TRANSHUMANIST DREAM. WHEN GLOBAL SURVIVAL MEETS ULTIMATE DIGITALISATION

Abstract

Human Enhancement Technologies (HET) encompass bio-, nano-, cognitive, and info-communication technologies and sciences aimed at enhancing and improving human capacities and characteristics beyond the statistical norm of normal human functioning. Bioethics is defined as a bridge between natural and social sciences and the humanities. It has served as the science of global survival for a long time, spanning millennia. In contemporary bioethics, there are two mainstreams and several factions: transhumanism and bio-conservatism. This theoretical and ideological divisionism has opposing arguments due to the usage of HET. While the former supports all types of human enhancement, arguing that human survival is facilitated by the use of new biotechnologies, information technologies, and other advancements, the latter opposes such usage, even in some medical and diagnostic cases. In this paper, we will analyze the usage of various Transhumanist narratives illustrated by mythology. For this purpose, we have created two methodological triangles: the Survival Triangle and the symbolical Mythological Triangle. These triangles are constructed between the following points: Anticipation/Proteus, Autonomy/Icarus, and Survival/Odysseus. The paper indicates that survival, as the ultimate goal of humans, is justified using new biotechnologies—the transhumanist aim. However, what is the ethics of the means used in this respect, and what could be the cost of ultimate digitalization for the sake of survival?