148. Science Fanatics Try to Drive Evolution – Harald Walach

Humans have always tried to augment and enhance bodily flaws, from eye glasses to prostheses and pacemakers. But something qualitatively different is happening today. The transhumanist movement basically sees humans as biological algorithms.They want to break into the genetic code and the brain and change what a person is into something else. They believe nature has come as far as it can, and now it is we who drive evolution. We are the ones in charge of creating the next version of Homo Sapiens.“It’s a new religion”, says psychologist and philosopher Harald Walach, who has written a comprehensive report about transhumanism.It’s a staunchly materialist, godless religion.Seeing the body as a machine and the brain as a computer are metaphors that can be useful in some instances, like when we have had an accident. But it is a category mistake to take these metaphors to be the whole reality.“It’s like taking the menu for lunch. You can’t eat the menu”, says Harald Walach.A crucial and tricky question is whether the interventions transhumanists envision might mess around with consciousness. Harald distinguishes between psyche and soul.“These interventions can definitely change the mental state of people. But the soul is very likely untouchable.”The transhumanists are a heterogeneous collection of people.“They are various groups with different intentions. Some dedicate their efforts to abolishing death and aging. Some are more on the tech side, connecting human and machine. Others have a more philosophical approach reminiscent of the Nietzschean übermensch.”“A common theme is that they all want to create a transhumanist being with enhanced faculties that are greater than in current humans.”Interestingly, transhumanists aren’t particularly good at science.“I don’t think many scientists are transhumanistic, because scientists generally know about the intricate problems associated with what transhumanists talk about”, says Harald.“Transhumanists are science fanatics who don’t really do science. Many are in the tech industry.”At the core of the transhumanist agenda are medical interventions, in particular genetic manipulation.“We’ve already seen it happening during the pandemic: Genetic prevention technologies masquerading as vaccines”, says Harald.Was there a nefarious agenda?“That’s irrelevant. The thinking, the ideology and the technology were there. As I see it, it is like mushrooms. If you walk in a forest you may not see any mushrooms, but the mycelium is there, under the surface. When the conditions are right, they pop up everywhere.”To materialists, death is the ultimate catastrophe. There are transhumanists, like Aubrey de Grey, who want to abolish it.Ethical and logical objections aside, abolishing death would lead to absurd consequences, Harald points out: The population would quickly increase. By default one would have to prohibit procreation. This in turn would lead to fascistoid governing. Without young people, there would be no new ideas.“Philosophically speaking, life’s finiteness creates meaning. If we don’t die, we don’t need to make any important decisions:, says Harald.He thinks it’s imperative that we have an open discussion about the transhumanist agenda now. The proponents are a minority, but they are influential.“We need to ask ourselves: Are we willing to accept a transcendent realm that is beyond our human grip, that we cannot control?”Harald's websiteHarald's Transhumanism report