Posthumanism in South Africa

Nadia Levinson 25280971

“Certainly, we can attain much while remaining human. Yet we can attain higher peaks only by applying our intelligence, determination, and optimism to break out of the human chrysalis.” This quote is from Max More’s On becoming Posthuman. The posthuman enterprise attempts to find a ‘solution’ to the longing for immortality as expressed by humanity from the earliest times. Transhumanists and Extropianists suggest that technology can bring the human race within reach of this eternal life. According to posthumanists, acquiring the relevant information will lead to the achievement of immortality.
True enough, technology has certainly made it possible to alter/enhance/prolong one’s body or life by, for example, incorporating technology into ourselves such as pacemakers. I do feel however that the idea that death should (and will according to posthumanists) become obsolete is not only wishful thinking, but also a symptom of a fear of death.

South Africa (and indeed the world) is plagued by diseases, incurable and horrible. Naturally the idea of being free of the threat of disease or the encumbering body in old age is appealing in a country where AIDS, tuberculosis and cholera (to name only a few) are serious and growing dangers. Unfortunately though, the majority of South Africans dealing with these diseases are the poor and uneducated/illiterate. I thus consider it useless to consider technologically induced immortality as a solution to these problems due to the fact that technology is expensive. Technological advances, especially ones that imply such radical shifts in daily life as, for example immortality would, will involve huge amounts of money – money that the majority of the disease stricken don’t have. A technology that promises immortality would thus only be perpetuating the divide between the haves and have not’s, relegating the post-human strive for immortality to the ‘luxury goods’ aisle of the bio-tech supermarket.

Terrible diseases afflict South Africa and of course we should strive to find solutions to these problems but surely immortality is not the answer? Even if this is to become possible (the issue of its evident elitist nature has already been mentioned), would eternal life not contradict a fundamental characteristic of being human? The process of growing up, becoming an adult, al the while learning and growing old is part of our human status. Would we really want to exchange out humanity, our very being, to become post-human; to ‘cheat death’ with our money and so-called intelligence? Perhaps this entire enterprise is merely trying to ‘get back at God for making us suffer so horribly…’