Table of Contents

**The Fall of Icarus.** Icarus is a character of Greek mythology personifying the dangers of hubris. During an escape using the wings created by his father Daedalus, he was instructed not to fly too low (complacency) or too high (hubris). However, he ignored the advice received, got too close to the Sun and his wings melted, plunging him to his death. Transhumanism, in attempting to reach that which is beyond human nature, may be placing itself in a position similar to that of Icarus.

1. Introduction

Transhumanism is a philosophical movement that advocates for the development and use of technology in a radical and transformative way in order to improve the human condition.

“Improving” the human condition is a flexible term that can include anything from eliminating current human limitations (e.g., stopping the process of aging and curing diseases) to enhancing any normal human capability to superhuman levels (e.g., moral and cognitive enhancement, bionics). It can also include, and for many this is the ultimate aim, the actual transcendence of the human condition (e.g., Brain-Computer interfacing, Mind Uploading, technological Singularity).

Regarding the “transcendental” variety of this worldview, prominent authors like Nick Bostrom have likened transhumanists, in their quest to achieve immortality, to the ancient heroes of myths like the Epic of Gilgamesh.¹

The technological fields with a greater potential to propel us to the next post-human stage of “human” evolution are generally believed to be Biotechnology, Nanotechnology and, especially, Artificial Intelligence.

a. Philosophical Influences

In terms of previous beliefs and ideologies that had an impact on Transhumanism, some of its major influences include the Mind-Body Dualism of René Descartes. He is viewed as the precursor of the transhumanist belief that the concept of the soul is equivalent to that of the mind. In this view, the mind is independent of the body and could thus in principle be “liberated” and transferred to other physical vessels (similar to the Gnostic and Kabbalistic notion of the Holy Spark trapped in matter).² Friedrich Nietzsche and his concept of the Overman also had an influence on transhumanist philosophers such as Max More.

b. Popular Authors and Outreach

The popular writings of Ray Kurzweil, now director of engineering at Google, helped to spearhead the transhumanist movement and gave it momentum. He wrote books full of technological optimism, failed timeline predictions and eschatological urgency, such as The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology or The Age of Spiritual Machines. Kurzweil´s predictions were heavily based on Moore’s “law”, the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles around every two years and the faith that it will continue to do so in the future.³ Other popular authors include K. Eric Drexler, David Pierce and Yuval Noah Harari.

**Image 1.** Ray Kurzweil is a public advocate of Transhumanism, with his books having spearheaded the public interest in these topics. To the question “Does God exist?”, he answered: “I would say ‘Not yet.'”⁴

**Image 2.** Yuval Noah Harari is the current main popularizer of Transhumanism through books such as “*Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow*“. He discusses the possibility of technology allowing mankind to achieve “godlike” status, as well as its dangers. Also known for his contempt for religion, for advocating Scientism and for his presence at the meetings of the World Economic Forum.

In order to study and promote transhumanist ideas, as well as the possible risks involved, different associations and university collaborations have been established.

These include, for example, the World Transhumanist Association (now called Humanity+) and Oxford´s Future of Humanity Institute.

2. The Metaphysics of Transhumanism

a. Ontological Evolution as Theology

“Transcendental” Transhumanism starts by asserting Darwinian evolution and ends by positing an evolutionary theory that is fundamentally spiritual, in line with classical Indian conceptions but excluding the theory of reincarnation and karmic causality through cycles of time.

Transhumanism substitutes these doctrines by different sequential stages of physical development (e.g., the transition from human, to enhanced post-human, to a combination of man plus machine, to eventually pure data in cyberspace). This evolution, instead of being accomplished by moral perfection and insight regarding the nature of reality, is believed to be achievable exclusively through technical means and sheer intellectual prowess, seen as the highest virtue.

Along with the philosophical school of Post-Humanism, Transhumanism envisions the arrival of a new intelligent species that will leave us with only two options: evolve to become a part of it or eventually be rendered obsolete by it.

Therefore, the self-imposed task of the transhumanist with metaphysical goals is to take the responsibility of directing the evolutionary forces that they believe have created us, the current pinnacle of being, into producing the next evolutionary step in the Chain of Being. This type of Transhumanism conceives itself as the director of a forced human evolution that is taking charge of the impersonal forces of the Universe.⁵

Man, in this view, is now the master of becoming who follows an ever-ascending process of self-transcendence and is creating the improved future versions of himself. Starting from (star) dust, he is in the process of becoming a godlike being by his own efforts and the harnessing of the forces of Nature.

