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Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism - illustration
Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism - illustration

John Lennox: Transhumanism Is Not a New Idea

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In his just-published book, 2084, Oxford mathematician John Lennox points out that, in the 20th century, both the Communists and the Nazis had attempted transhumanist projects. For example,

In the former Soviet Union, attempts were made to use science to create a “New Man.” In 1924, Leon Trotsky wrote: “Man will make it his purpose to master his own feelings, to raise his instincts to the heights of consciousness, to make them transparent, to extend the wires of his will into hidden recesses, and thereby to raise himself to a new plane, to create a higher social biologic type, or, if you please, a superman.” What that program of eugenics involved is explained by historian Andrey Zubov as cited by Sergei Gogin: “The Soviet man” evolved as a result of a deeply negative selection process, whereby “the best, most honest and most cultured people were either killed or prevented from having a family and raising children by exile or imprisonment, whilst the worst sort of people, namely those who took part in the creation of this new form of man or silently supported the new authorities, could ‘be fruitful and multiply.’ ”

John Lennox, “https://evolutionnews.org/2020/07/transhumanisms-challenge-to-humanity/” at Evolution News and Science Today:

He fears that the likely outcome of all transhumanist attempts to re-engineer humanity will be the extinction of humanity.

Read more of the excerpt, reprinted by permission, at at Evolution News and Science Today


You may also enjoy: John Lennox: How AI raises the stakes for all of us. AI could cause more serious problems than nuclear energy. You cannot build a bomb in your bedroom but you could hack your way around the world.

Exclusive!: John Lennox answers our questions about AI in 2084. He doubts that AI, now or then, will out-think humans. Our real worry is how it will be used.

and

2084 vs 1984: The difference AI could make to Big Brother Lennox: Whether the surveillance AI technology enables is an advantage is something that we need to seriously think about before we’re engulfed by it. (A podcast with Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks)


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John Lennox: Transhumanism Is Not a New Idea