New Genesis Bunker Files.8871.The Kalladan Hierarchy and Kalladon Empire

Friday, March 21, 2008
New Genesis Bunker Files.8871.The Kalladan Hierarchy and Kalladon Empire.
New Genesis Bunker Files.8871.The Kalladan Hierarchy and Kalladon Empire.

Colonel Gideon Fate-New Genesis Bunker Files.8871.The Kalladan Hierarchy and Kalladon Empire.

The Kalladon Empire. By Joseph Gilbert Thompson and Carl Edward Thompson.



Origins.



The Kalladan have their origins, in several places. An ancient class of super human super warriors, existing within the Old (Maveric) Universe, that may began upon the ancient homeworld of Atlantis. Various similar super soldier programs such as the Kalladan or Kalladon Program and the Alpha-Omega Warrior (Omega Warrior) Program existed there as well other future and alternate temporal worldlines. There mythology, scientific knowledge and scientific technology, spread throughout those new world-sometimes possibly by way of the New Genesis Bunkers Time Vault-a kind of transdimensional safehouse/storage warehouse, for various items, data files and so forth to be stored future use, could have been spread many alternate timelines this way and reproduced such repeated ideologies and scientific know how all over temporal space. Several so called Super Soldiers Alpha Omega Warriors Programs upon Earth, within it’s distant past-the Thug or Thuggee Cult, in India, Korea, various terrorist cell group, such as the Kaladan and so forth, also gave rise to the Kalladon/Kalladan Cult and thus incorporated their own ideologies, cultural costumes, ways of dress and so forth into the various Kalladon culture..

Ancient Kalladon Mythology.



The Kalladon or Kalladan; are also an ancient myth about a super race of warriors-a mixture of Asian, Northern American ,Central and Southern American, Celtic ,Germanic, Arabic, Nordic ,African, Mid Eastern, East European,Slavic races and so forth, to bonded or combined into a single group or racial mixture or mixtures-as the ultimate super soldier race known. They created to wage a holy war upon the lesser and ungodly races of the world or worlds, as means to clean, teach and rule authority over, as a way to show the one, true god, or gods and show him, their worthy of honor and right to exist.



The Kalladon Mythology, felt that if all the various and different races from various parts of the world-Europe, the mid and far east, upper and lower east, various part of the Americas and so on, many whom bred perfect warrior class systems, an ultimate or Alpha Omega Warrior could be realized.



Ancient Kalladon Physic.

The Kalladan possessed physical strength and analytical capabilities superior to ordinary humans.Kalladon Supersoldiers ,like their rivals the Alpha Omega Warriors are usually heavily augmented, either through eugenics (especially selective breeding), genetic engineering, cybernetic implants, drugs, brainwashing, an extreme training regime (usually with high casualty rates, and often starting from birth or a young age), or other scientific and super scientific means or a combination of any of those. The Kalladon creators of such programs were viewed often as mad scientists or stern military men, depending on the emphasis, as their programs will typically go past ethical boundaries in the pursuit of science or military might.But the Kalladon Leaders believed fanatically,that they followed the rightious path and will of God or the Gods-perhaps guided by various backings finacially and phychologically by such outside forces as the Shaitanus House Clans,Karza House Clans,Moondhar House Clan and so forth. The Kalladan posseess superior strength, endurance, agility, speed, reflexes, and durability are at the highest limits of natural human potential.

The various Kalladon formulas,based upon the Atlantean medical science,superhuman enhancements-such their own Omega-Warrior Programs enhances all of their metabolic functions and prevents the build-up of fatigue poisons in his muscles, giving him endurance far in excess of an ordinary human being. This accounts for many of the Kalladon extraordinary feats, including bench pressing 1100 pounds (500kg) , running a mile (1.6 km) in little more than a minute.[69] Furthermore, the Kalladon enhancements are the reason why they are able to survive being frozen in suspended animation for decades,in hibernation tubes,without special equiptment and regerative medical proceedures.. The Kalladon are also unable to become intoxicated by low amounts of alcohol and other similar substances,that effect normal human beings quickly. the Kalladon are immune to many diseases, as he also heals faster than normal humans. The Kalladanwere trained using various psychological conditioning,as well normal super soldier training,to make the perfect warrior in combat.

.Some Kalldon Warriors used a chemical-enhanced soldier gifted with incredible speed, reflexes, and strength from a constant supply of performance-enhancing drugs and substances, but with a severely shortened lifespan; and made them Crazy,in battle and peacetime.These super soldier-boosts", illegal genetic and biochemical alterations which would boost combat abilities,were used by many soldier-some dishonorable Omega Warriors as well,but mostly allowed by the Kalladon Authority,to help fight against the enemy during the Great Kalladon War and the long Terrorist Kalladon War afterwards-until the Great Kalladon Exidus off Earth and toward those distant Santuary Worlds beyond the stars. These Kalladon Warriors,often were of the Mid Eastern and Far Eastern variety,who often fought with a bisserker rage in battle,until either subdoed by far many opponents,some sort chemical knockout device or weapon or were eventually killed in battle.



Mentally, the Kalladon battle experience and training make them an expert tactician and an excellent field commander, with their teammates frequently deferring to their orders in battle. the Kalladon reflexes and senses are also extraordinarily keen. The Kalladon are masters of multiple martial arts, including boxing, jujutsu, aikido, and judo, combined with their gymnastic ability into their own unique fighting style with advanced pressure-point fighting. Years of practice with the Kalladon indestructible Combat shields,Combat Stun Baton,Combat Billyclub and other such hand weapons make it practically an extension of the Kalladon Warriors own body, and they are able to aim and throw it with almost unerring accuracy.

The Kalladon,also,like members of the Omega Warriors Corps,The Legion of Time Sorcerer,Temporal Guard or Temporal Guardian Coprs,Thuvian Rangers,Terran Federation Rangers and so on,also employed cybernetic implants to enhance their own superhuman ablities-super vision,super reflexes,super hearing,super mentaly abilities.Atlantium Ceramic like bones and skeleton structure,help posses far physical strenthe and endurence-even survive any kind of broken limb,that heal by way of the Atlantean Renerative or Healing Factors,in their blood or organic systems.The Hypermentation or Hypermind,would assist the Kalladon Superior Intellect and booste mental preformance into superhuman levels.Cybernetic Implants and Tactical Combat Contacts,enhanced vision abilities and gave the Kalladon Heads Up Tactical Displays,in combat and peacetime situation. Cybernetic Implants and Audio or Comlink Tactical Combat Earjacks or Telepathic Implants,enhanced healing abilities and gave the Kalladon Communication Tactical Data Reports,in combat and peacetime situation.

Note;The only true difference between the Omega Warriors and the Kalladon is the difference is specific training techneques and certain differences in cultural,political,social and religious ideologies present within the Western and free World and the Kalladon Occupied nations and territories.How well each super warrior or soldier is trained or not trained and human enhancemence they given,also depends on what and whom is operating the program or government their actions by the local political mechine or regime.Their is no,this group gets that and those other guys don’t.Those retarded and silly,nieve superhero comic notions,only certain comic book superhero boobs believe in,and has little or nothing to do either Omega Warrior or Kalladon traing or human genetic or cybernetic enhancements..







It is speculated that the Kalladan ,come various separate super warrior programs is from "the northern India area" and "probably a Sikh class system,certain Nazi or Nationalist Socialist Parties,of Tautonic Germany,certain Middle Eastern terroristic cells,like the Kalaban. al Qaeda Armed Islamic Group,African Continent- RWANDA Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR), a.k.a. Interahamwe, Former Armed Forces ,The United States Ku Klutz Klan, certain militant groups fractured off from with European Union, such the Irish Revolutionary Army, United States Black Panthers, and so forth. The Kalladan Warriors pride themselves share the ancestry with the Celts, the Vikings, the Russian Cossacks, the Asian Mongols, the North American Indians-Native Americans, American Mountaineers,Persians, Egyptians warriors and so forth.,"[3].Note.

The subjects come from a wide variety of racial origina from all over the worls,from various points in the United States of America ,Europe,the Mid East and Asia.

Scientists used a selective breeding program combined with genetic engineering to achieve their aims. They were roughly five times stronger than the average person, their lung efficiency was 50 percent greater than normal, and they had an increased capacity for learning. What the scientists failed to anticipate was that creating a superior race meant creating a superior ambition; the "supermen" felt that their advanced abilities gave them the right to rule the rest of humanity.The Kalladon possess superhuman strength, speed, durability, coordination, and healing rate,similar to other Special Forces Warrior Class Systems,such as the Omega Warriors,the Legion of Time Sorcerers,the Temporal Guard and so forth,

Since many of the 20th Century Kalladan based Military Dictatorships,in Nazi Germany,Japan,Korea,Cuba,the Mid East and so forth,the surviving major Kalladan leaders,formed the The Kalladan Hierarchy,to act as a central intelligence agency,for all various other Kalladan operations.



The Kalladan Hierarchy-an Counter-intelligence agency,with ties to the Kalladan Terrorist Cell Organizations and other related operations..



The Kalladan Hierarchy-an Counter-intelligence agency,with ties to the Kalladan Terrorist Cell Organizations,.besides Terrorism,the Kalladan provide a variety of other operations into Revenge ,assassination and Extortion of various governments,organazations and indidviduals.,if they see fit. The Kalladan operate an anti-spy agency,to locate ,hunt down and assassinate enemy spies.Some operationa include providing false intelligence to those spies to act as a counter intelligence operation..



