HUMAN “ENHANCEMENT” AND THE TRANSHUMANIST SPACE AGENDA

There's a school of thought out there that has been gaining some traction in the past few years, and it's time to pay attention to it. That school of thought thinks that (1) the future of humanity is in space, and that we must "go to the stars", and (2) in order to do so, we need not only (a) exotic new technologies, things like ion propulsion, warp drives, "anti-gravity" and so on, but also (b) a fundamental "enhancement" or modification of the humans destined to do so. It is point (2(b)) with which we are concerned today. It could, perhaps, be argued that this point is the fusion of the transhumanist agenda with that of space. It's important to distinguish what's going on here, between the "technology traditionalists" - and I would definitely number myself in that camp - and the "transhumanist space explorers", which are newcomers in a certain sense to the debate on space.

For the "technology traditionalists", the idea of a sustainable and permanent human presence in space and an interplanetary extension of that presence is not possible without the achievement of exotic propulsion and artificial environment technologies. As I've stated on many occasions, chemical rockets and tiny little "space capsules" simply are not going to be adequate to the job. If you've wondered why, with all the talk of missions to Mars and space hotels and asteroid mining and returning to the Moon, nothing is ever actually accomplished towards those ends of any real practical nature, this is why, and everyone in the space agencies from India, to China, Russia, Japan, and NASA knows it. This is why NASA has a whole division investigating exotic propulsion technologies, including the idea of warp drives. In fact, as I've indicated on a number of occasions and blogs, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has made it a goal that the USA be "warp capable" in a century.

But the newer approach is that which I'm calling the "transhumanist space explorers," who admit the need for all the exotic propulsion, but who are also arguing that a sustained and permanent human presence in space requires not just the exotic technological modifications of our ideas of propulsion and space travel, artificial environments, life support, habitats, and so on, but also of the human being himself. It is this meme that one sees increasingly being argued and advanced in recent years, and the following article shared by G.L.R. can be seen as a kind of summary of this school of thought:

Why Human Enhancement is Necessary for Successful Human Deep-space Missions

The opening abstract says it all:

The principal challenges lie in current space technology and engineering which includes the protection of astronauts from the hazards of working and living in the space environment. These challenges may lead to a paradoxical situation where progress in space technology and the ability to ensure acceptable risk/benefit for human space exploration becomes dissociated and the rate of scientific discovery declines. In this paper, we discuss the predominant challenges of the space environment for human health and argue that development and deployment of a human enhancement policy, initially confined to astronauts – for the purpose of future human space programmes is a rational solution to these challenges. (Emphases added)

And there's much context to suggest that the authors of this paper - Konrad Szocik and Martin Braddock - may have something quite fundamental and perhaps "drastic" in mind:

In this paper, we argue that human astronauts should be augmented for deep-space mission at the pre-launch stage in an alternative way from that offered by space agencies today. Current procedures include the inclusion of countermeasures such as diet, exercise, pharmaceuticals and anti-radiation shielding. Pharmaceutical efficacy may be limited to missions which are not longer than 2 years which may challenge a human mission to Mars which may last about 3 years. Astronaut augmentation may include a human enhancement programme based in part on genetic engineering, nanotechnology, robotics and cognitive science adaptation (Roco and Bainbridge 2003Roco, M.C., and Bainbridge, W.S., 2003. Converging technologies for improving human performance: nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.[Crossref] [Google Scholar], Chien and Wagstaff 2017Chien, S. and Wagstaff, K.L., 2017. Robotic space exploration agents. Sci. Robot, 2, eaan4831.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar], Gao and Chien 2017Gao, Y. and Chien, S., 2017. Review on space robotics: toward top-level science through space exploration. Sci. Robot., 2, eaan5074.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]). If we assume that the space environment may require enhancement of future astronauts, it is essential to ensure a clear rationale11 The issue of rationale for human missions to Mars and other human deep space missions is discussed in detail in Szocik (2019Szocik, K., 2019. Should and could humans go to Mars? Yes, but not now and not in the near future. Futures, 105, 5466.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]).View all notes for doing so as sending astronauts to such a hostile environment without consideration of appropriate countermeasures is unethical. Accepting that enhancement is a necessity, and assuming a favourable cost–benefit analysis, parameters such as invasiveness, reversibility or heritability must be considered. This will take into account long-term effects such as the risk of irreversibility of enhancements.

