http://bigthink.com/articles/10-human-body-modifications-you-can-expect-in-the-next-decade
"Transformative technologies have always been accompanied by optimistic and pessimistic visions of how they will change humanity and society. Socrates worried that the invention of writing would have a deletrious effect on the memories of young Greeks who, he predicted, would become : the hearers of many things and will have learned nothing."
"But it is clear that we are heading in a direction that has no broader comparison in terms of it's impact on humanity as a species itself. For instance take Zoltan Istvan. He wants to live forever. Not in the metaphysical sense (books or memories) but in a very real, practical sense. And he believes technology will soon make it possible. Zoltan is planning to upload his brian and all its billions of unique synaptic pathways to a computer server. He's part of a growing community of people who believe technology can make us physically, intellectually, even morally better. They call themselves transhumanists. Transhumanists seek the continued evolution of humans beyond its current form."
Now meet John Zerzan. "He's one of the world's most famous anarcho-primitivist who believe that technology is at the root of many, if not all, of today's social problems. He wants to jettison Facebook, computers, telephones, electricity, steam-powered engines and more. He believes technology tends to distract us from our natural state, pushing us further away from what it really is to be free humans."
For this post I want you to research Transhumanist and Anarcho-Primitivism and inform yourself on the debate. Then write about which side of the debate do you find yourself. Provide a link to one of your sources that you found convincing.
Credit: The Dark Net, Inside the Digital Underworld. By Jamie Barlett
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Distraction: noun 1 . a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else. "the company found passe...
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I am on the side of the Trans-humanists, though I do understand the Anarcho-Primitivist view of things. There are thousand upon thousands of people with injuries and disabilities. By using technology, we are able to give a limb-less person a replacement. People who don't have 20/20 vision can now see better than that. It's important to give people what they never had and deserve. Studies show that we feel smarter using technology which causes what is called "The Placebo Effect", where you think something is helping so you actually are helped because your brain wants it to. There are many predictions of an apocalypse or "the end of the world". I believe that with these technological advances, we can survive them or prevent them. Anarcho-Primitivists, though, believe that the technology will take over and cause these things. I don't think this is possible because we code the tech aids and some follow the mind of the user. In conclusion, I think that technology is a great help to all.
ReplyDeletehttps://whatistranshumanism.org/
Technology has both advantages and disadvantages that can be beneficial or dangerous to the human race. As technology is constantly evolving, so are we, and with the help of these advances, society can be changed for better or worse. I am leaning on the side of the Transhumanists because they argue that technology is gradually making us evolve beyond our current physical and mental limitations. That might seem like a bad thing, but it's not as bad as dropping everything and going back to cavemen. Anarcho-Primitivism wants to go back to the time before technology basically didn't exist. Unfortunately, this is not a good idea especially for those who are disabled or ill and need the advances of medicine and prosthetics, for example. Therefore, I am siding with the Transhumanists.
ReplyDeletehttps://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nzeqak/transhumanism-versus-anarcho-primitivism
Trans-humanists and Anarcho-Primitivists both have valid points in the subject of technology. Technology can be defined as machine things as we have today, but it also means advances in learning such as the fire made by the cavemen. I feel like I neither side nor disagree with both sides. I feel like Zerzan is taking it to the extreme when he says that we need to go back to hunting and gathering because writing is a technology and without writing things down, how will we remember and learn our mistakes from the past? On the other hand, we are becoming a tech based world, but one day we will be so advanced that the only thing we could do is to essentially "go back in time." However, with trans-humanists we have the cures, vaccines, treatments for illnesses like influenza. I am directly on the fence in the case of this matter.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/a-stanford-university-deb_b_6186982.html