Welcome to the fourth presentation of selected quotes from my latest book, Beyond Machine Man: Who we really are and why Transhumanism is just an empty promise!
By necessity, every quote is taken out of context and may therefore not always make much sense. There is no particular order and not all chapters and topics are represented in this small selection. Nor are the most perplexing conclusions reached in The Ten Theses Beyond Machine Man.
Please note that while talking about transhumanism, we mainly focus on its primary goals like solving the problem of our mortality, curing all disease, augmenting our bodies, uploading our minds, and so on. These days, many quite popular writers seem to confuse transhumanism with other agendas like eugenics and population control or technocratic authoritarianism and the ever-expanding surveillance state.
Sure, some proponents of the latter nefarious agendas are also pursuing transhumanist objectives. But only for themselves! The typical normal transhumanist however is simply an enthusiastic, usually well-intentioned and perhaps a bit desperate technophile wanting to live forever. Happily and healthily. They may be naive dreamers, but surely are not psychopathic control freaks (like the others).
The only common denominator of all of the above agendas is that they are all inherent and therefore inevitable consequences of the currently still prevailing Machine Man dogma…
Never mind the details, Homo Digitalis hopes to perpetually enjoy highly augmented forms of cybersex and other superlative sensual and intellectual delights. Besides totally awesome physical prowess. To forever lord over the ordinary folks that can't possibly afford any such things. Sorry, but regular folks just have to keep dying. After they've finished a lifetime full of hard work, that is. Doing the things robots can't do yet. Or will refuse to do because it would simply be beneath them.
Why should or how could any of our thoughts be real or beliefs be true if they really were the mere product of inexplicable and mostly random movements of atoms in our brains?
The technique [CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing] results in far more errors than previously thought. And worse, it is also more difficult to actually find and eliminate such defective and unwanted outcomes. Which of course is not exactly what transhumanist hopefuls would like to hear.
Indeed, the very indecisive among us are further proof of free will.
P.S. The whole paragraph reads like this:
Indeed, the very indecisive among us are further proof of free will; they keep thinking and evaluating options, sometimes seemingly forever, until they finally, finally make a decision! So they who? Who is the they? Who are the people we like to call procrastinators? Just slow brains? A collection of slow-circuited brain cells that can't make up their 'collective minds' (whatever that is supposed to mean)?
What is a life worth in a purely random world of mere matter where anything goes and nothing matters?
This further demonstrates that our memories are a mental function of our minds, not a physical feature of the neurons in our brains. How could something be recalled that wasn't even there in the first place?
Obviously, there is no machinery we can build that comes even remotely close to this kind of miniaturized marvel of biological engineering. Beaten by a single-celled bacteria (without a PhD).
Furthermore, AI (a.k.a. automated idiots) will not exceed HI (human intelligence). And computers will never become conscious (as consciousness is not made by matter or bits and bytes), or God-like (as in turning into some kind of super intelligent, all-knowing and all-powerful sentient entity or being).
Once we fully realize again who we really are, we will automatically experience more of our true inherent positive feelings and less negative emotions.
Oops, your baby girl will just have to live with a lot of rather long facial hair, besides having only three fingers and four toes. But don't worry, we now know the problem and it will be fixed on your next child.
There is nothing that can truly allay this ultimate of fears for diehard believers in Machine Man philosophy who as a consequence often do die needlessly hard.
In short, messing around with our genes, upsetting a finely balanced ecosystem, creating genomic instability, and disrupting the functionality of otherwise perfectly normal genes is just not a very smart idea. Machine Man still has to wise up to the basic formula of 'If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.' Especially so since any damage done cannot be reverted back to normal, and even worse, will affect many future generations to come.
Perhaps one day, quantum physics will be able to show that we, the who we really are, cause constant quantum collapses with our thoughts and deliberations, with our observations and desires.
What would be the value of recovering and preserving all of our past hallucinations, if that were even possible? It would be like a digital photo album nobody ever watches. Who would really care to see or feel every mental and emotional mirage the mere illusions of aunt Margaret or uncle Bill ever had over the course of their lifetimes?
It really should read like this: The brain's illusory creation of a subconscious mind later informs yet another illusion, the conscious mind, of the decisions it took. Got it? It's simple really, once you get used to confused thinking.
P.S.
All quotes may be freely republished provided they are left unchanged and full credit is given.
To read some more selected quotes, see Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3.
To delve a bit deeper into the book, check out Arne’s feature article on GrahamHancock.com
Beyond Machine Man is widely available in Hardcover, Paperback or as an Ebook. E.g. in the USA from Barnes & Noble, Amazon or Kobo, Booktopia in Australia, Waterstones in the UK, and Hugendubel in Germany.
Topics covered include: #philosophy #consciousness #neuroscience #psychology #psychiatry #transhumanism #posthumanism #minduploading #mind #brain #brainscans #brainmapping #emotions #memory #medicaldrugs #pharmaceuticals #physicians #health #mentalhealth #fears #depression #anxiety #subconsciousness #consciousmind #unconsciousmind #self #identity #ego #society #racism #technocracy #politics #AI #artificialintelligence #robots #robotics #bionics #science #research #physics #quantumphysics #life #intelligence #immortality #biology #biochemistry #CRISPRCas9 #DNA #geneediting #geneticengineering #astrophysics #evolution #transpermia #nanotechnology #simulationtheory #machineman #homocredo #homomysticum #homodigitalis