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REVIEW ON THE TRANSHUMAN WORLD AND ITS FEARS

REVIEW


Transhumanism is at the front burner of philosophical and scientific discourses in the areas of artificial intelligence and the concept of personhood in the present time. It is not out of place to assert that Eneyo has a passion for exploring uncommon ground in his publications, having published on the philosophy of fear which scholars in this part of the world have not ventured into. This current work, though on transhumanism, is still somewhat situated in the background of fear. Perhaps this is in a bid to expand his thought on fear from his previous publications. Aside from that, transhumanism as a subject of discourse cannot be completely discussed outside the purview of the fear people have for its implications if allowed to thrive without being guided by technology ethics.
Transhumanism as a scientific effort to recreate or advance the course of humanism becomes an undertaking with great fear because of the belief by some people that implementation of the transhumanism agenda will challenge the supremacy of God, thus making the place of God in human affairs to be gradually eroded. For the religious, the transhumanism philosophy is an attempt by human beings to take the place of God in human affairs. The naturalists on the other hand, felt that such stride can ultimately hamper the course of nature and become a disaster to our world. So, within this exercise of fear, Michael Eneyo’s book attempts to allay the fear of the people by arguing that one can be a transhumanist without necessarily denying God or disbelieve in the existence of God. This is exhibited in his dedication page as he dedicates the book to those “who in their philosophical or technological pursuits do not deny the supremacy of God”.
The book is carefully divided into nine scintillating chapters: the first four chapters explain and analyse the origin, meaning of the concept of transhumanism, its features and the ugly sights of the future world. The second three chapters focus on the concept of fear, while the last two chapters provide a theoretical framework on how fearism can be used in addressing the present challenges of transhumanism, and the ones that are coming in the future society.
In the first chapter, the author towed the historical part to expose the speculative beginning of transhumanism. For me, the concern at the beginning was to build or create artificial intelligent machines (AI) that could help human beings perform many tasks that seem impossible or difficult due to certain limitations in the mental and physical abilities of human beings. But as soon as AI developed, the focus shifted to empowering human beings by merging both artificial and natural intelligence to surpass the known limitations of human beings.
In this chapter, readers will be abreast of the movement from Artificial intelligence to robotic engineering which eventually gave rise to Cyborgisation as engineering of both human and machine abilities. It further explains Extropianism which is the belief in human immortality. Extropians seek to prolong lives and the values of self-creating or non-decaying human body. Transhumanists keyed into the extropian values and intend to create superhuman beings. Justice would not have been done in this chapter without an enumeration of the different types of transhumanism. The author identifies types of transhumanism. Aside from the two classical brands, he identifies libertarian and non-libertarian transhumanism whose focus is on the socio-economic and political implications of building superhuman agents by nations. (the above does not really capture the idea as expressed)
The proper identification of these brands affords Eneyo to discuss the likely features of this new philosophy in the following chapter. He reasoned that technological advancement may have its social problems but one cannot wish away its positives especially in the areas of health care, childbirth, social comfort, and individual fulfilments. He argues, however, that transhumanism will create a gulf between the rich and the poor, traditional and modern persons, religious and non-religious persons, and the fearful and the fearless. Chapters three and four explore the paradox observable in the transhumanism agenda. While the essence of creating a superhuman is to embolden human beings and make them fearless of transcending their current limitations, there is a palpable fear of how access to such powers by politicians can destroy the world. The world is therefore faced with the problem of doing nothing to human limitations or doing something to human excesses. Both of course present the same problems; human suffering. Since the old way has its own problems and the new way will generate its own problems. The author explores the concept of fear in Chapter Five to explain the workings of fear in humans, while Chapter Six introduces fearism/fearology as a philosophical concept to be used to manage fear in the transhuman society. In the same chapter, the irony of technology ran through the pages such that the author describes the world as “fear territory”. The seventh chapter emphasises this fear territory by showing that fear and love are like Siamese twins rather than opposing concepts. The author argues that fear and love has both negative and positive parts; notwithstanding their complementary nature; positive love can conquer negative fear. I do not want to assume with this analysis, that positive fear can conquer negative love. But that may be the inevitable implication of the author’s position. In the context under discussion, though people could be afraid of the new technology as a tool of terrorism against less privileged nations by developed nations, it does not take away some positives the technology might have.

AKANDE Michael Aina (PhD)
Lagos State University, Ojo
Faculty of Arts,
Department of Philosophy


Chapter eight is a slight departure from the above. This is the section where a clarion call is made on poor; underdeveloped or developing nations, especially African countries, to key into this new technology. The author thinks that the educational curriculum’s overhauling will do the trick. On this, Eneyo reasons that it is better for all nations to possess the tools of transhumanism, since having it will make it difficult for those who have, to unnecessarily terrorise others who may not have gotten.
I want to acknowledge the beautiful exposition of transhumanism in this book and the contribution to knowledge it expresses. Eneyo has done justice to the title of the book. However, there is a need for other scholars to build on this foundation by investigating the African idea of transhumanism. Africans might not have been using the same process to control aging or prolong life like their Western counterparts but stories abound in Yoruba traditional thought system for instance, that aging can be controlled. Despite the high mortality rate in Africa due to economic and political reasons, people still live to 130 years and beyond. In Yoruba traditional knowledge, for instance, there is the concept of aji d’ewe meaning ‘waking up to become younger’. People have reported the phenomenon of attaching a certain metal ring to a finger or toe in an attempt to control death. A person with such a ring will only die finally if the ring is removed or else they die and come back to life. If this is not an example of transhumanism then there should be a study that will put this phenomenon in the right perspective.
In conclusion, this book addresses the likely challenges of the transhumanism philosophy, expressing the fear that transhuman world would be worse than Hobbesian state of nature if technology ethics is not encouraged to control technologists on what to invent and how these inventions should be used. The author has a strong voice in his prediction that this envision world will lack morality, and that the transhuman era will end in a world war. He however suggests that the philosophy of fear will be the most needed philosophy to help people manage the increase fear factors in the transhuman world. It is also the author’s belief that through philosophy of unity and ethics, a new world will emerge after the world war. To him, this new world will value life more than what was in the transhuman world. Knowing that technology will rule the world, whether for good or for bad, that developing countries should key in order not to be left out. Whether the author is right or not depends on the actual implementation of transhumanists’ ideology.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the theory, ideology, and technology behind transhumanism and fearology. Its simplicity and good language are of great help in this direction.

AKANDE Michael Aina (PhD)
Lagos State University, Ojo
Faculty of Arts,
Department of Philosophy

                                                                           

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