It is a fascinating thing to watch/participate in the coming of age of the most advanced transhuman generation to have yet existed, and maybe even more so intimidating to consider what will come of the younger generations. Such generations whose childhood and developing years occurred at the same time as the greatest expanse in transhumanist qualities yet to be developed. So what is happening to these children, what is happening to us? I find it interesting to consider Melanie’s questions “Does becoming a transhuman make you less human?” with our current trends and relationship with technology. Her more detailed version of the question though seems to be the most provocative to our current understanding of the world - “Does becoming transhuman cause the individual to lose certain traits, generally ascribed to humanity at large, that would hinder them?” As we plunge deep into the seemingly shallow waters of facebook/twitter/google and interconnect our infinite web of intranets into an internet, what does/will it mean to have a human interactions?
When trying to define what the transhuman state is as related to the human state, we become wrapped up in the semantics of what separates us from any other creature. Melanie briefly describes it from Kuno’s point of view as being a way of life, to love, to have a sense of adventure; all which seem very dormant qualities within Forster’s The Machine Stops. The characters though do still hold on to many human traits, but only now in a neo-cultural sense. I find this to be a crucial point in understanding what it is to be human - that we are a part of a larger and developing culture, and further even educated/raised within a certain cultural view point. To then explore what it is to be a transhuman, one would be merging with machine to heighten and extend their cultural understanding. This is a broad sense, spanning the military industrial complex to the pretentiousness of the art world. All are adapting transhuman tendencies by incorporating their existence with machine/computers - lenses, gears, timers, communication, sight, etc. These are not actual combinations between human and mechanism either. My point here is that we are exploring transhumanism as a way to extend our abilities from a cultural perspective, and what may change as Melanie references in the Dresdan Codex is the human culture.
In the culture change of Human to Transhuman, a story such as The Machine Stops has the most relevance and importance. Yes, there might be the possibility of the plunge into Forster’s imagined world, but these culture shifts will also occur on the surface level. The most immediate and over-played argument of our contemporary time is how our personal relationships are effected. I find myself most fascinated with what we consider art, craft, and trade service. In the transhumanist life, these parts of our existence are being collaboratively understood with the machine - the problem being that a machine understands the world in different light, which was so eloquently illustrated by the japanese author Yamamoto. This is important because while our brains are not setup like a computer system to run through programs by nature; we are creature affected by the nurturance of society. Such it is that we are already limited by our languages and abilities to express ourselves that we might be able to elevate our understanding of the world through transhumanist tendencies. This is ultimately our current direction, but as we are limited it is also important that we understand the limits of the machine. It might be that the transhumans are the one who are able to experience the greatest sense of existence(enlightenment?) if a diversity between man and machine/computer can be asserted - and the posthuman whose embrace of hyper cultural functionality may be the most limited and confined.
Could the transhuman existence actually be an enlightenment of both human and machine? Then is there an optimistic future for the posthuman?
In transhuman living, your are able to visualize a subject while a machine is only processing code. How can humans capitalize on the use of machine with out being confined to the limits of a machines capabilites?
~ Art as seen by a machine - http://www.independentexposure.com/title/1778/Art_as_Seen_by_Machines.html
~ Tranhumanist Art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanist_art
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