An argument that achieving millennial life spans or monumental
intellects will destroy values that give meaning to human lives.
Proposals to make us smarter than the greatest geniuses or to add
thousands of years to our life spans seem fit only for the spam
folder or trash can. And yet this is what contemporary advocates of
radical enhancement offer in all seriousness. They present a
variety of technologies and therapies that will expand our
capacities far beyond what is currently possible for human beings.
In Humanity's End, Nicholas Agar argues against radical
enhancement, describing its destructive consequences. Agar examines
the proposals of four prominent radical enhancers: Ray Kurzweil,
who argues that technology will enable our escape from human
biology; Aubrey de Grey, who calls for anti-aging therapies that
will achieve "longevity escape velocity"; Nick Bostrom, who defends
the morality and rationality of enhancement; and James Hughes, who
envisions a harmonious democracy of the enhanced and the
unenhanced. Agar argues that the outcomes of radical enhancement
could be darker than the rosy futures described by these thinkers.
The most dramatic means of enhancing our cognitive powers could in
fact kill us; the radical extension of our life span could
eliminate experiences of great value from our lives; and a
situation in which some humans are radically enhanced and others
are not could lead to tyranny of posthumans over humans.
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