It was there then. during the Third World War, during the free worlds war with the Kalladon –a evil Super Warriors, opposite to the Omega Warriors- Sgt.Gideon Fate, teamed up the men and women ,he later. Assembles as his team of adventurers.



The name Kalladan or Kaladan. also sometimes spelled Kaladon or Kalladon, comes the Kaladan river, within the Kaladan Valley.



During ancient times, the Kalladon or Kalladan, in one form or another existed. No one is sure, if these other Kalladon/Kalladan Warriors, appearing within the many Multiple New (Maveric) Multiverse, are descended from these ancient Kalladon or they are genetic and eugenic re-creation of their kind and fanatical ideals, within other future or elsewhere humanoid races.

It is known, that their once was a race of violent and warlike super soldiers, with the Old (Maveric ) Universe, possibly on ancient Atlantis and spread throughout the ancient surrounding deep space interstellar regions, as it did in many other Alternate Reality.





Supreme Lord Jephrack Jared Sarkhon, rules the homeworld of Atlantis during many difficult years, fighting outer space alien invasions and threats from other temporal worlds lines. Genetic Super beings, much the Kalladon Warriors plague the world of Atlantis for many years. Led by Prince Drago Krell.

Trongaroth Hegemony, the Drackhoneans or Drackhonean Empire, the Shaitann Empire, the Alderhann Alliance, the Kalladon Empire, the Kallon Empire, the Tauron Empire ,the Tykhon Empire among others may have existed here in this ancient times, as well other parallel realities, as well.





The large number of CSGs used by the United Star reflects, in part, a division of roles and missions allotted during the KalladonWars, in which the United Worlds Colonial Regions assumed primary responsibility for blue water operations and for safeguarding supply lines between the United Worlds and Colonial Region, while the NATO allies assumed responsibility for brown and green water operations.



Thuggee (or tuggee, ठग्गी) (from Hindi thag ‘thief’, from Sanskrit sthaga ‘scoundrel’, from sthagati ‘to conceal’) was an Indian network of secret fraternities engaged in murdering and robbing travellers, operating from the 17th century (possibly as early as 13th century) to the 19th century.








Tales of the Terran Federation


Files-1960-68.Related entertainment files.




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The Kalladon Empire. By Joseph Gilbert Thompson and Carl Edward Thompson.



The Kalladon Empire is a dark mirror to much of the good intentions of the Terran Federation of Worlds. The Kalladon Empire was the repressive interstellar government dominated by the Kalladon Terrans from their homeworld of Kalladon and the Maveric Universe counterpart of the Terran Federation of Worlds...

The Kalladon Empire ruled by terror, with its Imperial Kalladon Starfleet acting as its iron fist. The uniforms and heraldry of the Empire reflect its very violent nature. Many dress in various types of ancient World Pirate clothing, mixed Asiatic appearance or Middle Eastern dress. Some even dress in a sort of Celtic or Caledonian like appearance. Uniforms are more flamboyant, and always incorporate weapons — daggers and blasters. The Kalladon have kept a high Tradition of Sword Dueling-something loosely derived from ancient Atlantis.-who still carried sword and knives during their travels in deep space-even with the many members of the Legion of Time Sorcerers.



Kalladon are a species of genetically engineered humans. are a group of Homo sapiens that have been modified at the genetic level.They are certain foreign governments of Old Earth to counter the production of the United States genetic engineering and eugentics program called the Alpha Omega Warriors Program.These Omega Warriors as they nicknamed were a super soldier operation to create a new breed of super warriors to fight various foreign and alien threats to the planet.The Kalladon Warrior was the other side or other governments answer to the Omega Special Forces Corps.

In addition to being five times stronger and two times faster than an average human being of their size and gender, Kalladon are immune to most poisons (aconite, ammonia, antipyrine, arsenic, atropine, camphor, hydrocyanic acid, iodine, lead, picrotoxin, and strychnine) and diseases (diphtheria, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, lyme disease, measles, meningococcal disease, mumps, pertussis, pneumococcal disease, polio, rabies, rubella, tetanus, and varicella). Kalladon pride themselves of being able to survive in harsh, hostile environments where ordinary humans would easily die. However, Kalladon men and women are not indestructible, and most environments that are inhospitable to Homo sapiens sapiens are also inhospitable to members of Homo Sapiens

Kalladon Warriors possessed physical strength and analytical capabilities superior to ordinary humans. Kalladon roughly five times stronger than the average person, their lung efficiency was 50 percent greater than normal, and they had an increased capacity for learning...Many Kalladon can live up to or around a maximum 150 years of age.What Kallodon don’t –many of them anyway is a moral center.Most are breed to be cunning, savage warriors, only unly interested in winning at all cost.

Kalladon are typically prsented with yellow or bronze skin and facial hair or various colors in the males and long hair in themales and females mostly,suggestive of North Asian peoples, such as the Mongols, and possessed physical abilities similar to ancient warlike Terrans of the Old World.Although,some Kalladon or Kalladan,wear their hair short,depending on the Family House Clan.Kalladon are very regimented and whole Kalladon or Kalladan Houses will follow a specific Imperial House Crest appearance in hair lenth,make up,facial tactoo’s or Kalladon War Paint.Style of space armor,uniform,Imperial House Warriors Sash and so forth,will also be followed strictly by all members of the Clan.To do otherwise,marks one as a rebel or renigade,and often is treated as a outcast or Ronan-a masterless warrior,with little or no honor among the Clan.

Some Kalladon,calling themselves the Alderhann, dress more along the lines of Earth’s Nazi Party, with uniforms of grey and black, resembling a 21st Century or 22nd Century Nazi Soldier. These Alderhann, reject much of the ancient Kaladon Warriors Dress Code and have replaced it with more traditional World War One or World War Two Germanic style of soldiers uniform, with pointed Helmets, gold or silver eagles, iron crosses, plums and other type paraphernalia, to appear more Teutonic, than Kalladon.

Kalladon Empire, is a large interstellar Empire,carved in a vast region of Terran Space,outside the Terran Federation’s Colonial Regions. Kalladon starships are variuos spacecraft that appear all cover the Colonial regions,attacking and plundering space trade route,space stations,planetary rim worlds,lost star ship caravans and so forth.. In the many outer regions, these vessels are used by the forces of the Kalladon Empire. Interstellar vehicles, they are typically warships, ranging in sizes similar to modern naval vessels to much larger. They are equipped with a fictional faster-than-light propulsion system called "warp drive", and armed with equally fictional weapons like photon torpedoes.

the Kalladon Star Pirate Battle Cruiser, are among the most, primary ship used ,but other smaller vessels like the Kalladon Scout Space Cruiser and Kalladon Exploration Class Ship have been know exist, as well larger Kalladon Star Destroyers and larger still Kalladon Super Star Destroyers.





Kalladon Society.

Kalladon believed that strife and conflict would inevitably reshape men into something better and stronger than what they once were. As a superhuman species, Kalladon Society took his words to heart and used genetic engineering, selective breeding and nanotechnology to reshape themselves into the ultimate survivors. The Kalladon have built their culture on the twin pillars of Social Darwinism and Dawkinite Genetic Competitiveness. Their single-minded devotion to self-improvement and the propagation of their own genes can strike other species (even their non-Kalladon human cousins) as selfish and arrogant, yet in practice the Kalladon' boundless energy and willpower made them valued contributors to the certain interstellar civilization.. For all their genetic engineering and its resulting superhuman strength and endurance, the Kalladon are still basically human beings, with human emotions..They often either do great good or great evil depending a combination of family history,life experiences,personal gain and so forth.

Numerous clans form a Kalladon Pride and those form whole Kalladon Houses or House Clan..Kalladon Prides consist of various clans who are somewhat genetically related to each other. They are usually named after powerful mythological and historical figures or creatures from the ancient planet Earth or other simular Earth like planets.

Many Kalladon House Clans will often work within a sigle Kalladon Warriors Campaign or Kalladon Star Ship.Many Kalladon Warriors will become roving interstellar Space Pirates. Gorthan Space Pirates and Kalladon Space Pirates –among other things, become various fractions of the Kalladan Super Soldier cult, of the early, mid and late 20th and 21st Century, who left Earth, after the Great Third World War. They might even visit the dysonsphere of Terra-Prime and settle in various locations upon that world. Some Kalladon or Kalladan, splinter off into other offshoot groups-the Drackhoneans, The Shaitaneans-named after the Imperial Atlantean Family-the Shaitanis, who helped found their society. the Gorthan or Gorthaneans-who interbreed with other similar races-the Terran Normals, the Atlanteans, the Corvaillians, Norvaillians, Corsaillians or Carsaillians and so on, the Drackhoneans or Drackhonean Empire, the Shaitann Empire, the Alderhann Alliance, the Kalladon Empire and the Kallon Empire, are all offshoot civilizations of the original Kalladon or Kalladan Empire-whether in ancient or modern Terran Space Expansion Era. The Tauron Empire, the Tykhon Empire among others may, even have members of the civilization-whole Imperial House Clans, mixed with Kalladon or Kalladan bloodlines.



Carsaillian Pathfinders-an elite class of Corvaillian space
explorers, tramp freighter pilots, mixed with Kalladon super soldier
bloodlines, began to use the Guider Gem Headbands as a means to
telepathically navigate through normal space and later navigate through
hyperspace wormholes and natural space warp breaches in the
interstellar fabric of the known Old and New Old [Maveric] Universe.
Old [Maveric] Universe...

Kalladon Philosophy

Some Kalladon pride themselves on their attractiveness, strength, cunning, and treachery.,while other pride themselves on their honor,intilligence and experience in combat situations.The Kalladon,are generally though untrust worthy,though their those ,who are true warriors of the Kalladon Warriors Spirit,as they call,who can be trusted and honorable in battle.Still some are liars,who win at any game,by manipulating the situation,toward their advantage.There those lower classed Kalladon or Kalladan,who simply big mouthed warriors,who boast about a lot of bravery in combat,but faced with death run and hide ,like the cowards they are.

The Free Federation of Space, by Joseph Gilbert Thompson and Carl Edward Thompson.



The Free Federation of Space is not exactly an interstellar alliance of worlds or planet or Star Systems allied together like most interstellar Federations, but a loose knit association of ships, all allied to a central command ship. The lead star ship, generally a Battle Carrier and it's Battle Carrier Group, united as a way protect the merchant caravan of ships against star piracy. The term Free Federation was created to confuse such star pirates such as the Gorthan Star Pirates or Kalladon Star Pirates at first to believe that these star ships were actual allied to some unknown interstellar government known as the Free Federation of Space. The name stuck, because all member of this Federation of Star Ships were free to come and go as they saw fit. The Free Federation is generally made up of Corvaillian, Corsaillian and Norvaillian Spacer Merchants, Mercenary Ships, Cargo Haulers and Tramp Freighters and even Military Star Ships have joined the caravan for various reasons-escort, military strategy or other reasons. Sometimes Terran Spacer Merchants, Mercenary Ships, Cargo Haulers and Tramp Freighters and so on, Many Terran Federation Rangers often work and reside among the Free Federation, to serve the interstellar laws and hunt down wanted outlaws





The Kalladon Empire The Kalladan Hierarchy and Kalladon empire by Joseph Gilbert Thompson and Carl Edward Thompson.





Maveric Lion Entertainment Group.tm©1990-2007.2008



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A superhuman is an entity with intelligence or abilities exceeding normal human standards.

Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the distant future. Occasionally, it could mean an otherwise "normal" human with unusual abilities, such as psychic abilities or exceptional proficiency at something, far beyond the norm.

Superhuman can also mean something that isn't human, but considered to be "superior" to humans in some ways. A robot that easily passed the Turing test, and could do some things humans can't, could be considered superhuman. A very intelligent or strong alien could be considered superhuman.

The concept of the superhuman is quite popular in science fiction, where superhumans are often cyborgs, mutants or genetically engineered. The greatest publicity of the concept is, of course, comic book superheroes, such as Superman. The term is often used in discussions of comic book characters because the terms Superman and super hero are registered as trademarks. Superhuman characters in various comics, role-playing games and other entertainment media have also been referred to as metahuman or posthuman.






Neurophilosophy
The ‘nano-enhanced super soldier’

Posted in Nanotechnology, YouTube by MC on July 9th, 2006

Nanotechnology promises to revolutionize many aspects of our everyday lives. Molecular manufacturing will miniaturize the battlefield, transforming the way future wars are fought.

The U.S., of course, aims to be the first nation to develop nanoweaponry and has been in the process of developing such technologies for at least 4 years. MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) was established in 2002 with $50 million of funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It aims to “create a 21st century battlesuit that combines high-tech capabilities with light weight and comfort…that monitors health, eases injuries, communicates automatically, and maybe even lends superhuman abilities.”

The ISN is a multidisciplinary facility with 7 research teams, each of which is working on different aspects of the battlesuit of the future.The objectives of one of the teams are to “demonstrate new organizational principles between polymers…develop nanotruss polymeric structures…design and synthesize segmented copolymers that mimic spider silk…[and] design and optimize lightweight material assemblies” for the development of “energy-absorbing nanomaterials…[to] provide protection against ballistics and directed energy”.

Another team is developing mechanically active materials and devices, such as “block polymers [for] self-assembling nanostructures with enhanced switching speeds…[to] achieve control of a material’s properties…allow[ing] a transformation from a flexible and compliant material to a non-compliant material that becomes armor…[and which] can also be transformed into a reconfigurable cast that stabilizes an injury such as a broken leg…apply pressure to a wound, function as a tourniquet, or even perform CPR when needed”.

There is a focus “on using nanotechnology to improve the way we detect and treat life-threatening injuries”. For example, “biomedical monitoring will be able to use ultrasound to detect a hemorrhage…and cauterize vessels to staunch the bleeding…nanomaterials [will] instantaneously change their properties…thereby controlling the delivery and release of life-saving medications.” The future battlesuit might also contain “mechanical actuators…as exo-muscles for augmentation of a soldier’s physical strength…electronic polymers [as] ultrasensitive sensors for detecting explosives, nerve gas, nitric oxide and the DNA of specific biological agents…[and] responsive fabric coatings [to] neutralize…bacterial contaminants”.

MIT researchers are collaborating on some of these projects with several large companies, including DuPont and Raytheon, one of the world’s largest defence contractors. DARPA, whose “mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S military…by sponsoring revolutionary, high pay-off research,” has other projects in the pipeline.

One of these planned projects is the development of remote-controlled cyber-insects. Pentagon scientists are aiming to make microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) which can be placed into pupa-stage insects, and have asked for innovative bids from interested parties.

“Through each metamorphic stage, the insect body goes through a renewal process that can heal wounds and reposition internal organs around foreign objects,” states the research proposal document.

The MEMS would be integrated into the nervous sytem of the developing insect, allowing the mature organism to detect chemicals such as explosives, or transmit data about its surroundings. DARPA believes that there could eventually be “assembly-line fabrication of hybrid insect-MEMS interfaces”. Some experts think the idea is feasible, while others say it is “ludicrous”. In the past, DARPA researchers tried using bees and wasps to detect explosives, but the “instinctive behaviours for feeding and mating [of the insects]…prevented them from performing reliably”.

A few of the technologies mentioned above are already available. DARPA has recently funded the successful development of neural implants that can control the movements of dogfish, and MIT materials scientists have developed a morphing material which changes shape when an electric current is passed through it.

The ISN’s vision of the future soldier and DAPRA’s plans for remote-controlled cyber-insects are but two aspects of the wider transformation of the U.S. military into a lighter and more agile force. The U.S. is now the world’s sole hyperpower, with unprecedented military strength and global reach. If a rival power, such as China, for example, were to develop sophisticated nano-weaponry, it would undoubtedly gain military superiority over the U.S. or any other nation-state. There will, therefore, be a new arms race. It will be a race to develop an army equipped with nano-weapons, nano-enabled biotechnology and nano-computing. Given the current political climate, it seems unlikely that there will be any regulation of these new technologies.

http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/07/09/the-nano-enhanced-super-soldier/#comment-109651


Transhumanism
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Posthuman Future, an illustration by Michael Gibbs for The Chronicle of Higher Education's look at how biotechnology will change the human experience, has become one of the secular icons representing transhumanism.

Posthuman Future, an illustration by Michael Gibbs for The Chronicle of Higher Education's look at how biotechnology will change the human experience, has become one of the secular icons representing transhumanism.

Transhumanism (sometimes symbolized by >H or H+),[1] a term often used as a synonym for "human enhancement", is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of new sciences and technologies to enhance human mental and physical abilities and aptitudes, and ameliorate what it regards as undesirable and unnecessary aspects of the human condition, such as stupidity, suffering, disease, aging and involuntary death. Transhumanist thinkers study the possibilities and consequences of developing and using human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies for these purposes. Possible dangers, as well as benefits, of powerful new technologies that might radically change the conditions of human life are also of concern to the transhumanist movement.[2]

Although the first known use of the term "transhumanism" dates from 1957, the contemporary meaning is a product of the 1980s, when a group of scientists, artists, and futurists based in the United States began to organize what has since grown into the transhumanist movement. Transhumanist thinkers predict that human beings will eventually be transformed into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".[2] Transhumanism is therefore sometimes referred to as "posthumanism" or a form of transformational activism influenced by posthumanist ideals.[3]
Contents

[hide]

* 1 History
* 2 Theory
o 2.1 Aims
o 2.2 Ethics
o 2.3 Currents
o 2.4 Spirituality
* 3 Practice
o 3.1 Technologies of interest
* 4 Arts and culture
* 5 Controversy
o 5.1 Infeasibility (Futurehype argument)
o 5.2 Hubris (Playing God argument)
o 5.3 Contempt for the flesh (Fountain of Youth argument)
o 5.4 Trivialization of human identity (Enough argument)
o 5.5 Genetic divide (Gattaca argument)
o 5.6 Threats to morality and democracy (Brave New World argument)
o 5.7 Dehumanization (Frankenstein argument)
o 5.8 Specter of coercive eugenicism (Eugenics Wars argument)
o 5.9 Existential risks (Terminator argument)
* 6 References




Transhumanist foresight of a profoundly transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives. Transhumanism has been described by one outspoken opponent as the world's most dangerous idea,[4] while a proponent counters that it is the "movement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations of humanity".[5]
[edit] History

In his 2005 article A History of Transhumanist Thought, transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom locates transhumanism's roots in Renaissance humanism and the Enlightenment. For example, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola called on people to "sculpt their own statue", René Descartes considered human amelioration one of the fruits of his approach to science, and the Marquis de Condorcet speculated about the use of medical science to extend the human life span. Nikolai Fyodorov, a 19th-century Russian philosopher, advocated radical life extension, physical immortality and even resurrection of the dead, using scientific methods.[6] In the 20th century, a direct and influential precursor to transhumanist concepts was geneticist J.B.S. Haldane's 1923 essay Daedalus: Science and the Future, which predicted that great benefits would come from applications of genetics and other advanced sciences to human biology.[2] Biologist Julian Huxley, brother of author Aldous Huxley (a childhood friend of Haldane's), appears to have been the first to use the actual word "transhumanism". Writing in 1957, he defined transhumanism as "man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature".[7] This definition differs substantially from the one commonly in use since the 1980s.

Computer scientist Marvin Minsky wrote on relationships between human and artificial intelligence beginning in the 1960s.[8] Over the succeeding decades, this field continued to generate influential thinkers, such as Hans Moravec and Raymond Kurzweil, who oscillated between the technical arena and futuristic speculations in the transhumanist vein.[9][10] The coalescence of an identifiable transhumanist movement began in the last decades of the 20th century. In 1966, FM-2030 (formerly F.M. Esfandiary), a futurist who taught "new concepts of the Human" at the The New School in New York City, began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and world views transitional to "posthumanity" as "transhuman" (short for "transitory human").[11] In 1972, Robert Ettinger contributed to the conceptualization of "transhumanity" in his book Man into Superman.[12] FM-2030 published the Upwingers Manifesto in 1973 to stimulate transhumanly conscious activism.[13]

The first self-described transhumanists met formally in the early 1980s at the University of California, Los Angeles, which became the main center of transhumanist thought. Here, FM-2030 lectured on his "third way" futurist ideology. At the EZTV Media venue frequented by transhumanists and other futurists, Natasha Vita-More presented Breaking Away, her 1980 experimental film with the theme of humans breaking away from their biological limitations and the earth's gravity as they head into space.[14][15] FM-2030 and Vita-More soon began holding gatherings for transhumanists in Los Angeles, which included students from FM-2030's courses and audiences from Vita-More's artistic productions. In 1982, Vita-More authored the Transhumanist Arts Statement,[16] and, six years later, produced the cable TV show TransCentury Update on transhumanity, a program which reached over 100,000 viewers.

In 1986, Eric Drexler published Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology,[17] which discussed the prospects for nanotechnology and molecular assemblers, and founded the Foresight Institute. As the first non-profit organization to research, advocate for, and perform cryonics, the Southern California offices of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation became a center for futurists. In 1988, during the rise of cyberculture, philosopher Max More founded the Extropy Institute and, in 1990, was the main contributor to a formal transhumanist doctrine, which took the form of the Principles of Extropy.[18] In 1990, he laid the foundation of modern transhumanism by giving it a new definition:[19]

Transhumanism is a class of philosophies that seek to guide us towards a posthuman condition. Transhumanism shares many elements of humanism, including a respect for reason and science, a commitment to progress, and a valuing of human (or transhuman) existence in this life. […] Transhumanism differs from humanism in recognizing and anticipating the radical alterations in the nature and possibilities of our lives resulting from various sciences and technologies […].

In 1998, philosophers Nick Bostrom and David Pearce founded the World Transhumanist Association (WTA), an international non-governnmental organization working toward the recognition of transhumanism as a legitimate subject of scientific inquiry and public policy.[20] In 1999, the WTA drafted and adopted The Transhumanist Declaration.[21] The Transhumanist FAQ, prepared by the WTA, gave two formal definitions for transhumanism:[22]

1. The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.
2. The study of the ramifications, promises, and potential dangers of technologies that will enable us to overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies.

A number of similar definitions have been collected by Anders Sandberg, an academic and prominent transhumanist.[23]

In possible contrast with other transhumanist organizations, WTA officials considered that social forces could undermine their futurist visions and needed to be addressed.[24] A particular concern is the equal access to human enhancement technologies across classes and borders.[25] In 2006, a political struggle within the transhumanist movement between the libertarian right and the liberal left resulted in a more centre-leftward positioning of the WTA under its former executive director James Hughes.[26][25]

In 2006, the board of directors of the Extropy Institute ceased operations of the organization, stating that its mission was "essentially completed".[27] This left the World Transhumanist Association as the leading international transhumanist organization.
[edit] Theory

It is a matter of debate whether transhumanism is a branch of "posthumanism" and how posthumanism should be conceptualised with regard to transhumanism. The latter is often referred to as a variant or activist form of posthumanism by its conservative,[4] Christian[28] and progressive[29] critics, but also by pro-transhumanist scholars who, for example, characterise it as a subset of "philosophical posthumanism".[3] A common feature of transhumanism and philosophical posthumanism is the future vision of a new intelligent species, into which humanity will evolve, which will supplement humanity or supersede it. Transhumanism stresses the evolutionary perspective, including sometimes the creation of a highly intelligent animal species by way of cognitive enhancement,[24] but clings to a "posthuman future" as the final goal of participant evolution.[30]

Nevertheless, the idea to create intelligent artificial beings, proposed, for example, by roboticist Hans Moravec, has influenced transhumanism.[9] Moravec's ideas and transhumanism have also been characterised as a "complacent" or "apocalyptic" variant of posthumanism and contrasted with "critical posthumanism" in humanities and the arts.[31] While such a "critical posthumanism" would offer resources for rethinking the relations of humans and increasingly sophisticated machines, transhumanism and similar posthumanisms are, in this view, not abandoning obsolete concepts of the "autonomous liberal subject" but are expanding its "prerogatives" into the realm of the posthuman.[32] Transhumanist self-characterisations as a continuation of humanism and Enlightenment thinking correspond with this view.

Some secular humanists conceive transhumanism as an offspring of the humanist freethought movement and argue that transhumanists differ from the humanist mainstream by having a specific focus on technological approaches to resolving human concerns and on the issue of mortality.[33] However, other progressives have argued that all posthumanist endeavors, transhumanism as well as so-called "critical posthumanism", amount to a shift away from concerns about social justice, from the reform of human institutions and from other Enlightenment preoccupations, toward narcissistic longings for a transcendence of the human body in quest of more exquisite ways of being.[34] In this view, transhumanism is abandoning the goals of humanism, the Enlightenment, and progressive politics.
[edit] Aims

While many transhumanist theorists and advocates seek to apply reason, science and technology for the purposes of reducing poverty, disease, disability, and malnutrition around the globe, transhumanism is distinctive in its particular focus on the applications of technologies to the improvement of human bodies at the individual level. Many transhumanists actively assess the potential for future technologies and innovative social systems to improve the quality of all life, while seeking to make the material reality of the human condition fulfill the promise of legal and political equality by eliminating congenital mental and physical barriers.

Transhumanist philosophers argue that there not only exists a perfectionist ethical imperative for humans to strive for progress and improvement of the human condition but that it is possible and desirable for humanity to enter a post-evolutionary phase of existence, in which humans are in control of their own evolution. In such a phase, natural evolution would be replaced with deliberate change.

Some theorists, such as Raymond Kurzweil, think that the pace of technological innovation is accelerating and that the next 50 years may yield not only radical technological advances but possibly a technological singularity, which may fundamentally change the nature of human beings.[35] Transhumanists who foresee this massive technological change generally maintain that it is desirable. However, some are also concerned with the possible dangers of extremely rapid technological change and propose options for ensuring that advanced technology is used responsibly. For example, Bostrom has written extensively on existential risks to humanity's future welfare, including risks that could be created by emerging technologies.[36]
[edit] Ethics

Transhumanists engage in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and evaluating possibilities for overcoming biological limitations. They draw on future studies and various fields of ethics such as bioethics, infoethics, nanoethics, neuroethics, roboethics, and technoethics mainly but not exclusively from a philosophically (non-anthropocentric) secular humanist, socially progressive, politically and economically liberal perspective. Unlike many philosophers, social critics, and activists who place a moral value on preservation of natural systems, transhumanists see the very concept of the specifically "natural" as problematically nebulous at best, and an obstacle to progress at worst.[37] In keeping with this, many prominent transhumanist advocates refer to transhumanism's critics on the political right and left jointly as "bioconservatives" or "bioluddites", the latter term alluding to the 19th century anti-industrialisation social movement that opposed the replacement of human manual labourers by machines.[38]
[edit] Currents

There is a variety of opinion within transhumanist thought. Many of the leading transhumanist thinkers hold views that are under constant revision and development.[39] Some distinctive currents of transhumanism are identified and listed here in alphabetical order:

* Abolitionism, an ethical philosophy based upon a perceived obligation to use technology to eliminate involuntary suffering in all sentient life.[40]
* Democratic transhumanism, a political philosophy synthesizing liberal democracy, social democracy, radical democracy and transhumanism.[41]
* Extropianism, an early school of transhumanism characterized by a set of principles advocating a proactive approach to human evolution.[18]
* Immortalism, a moral philosophy based upon the belief that technological immortality is possible and desirable, and advocating research and development to ensure its realization.[42]
* Libertarian transhumanism, a political philosophy synthesizing libertarianism and transhumanism.[38]
* Postgenderism, a social philosophy which seeks the voluntary elimination of gender in the human species through the application of advanced biotechnology and assisted reproductive technologies.[43]
* Singularitarianism, a moral philosophy based upon the belief that a technological singularity is possible, and advocating deliberate action to effect it and ensure its safety.[35]
* Technogaianism, an ecological philosophy based upon the belief that emerging technologies can help restore Earth's environment, and that developing safe, clean, alternative technology should therefore be an important goal of environmentalists.[41]

