On
Our Transhuman Future
Here’s a quick overview of what’s coming down the
pipe—developments that will forever alter what we
currently think of as normalcy and the human condition:
* Artificial superintelligence: Recursively
self-improving expert systems endowed with
significantly greater-than-human intelligence,
capacity, and reach; the end of human primacy on the
planet; an extinction risk and potential existential
paradigm changer. * The ongoing
biotechnological revolution: Enhanced and modified
humans (i.e. cyborgs, genetically altered humans,
postbiological beings), indefinite lifespans;
regenerative medicine; advanced psychopharmaceuticals;
the ongoing diminishment of corporeal importance
(including possible mind transfers) and extended
personhood; transgenics and animal enhancement.
* Megascale engineering: The graduation of
humanity to Kardashev I and Kardashev II civilizations
through the advent of such things as the Dyson Sphere,
Jupiter Brain and Matrioshka Brain; the
permanent retiring of Darwinian processes on the
planet.