“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

So Howard Lovecraft began his most famous tale, in what may perhaps be the most devastating opening passage of any work of fiction.

And looking around the world, it’s hard not agree that he may have had a point. Greater knowledge has given humanity capabilities way beyond anything imagined by our ancestors. Planes speed through the sky, and cars across the roads, but these speeds and the connectivity that they bring the human race are little compared to the new frontier of information.

Faster than any movement of mankind, is the movement of knowledge, and of information. Never before in human history has so much new data been available on such a massive scale.

And it’s not just the scale of the data. It’s other things too – mass literacy means that although many will ignore the new frontier, anyone can embrace it. And even then, there are many, many billions more people alive now than there have ever been, each one of whom has the entire accumulated body of human understanding right there, at their fingertips.

But what do we see? Do we see humanity coming together? Do we see the boundaries between peoples being broken down? Do we see the lives we live becoming clearer, and more open?

I would say no. And the reason is this – no matter the advancement, if we are still trapped within the old terms of human nature, the old pettiness and the limited vision, all we can ever do is magnify that chaos and superficiality.

And science can and will come up with amazing things that will enhance our capabilities – but for what purpose do we use them, enhanced as they are?

If it is merely the bickering and squabbling of vanity-blinded apes that we amplify with technology, then it is indeed a new dark age into which we are headed, a journey which some would argue is well underway.

It is not in new capabilities bolted on to the old human nature where our future lies. It is in that nature itself, in understanding it in new ways, ways never before seen, that a brighter tomorrow can begin.

Such a thing is laughable for many. Many things are laughable for many. But being laughed at just means you’re at stage two of Gandhi’s four steps. First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.

And this is the crux of transhumanism. This is what makes it greater than a mere gadget fetish. It seeks something that has so far eluded humanity. A way to genuinely change the terms of human nature. To step beyond the old, the ancient ways of squabbling and tribalism. And it asks something of science – that science be directed in a new way.