[edit] Spirituality

Although some transhumanists report a strong sense of secular spirituality, they are for the most part atheists.[20] A minority of transhumanists, however, follow liberal forms of Eastern philosophical traditions such as Buddhism and Yoga[44] or have merged their transhumanist ideas with established Western religions such as liberal Christianity[45] or Mormonism[46]. Despite the prevailing secular attitude, some transhumanists pursue hopes traditionally espoused by religions, such as "immortality",[47] while several controversial new religious movements, originating in the late 20th century, have explicitly embraced transhumanist goals of transforming the human condition by applying technology to the alteration of the mind and body, such as Raëlism.[48] However, most thinkers associated with the transhumanist movement focus on the practical goals of using technology to help achieve longer and healthier lives while speculating that future understanding of neurotheology and the application of neurotechnology will enable humans to gain greater control of altered states of consciousness, which were commonly interpreted as "spiritual experiences", and thus achieve more profound self-knowledge.[44]

The majority of transhumanists are materialists who do not believe in a transcendent human soul. Transhumanist personhood theory also argues against the unique identification of moral actors and subjects with biological humans, judging as speciesist the exclusion of non-human and part-human animals, and sophisticated machines, from ethical consideration.[49] Many believe in the compatibility of human minds with computer hardware, with the theoretical implication that human consciousness may someday be transferred to alternative media.[50] One extreme formulation of this idea may be found in Frank Tipler's proposal of the Omega point. Drawing upon ideas in digitalism, Tipler has advanced the notion that the collapse of the Universe billions of years hence could create the conditions for the perpetuation of humanity in a simulated reality within a megacomputer, and thus achieve a form of "posthuman godhood". Although not a transhumanist, Tipler's thought was inspired by the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a paleontologist and Jesuit theologian who saw an evolutionary telos in the development of an encompassing noosphere, a global consciousness.[51]

The idea of uploading personality to a non-biological substrate and the underlying assumptions are criticised by a wide range of scholars, scientists and activists, sometimes with regard to transhumanism itself, sometimes with regard to thinkers such as Marvin Minsky or Hans Moravec who are often seen as its originators. Relating the underlying assumptions, for example, to the legacy of cybernetics, some have argued that this materialist hope engenders a spiritual monism, a variant of philosophical idealism.[52] Viewed from a fundamentalist Christian perspective, the idea of mind uploading is asserted to represent a denigration of the human body characteristic of gnostic belief.[53] Transhumanism and its presumed intellectual progenitors have also been described as neo-gnostic by non-Christian and secular commentators.[54][55]

The first dialogue between transhumanism and faith was the focus of an academic seminar held at the University of Toronto in 2004.[56] Because it might serve a few of the same functions that people have traditionally sought in religion, religious and secular critics maintained that transhumanism is itself a religion or, at the very least, a pseudoreligion. Religious critics alone faulted the philosophy of transhumanism as offering no eternal truths nor a relationship with the divine. They commented that a philosophy bereft of these beliefs leaves humanity adrift in a foggy sea of postmodern cynicism and anomie. Transhumanists responded that such criticisms reflect a failure to look at the actual content of the transhumanist philosophy, which far from being cynical, is rooted in optimistic, idealistic attitudes that trace back to the Enlightenment.[57] Following this dialogue, William Sims Bainbridge conducted a pilot study, published in the Journal of Evolution and Technology, suggesting that religious attitudes were negatively correlated with acceptance of transhumanist ideas, and indicating that individuals with highly religious worldviews tended to perceive transhumanism as being a direct, competitive (though ultimately futile) affront to their spiritual beliefs.[58]
[edit] Practice

While some transhumanists take an abstract and theoretical approach to the perceived benefits of emerging technologies, others have offered specific proposals for modifications to the human body, including heritable ones. Transhumanists are often concerned with methods of enhancing the human nervous system. Though some propose modification of the peripheral nervous system, the brain is considered the common denominator of personhood and is thus a primary focus of transhumanist ambitions.[59]

As proponents of self-improvement and body modification, transhumanists tend to use existing technologies and techniques that supposedly improve cognitive and physical performance, while engaging in routines and lifestyles designed to improve health and longevity.[60] Depending on their age, some transhumanists express concern that they will not live to reap the benefits of future technologies. However, many have a great interest in life extension strategies, and in funding research in cryonics in order to make the latter a viable option of last resort rather than remaining an unproven method.[61] Regional and global transhumanist networks and communities with a range of objectives exist to provide support and forums for discussion and collaborative projects.
[edit] Technologies of interest

Main article: Human enhancement technologies

Converging Technologies, a 2002 report exploring the potential for synergy among nano-, bio-, info- and cogno-technologies, has become a landmark in near-future technological speculation.

Converging Technologies, a 2002 report exploring the potential for synergy among nano-, bio-, info- and cogno-technologies, has become a landmark in near-future technological speculation.

Transhumanists support the emergence and convergence of technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC), and hypothetical future technologies such as simulated reality, artificial intelligence, mind uploading, and cryonics. They believe that humans can and should use these technologies to become more than human.[62] They therefore support the recognition and/or protection of cognitive liberty, morphological freedom, and procreative liberty as civil liberties, so as to guarantee individuals the choice of using human enhancement technologies on themselves and their children.[63] Some speculate that human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies may facilitate more radical human enhancement by the midpoint of the 21st century.[35]

A 2002 report, Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance, commissioned by the National Science Foundation and US Department of Commerce, contains descriptions and commentaries on the state of NBIC science and technology by major contributors to these fields. The report discusses potential uses of these technologies in implementing transhumanist goals of enhanced performance and health, and ongoing work on planned applications of human enhancement technologies in the military and in the rationalization of the human-machine interface in industry.[64]

While international discussion of the converging technologies and NBIC concepts includes strong criticism of their transhumanist orientation and alleged science fictional character,[65][66][67] research on brain and body alteration technologies has accelerated under the sponsorship of the US Department of Defense, which is interested in the battlefield advantages they would provide to the "supersoldiers" of the United States and its allies.[68]
[edit] Arts and culture

Natasha Vita-More's Primo is an artistic depiction of a hypothetical posthuman of transhumanist speculation.

Natasha Vita-More's Primo is an artistic depiction of a hypothetical posthuman of transhumanist speculation.

For more details on this topic, see Transhumanism in fiction.

Transhumanist themes have become increasingly prominent in various literary forms during the period in which the movement itself has emerged. Contemporary science fiction often contains positive renditions of technologically enhanced human life, set in utopian (especially techno-utopian) societies. However, science fiction's depictions of enhanced humans or other posthuman beings frequently come with a cautionary twist. The more pessimistic scenarios include many horrific or dystopian tales of human bioengineering gone wrong. In the decades immediately before transhumanism emerged as an explicit movement, many transhumanist concepts and themes began appearing in the speculative fiction of authors such as Robert A. Heinlein (Lazarus Long series, 1941–87), A. E. van Vogt (Slan, 1946), Isaac Asimov (I, Robot, 1950), Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End, 1953) and Stanislaw Lem (Cyberiad, 1967).

The cyberpunk genre, exemplified by William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) and Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix (1985), has particularly been concerned with the modification of human bodies. Other novels dealing with transhumanist themes that have stimulated broad discussion of these issues include Blood Music (1985) by Greg Bear, The Xenogenesis Trilogy (1987–1989) by Octavia Butler; the "Culture" novels (1987–2000) of Iain Banks; The Beggar's Trilogy (1990–94) by Nancy Kress; much of Greg Egan's work since the early 1990s, such as Permutation City (1994) and Diaspora (1997); The Bohr Maker (1995) by Linda Nagata; Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (2002); Oryx and Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood; The Possibility of an Island (Eng. trans. 2006) by Michel Houellebecq; and Glasshouse (2005) by Charles Stross.

Fictional transhumanist scenarios have also become popular in other media during the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Such treatments are found in comic books (Captain America, 1941; Him, 1967), films (2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968; Blade Runner, 1982; Gattaca, 1997), television series (The Six Million Dollar Man, 1966; the Cybermen of Doctor Who, 1966; the Borg of Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1989; and the Ancients of Stargate SG-1, 2000), manga and anime (Appleseed, 1985; Ghost in the Shell, 1989 and Gundam Seed, 2002), computer games (Metal Gear Solid, 1998; Deus Ex, 2000; Half-Life 2, 2004), and role-playing games (Shadowrun, 1989). Transhuman Space is a 2002 Role-playing game (RPG), set in the year 2100 when humanity has begun to colonize the Solar System, where the pursuit of transhumanism is now in full swing, as more and more people struggle to reach a fully posthuman state. Many of these works are considered part of the cyberpunk genre or its postcyberpunk offshoot.

In addition to the work of Natasha Vita-More, curator of the Transhumanist Arts & Culture center, transhumanist themes appear in the visual and performing arts.[69] Carnal Art, a form of sculpture originated by the French artist Orlan, uses the body as its medium and plastic surgery as its method.[70] The American performer Michael Jackson used technologies such as plastic surgery, skin-lightening drugs and hyperbaric oxygen therapy over the course of his career, with the effect of transforming his artistic persona so as to blur identifiers of gender, race and age.[71] The work of the Australian artist Stelarc centers on the alteration of his body by robotic prostheses and tissue engineering.[72] Other artists whose work coincided with the emergence and flourishing of transhumanism and who explored themes related to the transformation of the body are the Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic and the American media artist Matthew Barney. A 2005 show, Becoming Animal, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, presented exhibits by twelve artists whose work concerns the effects of technology in erasing boundaries between the human and non-human.
[edit] Controversy

Although many transhumanist proposals rely on fringe science, the very notion and prospect of human enhancement has sparked public controversy.[73] Criticisms of transhumanism and its proposals take two main forms: those objecting to the likelihood of transhumanist goals being achieved (practical criticisms); and those objecting to the moral principles or world view sustaining transhumanist proposals or underlying transhumanism itself (ethical criticisms). However, these two strains sometimes converge and overlap, particularly when the ethics of changing human biology in the face of incomplete knowledge is considered.