THe authors then discuss various methods of achieving this 'enhancement', including genetic modification, pharmaceutical enhancement of cognitive abilities, and so on. And lest the extent of their idea is not understood, toward the end of their article they state this:

What types of artificial capabilities could or should be applied to astronauts in future? One of the most desirable capacities in space may be living without a life support system. This opportunity would require breathing unaided in the Martian atmosphere but as terraforming appears even more challenging than previously thought, the only currently achievable solution is the life support system, at either an individual level or a population level such as in a biosphere.

In the final analysis, what their paper is really arguing is that space affords the opportunity to "enhance" humanity - that it to say, modify it so fundamentally - that one may question whether or not the result remains human. Indeed, from their point of view, it is an ethical requirement. One can easily see how the whole transhumanist-alchemical agenda of crawling back up the ladder from animal, to vegetable, to mineral man could be rationalized by an appeal to the necessity for it in order for humans to function in space: need to function in a radiation rich environment? modify the human genome by splicing in the genes of those plants and bacteria that actually feed on radiation; need a stable food supply? Splice in the genes responsible for photosynthesis in plants (and thereby make "green men"). Need to be able to expand cognitive function and inter-personal communications? Make the perfect cyborg-human with built-in bio-computer interfaces, chip the brain. Need to be able to make quick surgical repair of damaged cells and body parts? Fill the lymph and circulatory system with nanobots able to do so, and so on.

Ok, maybe so. But where is today's trademark high octane speculation? Well, for one thing, we've heard this story before. In fact, we've heard it thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of years ago. The wars of the "gods" or of the angels and demons might not be mere metaphor, but an actual physical cosmic reality. Those ancient texts also say something else: we once lived a whole lot longer. And they also say something else yet again: that at some point, those gods or angels or demons, came down from their heavenly perch and mixed and mingled with us, and some would argue that we were genetically "tinkered with", and that we(or at least, some of us), now, are the result of that experiment. So the real question, for those lending credence to such ideas, is this: were those ancient "enhancements" made for precisely the same purpose, to permit a permanent "human" interplanetary presence? Or, conversely, were they made by the "interplanetary powers that were" to prevent it?

See you on the flip side...

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Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

15 Comments

  1. Loxie Lou Davie on October 8, 2019 at 4:21 pm

    According to a source of Linda M. Howe’s, we already ARE on trading routes in the stars…..what has to happen is that “those in the know” figure out a way to break the news to us that we already ARE citizens of the galaxy. 😉 Our “controllers” have simply kept us in the dark for the past 100 years or so. As we know so well, “breakthroughs” have been quashed when it comes to Public Knowledge. We also know that human “enhancements” have already been put into use, following WW II. That is the problem!!! There are two civilizations on parallel tracks with one far ahead of the other!!

    Does anyone know the name of the “real” Indian that ran against Pocahantas in MA??? Dr. Shiva Ayyaduria recently did an interview with Tiffany Fitzhenry…..both are trying to bring a bit of sense into this charade that has been going on here in this country for TOO long!!!

    These so-called “experts” will keep writing their nonsense as long as the funds are made available to do so!! Who was it that took over our education system back in the 1920’s???



  2. Claude on October 8, 2019 at 11:44 am

    too bad all these mad scientists and the ones that are financing them, cannot be sent to whatever planet they like with no return ticket!
    It would be a plus for the humanity



    • Robert Barricklow on October 8, 2019 at 11:52 am

      Now there would be a planet to quarantine.

      Oops! They’re here! We’ve already been quarantined?



  3. LadyBug on October 7, 2019 at 9:40 pm

    In response to Joseph’s blog.
    I have felt for a long time that we have been tinkered with. We have too many similarities to other creatures on this planet, two eyes, two ears, etc. yet so different. We have no real natural defenses except intelligence and innovation. We are oddities living in two states of mind. If we had been tinkered with through the ages ( and I think we have) it seems logical that if they intended for us to live off world they would have engineered us so.



