For many years, I operated off the assumption that a “transhumanist” was referring to someone like this man who believes he is a reptile – and takes drastic steps to make himself appear the part. As time has gone on I have come to realize that “transhumanism” is something much more troubling and dark; something that impacts the most basic areas of our lives, including our families.
Alexis Tarkalson has spent much time researching the topic and expounds on its impact on our culture and society in what will be a Two-Part Series. Read on; I think you might discover some things and connections that you may not be aware of.
Promoting and protecting families,
Wendy Wixom, President
United Families International
Human 2.0 Is Here—And You Didn’t Even Notice (Part I)
by Alexis Tarkaleson
Deemed by the population at large to be an interest only to the most eclectic, the transhumanist movement and its associated values are sneaking right into the mainstream Western culture unbeknownst to those most vulnerable to its principles.
Meanwhile, we think of ourselves as smarter than to take seriously the outlandish tales of “mind uploading” or cyborg creation or the god-like “posthuman.” What we don’t realize is that the core values behind these crazy sci-fi ambitions are already at play in society.
Professor Susan B. Levin wrote an article titled, “The Less Visible Side of Transhumanism Is Dangerously Un-radical” and in it she outlines four major ways in which the transhumanist movement is heavily involved in the themes and beliefs of our culture today. Among these she mentions our obsession with anti-aging, perfectionism, as well as the tendency–intentional or not–to equate young with healthy (i.e. seeing aging as a disease), and looking to technology to solve these problems.
Levin hits on many important points, but it’s clear there are more than just four ways in which a transhumanist agenda is being delivered to us like the proverbial Trojan horse. Unfortunately, it is clear there are an additional four mechanisms pushing this extreme movement–or being pushed by this movement. They are as follows:
- gender ideology
- reproductive technology
- the abandonment of religion and family
- the diminishing value of human life and human relationships
What exactly is transhumanism?
The disciples (because truly that is the best way to label their fervent loyalty) of transhumanism promote the movement as a way for our species to rediscover our humaneness. They state it is a, “worldview that seeks a quality of life that brings about perpetual progress, self-transformation, practical optimism, visionary solutions, and critical thinking”, in essence, their cause is one we can all benefit from.
Max More, a prominent transhumanist, is credited for the modern definition of the word:
“Transhumanism is both a reason-based philosophy and a cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition by means of science and technology. Transhumanists seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values.” (Emphasis added)
The main ways they see us reaching the transhuman point are by utilizing, “information technology, computer science and engineering, cognitive science and the neurosciences, neural-computer interface research, materials science, artificial intelligence, the array of sciences and technologies involved in regenerative medicine and life extension, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology.”
Their more extreme expectations for the future are experiences such as being able to upload your consciousness to a computer by scanning your brain and living forever in the great cloud that is the digital world. Or freezing your body or brain and storing it in liquid nitrogen so you can later be revived when the technological process, which is dubbed cryonics, can be perfected. Additional tales are those of the ‘posthuman’, which is essentially a superhuman, that is so radically changed that technically they should no longer be considered human. The posthuman is what comes after the transhuman.
Gender Ideology and its transhumanist undercurrent
There is a core value which all transhumanists wholly believe to be cultural gospel. It bears the name of “morphological freedom.” Yet another term coined by Max More, morphological freedom is the unlimited freedom to transform your body in whatever way you choose. It is not to be borne that you will be hindered by the government or society in your journey of self-transformation.
Indeed, this freedom has been given the ultimate position of sacredness by its placement in the Transhuman Bill of Rights, “Sentient entities agree to uphold morphological freedom—the right to do with one’s physical attributes or intelligence whatever one wants so long as it does not harm others.” Transgender activists have acknowledged and applauded such a goal, and one such group praises the fact that under morphological freedom, medical-therapeutic authorization would no longer be necessary to access sex changes but instead you could do it on a whim. Another prominent activist for morphological freedom is Martine Rothblatt.
Rothblatt is a transgender woman, lawyer, entrepreneur (was the cofounder of Sirius Satellite Radio in 1990) and CEO of United Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company. With a net worth of one billion dollars, Rothblatt not only gives himself the label of transgender but tacks on transhumanist as well with no small amount of pride. His company is currently experimenting in pig cloning and genetic modification. He also engages in robotics and has created a head and shoulders robot replication of his wife, Bina.
He wrote the book “From Transgender to Transhuman” and in it reveals the intense connection between the two movements. He writes:
“The greatest catapult for humanity into a new species lies just beyond the event horizon of transgenderism. Based upon our rapidly accelerating ability to imbue software with human personality, autonomy and self-awareness, a movement of “transhumanists” have joined transgenderists in calling for the launch of Persona creatus. The basic transhumanist concept is that a human need not have a flesh body, just as a woman need not have a real vagina. Humanness is in the mind, just as is sexual identity.” (Emphasis added)
“Mind is deeper than matter” is the championing phrase to Rothblatt and the book is dedicated to unraveling the need for gender or sex; rather, it pushes for a virtual reality wherein the mind can float in gender limbo basically. It is his belief that the techno-colored stones of morphological freedom have been paved by the gift that is freedom of gender.
One of the main calls-to-action in the book is the demolition of sexual apartheid for it is an archaic institution in severe need of eradication. He writes:
“Computers and telecommunication are likely to play an important role in dismantling the apartheid of sex. It is much easier to disconnect ourselves from thousands of years of rigidly fixed notions about sex and gender when we telecommunicate than when we are face to face. Interacting with other people via computer networks is called “meeting in cyberspace.” Multisexuality can grow rapidly in cyberspace…In other words, in-person meetings reinforce sexual stereotypes.” (Emphasis added)
We see this as the more an adolescent spends time online and engaging in transgender communities, the more likely they are to accept harmful gender ideologies and experiment with it themselves. Rothblatt even goes so far as to extend this invitation, “Please feel free to send me a message in Second Life, where boys and girls will be everything between, and humans are in transition.”
For him, transhumanism and transgenderism are synonymous with one another, as both are the vehicle for the other, and he states, “Under an onslaught of science, secular ethics and software transgenderism, the once impenetrable fortress of sexual duality is falling apart.”
A radical transhumanist and the receiver of a great many conflicting opinions from the transhuman community is Fereidoun M. Esfandiary, who renamed himself FM2030 as a way to show his devotion to the cause of the future. Called the transhumanist movement’s “most soulful teacher” by Rothblatt and credited with being a pioneer in the field of transhuman studies, he wrote a book called “Are you a Transhuman?” in 1989.
Throughout the book are quizzes to test yourself on various topics, but at the end was a sort of cumulative test that answered the climatic question of, “Are you a transhuman?” You were closer to being transhuman if you were androgynous, only engaged in reproduction by asexual means (utilizing reproductive technology), had discarded allegiances to your family, and rejected religious beliefs, among other things.
Time and again, the forerunners for the transhumanist movement explicitly include diversity (transgenderism and varying sexual orientations) in their vision for the future. A community of believers in the right to modify yourself as you please will naturally ally themselves with the community of believers that is actively participating in the modification of their bodies.
Reproductive technologies are pushed by the transhuman agenda
Transhumanism finds its roots in the reproductive arena with birth control and abortion. Shulamith Firestone, although not a transhumanist, once said something transhumanists love to paraphrase, “The reproduction of the species by one sex for the benefit of both would be replaced by (at least the option of) artificial reproduction: children would be born to both sexes equally, or independently of either, however one chooses to look at it.” True female liberation could only come from reproductive technological advancement replacing their role as mothers and bearers of life. Cue transhumanism entering into the child-making business.
Repeated so often it is in danger of becoming a cliché, the reproductive technologies in use today are becoming steadily more and more dangerous to those involved. The speed and rate at which different methods are being utilized to have a baby is no longer bordering on unethical but is unethical. And the transhumanist movement only cries out, “More, more, more!”
We are headed straight toward a future where babies are not conceived; they are designed. Where their very eye color, dispositions, sex, and health are accounted for through not natural selection or God-given traits, but the choices of a scientist in a sterile lab.
