Transhumanism in Higher Education: Social Implications and Institutional Roles

Abstract

Human intelligence has provided mankind the means to create and develop tools used to survive harsh environments, predators and each other.  Technology is a term commonly used synonymously with these evolutionary tools and in the last 60 years has begun to evoke notions of digital or cyber technologies.  Exponential explosions in information technologies have given way to computational developments in hardware and software which in turn has sparked new fields of hard science research such as: bio/medical technology, genomics, brain mapping, supercomputing, quantum computing and nanotechnology among others.  As these fields grow and increasingly provide attention grabbing results, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research in the soft sciences must continue to grow alongside and in collaboration with the hard sciences.  Fields such as: applied ethics, gerontology, behavioral sciences and politics begin to posit possible dramatic impacts such advancing technologies may have on cultural, spiritual and social humanity.  Educational institutions have begun to recognize the evolution of information processing taking place in and outside the classroom.  Responsibility rests on the shoulders of the institutions developing such emerging technologies in order to promote, support and facilitate productive, efficient and most of all safe progression of said research.  Generating a competitive edge in the research and development of burgeoning technologies has long been the objective of colleges and universities, both for revenue and prestige.  Interdepartmental audits, for lack of a better term, may provide a successful approach to introducing new technologies into a classroom setting as well as both the public and private sectors with confidence that what has been developed has the lowest likelihood of causing harm.  Human enhancement, whether it is diet and exercise to keep the body in shape, or education and cognitive exercise to keep the mind healthy, has long been a widely accepted trait of humanity that keeps the species progressing evolutionarily.  Transhumanism is a term used to describe the concept of merging man and machine for the purpose of overcoming human limitations.    Integration of budding cyber technologies into the human experience have already begun to offer what could once have been considered miraculous and even supernatural abilities.  Trends and experts point to drastic implications that the progression of these technologies not only show no sign of relenting, but are expanding exponentially.  Theoretical implications addressed will not only be of great interest to institutions of higher education and researchers in the aforementioned areas, but may concern any individual of the human population slated to be affected by such advancements.