After several decades of relative obscurity Transhumanism as a philosophical and technological movement has finally begun to break out of its strange intellectual ghetto and make small inroads into the wider public consciousness. This is partly because some high profile people have either adopted it as their worldview or alternatively warned against its potential dangers. Indeed, the political scientist Francis Fukuyama named it “The world’s most dangerous idea” in a 2004 article in the US magazine Foreign Policy, and Transhumanism’s most outspoken publicist, Ray Kurzweil, was recently made director of engineering at Google, presumably to hasten Transhumanism’s goals.

So, what are these goals and how does Transhumanism define itself? Well, since it is not some monolithic organization there are different definitions and declarations, but one of the oldest came out of The World Transhumanist Association, latterly re-branded HumanityPlus (Humanity+, or H+, being a shorthand way insiders generally write “Transhumanism”):

“Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values.” (Max More 1990)

Which sounds harmless enough and rather bland. What lies beneath is most definitely neither bland nor harmless and represents a potential change in life on Earth, and Humanity as a whole, which is unprecedented not only in the historical record but the geological. It is, perhaps, the single most momentous event in a billion years – if its more ambitious goals can be realized. Indeed, these goals are so ambitious that they warrant the title of this article irrespective as to whether they are in any way feasible, and it will become abundantly clear that while we may talk of a philosophy what we have is a declaration of intent. They are aspirations that address questions that were once the sole preserve of religions, but unlike conventional religions they seek hard engineering answers rather than ill defined and ancient obfuscations. They address the deepest hopes and fears of the Human mind – life, death, the afterlife, immortality, the nature of God(s) and the destiny of the universe.

So, who are the Transhumanists? Well, nobody really knows how many people define themselves as such. The best guess is probably less than one hundred thousand, mostly engineers and scientists and not as one might expect, science fiction fans. No doubt a much greater number agree with at least one or more H+ ambitions but who do not buy the whole package, which during its modern development since the 1980s has accrued its own stereotypes and its own folklore and mythology which is now intertwined with that bland definition above. For example, a standard belief within H+ is that we are all “rational atheists”, which is far from true. Hence we have organizations based around contemporary religions, such as the Mormon Transhumanist Association, Christian Transhumanism and others who see this for what just about every religious person throughout history would have seen it – an apotheosis of religion itself. There is also a non-negligible contingent of current or former occultists, however one might define that term. There also seems to be no significant age correlation within the H+ movement beyond what one might expect from technologically savvy Net users. Conversely, there is a very significant gender bias towards males, although females have certainly made huge contributions over the past decades and hold prominent positions within various organizations. So, to start with the lowest common denominator…

It begins with what most people would consider an outlandish proposal, and escalates from there. It is of course, one of Humanity’s oldest obsessions – the elimination of aging. A modern incarnation of the desire to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life, to drink from the Fountain of Youth, to create the Philosopher’s Stone and never have to worry about growing old and infirm. It is also a technology that looks like it might finally be within our grasp, with significant scientific progress being made or at least enough to grab regular headlines in the popular press. There is also a compelling argument to be made from the government’s point of view. In an aging population medical costs are escalating to a ruinous degree as we try to tackle heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, dementia and general infirmity, not by curing but postponing. Yet it is increasingly obvious that these are merely symptoms of the root problem, which is failure of the body’s own repair mechanisms. Aging is the underlying disease.

The one thing almost all Transhumanists agree upon is the desirability of not dying of old age, and remaining healthy indefinitely, or at least until the even more exotic technologies hopefully begin to make an appearance. It is the increasingly high profile of this area of medical technology that is partially responsible for the dissemination of H+ agendas in the media as it hitches a ride on this and another area of increasing public concern – Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Of course, the promise of AI has been around, and unfulfilled, for decades. It has been a periodic fad among academics since the 1950s, often accompanied by overblown claims and predictions that never came true, followed by disillusionment and funding cuts. However, this time around it may be that the optimism (or perhaps pessimism) will be justified. In the public eye we have Google’s self driving cars; IBM’s Watson beating former champions on the Jeopardy TV game show; applications like Apple’s Siri. These are what one might consider to be the rising stars of the popular face of AI. Lurking in the background are predictions that such technology could automate some forty percent of all jobs within the next fifteen years. What happens to professional driving when taxis and trucks no longer need drivers?

Then we get the science fiction style warnings that have always accompanied AI. The difference now is that they no longer come from end-of-the-world obsessives, but people such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking warning that we face an existential threat. In other words, one that could end our existence as a species. So, what makes things different now? Well, we are finally getting computing power that approximates that of various estimates of the Human brain. Additionally, there are now multiple projects around the globe to simulate neural networks of the same degree of complexity as the brain. The worry is that we may end up creating AI that not only exceeds our intelligence by a vast margin, but which may be an utterly alien kind of intelligence even if it is not inimical to us. And it should also be noted that when people speak of AI they are not talking about one machine, but potentially millions of them. It would be, as has been claimed, our last invention because intellectually we could not compete with them. However, the promised rewards of having super intelligence on tap is the driving force for businesses, nations and of course Transhumanists.

The latter have a very interesting relationship to the notion of AI. At the lowest level it is seen as the enabler for much of what is to follow, able to create technologies beyond both Human ability and comprehension. In other words, a miracle machine able to turn science fiction into science fact on incredibly short timescales. Unsurprisingly, it goes much further than this. AI is seen by many as a political option when it comes to governance and the creation and allocation of resources, in what is termed a post scarcity society. AI will be in effect the perfect absolute ruler whose intelligence and all seeing benevolence will save us from ourselves. We are, of course, talking about the Messiah myth for the modern age.

The possible downside, which is now gaining some serious attention, concerns us being collateral damage if we get in the way of goals either the AIs set themselves, or goals we set for them. After all, very few Humans hate animals but that does not matter if we want to build on their habitat. The best they can look forward to is a reservation or zoo. The actual worst case occasionally discussed in H+ circles is generally considered too bizarre for popular consumption. It is of a hostile AI that is so evil that even death would not be a refuge from it. Nevertheless, there is never any discussion of halting its development although obviously people favor putting ethical safeguards in place as far as possible. This spills over into media discussions concerning the military use of robotic weapons and whether they should be given autonomy over the decision to kill people. So far there is a consensus that final the finger on the trigger should always be Human. As for stopping research, well, that is most definitely not going to happen – there is too much at stake.

As Rawlings, Smith and Bencini write in their book Pardon the Disruption: The Future You Never Saw Coming

So what happens when a company or a country gets to General Artificial Intelligence- GAI? The computers will take over design and write their own code while, inventing, exploring and discovering how the Universe works… Think of six thousand years of advancement occurring in only six months and you can see the vast implication this will hold. Whoever gets there first will win. No other country would be able to catch up once one country establishes this hold. This is the one race we must win. This is not like inventing a better cross bow or a better fighter jet to get an advantage in war. This is for everything. There is no second place.

Probably an exaggeration, but we will not know for sure until it is too late.

To provide an idea of the commitment to AI held by some subsets of Transhumanists, I once asked a question on a prominent H+ social media group. It was along the lines of: