Human Flourishing Requires Transhumanist Flourishing
摘要
Technology is placing unprecedented power in human hands. Existing ethical frameworks are challenged by the arrival of profound new possibilities that transcend our prior intuitions. Human societies face urgent decisions regarding the development and deployment of technologies that are being combined and improved at a bewildering speed. What restrictions should be placed on the freedoms of individuals and corporations? Which actions should be discouraged or even forbidden? Which other actions should be accelerated? In which areas of life should a diversity of approaches be encouraged? And which guiding principles should be upheld as sacrosanct, despite all the disruption and turbulence? In answer to these questions, this chapter highlights an emerging framework of ethical principles described as “active transhumanism”. I argue that these principles will increase the likelihood that humanity can advance, within just a few decades, into a transhumanist state of sustainable superabundance, whilst avoiding many dangerous landmines that might explode, literally or metaphorically, along the way to that destination. In summary, the recommended principles are: radical opportunity, existential danger, human agency, no easy options, all-round wellbeing, individual sanctity, mutual welfare, science and data, openness, proactive vigilance, sustainability, consciousness, and diversity. All these principles are needed. Omitting one or more of them would result in a dangerous mix of ideas. Omissions might be motivated by a desire to champion human flourishing, but the only reliable route to sustainable human flourishing is via adopting the full insights of transhumanist flourishing.