Regardless of the variations within the function of gender in Ex Machina and Arrival, these movies share a theme that pervades a lot of up to date science fiction, and which dates again to the myths of Prometheus and Icarus: transcending human intelligence. Many tales sort out this subject by specializing in the exact second of the transition between human and ultra-human or transhuman intelligence. Many others predict the circumstances underneath which the transition will happen.

Within the film Arrival, there’s the instinct, manifest within the interactions between Dr. Banks and the aliens, that alien intelligence isn’t actually synthetic. The aliens, in any case, developed within the universe someway, identical to us, which makes them “pure.”

Would it not actually make any distinction if our squid-looking intergalactic neighbors turned out to be robots? In the event that they reply to our questions like every of us would, then we’re pressured to conclude that they might be clever, regardless that they appear and act very in a different way from us (Montemayor, 2021a). Assessing consciousness is a distinct query (Haladjian and Montemayor, 2016, Montemayor, 2021b).

The demise of human intelligence and its correlative transcendence is known as the “singularity,” some extent of no return, and it doesn’t matter if it’s within the fingers of super-computers or super-aliens. So, the pondering goes, why not take preemptive measures about this transhumanist demotion? Or ought to we welcome it with open arms?

One other movie, Transcendence, combines these themes. Right here too a professor, Dr. Will Caster, is the principle character, however he’s no hero. He creates a singularity of his personal and is totally centered on himself. The good and initially well-intentioned professor, who’s the main world knowledgeable on AI, turns right into a villain and a type of alien robotic monster in direction of the tip of the movie. It seems that he’s additionally motivated by romantic love, however that is solely inconsequential. Dr. Caster is eager on not letting anybody get in his method, and he’s decided to not merely transcend his personal intelligence but additionally vanquish the whole situational framework on which it relies upon: human society. For our functions, the precise particulars of the film are usually not vital. What issues is how Dr. Caster “transcends” himself by being uploaded by his spouse to a worldwide informational system.

Without delay cyborg, matrix architect, and terminator, Dr. Caster merges with all kinds of on-line packages and regularly abandons his “wetware,” or biologically based mostly existence, in favor of a “cloudier” and information-based existence, with many potential—and in precept, limitless—{hardware} prospects. He’s the singularity and himself on the identical time? How can this be?

Dr. Caster may be a nightmarish paradox, however he’s additionally a transhumanist dream come true. Dr. Caster is extra Faustian than Goethe’s Dr. Faust, and he’s fairly actually far and wide—a type of panpsychistic egocentric fury. He’s a warning regarding transhumanism gone mistaken. However this isn’t as a result of there’s something essentially mistaken with transhumanism as such. Fairly, the issue is that human intelligence has a number of dimensions of steering and motivation, fairly ceaselessly in opposition to at least one one other. Dr. Caster is advancing scientific analysis and enhancing present data at an sudden velocity—a fairly laudable exercise. However he’s additionally a egocentric and immoral particular person, who believes his values are the very best sources of ethical and political steering.

Just a few folks on the whole planet are like Dr. Caster, who has entry and monetary assets to have transhumanist ambitions. We are able to grant that transhumanism may be constructive as a result of it’s a treatment to anthropocentrism. The query is what dangers does it pose, even when it has constructive options?

Justifications of cognitive enhancement

The justifications for cognitive enhancement are just like these utilized in favor of bodily enhancement (see Extra and Vita-Extra, 2013). Here’s a definition of transhumanism by Max Extra: “Philosophies of life (resembling extropian views) that search the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of clever life past its at the moment human type and human limitations via science and expertise, guided by life-promoting ideas and values.” (Extra, 1990)

Supply: Carlos Montemayor

Within the context of life perpetuation and enhancement, Ronald Bailey refers to a type of “gene tyranny” to characterize the situation of dependence on our biology that the transhumanist venture guarantees to get rid of. In “A Letter to Mom Nature,” Extra (2013) makes use of related language. Parts of Amendments No. 1, 3, 4 and 5 state:

• We are going to not tolerate the tyranny of growing old and demise. Via genetic alterations, mobile manipulations, artificial organs, and any mandatory means, we’ll endow ourselves with enduring vitality and take away our expiration date. (Modification 1)
• We are going to enhance on our neural group and capability, increasing our working reminiscence, and enhancing our intelligence. (Modification 3)
• We are going to complement the neocortex with a “metabrain.” This distributed community of sensors, data processors, and intelligence will improve our diploma of self-awareness and permit us to modulate our feelings. (Modification 4)
• We will not be slaves to our genes. We are going to take cost of our genetic programming and obtain mastery over our organic, and neurological processes. (Modification 5; Extra and Vita-Extra, 450)

At first look, the social and political language within the context of evolution, biology, and cognitive neuroscience is recent and attention-grabbing. What may be extra justified than resisting tyranny? However the expression “by any means mandatory” within the political realm entails resistance, if mandatory violence, in opposition to oppressive and unjustified oppression. What may violent resistance imply within the context of the evolution of our and different species? Is the analogy between social oppression and nature apt? In what sense is Mom Nature a tyrant? And in what sense is Dr. Caster a hero?

Dr. Caster will not tolerate the tyranny of growing old and demise by being pervasively “nanoparticle-present” in the surroundings, in addition to informationally world, with entry to every kind of databases. Now not a “slave” of his genes, Dr. Caster is the grasp of his biology and neurological processes. Mom Nature is not the tyrant—in reality, she is not “mom” in an absolute sense as a result of now Dr. Caster is not less than partly “father.” Mom Nature is now in battle, or not less than so it appears based mostly on the Letter and its Amendments, with “Father” Dr. Caster. So has he turn out to be totally synthetic in advantage of this battle?

Implications of transcendence

If we someway transcend the boundaries of human intelligence through the use of human intelligence to create the “transhuman,” what implications are there for the expertise of being human? Are we transcending that have as properly? Whereas the examples described give eventualities of such extravagant transcendence, the subjective experiences of those new people are incomprehensible. That doesn’t imply they exist as a type of true consciousness (possibly they merely flip into data as soon as they abandon organic nature by transcending it). Or do they?