**Image 3. The Apotheosis of Human Reason and Self-Transcendence.** Transhumanism aims to achieve what have traditionally been considered religious or spiritual goals. In seeking immortality, they have been compared to the first mythological hero of recorded history, the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh. In addition, the fact that they believe that reason alone is sufficient to achieve a divine status implies that Reason, in itself, must be divine. This, while usually wrapped in a materialistic and atheistic discourse, is a metaphysical statement compatible with spiritual and panentheistic worldviews that define the Absolute (or at least its first emanation) as Universal Mind or Intellect (Nous).

Instead of following the ancient understanding of technology (Technē) as a way of revealing deeper natural and spiritual truths, it is now used as a challenge to current reality in which whatever humanity decides should be is willed into existence.

“If we want to live in paradise, we will have to engineer it ourselves. If we want eternal life, then we’ll need to rewrite our bug-ridden genetic code and become god-like. “May all that have life be delivered from suffering”, said Gautama Buddha. It’s a wonderful sentiment. Sadly, only hi-tech solutions can ever eradicate suffering from the living world.”

― David Pearce⁶

“Evolution creates structures and patterns that over time are more complicated, more knowledgeable, more intelligent, more creative, more capable of expressing higher sentiments like being loving…Evolution is a spiritual process and makes us more godlike.”

― Ray Kurzweil⁷

b. Conception of God or Ultimate Reality: The Singularity, the
Omega Point and the One

Some transhumanist authors have not shied away from making bold theological and eschatological claims. This is the case of physicist Frank J. Tipler, who in his book The Physics of Immortality put forward the idea that evolution and the cosmological laws are converging towards an ultimate unified “being”.

This singularity was conceptualized as a being with infinite computing power that through the laws of physics would be able to retroactively “know” every other being that ever existed and bring them back to life in the final moment of time, akin to eternity.

According to Tipler, when the whole Universe contracts into one mathematical point due to its cosmological configuration (he believed in the Big Crunch theory), a unified entity of infinite energy and potentiality will be born. In other words, “God” has yet to be born.

Tipler’s metaphysical theories have not been taken seriously by mainstream science.⁸ However, the theories that were a strong inspiration for them, those of the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, are still influential and serve as a spiritual pillar to the strongest transhumanist metaphysical claims.

b1. The Omega Point

One of Teilhard´s key theories, the Omega Point, states that the whole Universe is gradually converging into a final unified point (a re-statement of the doctrine of the One applied to the future). In this theory, the Omega Point (understood as the Christian Logos) draws everything into Himself, being both the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.⁹

This partially immanent and completely un-Christian understanding of the Logos resembles the mythological creation stories where God loses Himself in matter, to later re-discover Himself in creation until a final re-unification is achieved (e.g., the myths of Narcissus and Dionysus, as well as the stories of the Fall of mankind corresponding to Gnosticism and Lurianic Kabbalah).

Teilhard´s conception of the “Cosmic Christ” views Him as a material emanation of God that once resurrected is waiting in the Noosphere (see below) until the end of time, where everything in existence will merge again into God, the Omega Point, the One.¹⁰

b2. The Noosphere

The Noosphere is a philosophical concept with two different meanings attributed to the scientist Vladimir Vernadsky and the Jesuit theologian Teilhard de Chardin.

Vernadsky´s version defined it as the third and final “sphere” in the development of our planet, after the geosphere and biosphere. It was described as the “sphere of reason” or the collective rational activity of mankind.¹¹¹² Teilhard´s version, in turn, defined it as the realm of shared collective human thought.

Teilhard´s Noosphere is conceived as emerging through the interaction of human minds, and its growth is correlated with the number of minds existing at any given point in time. He believed that the more complex and interrelated this self-organizing network becomes, the higher self-awareness it develops. This version of the Noosphere has been likened to the idea of a global consciousness, the Jungian Collective Unconscious and, more appropriately, to the Neo-Platonic and alchemico-hermetical concepts of the World Soul (Anima Mundi) and “One World” (Unus Mundus).

**Image 4. The Advent of the Secular One.** Concepts such as the Omega Point and the Noosphere, as well as technologies with the potential to link human minds together (Brain-Computer Interfaces), imply an eventual cognitive unification of minds into a single entity. From there, there is no great leap to asserting that each individual mind is a particular mask (Persona) or mode of existence of a Universal Mind. In this case, the only difference with many ancient esoteric and mystical traditions (e.g., Panentheism, Panpsychism) would be that, for Transhumanism, this divine Mind (Nous, or even World Soul [Anima Mundi]) would not pre-exist us, but is yet to be born.

