CalvaryAdvisor
Transhumanism
Exploring the Post-Human Realm
"He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die."
Rev 13:15
The Word of God speaks of the time that we are living in more than any other time in Scripture. Due to emerging technologies throughout the scientific disciplines, mankind may no longer be considered "man" in the near future. New techniques that will enable us to stay healthy from the inside and manipulate our genetic makeup to allow man to transcend humanity, or as the late New School University Professor Fereidoun M. Esfandiary coined it, to become "Transhuman."
Imagine you know everything in the Oxford English Dictionary or on Wikipedia with all its contents of every book in digital form. When someone asks you where were you 20 years ago… on demand you recall with perfect accuracy every sensation and thought from that moment. Humanity’s fusion with technology will birth the Age of Enlightenment. God’s Word informs us in “the last generation would increase in knowledge and travel back and forth.” Daniel 12:4.
Robotics is a technology that most people are familiar with as the idea of intelligent machines is quite old. Aristotle once wrote: "If every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others ... if the shuttle could weave, and the pick touch the lyre, without a hand to guide them, chief workmen would not need servants" Numerous works of fiction and movies on this subject show how interested we are in making and using robots for a variety of applications.
Robots, like so many modern inventions, began life in science fiction novels. The modern robot was "invented" by a writer Czech Karel Capek, whose 1920 play, Rossum's Universal Robots, introduced the idea of the intelligent, humanoid, mechanical slave. In fact, the original concept of a robot was much older than this. In Greek mythology, Vulcan (the god of metal work) created mechanical servants, including intelligent female slaves and automated furniture. But it was Capek who not only coined the word from the Czech verb "to work" but defined what most of us think when we visualize a robot.
As technology advances the words of the prophet Daniels are jumping off the pages of the Bible during our life time. Let us explore how humans might change over the next 50 years. Robotics is the study and engineering of robots. The field of robotics is vast and has existed for hundreds if not thousands of years. It is only in the past 50 to 100 years that the field of robotics has advanced beyond science fiction into real, moving, thinking and acting robots… will we become Cyborgs?
This prototype "power jacket" from Matsushita Electric Industrial (parent of consumer electronics company Panasonic) is designed to help patients recover from partial paralysis. Sensors at the elbow and wrist allow a healthy arm to control the eight artificial muscles, which are powered by compressed air, on the paralyzed side. The 4-pound robotic jacket was on display Wednesday at the Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition in Tokyo.
The HAL Robotic Exoskeleton is a robot that attach to human body, it is to help people with degenerative muscle diseases, or accident victims to regain basic mobility. Its battery provides you 5 hours of working. Good news is that this Exoskeleton is going into production, priced at $4200.
The HULC exoskeleton The HULC (pronounced “Hulk”) is a completely un-tethered, hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton that provides users with the ability to carry loads up to 200 pounds for extended periods of time over diverse terrain. The design allows for full range of motion including deep squats, crawls and upper-body lifting.
These days nanotechnology seems to be the new frontier in science. It’s currently used to make “first generation” nanomaterials such as zinc oxide sun screen, cosmetics, surface coatings, food products, gecko tape, food packaging, clothing, tennis balls, disinfectants, household appliances, fuel catalysts and other new or enhanced products.
But “second generation” nanotechnological applications could include the production of nanomachines and nanorobots, both of which could be used in the human body in ways that are strictly science fiction in the present era. These technological marvels of the “extremely small” could one day be introduced into the human body to prevent disease, heal injuries, repair worn-out organs and, ultimately, perhaps extend the lifespan of people or even make them immortal.
Micro robots are being developed in many research centers, but this is the first time we’ve been able to create one that can crawl through the body, says Professor Moshe Shoham of the Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who headed the university’s research team. Prof. Shoham is the developer of the FDA-approved Spine Assist spine-surgery robot. Tiny machines may one day cure everything.
The robot is propelled by micro legs, a mechanism especially adapted to the movements of a tiny body through water. It is only a millimeter in diameter and 14 millimeters long, fitting on the tip of a finger, so it can get into the body’s smallest areas. It is powered by either actuation through magnetic force located outside the body, or through an on-board actuation system. Made of silicone and metal, it can be made completely biocompatible, so it could remain in the body much as a stent placed in arteries does.