  4. marcos toledo on October 7, 2019 at 7:25 pm

    Cyclons Borgs anyone this has been a meme in many a science fiction story. If our elites hate their biological bodies that much let themselves become androids leaving us biologicals explore the universe in our bodies the old fashion way. Just give us the technology to do so they have been squiring away for over a century at least.



  5. zendogbreath on October 7, 2019 at 5:46 pm

    Let’s deal with what Mr Globaloney and his friends the WGEO have done to us first.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3422&v=7SYSPlQa5eY
    051: Water, Light, Magnetism, Mitochondria & Biohacking Podcast with Dr. Jack Kruse

    It looks like Jack Kruse has gotten on to the how of Tesla, Rife and all.



  6. basta on October 7, 2019 at 2:20 pm

    Humans are not adaptable to long-term habitation in space, as the Guinea pigs sent up to international space station have shown. Long periods of zero gravity do nasty things to our bodies, notably our eyes and our circulatory systems. We’re built for gravity, which is severely lacking, and our bodies will suffer greatly from prolonged exposure.

    Instead of listening to the transhumanist-eugenisists (who have ulterior motives in advancing their own agenda here), perhaps we should create humanoid drones for the task–which was very much the thinking of what the greys were, back in the day a generation ago when interest in ETs ran much higher.

    A modest proposal , if you will.



    • LadyBug on October 7, 2019 at 9:43 pm

      I agree. Reminds me of The Titan movie.



    • Eve Leung on October 8, 2019 at 12:57 am

      Ohh totally! Actually human can totally exploring other planet via Avatar type of drone, why make it so complicated? Eventually create some kind of monsters which out of their control, normal people has to pay the price for these nut job’s mistake. Who knows, maybe these people wants to create chimera 2.0 or 3.0 … 10.0, and then say – ohhh shot, not again, we have to destroy them all ….



  7. Billy Bob on October 7, 2019 at 11:45 am

    Several years ago I started a project on the origin of the ideas humans propagate and the reasons….holy moly what a mish mash to sort out. Thanks to all for sharing.



  8. Robert Barricklow on October 7, 2019 at 11:34 am

    Perhaps that’s why they’re terraforming Earth.
    No living thing can survive UNLESS it’s a different life form from the current Earthling.
    It must conform to “our” newly terraformed Earth.
    “IT” is the correct pronoun for what a
    transhumanist world would become.
    Is sticking w/the original fix better than…
    an unlimited number of naked ape re-fixes?



  9. Neru on October 7, 2019 at 10:28 am

    I love this blue bauble I am living on. It may be not perfect on earth and living on it mhardships are apart of it



    • Neru on October 7, 2019 at 10:33 am

      (serious typo)
      I love this blue bauble I am living on. It may be not perfect on earth and living on it presents hardships. But as far as I am concerned Picard can take his minions and tread of into oblivion and stay there.

      I stay and take care of the worldly vineyards.



  10. anakephalaiosis on October 7, 2019 at 7:15 am

    Divine right to rule needs a colorful tale to masquerade, otherwise no one will buy the scam.

    Mass murderers hide in plain sight, risking death by exposure, outside fantasy land.

    They seek to falsify origin, since knowing forefathers is knowing oneself.

    SAMUEL SAID 1

    Samuel said to Saul to take weaponry,
    to go, and do what is necessary,
    and leave none standing,
    nor breathing,
    as bloodwrack is his destiny.

    1 Samuel 15:3

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/cecrruktqgh7xzw/sherlock27.jpg



  11. goshawks on October 7, 2019 at 6:21 am

    One of my most-fondly-remembered SF novels is Way Station by Clifford D. Simak. [1964 Hugo Award Winner.] In it, an ‘ageless’ Civil War veteran is a caretaker of a secret “Way Station” for alien visitors in the Wisconsin woods. Simak has written so sympathetically of a man’s long love of Earth – hills, trees, neighbors – that it made me really look at being home-bound rather than star-bound. Recommended.

    As far as “transhumanist space explorers,” take it to its logical conclusions and you get the Greys . Thank you, no…



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