The general public, Pew Research shows, is divided on the topic of gene manipulation, with 30% in support and 30% not in support. About four in ten (39%) are unsure, meaning that there could be a huge uptick in support or opposition. Of that same study, 73% said they would feel pressured to utilize such methods.
By means such as IVF, surrogacy, artificial wombs, gene manipulation, and sperm and egg donation, the future generations will be detached from all the benefits that come from a natural conception and birth. Orchid is an ambitious company seeking to screen embryos for birth defects and genetic predispositions. The founder and CEO, Noor Siddiqui, posted a video to X and said, “Sex is for fun, and embryo screening is for babies…It’s going to become insane not to screen for these things.”
Currently the transhuman movement is fighting off accusations of eugenic values because of their proclivity towards being able to design your baby and reject embryos deemed unfit. The World Transhuman Association, now renamed Humanity+, addresses and refutes this claim on their website, “What defines immoral eugenics is that it is coercive and done without regard for the well-being of its individual subjects.” In other words, they are in the business of moral eugenics. Tack the word moral onto anything and that makes it okay, one can only guess.
Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician, predicted the resurgence of eugenics in 1926 when he said, “Eugenics has, of course, more ambitious possibilities in a more distant future. It may aim not only at eliminating undesired types, but at increasing desired types.”
Euphemisms are the name of the game for proponents of artificial reproductive technologies, and they use pretentious phrasing like “selecting for gender” and “selecting for health” to cover up the fact they are destroying embryos that don’t check the boxes.
In defense to this indictment, Nick Bostrom, another leading thinker in the transhumanist community, argues, “Beyond this, one can argue that parents have a moral responsibility to make use of these methods, assuming they are safe and effective. Just as it would be wrong for parents to fail in their duty to procure the best available medical care for their sick child, it would be wrong not to take reasonable precautions to ensure that a child-to-be will be as healthy as possible.”
None of this can hold a candle to the startling creation of in vitro gametogenesis (IVG). A technology dating back to 2009 and traced to the Japanese scientists Katsuhiko Hayashi and Mitinori Saitou, it portends an incredible ability that, “genetically modifies human cells into viable egg and sperm—regardless of the person’s sex or age. This means that one man could father a child he is 100% related to or two women could be the genetic parents of the same child.”
Rather than a woman struggling with infertility needing to receive hormonal injections or participate in a medical procedure to reproduce, all that needs to take place is a swab of the inside of her cheek or merely her skin. The retrieved cells would then be modified to create an embryo. These cells can come from anyone of any age and sex.
This would be revolutionary in the artificial reproductive technology field as two people from a throuple (polyamorous relationship) can both give their cells to create an embryo, then the cells of that embryo can be joined with the cells of the third partner to create yet another embryo. Effectively this final embryo would be the grandchild of the initial two, and it would be the creation of all three partners. They already have a term for this: multiplex parenting.
This technology has been successful on mice, creating a pup from two males. As alarming as this all might seem, we can comfort ourselves that it has not been successful yet with humans, and is not expected to reach fruition for another ten years.
Despite this, Japanese and American scientists are working to make it successful for humans, and that would mean the death of even more embryos. With IVF, you are only guaranteed ten to fourteen embryos per cycle, but with IVG an unlimited number is available.
An extreme American transhumanist and political candidate, Zoltan Istvan, has predicted that traditional childbirth will be eradicated within 50 years. It’s the transhumanist belief that there is nothing to be gained from having your child traditionally, and instead they can only focus on amending Mother Nature’s chosen method of reproduction.
To be continued
Transhumanism has its hands in two of the most controversial issues today: transgenderism and reproductive technologies. Its core beliefs–the right to modify yourself in whichever way you choose and enhancing human capabilities–are reflected in our culture’s transgender mania and the assumed right to have a child.
Keep an eye out for part two of this examination of the transhumanist movement and its deeper implications. We will be analyzing how it affects religion and the family unit, the value of life and human relationships, and just how much money is assuring their vision for the future.
Alexis Tarkalson graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho with her degree in Political Science and an emphasis in American Government. She loves spending time with her husband and little boy, reading, hiking mountains, and learning new hobbies. The family unit is immensely important to her, as is protecting the associated rights, which is why she volunteers her time towards United Families International.