In 2004, I wrote a piece called “Transhumanism at the Crossroads,” which has been one of my most popular essays. It was originally published as part of my old “Eye of the Storm” irregular column on the Betterhumans site.
Nearly four years later, I’m sufficiently distant from this essay that it almost reads as if it was written by someone else, though I suppose I still agree with its main sentiments: I’m prepared to be counted in as part of the transhumanist movement if it is going to be an inclusive social movement, but not if it is going to be something narrow, cultish, and (not to put too fine a point on it) suitable only for techno-libertarian nerds. How transhumanism will develop currently remains to be seen, but for the foreseeable future I’d rather be inside the tent exerting some influence on it, rather than abandoning, rejecting, or disavowing it as some people among its one-time allies have done.
There is still a place for a strong transhumanist movement, if this is going to be a movement that is rational about technology and favourable to technology as long as it used in ways that are beneficial (or at least not harmful). Much of the Luddite opposition to cloning (not to mention something as obvious as stem-cell research) has nothing to do with any secular harms that it may cause, and I favour the emergence of a strong movement that says this loud and clear. It that is what transhumanism is going to become, then count me in. At the same time, I’ve often applied the phrase “anti-anti-transhumanist” to myself to identify that I am opposed to irrationalist opponents of transhumanism, not to rational and informed criticism of the movement, and to signal that I am not locked into any superlative ambitions that may be associated with transhumanism in people’s minds.
Many self-identified transhumanists go much further than I do in what they want. I don’t necessarily agree with them on any particular issue, but I do defend their right to advocate their ideas - and more than that, I think it is healthy for these ideas to be brought forward and debated without irrationalist fears or feelings of repugnance distorting the exchanges. I support some transhumanist ideas, but not others ... but above all I aim to do what I can to facilitate rational, rigorous, but lively debate about them. That was the purpose of “Eye of the Storm”; it was meant to be a place for calm philosophical reflection amidst all the raging bioethical (and similar) controversy. It is also how I see my role more generally when talking about transhumanist ideas; I’d rather introduce light than heat, though I’ll sometimes be passionate when confronted by what strike as me plainly illiberal or irrational views.
In particular, I believe that it’s important to discuss such ideas as personality uploading, advanced AI, the technological Singularity, and so on, and I am prepared to consider them all with a degree of sympathy. Moreover, I have defended advocates of these things against what I consider ill-informed attacks. I’ve even explored some of these ideas sympathetically, if a bit ambiguously, in works of fiction.
But at the same time, these specific ideas are not among those that I have actively advocated and there are reasons for that.
Okay, here’s what I said in 2004, which may or may not still make sense. Feel free to discuss.
Russell Blackford PhD LLB is a fellow of the IEET, an attorney, science fiction author and critic, philosopher, and public intellectual. Russell lives in Melbourne, Australia where he teaches in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics at Monash University.
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