Critics or opponents often see transhumanists' goals as posing threats to human values. Some also argue that strong advocacy of a transhumanist approach to improving the human condition might divert attention and resources from social solutions. As most transhumanists support non-technological changes to society, such as the spread of civil rights and civil liberties, and most critics of transhumanism support technological advances in areas such as communications and health care, the difference is often a matter of emphasis. Sometimes, however, there are strong disagreements about the very principles involved, with divergent views on humanity, human nature, and the morality of transhumanist aspirations. At least one public interest organization, the U.S.-based Center for Genetics and Society, was formed, in 2001, with the specific goal of opposing transhumanist agendas that involve transgenerational modification of human biology, such as full-term human cloning and germinal choice technology. The Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future of the Chicago-Kent College of Law critically scrutinizes proposed applications of genetic and nanotechnologies to human biology in an academic setting.

Some of the most widely known critiques of the transhumanist program refer to novels and fictional films. These works of art, despite presenting imagined worlds rather than philosophical analyses, are used as touchstones for some of the more formal arguments.
[edit] Infeasibility (Futurehype argument)

In his 1992 book Futurehype: The Tyranny of Prophecy, sociologist Max Dublin points out many past failed predictions of technological progress and argues that modern futurist predictions will prove similarly inaccurate. He also objects to what he sees as scientism, fanaticism, and nihilism by a few in advancing transhumanist causes, and writes that historical parallels exist to millenarian religions and Marxist doctrines.[74]

Some transhumanist thinkers assert the pace of technological innovation is accelerating and that the next 50 years may yield not only radical technological advances but possibly a technological singularity

Some transhumanist thinkers assert the pace of technological innovation is accelerating and that the next 50 years may yield not only radical technological advances but possibly a technological singularity

Despite his sympathies for transhumanism, in his 2002 book Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future, public health professor Gregory Stock is skeptical of the technical feasibility and mass appeal of the cyborgization of humanity predicted by Raymond Kurzweil, Hans Moravec and Kevin Warwick. He believes that throughout the 21st century, many humans will find themselves deeply integrated into systems of machines, but will remain biological. Primary changes to their own form and character will arise not from cyberware but from the direct manipulation of their genetics, metabolism, and biochemistry.[75]

In his 2006 book Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change, computer scientist and engineer Bob Seidensticker argues that today's technological achievements are not unprecedented. Exposing major myths of technology and examining the history of high tech hype, he aims to uncover inaccuracies and misunderstandings that may characterise the popular and transhumanist views of technology, to explain how and why these views have been created, and to illustrate how technological change in fact proceeds.[76]

Those thinkers who defend the likelihood of massive technological change within a relatively short timeframe emphasize what they describe as a past pattern of exponential increases in humanity's technological capacities. This emphasis appears in the work of popular science writer Damien Broderick, notably his 1997 book, The Spike, which contains his speculations about a radically changed future. Kurzweil develops this position in much detail in his 2005 book, The Singularity Is Near. Broderick points out that many of the seemingly implausible predictions of early science fiction writers have, indeed, come to pass, among them nuclear power and space travel to the moon. He also claims that there is a core rationalism to current predictions of very rapid change, asserting that such observers as Kurzweil have a good track record in predicting the pace of innovation.[77]
[edit] Hubris (Playing God argument)

There are two distinct categories of criticism, theological and secular, that have been referred to as "playing god" arguments:

The first category is based on the alleged inappropriateness of humans substituting themselves for an actual god. This approach is exemplified by the 2002 Vatican statement Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God,[78] in which it is stated that, "Changing the genetic identity of man as a human person through the production of an infrahuman being is radically immoral", implying, as it would, that "man has full right of disposal over his own biological nature". At the same time, this statement argues that creation of a superhuman or spiritually superior being is "unthinkable", since true improvement can come only through religious experience and "realizing more fully the image of God". Christian theologians and lay activists of several churches and denominations have expressed similar objections to transhumanism and claimed that Christians already enjoy, however post mortem, what radical transhumanism promises such as indefinite life extension or the abolition of suffering. In this view, transhumanism is just another representative of the long line of utopian movements which seek to immanentize the eschaton i.e. try to create "heaven on earth".[79][80]

The biocomplexity spiral is a depiction of the multileveled complexity of organisms in their environments, which is seen by many critics as the ultimate obstacle to transhumanist ambition.

The biocomplexity spiral is a depiction of the multileveled complexity of organisms in their environments, which is seen by many critics as the ultimate obstacle to transhumanist ambition.

The second category is aimed mainly at attempts to pursue transhumanist goals by way of genetically modifying human embryos in order to create "designer babies". It emphasizes the issue of biocomplexity and the unpredictability of attempts to guide the development of products of biological evolution. This argument, elaborated in particular by the biologist Stuart Newman, is based on the recognition that the cloning and germline genetic engineering of animals are error-prone and inherently disruptive of embryonic development. Accordingly, so it is argued, it would create unacceptable risks to use such methods on human embryos. Performing experiments, particularly ones with permanent biological consequences, on developing humans, would thus be in violation of accepted principles governing research on human subjects (see the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki). Moreover, because improvements in experimental outcomes in one species are not automatically transferable to a new species without further experimentation, there is claimed to be no ethical route to genetic manipulation of humans at early developmental stages.[81]

As a practical matter, however, international protocols on human subject research may not present a legal obstacle to attempts by transhumanists and others to improve their offspring by germinal choice technology. According to legal scholar Kirsten Rabe Smolensky, existing laws would protect parents who choose to enhance their child's genome from future liability arising from adverse outcomes of the procedure.[82]

Religious thinkers allied with transhumanist goals, such as the theologians Ronald Cole-Turner and Ted Peters, reject the first argument, holding that the doctrine of "co-creation" provides an obligation to use genetic engineering to improve human biology.[83][84]

Transhumanists and other supporters of human genetic engineering do not dismiss the second argument out of hand, insofar as there is a high degree of uncertainty about the likely outcomes of genetic modification experiments in humans. However, bioethicist James Hughes suggests that one possible ethical route to the genetic manipulation of humans at early developmental stages is the building of computer models of the human genome, the proteins it specifies, and the tissue engineering he argues that it also codes for. With the exponential progress in bioinformatics, Hughes believes that a virtual model of genetic expression in the human body will not be far behind and that it will soon be possible to accelerate approval of genetic modifications by simulating their effects on virtual humans.[24] Public health professor Gregory Stock points to artificial chromosomes as an alleged safer alternative to existing genetic engineering techniques.[75] Transhumanists therefore argue that parents have a moral responsibility called procreative beneficence to make use of these methods, if and when they are shown to be reasonably safe and effective, to have the healthiest children possible. They add that this responsibility is a moral judgment best left to individual conscience rather than imposed by law, in all but extreme cases. In this context, the emphasis on freedom of choice is called procreative liberty.[24]
[edit] Contempt for the flesh (Fountain of Youth argument)

Philosopher Mary Midgley, in her 1992 book Science as Salvation, traces the notion of achieving immortality by transcendence of the material human body (echoed in the transhumanist tenet of mind uploading) to a group of male scientific thinkers of the early 20th century, including J.B.S. Haldane and members of his circle. She characterizes these ideas as "quasi-scientific dreams and prophesies" involving visions of escape from the body coupled with "self-indulgent, uncontrolled power-fantasies". Her argument focuses on what she perceives as the pseudoscientific speculations and irrational, fear-of-death-driven fantasies of these thinkers, their disregard for laymen, and the remoteness of their eschatological visions.[85] Many transhumanists see the 2006 film The Fountain's theme of necrophobia and critique of the quixotic quest for eternal youth as depicting some of these criticisms.[86]

What is perceived as contempt for the flesh in the writings of Marvin Minsky, Hans Moravec, and some transhumanists, has also been the target of other critics for what they claim to be an instrumental conception of the human body.[32] Reflecting a strain of feminist criticism of the transhumanist program, philosopher Susan Bordo points to "contemporary obsessions with slenderness, youth, and physical perfection", which she sees as affecting both men and women, but in distinct ways, as "the logical (if extreme) manifestations of anxieties and fantasies fostered by our culture.”[87] Some critics question other social implications of the movement's focus on body modification. Political scientist Klaus-Gerd Giesen, in particular, has asserted that transhumanism's concentration on altering the human body represents the logical yet tragic consequence of atomized individualism and body commodification within a consumer culture.[54]

Nick Bostrom asserts that the desire to regain youth, specifically, and transcend the natural limitations of the human body, in general, is pan-cultural and pan-historical, and is therefore not uniquely tied to the culture of the 20th century. He argues that the transhumanist program is an attempt to channel that desire into a scientific project on par with the Human Genome Project and achieve humanity's oldest hope, rather than a puerile fantasy or social trend.[2]
[edit] Trivialization of human identity (Enough argument)

In the US, the Amish are a religious group probably most known for their avoidance of certain modern technologies. Transhumanists draw a parallel by arguing that in the near-future there will probably be "Humanish", people who choose to "stay human" by not adopting human enhancement technologies, whose choice they believe must be respected and protected.

