Scientists Gone Wild – Transhumanism
July 11, 2010 2 Comments
TechnoCalyps – TransHuman, pt. I - a documentary.
We shall be as gods! (psyke!) Some of this is really amusing. Especially where the brain cells are placed on microchips to meld man and robot. We have been warned about blending species and kinds:
9 “You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.
10 “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
11 “You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.”
-Deut. 22
19 ‘You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.
-Lev. 19
Since you cited those mixed-species verses as applicable to humans and robots, aren’t you granting robots species status? I think “species” presupposes lifeforms, but maybe in your view it doesn’t since you wouldn’t say wool and linen are lifeforms, although they are byproducts of life – sheep and plants. Are you therefore against artificial hearts/lungs and life support?
I was hoping you would address whether or not the soul travels with the brain during transplants. If Bob’s brain is transplanted onto John’s body, is this new being Bob, John, or a nonhuman biological machine?
That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis was nothing short of prophetic.