A very interesting piece, Deion, and I'm glad that the content of your speech is now available in written form! The area of technology is one where you vastly outpace me, and I will have to consider it further (perhaps, weather permitting, on a walk outside away from my computer). I definitely agree that there is a dangerous disdain in our culture for being human, and you give me ample reason to think that our current approach to technology is deeply linked to it. Of course, the end of your piece, discussing He who "did not count equality with G-d a thing to be grasped" but became man that we might be drawn into Him (Who, notably, maintains His human nature and body in Heaven, and for the rest of eternity), rings particularly true. In a way, it connects to your piece from two weeks ago about euthanasia; in Christ we find reason for all our human frailty, because He looked at it and not only said that it was good for us to be human, but for He Himself to become human.
Wow! What an interesting and stimulating essay, Deion. I'm struggling, though, with one aspect of it. You say: "When we’re steeped in a religious mode of being, we’re content just to be human". I'm not so sure about that. Couldn't the secular transhumanists reproach you with the idea that the ORIGINAL transhumanists were...Christians! Isn't Christianity often about "transcending" our material, physical, biological nature, and living on a higher spiritual plane? Let's say I become a monk and live in a cloister my whole life. Haven't I sacrificed elements of my humanity -- like the chance to have children -- for the ethereal, spiritual benefits of living closer to God? I'm not saying such a choice is wrong, but it's not especially HUMAN. It's...superhuman? Transhuman? I guess what I'm saying is that the tension between accepting and rejecting various elements of humanity has always been part of the human condition. Maybe the dilemmas posed by modern tech aren't so revolutionary?
A very interesting piece, Deion, and I'm glad that the content of your speech is now available in written form! The area of technology is one where you vastly outpace me, and I will have to consider it further (perhaps, weather permitting, on a walk outside away from my computer). I definitely agree that there is a dangerous disdain in our culture for being human, and you give me ample reason to think that our current approach to technology is deeply linked to it. Of course, the end of your piece, discussing He who "did not count equality with G-d a thing to be grasped" but became man that we might be drawn into Him (Who, notably, maintains His human nature and body in Heaven, and for the rest of eternity), rings particularly true. In a way, it connects to your piece from two weeks ago about euthanasia; in Christ we find reason for all our human frailty, because He looked at it and not only said that it was good for us to be human, but for He Himself to become human.
Wow! What an interesting and stimulating essay, Deion. I'm struggling, though, with one aspect of it. You say: "When we’re steeped in a religious mode of being, we’re content just to be human". I'm not so sure about that. Couldn't the secular transhumanists reproach you with the idea that the ORIGINAL transhumanists were...Christians! Isn't Christianity often about "transcending" our material, physical, biological nature, and living on a higher spiritual plane? Let's say I become a monk and live in a cloister my whole life. Haven't I sacrificed elements of my humanity -- like the chance to have children -- for the ethereal, spiritual benefits of living closer to God? I'm not saying such a choice is wrong, but it's not especially HUMAN. It's...superhuman? Transhuman? I guess what I'm saying is that the tension between accepting and rejecting various elements of humanity has always been part of the human condition. Maybe the dilemmas posed by modern tech aren't so revolutionary?