Transhumanism is the belief that human minds and bodies can be made better with artificial enhancements, and all the research and practices dedicated to that belief.
This debate is not to be focused on people who use technology to replace lost parts of their bodies or brain functions, but on people who willingly choose to replace functional body parts with artificial ones for enhancement purposes, and on those companies that make it possible.
Questions for debate:
From your religious point of view, is it morally and/or ethically acceptable to change the way a person was born? Are human enhancement practices "Playing God"?
Is this in any other way immoral or unethical?
Transhumanism
Moderator: Moderators
Transhumanism
Post #1[center]
© Divine Insight (Thanks!)[/center]
"There is more room for a god in science than there is for no god in religious faith." -Phil Plate.
© Divine Insight (Thanks!)[/center]
"There is more room for a god in science than there is for no god in religious faith." -Phil Plate.
Post #2
Sounds like you've been playing too much Deus Ex. 
Artificial enhancements would have to advance quite a bit for me to be more open minded about it.
Right now nothing sees better than real eyes, and nothing feels better than real limbs, etc.
That said...
We already augment our bodies by wearing glasses, getting laser-eye surgery, getting liposuction, artificial organs, getting immunization injections to enhance our immune systems, etc.
One could argue that we are playing "God" already by going to the doctor to fight diseases, or any other number of things.
But, that said, when you take perfectly good human body parts and organs and replace them with some futuristic artificial enhancement -- that seems wrong because such technology should be given to the plethora of people who actually need limbs, organs, and even brain tissue substitutes for brain damaged people.
There also becomes a point where one crosses the threshold from being human to being a cyborg, to being a completely artificial machine.
How long will it be before technology will advance to the point of creating artificial brains, and even artificial humans? Since these things would actually be designed, they could turn out to be far better than human beings -- smarter, stronger -- kinder?
I digress. I do think that artificial augmentations would be a more moral choice compared to fiddling around with human DNA in an effort to make "super-humans"
Artificial enhancements would have to advance quite a bit for me to be more open minded about it.
Right now nothing sees better than real eyes, and nothing feels better than real limbs, etc.
That said...
We already augment our bodies by wearing glasses, getting laser-eye surgery, getting liposuction, artificial organs, getting immunization injections to enhance our immune systems, etc.
One could argue that we are playing "God" already by going to the doctor to fight diseases, or any other number of things.
But, that said, when you take perfectly good human body parts and organs and replace them with some futuristic artificial enhancement -- that seems wrong because such technology should be given to the plethora of people who actually need limbs, organs, and even brain tissue substitutes for brain damaged people.
There also becomes a point where one crosses the threshold from being human to being a cyborg, to being a completely artificial machine.
How long will it be before technology will advance to the point of creating artificial brains, and even artificial humans? Since these things would actually be designed, they could turn out to be far better than human beings -- smarter, stronger -- kinder?
I digress. I do think that artificial augmentations would be a more moral choice compared to fiddling around with human DNA in an effort to make "super-humans"