In the US, the Amish are a religious group probably most known for their avoidance of certain modern technologies. Transhumanists draw a parallel by arguing that in the near-future there will probably be "Humanish", people who choose to "stay human" by not adopting human enhancement technologies, whose choice they believe must be respected and protected.[88]

In his 2003 book Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, environmental ethicist Bill McKibben argued at length against many of the technologies that are postulated or supported by transhumanists, including germinal choice technology, nanomedicine and life extension strategies. He claims that it would be morally wrong for humans to tamper with fundamental aspects of themselves (or their children) in an attempt to overcome universal human limitations, such as vulnerability to aging, maximum life span, and biological constraints on physical and cognitive ability. Attempts to "improve" themselves through such manipulation would remove limitations that provide a necessary context for the experience of meaningful human choice. He claims that human lives would no longer seem meaningful in a world where such limitations could be overcome technologically. Even the goal of using germinal choice technology for clearly therapeutic purposes should be relinquished, since it would inevitably produce temptations to tamper with such things as cognitive capacities. He argues that it is possible for societies to benefit from renouncing particular technologies, using as examples Ming China, Tokugawa Japan and the contemporary Amish.[89]

Transhumanists and other supporters of technological alteration of human biology, such as science journalist Ronald Bailey, reject as extremely subjective the claim that life would be experienced as meaningless if some human limitations are overcome with enhancement technologies. They argue that these technologies will not remove the bulk of the individual and social challenges humanity faces. They suggest that a person with greater abilities would tackle more advanced and difficult projects and continue to find meaning in the struggle to achieve excellence. Bailey also claims that McKibben's historical examples are flawed, and support different conclusions when studied more closely.[90] For example, few groups are more cautious than the Amish about embracing new technologies, but though they shun television and use horses and buggies, some are welcoming the possibilities of gene therapy since inbreeding has afflicted them with a number of rare genetic diseases.[75]
[edit] Genetic divide (Gattaca argument)

Some critics of libertarian transhumanism have focused on its likely socioeconomic consequences in societies in which divisions between rich and poor are on the rise. Bill McKibben, for example, suggests that emerging human enhancement technologies would be disproportionately available to those with greater financial resources, thereby exacerbating the gap between rich and poor and creating a "genetic divide".[89] Lee Silver, a biologist and science writer who coined the term "reprogenetics" and supports its applications, has nonetheless expressed concern that these methods could create a two-tiered society of genetically-engineered "haves" and "have nots" if social democratic reforms lag behind implementation of enhancement technologies.[91] Critics who make these arguments do not thereby necessarily accept the transhumanist assumption that human enhancement is a positive value; in their view, it should be discouraged, or even banned, because it could confer additional power upon the already powerful. The 1997 film Gattaca's depiction of a dystopian society in which one's social class depends entirely on genetic modifications is often cited by critics in support of these views.[24]

These criticisms are also voiced by non-libertarian transhumanist advocates, especially self-described democratic transhumanists, who believe that the majority of current or future social and environmental issues (such as unemployment and resource depletion) need to be addressed by a combination of political and technological solutions (such as a guaranteed minimum income and alternative technology). Therefore, on the specific issue of an emerging genetic divide due to unequal access to human enhancement technologies, bioethicist James Hughes, in his 2004 book Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future, argues that progressives or, more precisely, techno-progressives must articulate and implement public policies (such as a universal health care voucher system that covers human enhancement technologies) in order to attenuate this problem as much as possible, rather than trying to ban human enhancement technologies. The latter, he argues, might actually worsen the problem by making these technologies unsafe or available only to the wealthy on the local black market or in countries where such a ban is not enforced.[24]
[edit] Threats to morality and democracy (Brave New World argument)

Various arguments have been made to the effect that a society that adopts human enhancement technologies may come to resemble the dystopia depicted in the 1932 novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Sometimes, as in the writings of Leon Kass, the fear is that various institutions and practices judged as fundamental to civilized society would be damaged or destroyed.[92] In his 2002 book Our Posthuman Future and in a 2004 Foreign Policy magazine article, political economist and philosopher Francis Fukuyama designates transhumanism the world's most dangerous idea because he believes that it may undermine the egalitarian ideals of liberal democracy, through a fundamental alteration of "human nature".[4] Social philosopher Jürgen Habermas makes a similar argument in his 2003 book The Future of Human Nature, in which he asserts that moral autonomy depends on not being subject to another's unilaterally imposed specifications. Habermas thus suggests that the human "species ethic" would be undermined by embryo-stage genetic alteration.[93] Critics such as Kass, Fukuyama, and a variety of Christian authors hold that attempts to significantly alter human biology are not only inherently immoral but also threats to the social order. Alternatively, they argue that implementation of such technologies would likely lead to the "naturalizing" of social hierarchies or place new means of control in the hands of totalitarian regimes. The AI pioneer Joseph Weizenbaum criticizes what he sees as misanthropic tendencies in the language and ideas of some of his colleagues, in particular Marvin Minsky and Hans Moravec, which, by devaluing the human organism per se, promotes a discourse that enables divisive and undemocratic social policies.[94]

In a 2004 article in Reason, science journalist Ronald Bailey has contested the assertions of Fukuyama by arguing that political equality has never rested on the facts of human biology. He asserts that liberalism was founded not on the proposition of effective equality of human beings, or de facto equality, but on the assertion of an equality in political rights and before the law, or de jure equality. Bailey asserts that the products of genetic engineering may well ameliorate rather than exacerbate human inequality, giving to the many what were once the privileges of the few. Moreover, he argues, "the crowning achievement of the Enlightenment is the principle of tolerance". In fact, he argues, political liberalism is already the solution to the issue of human and posthuman rights since, in liberal societies, the law is meant to apply equally to all, no matter how rich or poor, powerful or powerless, educated or ignorant, enhanced or unenhanced.[5] Other thinkers who are sympathetic to transhumanist ideas, such as philosopher Russell Blackford, have also objected to the appeal to tradition, and what they see as alarmism, involved in Brave New World-type arguments.[95]
[edit] Dehumanization (Frankenstein argument)

Australian artist Patricia Piccinini's concept of what human-animal hybrids might look like are provocative creatures which are part of a sculpture entitled "The Young Family," produced to address the reality of such possible parahumans in a compassionate way. Transhumanists would call for the recognition of self-aware parahumans as persons.

Australian artist Patricia Piccinini's concept of what human-animal hybrids might look like are provocative creatures which are part of a sculpture entitled "The Young Family," produced to address the reality of such possible parahumans in a compassionate way. Transhumanists would call for the recognition of self-aware parahumans as persons.

Biopolitical activist Jeremy Rifkin and biologist Stuart Newman accept that biotechnology has the power to make profound changes in organismal identity. They argue against the genetic engineering of human beings, because they fear the blurring of the boundary between human and artifact.[96][81] Philosopher Keekok Lee sees such developments as part of an accelerating trend in modernization in which technology has been used to transform the "natural" into the "artifactual".[97] In the extreme, this could lead to the manufacturing and enslavement of "monsters" such as human clones, human-animal chimeras or bioroids, but even lesser dislocations of humans and non-humans from social and ecological systems are seen as problematic. The film Blade Runner (1982), the novels The Boys From Brazil (1978) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) depict elements of such scenarios, but Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein is most often alluded to by critics who suggest that biotechnologies could create objectified and socially-unmoored people and subhumans. Such critics propose that strict measures be implemented to prevent what they portray as dehumanizing possibilities from ever happening, usually in the form of an international ban on human genetic engineering.[98]

Writing in Reason magazine, Ronald Bailey has accused opponents of research involving the modification of animals as indulging in alarmism when they speculate about the creation of subhuman creatures with human-like intelligence and brains resembling those of Homo sapiens. Bailey insists that the aim of conducting research on animals is simply to produce human health care benefits.[99]

A different response comes from transhumanist personhood theorists who object to what they characterize as the anthropomorphobia fueling some criticisms of this research, which science writer Isaac Asimov termed the "Frankenstein complex". They argue that, provided they are self-aware, human clones, human-animal chimeras and uplifted animals would all be unique persons deserving of respect, dignity, rights and citizenship. They conclude that the coming ethical issue is not the creation of so-called monsters but what they characterize as the "yuck factor" and "human-racism" that would judge and treat these creations as monstrous.[20][49]
[edit] Specter of coercive eugenicism (Eugenics Wars argument)

Some critics of transhumanism allege an ableist bias in the use of such concepts as "limitations", "enhancement" and "improvement". Some even see the old eugenics, social Darwinist and master race ideologies and programs of the past as warnings of what the promotion of eugenic enhancement technologies might unintentionally encourage. Some fear future "eugenics wars" as the worst-case scenario: the return of coercive state-sponsored genetic discrimination and human rights violations such as compulsory sterilization of persons with genetic defects, the killing of the institutionalized and, specifically, segregation from, and genocide of, "races" perceived as inferior. Health law professor George Annas and technology law professor Lori Andrews are prominent advocates of the position that the use of these technologies could lead to such human-posthuman caste warfare.[98][100]

For most of its history, eugenics has manifested itself as a movement to sterilize against their will the "genetically unfit" and encourage the selective breeding of the genetically fit. The major transhumanist organizations strongly condemn the coercion involved in such policies and reject the racist and classist assumptions on which they were based, along with the pseudoscientific notions that eugenic improvements could be accomplished in a practically meaningful time frame through selective human breeding. Most transhumanist thinkers instead advocate a "new eugenics", a form of egalitarian liberal eugenics.[101] In their 2000 book From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice, (non-transhumanist) bioethicists Allen Buchanan, Dan Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler have argued that liberal societies have an obligation to encourage as wide an adoption of eugenic enhancement technologies as possible (so long as such policies do not infringe on individuals' reproductive rights or exert undue pressures on prospective parents to use these technologies) in order to maximize public health and minimize the inequalities that may result from both natural genetic endowments and unequal access to genetic enhancements.[102] Most transhumanists holding similar views nonetheless distance themselves from the term "eugenics" (preferring "germinal choice" or "reprogenetics")[91] to avoid having their position confused with the discredited theories and practices of early-20th-century eugenic movements.[103]
[edit] Existential risks (Terminator argument)

