Should we use technology to enhance human?

Whatever I posted here is NOT MY OPINION OR IDEA.

What is transhumanism?

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Transhumanism, abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities

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Transhumanism has been a very popular but dangerous idea which poses a great threat to humanity and mankind. There are lots of pros and cons to this idea and obviously, you'll have your own opinion. So, I'm not gonna list it out this time.

However, I'm going to quote a few tweets here for you to get some ideas on transhumanism.

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What do you think about uploading your mind to a computer and living as a virtual being?

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I will concede that par of the benefits of #transhumanism is dependent upon human goodwill. That scares me a bit.

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#Transhumanism will surely lead to the destruction of humans.

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I've noticed that the people who object most to#transhumanism are those who suffer no physical ailments.

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What are the ethical implications of using biotechnology, nanotechnology, augmentations to alter human evolution?

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Let the debate begin!

Perhaps I've seen too many science-fiction films but I've never been a fan of it. I think it really depends on what you mean by the human condition. I think the human condition is about survival, bettering oneself (and possibly others) and imagination so this would all fit into transhumanism but I don't know, I'd be personally worried as to where it would stop and where would we draw the line. Another part of the human condition is that there's always someone willing to cross out the line and redraw it somewhere else.

I think this is too far. Who are we on this planet to play god?

(No i'm not religious the god thing's a figure of speech) But to start genetically modifying other humans? That's just going to far.

To be honest, technology is only ever going to be as smart as it's inventor. So if someone invents a robotic third arm, it's only ever going to be capable of doing the same as your natural arms. The only major difference is that it would be capable of withstanding high temperatures.

If they invented something that makes the brain more powerful, it would only really make you as smart as the inventor themselves. So why would we want technology to improve human capabilities? Because if we did that we would have a race of super-humans which ultimately would become useless as the technology advances.

I think we need to embrace it, because we already have, something as simple as glasses come under this and really it's just an extension of creating objects to help us such as in everyday life such as computers and cars.

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To be honest, technology is only ever going to be as smart as it's inventor.

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Logic does not agree with this statement, with a robotic arm we can add any number of implements to augment it's abilities, such as a magnet or more powerful motors so you can lift heavier weights.

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Originally Posted by Chippiewill

Logic does not agree with this statement, with a robotic arm we can add any number of implements to augment it's abilities, such as a magnet or more powerful motors so you can lift heavier weights.

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But that's just like going to the Gym ;) if you made the third arm capable of lifting weights exceeding your body weight then you would then strain the rest of your body. Therefore meaning they would have to re-build you with a steel skeleton to withstand the weights.

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Originally Posted by MrViaticus

But that's just like going to the Gym ;) if you made the third arm capable of lifting weights exceeding your body weight then you would then strain the rest of your body. Therefore meaning they would have to re-build you with a steel skeleton to withstand the weights.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO0xNI3xpmE

That's your point down the drain

But that's not a third arm, that's just increasing the power of the existing arms which would be the same as going to the gym.

Also, it's not directly connected to the body it's connected to it's own supporting mechanism which connects to the body to distribute it's weight equally across the humans body.

So pretty much agreeing with my previous statement.

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Originally Posted by MrViaticus

To be honest, technology is only ever going to be as smart as it's inventor. So if someone invents a robotic third arm, it's only ever going to be capable of doing the same as your natural arms. The only major difference is that it would be capable of withstanding high temperatures.

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Not true. IBM developed a supercomputer called "Deep Blue" in 1996 to challenge grandmaster chess player Garry Kasparov. It was programmed to take into account over 700,000 previous grandmaster games and think up to 20 moves ahead. While you can certainly argue that this can be achieved by certain gifted individuals, it is an eye-opener as to what is possible in the future. This computer thought with a mind of it's own. Once it was programmed, it thought for itself on a level that 99.9% of humans cannot comprehend. Considering that computer was created nearly 16 years ago, i'd hate to think about what they can create nowadays. But hell, i'm all for the advancement of technology. We were put on this Earth with the tools and minds to create, explore and develop every possible thing we can.

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Originally Posted by le harry

Not true. IBM developed a supercomputer called "Deep Blue" in 1996 to challenge grandmaster chess player Garry Kasparov. It was programmed to take into account over 700,000 previous grandmaster games and think up to 20 moves ahead. While you can certainly argue that this can be achieved by certain gifted individuals, it is an eye-opener as to what is possible in the future. This computer thought with a mind of it's own. Once it was programmed, it thought for itself on a level that 99.9% of humans cannot comprehend. Considering that computer was created nearly 16 years ago, i'd hate to think about what they can create nowadays. But hell, i'm all for the advancement of technology. We were put on this Earth with the tools and minds to create, explore and develop every possible thing we can.

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It wasn't thinking for its self though, it was pure logic and calculation with just allot of preprogrammed variables. Thus only being as 'smart' as the person who programmed it.

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Originally Posted by redtom

It wasn't thinking for its self though, it was pure logic and calculation with just allot of preprogrammed variables. Thus only being as 'smart' as the person who programmed it.

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Sentience isn't the only baseline for intelligence.