Immortality, Transhumanism, and Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity
Transhumanism reflects millennium humanity’s dream about eternal vitality andphysical immortality. Cellular cybernetic software, inevitably conditioned with the law of an eternally growing universe entropy counts down, like a time bomb, the temporal dissolution of the habitual form of complex living organisms. Terrified with inevitable disincarnating and breaking down of material form that creates one end of psycho-corporal being continuum, presenters of human spirit have been dreaming through different times about artificial creation of humanoid and/or combination of human and machine-starting with Kabala Golem, over alchemic homunculus, romantic Frankenstein, robots and his heir-Cyborg.
Cyborg, the ultimate ideal of Transhumanism, is the mechanical human-machine. Transhumanoid, a super-human of technology era will overcome both the hardware and software aspect humans as we know them today, and in utopia the projection of technology singularity reaches freedom of human control, taking control over the planet as a product of evolution artificially induced by scientifically caused symbiosis of humans and machines.
Transhumanism is super-national Weltanschauung, which is a solution to the problem of time-limited human existence, through a form of human and machine hybrids, thanks to use of sophisticated technology and approximation of human intellectual capacity with ultra-fast computer microprocessors, with a tendency to overcome human potential. Corporal functions of human organisms would be crossed with controlled entities of Nano-technology products that would ensure desirable cell physiology.
In time, machines in the human-technology hybrid, a cyborg, would overcome the human component of hybrid by developing their own artificial intelligence because of technological auto-evolution. In a point of technological singularity, cyborg would take over dominance and rule over the human race-that would cease to exist as such-givingbirth to a higher being, called "transhuman" or technological super-human. The human race would be left in slow extinction together with other bio forms that remained out of evolutionary "main course."The significant difference in this is that, for the first time, evolution is directed and programmed by people, with the goal to self-destruct the human race and to give birth to transhuman super-humans that would rule the Earth in a direction unknown to human reason. This is when many terabytes of electronic brains, crossed with artificial cellular structures of Nano-technologic elements, create the world completely different from ours, defying entropy of time self-elimination of living cells. This world would be based on hyper-evolved mathematical laws, filtered through feed-back if infinite loops of algorithms of electronic brains over human.
Recent outcomes of transhumanism vary: there is idea of technology immortality of Nikolai Fyodorov,Russian philosopher of Christian-cosmic orientation that combines Nietzsche'sconcept of "Übermensch;" there is John Burdon Sanderson Haldan, British genetic expert and Darwinist who in his work,"Dedalus: Science and future"(1923) promotes idea of scientific improvement of bio-form. His friend Julian Huxley, biologist and brother of famous writerAldous Huxley inaugurated word transhumanism in 1957, as overgrowing of basic human nature;John Desmond Bernal, British molecular biologist and a founder of ex-ray crystallography recycled Fyodorov's idea about space colonization. He was also a fan of use of implants as a way to improve human intelligence; Marvin Lee Minsky, American scientists in area of computers and AI, calling upon hybrid of human and artificial intelligence during 1960s, promoting network of artificial neurons.
Raymond "Ray" Kurzweil is an icon of transhumanism, most prominent activist, promoter, creative visionary with pragmatic achievements. He is a paradigmatic personality; a writer, a founder, promoter of futurism, director of engineering for avant-garde projects such as machine learning or language processing in Google.
Ray is personally motivated for promotion and pragmatic application of transhumanism and its products, because he was emotionally destroyed with his father's death. Ray couldn't deal with fatal loss, and entire life devoted to Fydorov-like resurrection of his father. His vision was to clone his father over DNA he exhumed from father's grave. In this search for human reincarnation through technology means, Kurzweil devoted to explore high-end technology options for humanity improvement, at the same time promoting transhumanism-futuristic visions in his books.
Kurzweil became globally known in 1984, after music instrument with sampling options which was first accepted by enthusiasts such as American conceptual artist Laurie Anderson, afterward becoming globally used. It radically changed entire music scene and moved it toward digital sound, production and assembling sampled clusters that treat wide continuum of real sounds-from thunder to symphony.
Kurzweil is a man of noble motives-initiated and lead by his non-acceptance of death. He wants to help humanity, which is evident from his pragmatic visions in area of regeneration of devastated human senses with use of machines and software.
Kurzweil in a book "Time of Spiritual Machines" describes his vision of world dominated by transhumans in 2099:
“Human mind will be integral with world of machine intelligence initially created by humans. Engineering of human brain in reverse seems to be completed. Hundreds of specialized regions is completely scanned, analyzed and understood. Machines are based on these human models that are improved and expanded, along with many new massive parallel algorithms. These improvements, combined with enormous progress in speed and capacity of electronic/photonic circuits, ensure substantial advantages to machine-based intelligence.
Intelligence based on machines is completely designed from these enhanced models of human intelligence. They claim for themselves that they are human although their brains are not based on cell processes based on carbon, but on electronic and photonic "equivalent." Majority of these intelligences are not connected to specific computer-processing units. Number of people based on software significantly overcomes number of people who in their brain still perform natural data processing based on neuron cells. Intelligence based on software can manifest bodies: one or more virtual bodies on different levels of virtual reality as well as physical bodies designed through Nano-technologic engineering, i.e. use of instant reconfiguring group of nanobots. Even these human intelligences that still use neurons based on carbon there is ever-present use of technology of neural implants that ensures enormous increase of human perceptive and cognitive powers. Humans that don't use these implants can't fully communicate with people that do use them. There are many ways to combine these scenarios. Concept "what is human?" has been significantly changed. Rights and powers of different manifestations of human and machine intelligence and its differing combinations are primary political and philosophy question, although machine-based intelligence has supreme rights."
It is a key question for Kurzweil, just as transhumanism in general, is a question of technology singularity. A point of singularity is where unbreakable hybrid of human and a machine reaches, through nanotechnology robots, implants, electronic circuits and microprocessors, combined with human histology, physiology and anatomy, a point of super-intelligence, enabling cyborg-posthuman to control course of civilization as he wishes. Super-intelligence is a result of artificial intelligence evolution which is capable to self-improve. It will lead society in a direction known to it, while human intelligence will disappear in inferiority in comparison to machines.
The term technology singularity was first used in 20th century by mathematicianJohn von Neumann and became popular through work ofVernor Vinge, math professor on San Diego University and SF writer. In intriguing book“Singularity is Near,”Ray Kurzweil quotes 1993 prophet text of Vernor Vinge about singularity:
“What are consequences of this event? When intelligence larger than human rules progress, it will be significantly enhanced. Actually, there is no reason why progress wouldn't involve creating some more intelligent entities-in shorter period of time. The best analogy I see is with evolutionary history: animals can adapt to problems and be inventive, but often not before natural selection does its work-world acts as its own simulator in case of natural selection. We humans have possibility to internalize the world and rule problems of "what if?' type in our heads: we can solve many problems much faster than natural selection. Now, by creating means to execute these simulations at even greater speed, we enter regime that is radically different from our human past just as we humans differ from animals. From human point of view, this change will mean rejection of all past rules, maybe in a blink of an eye, an exponential escape above any hope for control."
Ray Kurzweil, authentic visionary sees the evolved cyborg as a human, but technologically advanced and supreme to any biological human being. There is no difference between human and machine, and thus Kurzweil considers transhumans as individuals that can't be defined because they are above biology and its limited concepts.