Quote:
Originally Posted by combatmedic
There is serious speculation behind the technological assumptions and predictions of transhumanism, but the ideological thrust of the 'movement' is definitely mystical and religious in nature.
|
I would not quite call it "mystical." But it's true that science fiction came into being more or less in the first period in post-classical Western history when it was possible to deny religion and not be harshly punished, and when a nonsupernaturalistic worldview was gaining strength. So instead of imagining yourself as an eternal soul that would outlive the natural world, you had the option of seeing yourself as a brief spark against endless night. See the dying earth in The Time Machine, the dying universe in The Star Maker, or Lovecraft's nightmarish visions.
Science fiction then gives us imaginative visions of faster-than-light travel (giving us access to the entire physical universe), time travel (giving us access to the past and future), paratime travel (giving us access to what might have been), longevity (giving us access to the future by a different means), psi powers (expanding our minds to gain all those things), and so on. That is, it's a series of imaginative images of humanity being as big as the cosmos and perhaps more durable. Transhumanism is just taking the sfnal mythmaking and bringing it back into the real world as an ideological program.
On the other hand, I think of Robert Anton Wilson thinking that when he was asked if he wanted to immanentize the eschaton, his answer was, "Yes, by Wednesday if possible." I really think that's a sensible answer.
But then, there's C. S. Lewis's counterpoint:
Far too long have sages vainly
Glossed great Nature's simple text.
He who runs may read it plainly:
"Goodness = what comes next."
By evolving, Life is solving
All the problems we perplexed.
On, then! Value means survival-
Value. If our progeny
Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,
That will prove its deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present
Standards, though it well may be).
Bill Stoddard