In their article From Cyborgs to Cyberbodies: The Evolution of the Concept of Techno-Body in Modern Medicine, Andrea Gaggioli et al. strived to provide readers with the insight into the fact that, due to the recent revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of informational technology and biomedicine, the very concept of humanity will soon undergo a dramatic transformation. According to authors, within the matter of next twenty years, people will not only be able to enhance their physical existence by becoming increasingly cyborg-like but even to attain practical immortality in form of cyber bodies, which authors define as ‘digitalization of all body tissues and structures of interest’ (2003, p. 79). In its turn, this had brought authors to the conclusion that humanity is standing on the threshold of a new evolutionary (post-human) jump, which will enable Homo Sapiens to effectively get rid of its biological constraints, as a species.
The authors aimed to substantiate the full validity of their suggestion by referring to technology-based practical benefits of post-humanization that will become available to intellectually open-minded and rich people in the very near future, such as Ubiquitous Computing, Ubiquitous Communication, Intelligent User Interface, and Body Area Network. Thus, the article promotes an idea that people’s increased ability to remain in full control of their lives, while turning their physical existence into a particularly enjoyable experience, is being solely concerned with their willingness to take full advantage of continuous technological progress, the pace of which had now attained an exponential momentum. At the end of the article, the authors do mention a few risks, associated with the emerging era of post-humanism; however, the article’s context deems those risks negligible – as the popular saying goes: if you want to make an omelet, you will have to break a few eggs.
- Will the rise of technological post-humanity render world’s religions useless? Yes, it will. Every religion is nothing but a by-product of people’s tendency to impersonify nature. In its turn, such tendency cannot be discussed outside of people’s biological constitution as essentially primates. Yet, the very concept of post-humanism is being concerned with the process of individuals ridding themselves of their biological constraints – once, there are no such constraints, there will be no need for religion.
- What are the risks of cyber-biomedicine? There are comparatively few risks. The most important of them is the fact that, by becoming cyborgized, people will undergo a ‘digital dismemberment’, which might deprive them of their emotions. Yet, since there is no logically substantiated way to think of emotions as representing an undeniable value, in the first place, this risk appears rather imaginary.
- Why is there much opposition to cyber technologies in particular, and to the very concept of technological progress, in general? This is due to many people’s inability to expand their intellectual horizons. Apparently, a lot of ‘experts on morality’, who oppose recent technological breakthroughs as ‘immoral’, have a hard time recognizing an irrational essence of their psychological anxieties, in regards to the impending era of post-humanism. Moreover, once people will attain a status of cyber-bodied demi-gods, it will render world’s major religions useless. And, given the fact that religion represents one of world’s most lucrative and dirtiest commercial enterprises, it comes as no surprise that ‘lambs of God’ actively resist technological progress. Nevertheless, as it has always been the case, throughout the course of history, in confrontation with science, religion will necessarily lose.
Bibliography
Gaggioli, A. et al. (2003) From cyborgs to cyberbodies: The evolution of the concept of techno-body in modern medicine. PsychNology Journal, 1( 2), pp. 75 – 86.