At Beverly Hospital in Beverly, Massachusetts, Dr. Timothy Liesching visits with a patient in via robot on June 29th, 2009. Dr. Liesching himself is working from the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts, some 20 miles west.
Cooking robot "Okonomiyaki Robot" pours the ingredients for okonomiyaki (Japanese flour cake) over a heated cooking pan during its demonstration at the International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, June 9, 2009. The Okonomiyaki Robot, developed by Osaka-based robot system integrator Toyo Riki Co., can demonstrate the whole process of okonomiyaki cooking as stirring the ingredients in a bowl, pouring them on the heated cooking pan, turning the okonomiyaki over with spatulas and serves it on a plate and asking you what types of sauces and other condiments to go with it by using both arms.
A "cybernetic human" HRP-4C, designed to look like an average Japanese woman, walks in front of journalists during a demonstration in Tsukuba, near Tokyo, Monday, March 16, 2000.
People could be falling in love and having sex with robots in a few decades and even marrying them, according to a British artificial intelligence researcher.
David Levy, originally from London, has made the controversial forecasts about the future of human-robot relationships in his Ph.D thesis. In "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners", he argues that current trends in robotics and artificial intelligence mean the leap to humans and robots forming relationships is not far away.
Mr Levy also an International Master in chess, believes robots will soon appear so like humans in the way they look and act, in their personality and how they express emotions, that many people will fall in love with them. His predictions are based on his analysis of certain trends and on what he sees as the inevitability of how they will continue in the future.
One trend looked at was how the objects of human affection have slowly expanded beyond other humans.
As you can see… this technology is real and moving fast and people need to pay attention to what is going on in the field of Transhumanism. The renowned Cambridge physicist the late Stephen Hawking also believed humans need an upgrade. "In contrast with our intellect, computers double their performance every 18 months," Hawking told the German news magazine Focus in 2001. "So the danger is real that they could develop intelligence and take over the world. We must develop as quickly as possible technologies that make possible a direct connection between brain and computer, so that artificial brains contribute to human intelligence rather than opposing it."
Kevin Warwick, a cybernetics professor at the University of Reading in England imagines a day when humans will speak to each other not in words but in thought. A time when people will be able to upgrade their own intelligence and even take vacations in faraway lands just by downloading them directly to their brains.
To Warwick, this is no science-fiction fantasy. This is the reality of the not-too-distant future… a time when humans have brain implants connecting them to the vastly superior intellectual powers of computers. He believes this cyborg evolution is inevitable and vital to our very survival as a species. "If we don't, the alternative is to have intelligent machines running everything. I don't really fancy that," the scientist says in a phone interview from his home near London. "But this alternative, I see as quite a positive alternative: humans staying in control of what is going on, even though we have to become cyborgs to do it." Warick is involved in ambitious and dangerous experiments in the quest to bond man and machine.
Scientists are making significant breakthroughs in getting computers to interpret thought. In March 2002, the journal Nature detailed the work of scientists at Brown University in Rhode Island who implanted electrodes in the brains of monkeys that allowed the primates to move a computer cursor just by thinking about it.
As surprising and revolutionary as this seems, scientists have had some success with humans. In Atlanta, researchers at Emory University have helped a man severely disabled by a stroke communicate by having his brainwaves power a computer cursor. Three years ago, a neurosurgeon implanted a pair of glass-encased electrodes in Vietnam veteran John Ray's brain. The implant eavesdropped on his brain activity and, together with sensors taped to the shoulder and above the eyebrow reading the electrical activity of muscle contractions, allowed him to slowly spell out words with the power of thought.
Scientists in Australia have developed a "mind switch" which allows people to activate electrical devices - turn on a light, power up a radio - by thinking. At a demonstration in England last year, its developers showed how electrodes attached to the outside of the skull monitor brain activity and turn on the appliances when the voltage of the signals reaches certain levels.
Ashley Craig, a neuroscientist at the University of Technology, Sydney, who helped develop the switch, says it is able to control any electrical device. Disabled patients have been able to turn on the television and even switch channels. Like other research looking at harnessing the power of the brain, his experiments are aimed at improving the lives of the disabled. In Canada, a team at the University of Victoria is working on a device that it hoped would allow teenager Claire Minkley to use a computer by brainwaves.