Struck by a passage from Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's anarcho-primitivist manifesto (quoted in Ray Kurzweil's 1999 book, The Age of Spiritual Machines[10]), computer scientist Bill Joy became a notable critic of emerging technologies.[104] Joy's 2000 essay "Why the future doesn't need us" argues that human beings would likely guarantee their own extinction by developing the technologies favored by transhumanists. It invokes, for example, the "grey goo scenario" where out-of-control self-replicating nanorobots could consume entire ecosystems, resulting in global ecophagy.[105] Joy's warning was seized upon by appropriate technology organizations such as the ETC Group. Related notions were also voiced by self-described neo-luddite Kalle Lasn, a culture jammer who co-authored a 2001 spoof of Donna Haraway's 1985 Cyborg Manifesto as a critique of the techno-utopianism that ironically she herself is critical of.[106] Lasn argues that high technology development should be completely relinquished since it inevitably serves corporate interests with devastating consequences on society and the environment.[107]

In his 2003 book Our Final Hour, British Astronomer Royal Martin Rees argues that advanced science and technology bring as much risk of disaster as opportunity for progress. However, Rees does not advocate a halt to scientific activity; he calls for tighter security and perhaps an end to traditional scientific openness.[108] Advocates of the precautionary principle, such as the Green movement, also favor slow, careful progress or a halt in potentially dangerous areas. Some precautionists believe that artificial intelligence and robotics present possibilities of alternative forms of cognition that may threaten human life.[109] The Terminator series' doomsday depiction of the emergence of Skynet, a malignant computer network which initiates a nuclear war in order to kill as many humans as possible, has been cited by some involved in this debate.[110]

Transhumanists do not necessarily rule out specific restrictions on emerging technologies so as to lessen the prospect of existential risk. Generally, however, they counter that proposals based on the precautionary principle are often unrealistic and sometimes even counter-productive. In his television series Connections, science historian James Burke dissects several views on technological change, including precautionism and the restriction of open inquiry. Burke questions the practicality of some of these views, but concludes that maintaining the status quo of inquiry and development poses hazards of its own, such as a disorienting rate of change and the depletion of our planet's resources. The common transhumanist position is a technogaian one where society takes deliberate action to ensure the early arrival of the benefits of safe, clean, alternative technology rather than fostering what it considers to be anti-scientific views and technophobia.[111]

One transhumanist solution proposed by Nick Bostrom is differential technological development, in which attempts would be made to influence the sequence in which technologies developed. In this approach, planners would strive to retard the development of possibly harmful technologies and their applications, while accelerating the development of likely beneficial technologies, especially those that offer protection against the harmful effects of others.[36]
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism"

Categories: Ethical schools and movements | Futurology | Transhumanism | Technology in society
Superhuman
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A superhuman is an entity with intelligence or abilities exceeding normal human standards.

Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the distant future. Occasionally, it could mean an otherwise "normal" human with unusual abilities, such as psychic abilities or exceptional proficiency at something, far beyond the norm.

Superhuman can also mean something that isn't human, but considered to be "superior" to humans in some ways. A robot that easily passed the Turing test, and could do some things humans can't, could be considered superhuman. A very intelligent or strong alien could be considered superhuman.

The concept of the superhuman is quite popular in science fiction, where superhumans are often cyborgs, mutants or genetically engineered. The greatest publicity of the concept is, of course, comic book superheroes, such as Superman. The term is often used in discussions of comic book characters because the terms Superman and super hero are registered as trademarks. Superhuman characters in various comics, role-playing games and other entertainment media have also been referred to as metahuman or posthuman.
Contents

[hide]

1 Superhuman people

2 Superhuman as a classification

3 Ultimate Marvel

4 Examples

5 See also
[edit] Superhuman people

Speculation about human nature and the possibilities of both human enhancement and future human evolution have made superhumans a popular subject of science fiction.

One type of superhuman described in science fiction stories, particularly during the Atomic Age, derives from the concept of mutation. In such tales, a human being would mutate into or give birth to a being that either has powers not yet exhibited by humans, or else motivations entirely different from those human beings, or both. In some stories, these beings are either unable to get along with "normal" humanity, or replace them entirely, causing the extinction of present-day humanity.

Such superhumans are sometimes referred to as a "new species" (or "successor species") of humanity; in a number of fictional franchises, such as those of the Tomorrow People or the X-Men, these groups are even given the binomial nomenclature Homo superior, to distinguish them from Homo sapiens. The main problem with this concept is that it is dominated by a misunderstanding of the theory of evolution. Mutation takes place, but it is only a summation of the interactions of genes with the environment for many generations which eventually leads to the development of a new species, and then further time has to occur before one species becomes extinct while another, not necessarily the mutated species, survives. It is also possible (indeed, common) for two species from the same ancestry to survive at the same time, under separate environmental conditions, or occupying different niches. And it is only a value-judgement by humans which declares that the different characteristic of new species is "superior". But the notion of progress is inherently built into this genre of stories.

However, other stories turn this notion on its head, showing the disadvantages of a supposedly superior ability or quality; for example, in Briar Patch by Dean Ing, a group of ancient hominids were portrayed as a largely pacifistic, telepathic and highly empathic species who could not stand to inflict pain, even while hunting; they were eventually overwhelmed and exterminated by the less sensitive but more ruthless Homo sapiens.

Many other types of superhumans are also portrayed in science fiction. For example, the Dune series contains several varieties of superhumans, ranging from those produced by selective breeding to chemical enhancement or lifelong training in as yet uninvented mental and physical disciplines, and artificial lifeforms such as the Face Dancers. The Dune prequels also describe nearly-immortal brain-in-a-jar cyborgs called Cymeks and advanced artificial intelligence. The CoDominium universe has superhumans produced by artificial and natural selection and by genetic engineering; for example, the alien Moties have been bred for thousands of generations to be far better than humans at their caste's specific job, such as Engineer or Mediator. Many other fictional aliens, such as Vulcans, Kzinti and Mork from Ork have greater than human abilities or powers, sometimes simply for the purpose of making them seem more advanced or more "alien", other times simply for dramatic reasons (particularly if they are the antagonists of the story).

Beings with supernatural abilities are also common in fantasy fiction, but are very rarely referred to as superhumans in that genre.
[edit] Superhuman as a classification

In Marvel Comics the term superhuman is part of a "power classification system" and applies to aptitude (usually physical) far beyond the range attainable by normal human beings. An athlete is a normal human in extraordinary physical condition, such as a weight lifter or boxer. Peak human is applied to physical abilities that are nearly, but not quite, beyond the limits of the best of humans. Enhanced human refers to superhuman abilities some distance beyond the limits of humans, such as being able to lift a small car but not a tank, and is a term for "light" superhuman abilities. Then comes the level of the "superhuman." Characters with a superhuman attribute are far beyond normal human abilities.

These categories are very rarely referenced in the actual stories themselves. Instead, they are usually reserved for descriptive articles such as the The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
[edit] Ultimate Marvel

Super-Human is also the title of the first story arc of The Ultimates in the Ultimate Marvel universe.
[edit] Examples

Odd John by Olaf Stapledon is an early example of the genre and contains the first known use of the term "homo superior".

Slan, by A. E. van Vogt, features two types of beings, one with psychic powers.

Ludens featured in Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's Noon Universe are an example of a superhuman race.

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon involves a group of superhumans.

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card involves a group of superhumans with highly superior intelligence and obsessive-compulsive disorder-like symptoms.

Heroes, a television program in which many humans have evolved into 'superhumans'.

Philip K. Dick wrote many short stories such as The Golden Man that explored the concept of 'homo superior'
[edit] See also

Human enhancement

Human evolution

Metahuman

Mutant (fictional)

Paranormal

Parahuman

Posthuman

Subhuman

Superhero

Superhuman Strength

Superman

Supersoldier

Supervillain

Transhuman

Übermensch

Superpowers

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhuman"

Categories: Science fiction themes

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Human enhancement
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Human enhancement refers to any attempt, whether temporary or permanent, to overcome the current limitations of the human body, whether through natural or artificial means. The term is sometimes applied to the use of technological means to select or alter human aptitudes and other phenotypical characteristics, whether or not the alteration results in characteristics that lie beyond the existing human range. Here, the test is whether the technology is used for non-therapeutic purposes. Some bioethicists restrict the term to the non-therapeutic application of specific technologies — neuro-, cyber-, gene-, and nano-technologies — to human biology.[1]
Contents

[hide]

* 1 Ethics
* 2 Technologies
* 3 In popular culture
* 4 References
* 5 External links

[edit] Ethics

See also: Transhumanism

While in some circles the expression "human enhancement" is roughly synonymous with human genetic engineering,[2][3] it is used most often to refer to the general application of the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC) to improve human performance.[4]

Since the 1990s, several academics (such as some of the fellows of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies[5]) have risen to become cogent advocates of the case for human enhancement while other academics (such as the members of President Bush's Council on Bioethics[6]) have become its most outspoken critics.[7]

Advocacy of the case for human enhancement is increasingly becoming synonymous with “transhumanism”, a controversial ideology and movement which has
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