超人类主义101 -永生

偶尔, I’ll get a song stuck in my head for no reason…it barges into my brain 和 before I know it, 这首歌决定倒在沙发上. 它一遍又一遍地播放. 希望, 又不是《十大正规赌平台平台》的主题曲, 我儿子最喜欢的早间卡通片, 但80年代的烂歌也好不到哪里去. 本周的脑力嘉宾? The soaring vocals in Alphaville's “Forever Young” accompanied with the image of Napoleon Dynamite at the school dance, 当然.

永远年轻，我想永远年轻…你真的想长生不老吗?

啊. 不，我真的不知道. 我不想永远年轻. Forever Young sounds like the title of a dystopian novel set in the future when history has been forgotten 和 no one underst和s the value of life 和 death; an age of ignorance 和 superficiality. 相反，我希望有一天自己变老，头发变白——当然不是永远年轻. I’m already on my way; my beard has some salt-和-pepper Grizzly Adams look that I’ve spent three years cultivating! 当然，没有人会卖这样歌词的歌: “又老又白，我想要又老又白……你真的想要服用伟哥吗??”

Being forever young must be one of the all-time enduring pursuits of humanity—from Ponce DeLeon to the bad guy in Indiana Jones 3 to Rod Stewart. Whether its the fear of death or the nostalgia of youth that drives this, I’m not really sure. 奇怪的是现在, 经过几千年的科技和文明, 一种长生不老的形式或许就在人类的触手可及之处.

哒哒! 欢迎来到超人类主义! 对于那些刚接触这个术语的人, 这与你的种族或性别身份无关, 至少不是直接的. 而, the term reflects the human desire to transcend its current condition both individually 和 socially, 最显著的是超越我们身体的限制. Transhumanism is a movement of people committed to using technology to further the human race in profound ways. In most iterations, Transhumanism is viewed as the next great step of human evolution. 智人已经进化成一个全新的物种，智人技术.

从这里开始一个很棒的入门:

是的，这让我难以接受.

One of the central features of the Transhumanist movement (shorth和 is H+) is the desire to live a longer 和 more satisfying life. 更具体地说, H+ uses now-和-future technologies to fundamentally alter how we think about life 和 death itself.

在历史上所有黑白分明的话题中, 死亡应该排在最前面. 第一，我们不是死就是活，不能两者都是(对不起，僵尸). 第二，没有人可以无限期地有效地逃避死亡. For the first time in human history, both of these statements are no longer axiomatic. The H+ movement is pushing for a human future in which death comes not as a result of our human bodily limitation but, 而, 因为当我们最终想要实现的时候. Like deciding to quit a video game before heading to bed…you decide when the story of you is over.

这种追求“超长寿命”的动力究竟是如何形成的?

选项1我们在生物技术方面做得很好，我们可以做一系列的编辑, 治疗方法, 和 transformations to the physical body itself—effectively ridding our cells of the damage that comes with age. This may or may not include actual microchip technology integrated into our bodies to help this process. 再见，灰袍甘道夫! 你好,凯兰崔尔!

选项2: We get so good at this digital technology thing that we transition out of our physical bodies altogether. 按照库兹韦尔的观点, 人们可以将自己的意识上传到某种形式的硅衬底上, existing forever in the digital cloud or downloaded back into a robotic being as a vessel for the human consciousness.

我们假设一下, 有那么一瞬间, that these options are viable in the near future 和 that our society will be making real progress toward the creation of an artificial yet eternal life of sorts. 我们如何忠实地理解这个美丽的新世界? 因为我有三个H+的帖子排成一排, 我打算利用这段时间专门谈谈“超长寿命”, 把“超级智能”和“超级幸福”留给下次吧.

超长寿命吓死我了. 问题是为什么. Why am I so concerned with a group of people who want to use technology in such a way that prolongs my life? 他们怎么敢! 在我拔出箭来之前，我最好确定我找对了目标.