Cyborg technology is a revolutionary development in rehabilitation medicine. It allows the brain and nervous system to manipulate specially engineered devices that help people regain the use of impaired body function. Once a dream of science fiction, this revolutionary technology is now becoming a reality.
Getting the most attention is "neuro-engineering," which enables messages from the brain to be transmitted to machines. Cochlear implants for the deaf have been developed for children, and even for adults who have lived in the deaf culture all their lives. Prosthetic arms can now replace lost limbs and artificial eyes can help the blind. We meet a man from Tennessee who lost his arms but can now perform activities using his bionic arms. A blind man wears glasses that are connected to a computer which he wears on his waist, allowing him to see the shapes of objects. Directly connected to the brain, these prosthetics and devices are truly life enhancing.
Deep brain stimulation can help stop the violent shaking of victims of Parkinson's Disease. One of neuro-engineering's future goals is to control emotions and feelings. It is already being used to treat brain disorders such as pathological depression. We hear from two professors from the State University of New York and Duke University who discuss their cutting-edge research.
An electrode array implant could be used to emit an alternate waveform when spirals are observed in order to prevent a seizure. This is not far removed from the action of cardiac pacemakers and their activity when an arrhythmia is detected. An electronic brain implant would remove the necessity for physical re-sectioning or removal or a portion of the brain. Also, due to the small size of the electrode array, it is possible that it could be packaged or rolled and inserted into the skull in a less invasive manner.
The sophistication of biotechnology and the availability of better materials and precision manufacturing will let us make systems so small and effective that even everyday people elect to implant them. These cybernetic systems will greatly improve our everyday experience, from letting us hear a wider range of ambient sounds, to viewing millions of stars rather than just a few thousand, to making us more resistant to accidents. They will improve the overall economy by enabling us do more work in less time for better pay. In the long term, enhanced humans may get a bigger portion of the economic pie than un-augmented humans, but the pie itself will become so much larger than even the poorest humans of tomorrow will be better off than the wealthiest of today. Or is it possible there may be a more sinister motive behind this entire technological breakthrough.
The founders of Transhumanism, were highly educated and wealthy individuals of primarily British and European descent. The term 'Transhumanism was coined by biologist Julian Huxley in 1957, who defined it as "man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature." Julian Huxley was the brother of Aldous Huxley, who you may know was the author of the very famous book, "Brave New World", which is a vision of the future that most people view as "The New World Order" (along with the book "1984", by George Orwell) – a depressing future police-state world in which a one world government uses technology, such as surveillance cameras, psychological warfare (propaganda) and brutal military/police forces to control everyone and everything in this dystopian, fictional world. These individuals were what we would call people of the elite, ruling class of society, and their views were absolutely elitist, if not outright totalitarian and fascist in nature.
Transhumanists believe they are working toward a new and improved existence, leaving everything we have known in the dust bin of history, welcoming a new “Golden Age” of superbeings. They want to become an entirely new species, transcending what we are as humans, using radically advanced technology to achieve their goals. Let’s look at just a few of the primary concepts and goals of Transhumanism.
One of the primary concepts of the Transhumanist agenda is “The Hive Mind”. The Hive Mind, or Singularity, that they are working toward, will occur, they believe, when technology exists that will allow humans to “upload their minds” to an artificial memory device, a sort of global hard drive, so that the combined intelligence of all our minds will create this new super-intelligence that is the Singularity, or Hive Mind.
Transhumanist ideas of becoming gods and having eternal life through technology certainly display an extreme level of vanity. Not just the simple human vanity of wearing nice clothes and putting on makeup to look good… but to BE gods therefore, rejecting and replacing God, entirely. This is the Luciferian Doctrine… “You are all your own highest authority.”
The ability to engineer life is going to spark a revolution that will dwarf the industrial and digital revolutions, says Juan Enriquez, a writer, investor, and managing director of Excel Venture Management. Thanks to new genomics technologies, scientists have not only been able to read organisms' genomes faster than ever before, they can also write increasingly complex changes into those genomes, creating organisms with new capabilities. Juan Enriquez further states: The new human species is one that begins to engineer the evolution of viruses, plants, animals, and itself. As we do that, Darwin's rules get significantly bent, and sometimes even broken. By taking direct and deliberate control over our evolution, we are living in a world where we are modifying stuff according to our desires.
