This is brought to my attention by first Allie Beth Stuckey's podcast on the topic. I believe someone called Peter Thiel popularize this latest Transhumanism trend and hence the Christian discussions. Then by Holy Post Media, which to me is usually more intelligent than the "Reformed" folks particularly the "Reformed" Baptists (But I must admit, I didn't listen comprehensively on Allie's version, because when she said something too low IQ for me, my mind turns off for a few seconds and then I get distracted while playing her show. If I have to compare, though not Reformed, I would say Kaitlyn Schiess does seem smarter than Stuckey, because Schiess is open to studying various schools of thoughts while Stuckey is partially held back by the narrow mind of fundamentalism):
I like the 9 minute discussion above. The idea of skipping consummation/glorification of Man is an obvious elementary problem. But they also investigated the possibility of replacing human brain with artificial organ and that is the crux of the issue. One would need to transfer his "consciousness" to another body. I do not believe that it's possible for humans to create another human.
The Ship of Theseus (a philosophical thought experiment) was mentioned: If the ship's parts are replaced completely over time, is it still the same ship or a new ship entirely? Of course, human vs. ship is a qualitative difference; while any other objects (I would venture to include animals) vs. ship has no qualitative difference on this regard. Human has soul/spirit, the breath of God, which is unique in creation.
This brings to mind the movie that first got me think hard about pertaining idea. The Prestige (2006) by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Hugh Jackman is an ambitious magician who stumbled upon Tesla's secret of creating duplicates (including humans) and used the technology to perform his Real Transported Man magic trick (fooling his audience that he transported himself from one container to another, while it's a duplication machine and he has to kill his duplicate self so that there wouldn't be more than one version of himself running around), every time he performs this, he has to kill his own duplicate, and this desperation gave him an upper hand against his rival, who's secret trick of similar show was his identical twin brother who shares the same identity.
Enough movie talk, the point of this is to question that: When we duplicate ourselves (or even transport ourselves like in Star Trek, another duplication technology idea), are those duplicates/transported result still us? The Sci-Fi idea on this, such as The Fly (1958, 1986, etc.) gone from mere transportation technology (no conversion, just simply manipulation of space and time) to conversion from material to digital/electrical/something and back to material again (Star Trek).
If it's mere transportation, that I think is more achievable than the second one (conversion). But I'm sure the remote possibility of it will invite all kinds of questions I'm not interested to deal with now.
But if it is conversion, then what needs to be ask is if:
- Human soul/spirit is a thing "convertible" or associable with convertible material?
- Is reverse-conversion really authentic? (Because duplication is a problem for authenticity)
- Is the targeted material still the same thing as the original?
David Tong once posted on Facebook that allegedly "Scientists discover the Heart has a mini-brain of over 40,000 neurons, David quoting: "The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." (Blaise Pascal):
If that is so, how are we to artificially replace a brain that would include a mini-brain of the heart? This mystery is still being investigated by scientists. Our current technology of brain is a memory chip, not networks of neurons. A mere virtual imitation of such network.
I welcome the pursuit of science for transhumanism. I think we may stumble upon some interesting discoveries not pertaining to the goal of such pursuit. But I don't believe it is achievable because of the 3 questions raised above. What you will create is simply something artificial that can imitate humanity (like the dawn of AI we have today), not truly human, much less "transcends" human.
I think the best we will have is just going to be a very good duplicate imitation, not an authentic transference.