were. Maybe they made you think a little more on them. Maybe they gave you pause; they should.
The conference was of the Global Future 2045 International Congress (GF2045), an initiative spearheaded by Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov. To date, Mr. Itskov has spent approximately three million dollars of his own money to fund this initiative. Some say that his intention is for himself to live forever.
The ultimate goal of GF2045 is achieving immortality.
Let me step back for a moment and do some defining of terms. "Transhumanism" refers to the international movement that is working toward the goal of transforming the very nature of humanity and what it means to be human into something far different, something bio-mechanical, if you will. The movement even has its own symbol:
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| Symbol for Transhumanism |
Finally, Dmitri Itskov is the one who coined the term "neo-humanity", which means the humanly-engineered evolution of humanity. It does not refer to what we will be like x-number of years in the future, but rather into what we will be reconfigured.
GF2045 is humanity's attempt to not just play God, but be God.
Here is a video that gives you an idea about what the GF2045 movement is:
(Like the dramatic music in the background?) Let me interject here to say I was shocked and scared after watching this.
Let me address several points brought up in this video. To begin with, we are in the twenty-first century, so how about using the term "humankind" instead of "mankind"? If you mean this for everyone, that would include females as well. (Or does that play into suggestions that Itskov is greatly interested in his own immortality?)
I would suspect that the "deepest social transformation" mentioned refers to society accepting this in the first place as well as the transformation from human to human-wannabe android. I'm wondering how the transference of someone's personality works. Does that mean that the human wannabes will be us or act like us? Included in this transformation will be new philosophy (eradication of spontaneity?), new ideology (necessity of political backing and implementation?), new ethics (removal of live brains to be widely accepted?), new culture (living with "others" and then becoming the "others"?), new psychology (convincing humanity of the righteousness and necessity of this?), and new metaphysics (redefining what "reality" is?).
The term "future man" used in the video is an interesting choice, almost paradoxical...not to mention bereft of "hu" in front of "man". Yes, the year 2045 is, indeed, in the future. Humans, however, in this construct are not humans, unless part and parcel of this initiative is to completely redefine what "human" means. "Humanoid" or "human-wannabe androids" would be more correct. Humanity as we know it would cease to exist. This future being would not be the vehicle of immortality, but rather a replacement for humanity. Seems like an askew form of Darwinism looking to the future. Think of the Isaac Asimov novelette 'Bicentennial Man' (from his Robot series) in reverse.
That is not living; that is merely an "existence" of sorts.
What about the practical concern of supply? Once everyone's converted, although this technology is surely only for the wealthiest among us -- okay, let's say IF everyone's converted -- then all of us who are alive now would be redesigned to
One of the more interesting statements to me made in the video is: "May everlasting spiritual ideals and values help us avoid going astray." (Going astray has been accomplished so perehaps avoiding going any further is more apt.) It is not mentioned in the video, but it has been reported that creation of a new religion will be part of this initiative. I'm curious: what relevance do spirituality or religion have to biomachines? No other living creature has spirituality or religion as part of its experience. I have never seen a machine, any machine, have spirituality or religion included in its functioning well or not, or its being turned on or off. If spirituality or religion are to be a part of this initiative, I would be in favor of the absence of us-versus-them or better-than. Then again, why wait? We certainly could use that now.
And wouldn't spirituality and religion equal things that cannot be proven? What use would that be to a biomachine? It would seem to me that spirituality and religion would return the following responses:
does not compute
logic error
operand missing
unable to perform function
It also sounds like a one-size-fits-all spirituality or religion, which is invalid. Spirituality and religion would be reduced to nothing more than applications.
This might seem far away, but keep in mind that 2045 is a mere thirty-two years from now. If thirty-two years seem a relatively safe distance in the future, keep in mind the advancements in robotics being made in Japan, with creations such as Asimo and human-like robotics. Still not convinced? Read this.
The GF2045 initiative is immoral, unethical, and an example of science and technology used as tools of human arrogance. It is not human immortality. It is human insanity. If this is evolving, then we should collectively say no thanks.
Best to leave this to the realm of science fiction.
Terry
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