The process of taxonomy
had proved fruitful for the construction of an intersubjective framework for
human interaction. However, in this process of categorizing the world grew the
first seed of alienation. The concrete connections were replaced by one abstract
connection: master and slave. By alienating himself from nature, man observed
how nature had developed and an end was put to any further dialogue between the
two. Naïve optimism spread with the idea that anything could be possible by
implementing scientific thinking into widely diverse societal strata. The conceptual
consequence of this development was shortly made visible.
Socialism can be deemed a first attempt to
come to terms with mankind’s barbaric origin. Its ultimate goal was the
realization of a new dawn of man. The basis of socialism was to produce an
improved version of mankind, for humans were regarded as unfinished material
subject to the course of biological evolution. The enlightenment had, however,
endowed mankind with the tools necessary to take action into its own hands, the
Cartesian tradition that was emphasized even more by German romanticism
influenced the Western tradition of rational thought. The construction of a
faultless society would mark the end of evolution, which would be replaced by a
man-made revolution. If humanity can
control nature by understanding biology, the possibilities of perfecting any
species were infinite.
The practical consequences of putting such a
philosophical disposition to practice within the natural and social sciences
produced horrifying results. However, this disposition is yet active within a
far range of areas of modern life. Scientism, the view that the empirical
methods of natural and physical science are held to be universally valid in all
fields of knowledge is still regarded as a suitable framework for modern
bureaucracy. During the first decades of the 20th century, this
political-philosophical outlook formed into a dogmatist discourse within
Western society. Eugenics was an extreme form of social policy with a strict
economic attitude according to which the less capable human beings were
regarded as serving no use at all. A century after, the side effects were
rendered visible; totalitarianism, Nazism and Fascism had run the wealthiest
cultures in the world to their knees.
The general concept
that had produced such questionable results was surprisingly not abandoned
after the war. Instead, the will to actively diminish the influence of the
negative aspects of human nature grew yet stronger. However, this was no longer
put in practice by implementing systems of negation; an anti-human rationality
was put in motion within the European society. Such a practical philosophical
mistake could only have been possible within nations wherein the people had
already been objectivized for two centuries. The biological determinism that
had shaped the eugenics movement, a movement that would have an impact of
social politics up to the 21st century, had been reshaped and
applied to the post-war progressivism within Europe. A mental revival was
deemed necessary to once again clean the slate of humanity from the brutal
onslaughts against the enlightenment’s claim that rationality was an individual
entity separate from our frail bodies. Civilization could no longer deny the
negations inherent within the tradition of the enlightenment.
With the advent of mechanized technology,
our culture tried to perfect the nature of our selves to protect the worldview
garnered from the philosophical speculations of three centuries past. Human
mentality longed for transcendence from physical reality in the true Cartesian
sense. Within today’s post-industrial society this has produced a state of
alienation, which has transformed mankind into metaphors in the hands of the passive
power of computerized labour. We are lost within the contradictoriness and
multivoicedness of an epoch that no longer values humanity but which instead has
come to deeply despise the most intuitive of our emotions. The destructiveness of
human nature is a negation within the current economic system, which in itself
can be regarded as the practical manifestation of man’s weakness. By turning
our backs on our true nature, we have created a society in which there is no
longer any place for ourselves – its creators.
The cultural rationalization of the West
has, hand in hand with Scientism, created a negative dialectic wherein the
efficiency of the processes is valued more highly than the moral implication
they serve. The Christian doctrine and its denunciation of human emotions was
an important influence for the creation of capitalist economics. In a system
void of moral beliefs, there is also no consideration for the state of
humanity. In later times, attention has also been brought to the medical state
of our species. We are now not only able to rationalize our moral shortcomings
by way of technology but we are also able to perfect our physical nature.
Illnesses are cured and lives are extended; who is going to accept illnesses
when this means immediate removal in the economic world? Who would be willing
to accept their own death when this nowadays proves that we have no place
within the machinery of modern society?
It is believed that the
widespread use of genetics and other technologies might result in significant
increases in human intelligence, which would re-enable us to take part in the
post-industrial world of economics. Some expect serious increases in the life
span of each individual. We might also be able to construct technological structures
that would greatly alter our socioeconomic infrastructure. Steady advances in
computer technology devaluates human work force more and more for each passing
day as the economy already from the start sought to deconsecrate our nature. We
have created a world, which, in a not too distant future, will no longer
require our existence for its survival.
This is as most evident in popular culture as
now we cannot distinguish between that which is man-made and that which is made
by a machine. We have become so alienated from our own nature that we are
unable to objectively judge what is human and what is not. Our next generation
may be the first to experience a world where the meaning of life is not a philosophical
standpoint but a question of engineering. Our civilization has previously been
defined by its ability to construct tools but we are now also becoming more and
more capable to outsource our cognition. There has been a marked increase of
substitution of human cognition into the external world. We must ask ourselves
some fundamental questions that have been left for the sake of science for many
centuries. What does it mean to be human? What kind of society do we want? And
where do we draw the line between humanity, nature and technology? The
cognitive line between humanity and its environment is now being drawn further
and further away, postponing the Cultural Revolution that will occur when we
are faced with these questions.
To be able to deal with
the on-going evolution of the technological economy, the transhumanist vision
has created a system based on a true deconstruction of the human condition. It
is the vision that we would finally be able to get rid of all undesirable
traits of our nature by continuing to develop human-altering technologies for
these specific purposes. Its philosophical roots can be traced back to the enlightenment.
Four centuries later when all former values have been deconstructed, these
values are still inherent to our culture. Transhumanism seeks to seek out the
post-human condition and its desirability and possibilities – it would mean the
merging of man and machine, the final step in the dialectics of the capitalist
system, an acceptance of the current technological hegemony. It focuses on
eventual outcomes of current developments and tries to affirm the possibility
of fundamentally improving the human condition. The concept of what it is to be
human is now being threatened not only from an economic perspective but also
from a philosophical standpoint, and as long as we do not overcome the
postmodern dilemma by once again asking ourselves what humanity actually
implies and what moral values we should cherish in our communities we might be forced
to reshape our biology and redefine our history to be able to function within
post-industrial capitalism.
