In his report, Dr. Kreig talked about the origins of transhumanism and its interrelationships with other scientific trends. One of the related trends is eugenics, which in one way or another, considers ways to change humanity. The lecturer claims that this branch is the self-direction of human evolution, so in fact, it is the right goal to create a method by which people can influence human evolution in the future.
In this context, the Darwinian theory, supported in the 19th century by Darwin and later other scientists, such as Herbert Spencer, does not lose its relevance. He coined the term “survival” and created a social movement called social Darwinism, which considered the issues of weeding out parts of humanity that were not necessary for evolution. The same thoughts began to spread within the framework of eugenics in the early 20th century in the form of various conferences and meetings.
The issues of population control and population selection were raised in the Washington media, talking about 15 million people who should be left as the best part of evolution. Obviously, this movement gained great popularity during the time of Hitler’s Germany. Nevertheless, by the 1960s of the 20th century, the movement began to go underground. The ideas of transhumanism in a modern format were touched upon by Stephen Hawking. He talks about the emergence of a superman, that is, a new race of people, which will arise as a result of a sharp evolutionary leap when people begin to make corrections to their own DNA.
In place of individual DNA sections, mechanical-electronic components can be integrated, which can gradually completely displace DNA from the genome, just as DNA displaces early life forms. First, it is necessary to eliminate known genetic defects for which single genes are responsible, which can be identified and corrected. Other human characteristics, such as intelligence, will not be easy to upgrade because gene complexes are responsible for these qualities, and it will be more difficult to find them, as well as to determine the connections between them.
Transhumanists say that it is good for all of us to reduce social determinism and the division of society. The world can be different and qualitatively new if people are freed from gender, age, and other labels. Humanity has a chance to enter a new, freer era, but for this, it is necessary to abandon the proclamation of its own exclusivity in the evolutionary plan. Transhumanism pushes society to recognize or at least admit the possibility of things that have always been considered impossible. If this happens, there may be a place in the structure of evolution for robots that will occupy their own stage and have evolutionary self-sufficiency.
The main reason why it is not possible to do this in today’s society is, for the most part, the lack of popularity of the ideas of transhumanism. Many do not even know approximately what it is, and those who are familiar with the term superficially talk about insulting their ancestors. The task of scientists is to raise public concern about issues of transhumanism and its insufficient prevalence. This scientific trend is inextricably linked with the study of DNA and can influence fundamental discoveries in the field of genetic engineering and the study of mutations. Science can afford to go beyond the rational, and only in this case is there an opportunity to get a completely different, more interesting continuation of human history.