In this view, “God” would be the creation of humanity, reversing all traditional views of human-divine origins. Such a deity would be, however, immanent, since it is subject to time. Note that the possibility of directly fusing with an impersonal First Principle, furthermore, implies the doctrine of emanations, which in turn implies that we are of the same substance as the divine and there is no unbridgeable chasm between the immanent and the transcendent. A metaphysical stance such as this could be defined as atheistic, yet spiritual.

In Teilhard’s view, a greater complexity necessarily entails a greater degree of consciousness. The Noosphere, then, is conceived as continuously evolving to ever-greater stages of integration and reunification until it achieves its logical end: the Omega Point, an immanent version of the One, the All, the Absolute.

BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACES (BCI) – [Click Here]

A Brain-Computer Interface is a device that allows for direct communication between a brain and a physical device, usually a computer or a mechanical limb.

It is expected that the development of this more or less invasive technology could allow mankind to control the physical world through their thoughts alone. Examples of controllable systems include near or distant computers, mechanical limbs, robots and vehicles).

**Image 5**¹³. Brain-computer interfaces are a reality today. The tools (e.g., mathematical, computational, robotics) required for their development are already available and are routinely employed. Currently, they allow for limited control over external devices, but the potential for the future is enormous.

Theoretically, this technology could also be used to enhance human cognition to superhuman levels by synergistically linking man and machine. In principle, this could also open the door for the interpersonal sharing of internal experiences such as thoughts, memories or feelings among different persons.

The implication of such a technology would be the gradual bridging of the separation between Mind and Matter, as well as between different persons. This gradual, immanent
re-unification of all existence would then be coherent with the collective unification of minds in the Noosphere, as well as with the expectation of the future eschatological arrival of the Omega Point.

b3. The Technological Singularity

A related concept to that of the Omega Point is the technological Singularity¹⁴, understood as a point in time when technological growth is so fast that it becomes unforeseeable and irreversible.

If this event takes place, it is expected to result in radical changes in human society. This includes the prediction of the birth of a single, constantly self-improving Superinte l ligence that eventually cannot be controlled.¹⁵¹⁶

An ever-current point of discussion in transhumanist circles is how to avoid the danger of this artificial Superintelligence (ASI) becoming hostile to mankind and leading us all to extinction.¹⁷¹⁸

The idea of a machine becoming self-conscious, however, is not universally accepted. In fact, many philosophers have argued that machines, by their very nature, are even incapable of achieving human levels of intelligence (e.g., Hubert Dreyfus¹⁹, John Searle²⁰, Steven Pinker²¹, Theodore Modis²²).

c. Other Metaphysical Beliefs

c1. Mind Uploading and the Nature of Consciousness

One of the main aims of post-human transhumanists is to be liberated from the shackles of matter (their “biological shell”) by uploading their minds (the “ghost” in the shell) to some computational device, with the possibility of later transferring it to other physical or virtual body (or bodies).

**Image 5. The Ghost in the Machine.** Transhumanism adheres to the metaphysical doctrine that the mind is a separate (and detachable) “entity” (mind-body Dualism). In fact, a particular mind is usually considered as just a special configuration of data (Dataism), a function (Functionalism) that can be replicated in other substrates. Matter, on the other hand, is often conceptualized as a prison for the mind, with the latter rebelling against the limitations imposed by its fleshly prison in search of greater freedom.

Such doctrines, although seemingly based on (speculative) science, are extremely old (e.g., Gnosticism). The view that our minds can be liberated from our mortal bodies can also imply that any intrinsic nature is a function of a particular body. For example, if our “digital spirit” could inhabit other bodies at will, it would also be able to take on the nature of those bodies (e.g., other animal species). This line of thought can be seen as a dualistic worldview (Consciousness/Matter, like in the Hindu Samkhya school) or, taken into consideration the “unreality” of matter according to Quantum Mechanics, as a form of Monism where eventually everything is Mind or Consciousness (e.g., Panpsychism, New Age). In either case, the notion of the fundamental nature of reality is that of an impersonal Source of All-Possibility.

