Transhumanism – Where does it stand? Where will it go?

You can find my point-of-view on transhumanism. It is part of a series of articles on the topic on KedgeForward.

Here is the full text for convenience:

“My view is that humanity is already moving towards a transhuman, beyond biology, species. We have taken little steps. This will be a gradual shift in what we are made of, as well as for our mindsets, unless some dramatic events precipitate humanity’s steps towards it. The forces pushing us are a combination of technology and the essence of humanity, which feed each other. As an example over the next few decades we will discuss the potential impact of a demographic peak, which is the turning point for the population increase, in which case we end up seeking to sustain the human resource balance by extending life. The other scenario is that we could actually grow well beyond the forecast nine billion. In that case we would need to seek new ways of inhabiting either the Earth or some other currently inhabitable place. In either case we will need to look into enhancing our abilities to sustain life. In a similar manner we may need to seek to become a more resistant species in the extreme case of climate change, cooling to ice-age in the Northern parts of Europe and extreme droughts and other patterns in southern Europe, Africa and Asia.

Human search for longevity, wellness and performance is age-old, even to the point of seeking eternal life. As the potential for augmentation increases, in a similar manner to plastic surgery, little by little we enhance our make-up, no pun intended, through technology, as it becomes more acceptable societally and psychologically. The decisions we face can be very profound. Do I decide to live with a biology, accident or calamity based issue or do I seek to improve my functioning? How about living a good life? A lifetime as it stands today seems not to be long enough for wisdom and leaving a legacy. Some wake up very late to their ‘calling’, this may push them to seek assistance for their longevity. Humanity as a whole may need this in order to progress. In reality human augmentation is already happening. Just like a toaster, which we no longer consider to be technology, our pace-makers, implants, meshed bones and so on do not seem like technology. These technologies have become transparent and hence acceptable and yet in the direction of transhuman existence. Technologies like nanotechnology and biotechnology make it very difficult to even decipher anymore where the line between physics or biology and technology is.

Many technologies, including those related to transhuman species, carry within them some ethical and moral dilemmas, and most of them also present dangers of misuse. If I augment myself because I might have the means to do it, what about others? What about the younger generations? Are we in danger of killing humanity by augmenting those already on the planet? Who decides who gets to be augmented and who not? Do we check the biology potential first and then make that even better or do we leave the biology as is and then add to it through technology, or improve both? These discussions will lead humanity to hot water and are a reason why this transition will not be a fast one but rather by circumstance. The development for technologies allowing for a super human to exist necessarily needs to happen before we need it on a large scale, which in turn leads to the need for management, open discussion and humanity beneficial frameworks.”

Hunome launched in private Alpha 1.1.2010

Hunome has launched in Alpha.

I cannot believe it. I have not said anything about the launch on my blog. I guess that is because I’ve communicated it elsewhere.

What is Hunome?

It provides means for creating and enjoying short-cuts to insights about humanity.

Who is it for?

Those who need to understand what makes people tick in their professional, personal or intellectual pursuits.

This could be artists, social scientists, educators, marketers, product creators, philosophers, historians, futurists, designers, strategists, scientists…

How can I join?

We are currently in private Alpha.

This means that for a number of practical as well as a few strategic reasons we need to manage the number of people on the site.

Please register your interest on the Hunome site and we will invite you to join very soon.

I look forward to your presence!

What makes humans unique?

If we do not understand ourselves how can we hope to truly be in someone else’s shoes and have perspective? If we do not have perspective, how can we operate in a world of variation, even if ever so slight and seemingly insignificant? We like to display our uniqueness in many ways in amongst our own species, but how do we compare with other species on Earth?

Imagine that an alien group has finally had the chance to travel through time, breaking all our current rules about how hard all that would be. How would we explain ourselves to the new species? How would we compare? What would be the sameness across our species? The first step would be to explain human.

Many earlier ideas on what makes humans unique have been challenged. You can find more on that in for example Nina Rosenstand’s, a philosopher, book on Human Condition.

Only a few of the following seem to pretty much pass the test of ‘uniquely’ human: (more…)

Emotional and rational future maze

We must remember that the future is neither wholly ours nor wholly not ours, so that neither must we count upon it as quite certain to come, nor despair of it as quite certain not to come.

Epicurus, 341-270 b.C., Greek philosopher, Letter to Menouceus, The Essential Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and Fragments (Great Books in Philosophy)

This quote probably hit you as ‘so true’ for your personal life. Perhaps a personal goal, which you have trouble getting to or an emotional impasse you do not quite know how to deal with.

Here I’d like to expand on it a little from the perspective of ‘strategic foresight’, which is a systematic approach to deal with the future.

The quote is well worth unraveling a little.

It has in essence four parts, which all play into the way to think about the future systematically:

1. Future is not fully ours
2. Future is not fully not ours
3. We should not count on it as certain
4. We should not despair of it as wholly uncertain

Future is not fully ours

We cannot dictate the future in our private or professional lives. No matter who we are and what we do there are always elements, which are not under our control.

We can amass all details about trends, drivers and influencers and work them into very clear strategies, making those strategies a win-win for all stakeholders and engaging a passionate group of people behind them. It still does not guarantee that things will just roll as planned. People are fickle and what was a win-win one day no longer is necessarily that later. Sometimes it is not possible to keep the decision elements jelly enough to shape things according to all change. This means that sometimes we have to stay the course on things, which were set in motion before and turn our backs on the new, perhaps clearly better, possibilities. This particular aspect has changed a lot in business over the last twenty years. Things have become super liquid. (more…)

Purpose and value – a company perspective

If you spent some time visiting several Fortune 500 web sites, how many of those do you think would clearly state their purpose and value to humanity? How many would have people in their brand somewhere? How many would talk about the passion they have for making the world a better place and how their actions bring that about?

I did that one year ago and there are some but not many. Mostly I found that those that have people in their brands and language do not have a ‘purpose’ statement. About ten years ago I did the same sort of study when I was with Nokia and found that a number of Japanese companies had a long term view and something like a ‘purpose’ statement – what was their role in this world, what benefit to humanity where they here to bring about.

The main objective of the company was to design and create innovative products, which would benefit the people. http://www.sony.com.au/section/sonysstory

This is not a mission statement, i.e. how to conquer some hill, but why do it anyway. Nor is it a vision, what could it all look like in some years’ time, if we all rally and make it happen (strategy – how). The focus is on the why.

One could say that all companies have people in their minds and brands to some extent: Facebook – making it easy to connect with friends, Google – making all things findable on the net [used to be: making it easy to find things on the net] and so on. There are many however for whom the purpose and product have disconnected because the ‘product’ is so entrenched in the society. The question of value to humanity is no longer considered to be of importance. I’d say the car industry has fallen into that trap and the banks just keep ignoring us, except for yet another credit card offer. (more…)