Richard Seed a nuclear physicist from Chicago and transhumanist stated: “We are going to become Gods, period… but if you are going to interfere with me becoming a God, you’re going to have trouble. There’ll be warfare.”
The Word of God points out that in the time just prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ the world will be characterized by unparalleled human knowledge and arrogance. Humanity will not only launch a spiritual rebellion against God, but an actual physical confrontation between themselves and the King of kings, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Himself warned that at the time of His coming conditions would be as they were in the days of Noah. (Matthew 24:37) And just as the demons mixed with humans in the days before the flood, so too they will mingle their seed with humanity in the days before the Second Coming. If the reason for destroying the world via the flood was the mingling of the demons and humans which grieved God’s heart in that their thoughts and actions were continually wicked; this same reason the Lord will again judge the world may be due to the demons once again mingling themselves with the seed of men.
King Solomon was known for his extraordinary wisdom and he wrote down some of our Lord’s wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes 1:9 in the King James Version states: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun”. For those that have trouble with the Kings’ English here it is the New International Version Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”.
You may be wondering how this applies to this modern day genome science. It simply applies because it has been done before with cross specie manipulation during the days of the Nephilim. The Hebrew word נְפִילִים (nephilim) mean fallen ones.
These are the fallen angels or “Watchers” back in Enoch’s time; human genome corruption is exactly why God flooded the earth in Noah’s time. It’s true, Noah and his family were the only humans left on planet Earth with an uncorrupted gene pool; everything else had been corrupted by the fallen angels, the watchers, yes they had done it all, including plants, animals, birds, fish, and humans. We are just repeating history as our Lord Jesus stated in Matthew 24:36-38; 36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man”.
The apostle Paul foresaw this conflict almost 2,000 years ago: “For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed – the one who brings destruction. He will exalt himself and defy every god there is and tear down every object of adoration and worship. He will position himself in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
Could this technology allow Satan to create one from his own seed as Genesis 3:15 predicts? “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers…” According to the publication Mail Online (dailymail.co.uk), scientists have succeeded in creating male eggs and female sperm. The article is titled boldly: “No men OR women needed: Scientists create sperm and eggs from stem cells.” It goes on to say: Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means, and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies.
The science also raises the possibility of ‘male eggs’ made from men’s skin and ‘female sperm’ from women’s skin. This would allow gay couples to have children genetically their own,”
Mankind is racing towards changing the very image that we were created in to disconnect us from God forever. Dr. McTernan describes very well what is going on in the mind of the evolutionist and the path that they are on.
The natural progression is to enhance the human race by sharpening the senses. If the DNA is now understood and can be manipulated, why not increase the eyesight and hearing? With the addition of eagle DNA man could see like an eagle For strength the introduction of gorilla DNA could give super strength, and for speed how about ostrich DNA!
The evolutionists believe they are rapidly advancing evolution by manipulating the DNA. Many scientists believe they are enhancing evolution by improving man. Because, through evolution, man has no fear of God and thus no restraints on tampering with DNA, any attempts to stop this tampering will be met with cries from the scientists. He then states what he believes God’s response to man’s actions will be once man corrupts his image with that of animals which happened in Noah’s day.
This luciferian principle has been in the making now for many millennia’s. From the promise Satan gave to Eve in the garden of becoming like God to today’s promise of becoming immortal by the Transhumanist is just over the horizon it will be put into play... "He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die." Rev 13:15
This world has never experienced a time that it finds itself in today, and a time that is being threatened to get much, much worse in a biblical perspective. What started with genetically modified crops then led to transgenic animals, is poised now for application to humans according to the JASONS, the celebrated scientists on the U.S. Pentagon's most prestigious scientific advisory panel, The Brookings Institution, the influential, and most quoted not to mention the most trusted think tank in the world, and dozens of other government and public policy research institutions. The date they have set, after which the revolution begins in 2012.
In closing, as a proponent of both science and theology I am amazed by the God given abilities that humanity has achieved and also deeply sadden by the thought of humanities arrogance.
We are rapidly coming to the End of the Church Age, the Rise of Transhumanism, and the Coming of the Ubermenchen (Superman) who will herald Satan's Final Assault on the Creation of God.
Do you have this promise? "Because you have kept the word of my patience (waiting upon the Lord in obedience and faith), I also will keep you from the hour of temptation (trial of testing during great adversity), which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Revelation 3:10
Maranatha!