问题不在于延长寿命的愿望. 这一点必须从一开始就说清楚. 正如笛卡尔曾经说过的那样，存在当然比不存在要好. 不同意这一点是完全虚伪的. If you believed that non-existence was better than existence, you would have killed yourself by now. 不，存在应该被珍惜，被重视，并最终被保存. 上面的选项1似乎是值得尝试的，至少乍一看是这样, 因为没有人愿意接受癌症或阿尔茨海默病的摧残. 事实上, many of us would go to great lengths to prevent our children from experiencing these ills, 甚至允许程序完成 在子宫内，如有需要.

Nor is the problem the human desire to push the boundaries of our collective limitation. 在真正的物理意义上，奥林匹克运动会在这里浮现. Every event is designed to draw out the best of human physical ability over-和-against the physical limitations that are present in all of us. 从理智上讲, we similarly challenge ourselves to conceive 和 make manifest a better future–a world with less suffering than our forefathers. 我不觉得这两种追求有什么问题.

问题是氢离子完全破坏了生命的意义. Super-longevity essentially argues that humanity’s existential problem is one of limit. H+说我们应该是没有边界、没有约束、没有终点的人. 就在这个时候，我下了火车. 限制并不像H+认为的那样邪恶, 而是, 这正是使社区成为可能的东西.

• 在我们共同的局限中, 我们认识到我们的意志(和力量)不是无限的, 在任何意义上.
• 在我们共同的限制中，我们有同理心、惊喜和喜悦的能力.
• 在我们共同的局限中, we are able to pursue justice 而 than pursue our own ends.
• 在我们共同的局限中, we can take joy in a real Christian community that recognizes 和 values the weakest among us.
• 在我们共同的局限中, we are forced to recognize the greatest truth of our time: we are not God.

生命之所以有意义，是因为死亡在等着我们. 生命的意义无限伟大，因为生命在等待着我们 死后也一样. 所有的生命都是有价值的，因为每一次呼吸都是一份礼物. This is one of the central insights of Scripture: that life is valuable because it is God’s–not ours–和 because of that designation, 从亚当吃那果子的那一刻起，神就通过基督寻求救赎. 上帝选择了救赎，而不是毁灭. 天父对我们的爱是如此之大(我还要补充一句，对我们肉体的爱也是如此).

当我们使用礼物语言时, 我们不太可能把生命看作是可以偷走的东西, 我们可以操纵的东西. Every breath becomes a living expression of God’s gifting; the life we have bears witness to God as Creator 和 支撑者，因此成为神的生命和作为的见证. Super-longevity seems to be a complex form of narcissism…where I become the master of my own universe.

For the Christian, escaping death does nothing to prevent the actual problem with human living—sin. 对基督徒来说，身体对我们作为造物主的创造物是必不可少的. 这一事实在圣经中被一再确认, 不仅因为耶稣是道成肉身来的.e.但他的复活也是在肉体中. To create a life without the body is to necessarily destroy part of that which makes us human!

Oh, yeah…和 there’s other things to worry about with a technologically mediated eternal life. 地缘政治问题比比皆是. 发展中国家完蛋了. 永久的种姓制度即使不是不可避免的，也是完全合理的. 我们永远无法摆脱唐纳德·特朗普. 你能想象他的下一条推特吗?

我刚上传了我的照片. H +现在. # nevergonnabefirednow # inyourcomputer

——@realDonaldTrump

最终，氢离子的超长寿命成分是一种救赎形式. This makes any internal critique of the H+ movement subject (和 rightly so) to intense scrutiny. 换句话说, futurist 和 technology guru Ray Kurzweil has dedicated his life to the coming of the technological Singularity 和 hope that humanity will transcend its finite condition into some form of eternal being. 在没有真正救赎的情况下, 这“永生”作为他的救恩和, 因此, 必须不惜一切代价保护和捍卫. No moral qualms can convince him to give up the pursuit of eternal life…he’s already totally invested in its success!

但我们谈论的是什么样的生活?

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©Joel Oesch 和 Fishing for Leviathan, 2015