Editing Transhumanism (section)

=== Aims ===
{{Blockquote|You awake one morning to find your brain has another lobe functioning. Invisible, this auxiliary lobe answers your questions with information beyond the realm of your own memory, suggests plausible courses of action, and asks questions that help bring out relevant facts. You quickly come to rely on the new lobe so much that you stop wondering how it works. You just use it. This is the dream of artificial intelligence.|''[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]]'', April 1985<ref name="lemmon198504">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1985-04/1985_04_BYTE_10-04_Artificial_Intelligence#page/n125/mode/2up | title=Artificial Intelligence | work=BYTE | date=April 1985 | access-date=14 February 2015 | author=Lemmons, Phil | page=125 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420115129/https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1985-04/1985_04_BYTE_10-04_Artificial_Intelligence#page/n125/mode/2up | archive-date=20 April 2015 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>}}

[[File:PPTCountdowntoSingularityLog.jpg|thumb|upright=1.36| [[Ray Kurzweil]] believes that a countdown to when "[[Technological singularity|human life will be irreversibly transformed]]" can be made through plotting major world events on a graph.]]

While many transhumanist theorists and advocates seek to apply reason, science and technology to reduce poverty, disease, disability, and malnutrition around the globe,<ref name="What is Transhumanism" /> transhumanism is distinctive in its particular focus on the applications of technologies to the improvement of human bodies at the individual level. Many transhumanists actively assess the potential for future technologies and innovative social systems to improve the quality of [[biocentrism (ethics)|all life]], while seeking to make the material reality of the human condition fulfill the promise of legal and political equality by eliminating [[Congenital disorder|congenital mental and physical barriers]].

Transhumanist philosophers argue that there not only exists a [[perfectionism (philosophy)|perfectionist ethical imperative]] for humans to strive for progress and improvement of the human condition, but that it is possible and desirable for humanity to enter a transhuman phase of existence in which humans enhance themselves beyond what is naturally human. In such a phase, natural evolution would be replaced with deliberate participatory or [[directed evolution]].

Some theorists such as [[Ray Kurzweil]] think that the [[Accelerating change|pace of technological innovation is accelerating]] and that the next 50 years may yield not only radical technological advances, but possibly a [[technological singularity]], which may fundamentally change the nature of human beings.<ref name="Kurzweil 2005"/> Transhumanists who foresee this massive technological change generally maintain that it is desirable, but some are concerned about the dangers of extremely rapid technological change and propose options for ensuring that advanced technology is used responsibly. For example, Bostrom has written extensively on [[existential risk]]s to humanity's future welfare, including ones that emerging technologies could create.<ref name="Bostrom 2002"/> In contrast, some proponents of transhumanism view it as essential to humanity's survival. For instance, Stephen Hawking points out that the "external transmission" phase of human evolution, where [[Knowledge economy|knowledge production]] and [[knowledge management]] is more important than transmission of information via [[evolution]], may be the point at which [[Civilization|human civilization]] becomes unstable and self-destructs, one of Hawking's explanations for the [[Fermi paradox]]. To counter this, Hawking emphasizes either self-design of the [[human genome]] or mechanical enhancement (e.g., [[Brain–computer interface|brain-computer interface]]) to enhance [[human intelligence]] and reduce [[aggression]], without which he implies human civilization may be too stupid collectively to survive an increasingly unstable system, resulting in [[societal collapse]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/life.html|title=Life in the Universe|last=Hawking|first=Stephen|work=Public Lectures|publisher=University of Cambridge|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060421051343/http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/life.html|archive-date=April 21, 2006|access-date=May 11, 2006}}</ref>

While many people believe that all transhumanists are striving for [[immortality]], that is not necessarily true. Hank Pellissier, managing director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (2011–2012), surveyed transhumanists. He found that, of the 818 respondents, 23.8% did not want immortality.<ref name="Pellissier, Hank 2012">Pellissier, Hank. "Do all Transhumanists Want Immortality? No? Why Not?" Futurist 46.6 (2012): 65-. Web.</ref> Some of the reasons argued were boredom, Earth's overpopulation, and the desire "to go to an afterlife".<ref name="Pellissier, Hank 2012"/>