This would be a technical way of achieving a traditionally religious or mystic goal: radical life extension or immortality (digital immortality). Hans Moravec, a transhumanist author and engineer, even went as far as calling this process “transmigration”.²³

For the technology of mind uploading to become a reality, however, a few metaphysical and philosophical concepts have to be true:

1. The feasibility and achievement of Whole Brain Emulation through brain scanning.

2. The accurate simulation of the mind if the neural networks and the weights of the synapses of the brain that support it can be replicated in an information processing system.

3. The yet unproven assumption of many scientists and transhumanists that consciousness is an emergent property of any such information processing system.²⁴

4. The possibility of consciousness and sentience to develop not only in carbon-based physical substrates like our current human brains, but in others as well (such as, for example, silicon-based ones).²⁵

Currently, many of the necessary tools and areas of research needed for mind uploading or mind “copying” are being directly or indirectly developed, such as animal brain mapping and simulation, mathematical brain modeling (Computational Neuroscience), Virtual Reality development (for virtual world creation), Brain–Computer Interfaces and the science of connectomics.²⁶

However, the philosophical assumptions that are needed for it to become a reality have not yet been proven to be true, and some of the key technological components, even if theoretically believed to be possible, are still in science fiction territory.

Furthermore, mind uploading has been envisioned as being achievable through two different methods, each posing additional philosophical problems:

• Copy-and-upload: where the underlying neural state of the brain is duplicated in another computational substrate. This raises the questions: has that particular mind just been duplicated? If so, is the original consciousness still in the original brain or has it been transferred to the copy?²⁷

• Copy-and-delete: where the original brain is being eliminated neuron by neuron at the same time that it is being copied. The questions raised by this method include: how can we be sure that the copied mind retains the original consciousness and is not just an automaton or philosophical zombie?²⁸²⁹ Does the original mind stop being itself at some point of the upload process due to the step-by-step disintegration of the brain involved? (Ship of Theseus paradox).

**Image 6. The Question of Personal Identity.** Who am I? Am I a specific configuration of an information processing system (my brain)? In that case, is this configuration substrate-specific (only achievable by the organic matter in my brain, based on carbon) or can it be replicated in other ones (substrate-independence)? If it is replicated, would there be two “I´s”? If not, what would be the difference? Transhumanism relies on specific and yet unproven metaphysical assumptions and, regarding the question of identity, a veritable Pandora´s box of philosophical questions is opened.

Let´s imagine for a moment that mind uploading through destructive brain scanning becomes a reality. What happens if, during the process of scanning my brain, they replace my neurons with a digital version, one at a time? Would I still be me at the end of the process or have they just killed me? Is an object the same object after having had all of its original components replaced? If not, at which point does it stop being itself? This is the problem known as the Ship of Theseus paradox, where an object is, and is not, the same.

3. Religious Parallels

Even though Transhumanism has been characterized as a materialistic, humanistic and mostly agnostic or atheist movement, some of its members hold worldviews that share similarities with traditional religious or mystical views.³⁰

The most extreme goals of Transhumanism, in addition, are very similar to those of spiritual traditions, such as immortality, the possibility of becoming the creator of other (virtual) worlds, becoming all-knowing, and obtaining a radical freedom from the physical world and the limitations of matter.

Some of the key similarities and differences found in comparison with traditional religions include:

• The promise of indefinite life extension or an immanent digital “immortality” (instead of an actually transcendent one), where death is cheated (at least for a while) but not defeated.

• The existence of an “End-Times scenario” (the Singularity or Omega Point) that brings “salvation” to whoever can afford it in a kind of secular humanist Rapture.

• The removal of human limitations and the acquisition of altered states of consciousness and their corresponding “powers” through technologies such as genetic engineering, bionics or nootropic drugs instead of through asceticism, meditation and prayer.

The metaphysical assumptions of some religions, however, are more compatible with such claims than others. For example, Buddhism and its concept of non-Self (Anatta), or Shinto and other forms of Animism, may not have a hard time compared to Christianity or Islam in conceiving the possibility of computational objects being “ensouled” by copying minds into them.

In fact, for some Buddhist transhumanists such as James Hughes, the above questions regarding mind uploading would not pose an insurmountable problem.

If one believes that the self is an illusion, he noted, its survival during the process of uploading would not be of major concern.³¹

“There is no possibility for a new cognition, which has no relationship to a previous continuum, to arise at all. I can’t totally rule out the possibility that, if all the external conditions and the karmic action were there, a stream of consciousness might actually enter into a computer.”

― Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama³²

Notes

Bostrom, Nick (2005). A history of transhumanist thought. Journal of Evolution and Technology, 14 (1): 1–25.
Mirkes, Renée (2019). Transhumanist Medicine: Can We Direct Its Power to the Service of Human Dignity?The Linacre Quarterly.
Kurzweil, Ray (2000). Live Forever–Uploading The Human Brain…Closer Than You Think. Psychology Today.
Bishop, J. P. (2010). “Transhumanism, Metaphysics, and the Posthuman God”. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 35 (6):700-720.
Bostrom, Nick, and Pearce, David. (2012–2013). “Transhumanism”. Interview by Andrés Lomeña. Literal Magazine, 31 (Winter): 5–8.
Kurzweil, Ray (2015). “We’ll Become Godlike When We Connect Our Brains to the Cloud.” Noema Magazine, October 2015; YouTube video (2:22).
Krauss, Lawrence (2007). More dangerous than nonsense. New Scientist, 194 (2603): 53: “I am tempted to describe Tipler’s new book as nonsense—but that would be unfair to the concept of nonsense.”
Castillo, Mauricio (2012). The Omega Point and Beyond: The Singularity Event. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 33 (3): 393–395.
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (1968). Science and Christ. Collins.
Yanshin, A. L.; Yanshina, F.T. (1997). “Preface”. In Vernadsky, Vladimir Ivanovich, Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon. Moscow, Nongovernmental Ecological V.I.Vernadsky Foundation, p. 6.
Translation of Russian Title: Petrashov, V.V. (1998). The Beginning of Noocenology: Science of Ecosystem Restoration and the Creation of Nocenoses, 6 c.
Cadwalladr, Carole (2014). “Are the robots about to rise? Google’s new director of engineering thinks so…”. The Guardian.
Camargo-Vargas, Daniela, et al. (2021). Brain-Computer Interfaces Systems for Upper and Lower Limb Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review.
“Collection of sources defining ‘singularity’” (singularitysymposium.com). Archived from the original on April 2019.
Eden, Amnon H.; Moor, James H.; Søraker, Johnny H.; Steinhart, Eric (Eds.) (2012). Singularity Hypotheses: A Scientific and Philosophical Assessment. The Frontiers Collection. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 1–2.
Hawking, Stephen (2014). “Hawking: AI could end human race”. BBC.
Sparkes, Matthew (2015). “Top scientists call for caution over artificial intelligence”.The Telegraph (UK).
Dreyfus & Dreyfus (2000). Mind Over Machine. Simon and Schuster, p. xiv: ‘The truth is that human intelligence can never be replaced with machine intelligence simply because we are not ourselves “thinking machines” in the sense in which that term is commonly understood.’
Searle, John R (2014). What Your Computer Can’t Know. The New York Review of Books, p. 54: “[Computers] have, literally …, no intelligence, no motivation, no autonomy, and no agency. We design them to behave as if they had certain sorts of psychology, but there is no psychological reality to the corresponding processes or behavior. … [T]he machinery has no beliefs, desires,[or] motivations.”
“Tech Luminaries Address Singularity”. IEEE Spectrum (June 2008).
Modis, Theodore (2012). Why the Singularity Cannot Happen. Published in Eden, Amnon
H. et al (Eds.) (2012). Singularity Hypothesis. New York: Springer, pp. 311–339.
Moravec, Hans (1988). Mind Children: The Future Of Robot & Human Intelligence. Harvard University Press.
Hopfield, J. J. (1982). Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 79 (8): 2554–2558.
Bostrom, Nick (2003). Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? (simulation-argument.
com). Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243‐255.
Kay K.N., Naselaris T., Prenger R.J., Gallant J.L. (2008). Identifying natural images from human brain activity. Nature, 452 (7185): 352–5.
Schneider, Susan (2014). “The Philosophy of ‘Her’”. The New York Times.
Ruparel, Bhavik (2018). On Achieving Immortality. Medium.
Hauskeller, Michael (2012). My Brain, my Mind, and I: Some Philosophical Problems of Mind-Uploading. International Journal of Machine Consciousness, 4 (01):187-200.
Smith, Wesley. Transhumanism: A Religion for Postmodern Times. Religion & Liberty: Volume 28, Number 4.
Hughes, James (2013). Transhumanism and Personal Identity. Wiley.
Gyatso, Tenzin (1992). Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind (by Jeremy Hayward and Francisco Varela). Shambala, pp. 152-153.

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WORLDVIEW ANALYSIS