Culture & Ethics
Evolution
Transhumanism Is Pure Eugenics
Transhumanism, boiled down to its bones, is pure eugenics. It calls itself “H+,” for more or better than human. Which, of course, is what eugenics is all about.
Alarmingly, transhumanist values are being embraced at the highest strata of society, including in Big Tech, in universities, and among the Davos crowd of globalist would-be technocrats. That being so, it is worth listening in to what they are saying under the theory that forewarned is forearmed.
“Useless People”
Israeli philosophy professor Yuval Harari is one of the movement’s chief proselytizers. He believes that AI/human hybrids are inevitably going to take over — and that those of us who refuse to join our minds with these computer programs will come to be considered a “useless class,” or even, “useless people.” From the Miami Standard story:
Harari went on to say that humanity is in the midst of a “second industrial revolution” centered around artificial intelligence. “But the product this time will not be textiles, or machines, or vehicles, or even weapons, the product this time will be humans themselves,” Harari asserted. “We are basically learning to produce bodies and minds. Bodies and minds are going to be I think the two main products of the next wave of all these changes.”
The “useless people” referenced by the WEF advisor would be those who refuse to be injected with artificial intelligence capabilities in the coming decades. Describing humans as “hackable animals”, Harari believes that “the masses” would “not stand much of a chance” against these changes even if they were to organize.
Ah, the old “resistance is futile” gambit.
What will happen to “useless people?”
“The problem is more boredom, what to do with them and how will they find some sense of meaning in life when they are basically meaningless, worthless,” Harari continued. “My best guess at present is a combination of drugs and computer games.”
Caesar Would Approve
It is tempting to fall prey to such nihilism. But resistance is not futile if we continually remind ourselves that no human life is ever “meaningless” or “worthless.” And even if Harari is right that we will eventually devolve into a Brave New World caste system, the unenhanced still would retain the most important and powerful human characteristic of all: the ability to love.
Love isn’t something that transhumanists generally talk much about. I think that’s because it can’t be generated by taking a pill, editing genes, or melding with a computer algorithm. It isn’t transactional. The ability to love comes from being loved and practicing the virtues. No high-tech shortcuts. How boring.
This is transhumanism’s fatal flaw. To paraphrase a great saint, “If I blend with an AI computer program and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have enhanced capacities that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”
Editor’s note: For more on Yuval Harari, see Casey Luskin’s multi-part review of Harari’s book Sapiens.
Cross-posted at The Corner.