The Deadly Dream Of Human+... Look At The Price Tag

Some are prepared to sacrifice actual humans now for the hope of future immortality

Recently, Elon Musk announced progress toward clinical trials of a brain implant which he believes will allow paralyzed people to control technology with their thoughts. For those who call themselves transhumanists, this potential breakthrough is more than a tool to help the disabled. For transhumanists, Musk’s technology offers hope that someday humanity will evolve beyond the limits of our frail bodies and become Human+. Two decades ago, Kevin Warwick expressed his dream of transcending humanity this way:

I WAS BORN human.

This was merely due to the hand of fate acting at a particular place and time. But while fate made me human, it also gave me the power to do something about it. The ability to change myself, to upgrade my human form, with the aid of technology. To become cyborg—part human, part machine. This is the extraordinary story of my adventure as the first human entering into a Cyber World; a world which will, most likely, become the next evolutionary step for humankind.¹

But will this dream of Human+ end in nightmare? If we accept neo-Darwinian biology as the unimpeachable starting point for defining human personhood, transhumanists like Warwick are committed to some form of the following argument: