Thousands of scientific studies have examined the possible genetic causes underlying brain/mind disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, violence and criminality, and psychopathy. The more positive side of human behavior, with aspects such as altruism and empathy, has been studied much less – even though these are obviously much more valued from both transhumanist and typical humanist perspectives.
This week has brought several interesting articles about human enhancement. Although much of this technology is still in the research phase, some tech is beginning to make it to the market.
As Claude Lévi-Strauss famously stated, “animals are good to think.” For the last ten years, scholars have been thinking about animals very seriously, particularly about the place of non-human creatures vis-à-vis the “posthumanities”.
When I first heard that the entire left was selling products under the Occupy name my natural reaction was disgust. I am very critical of liberals because I have experienced their hypocrisy on a firsthand basis.
The universal forces of evolution have acted on organisms to create e.g. metazoan multicelluarity and its attendant specialization of cells, tissues, and organs. Similarly, human social roles are differentiated, and there are many specialized human “organs”.
There is no question that new technologies are allowing humans and animals to interact in more profound and novel ways. As a result, we are getting increasingly able to peer more deeply into the psyche of animals and gain a better understanding of how they perceive and engage in the world.
“Involuntary friendliness” is censorship of consciousness akin to removing all the unfriendly words from the dictionary, making it impossible to express unfriendly ideas, which is a premise of language control proposed in the book “1984″.
