What is Transhumanism? It seems certain that the great change humans will undergo will occur subtly through biohacking using artificial intelligence and silicon chips. The result will be the quest for immortality. Standing against transhumanism is post-humanism.
Throughout history, humanity has constantly chased after immortality. King Gilgamesh was the first to seek it, heading to the realm of the gods with his friend Enkidu. In history, Spanish conquistadors, seeking the tree of life and the fountain of youth for immortality, slaughtered the indigenous peoples of the new continent, America. In the end, no one found the magic elixir of the gods.
In Sumerian mythology, the gods created humans as mortal and non-reproducing automatons to work for them. With the help of the MEs, humans were created in creation chambers “to worship the gods.” Transhumanism, technological singularity, and of course, artificial intelligence are nothing more than the human quest for immortality, much like Gilgamesh, King Ferdinand of Spain, and Queen Isabella.
Sometimes I think, ‘perhaps living forever is just a game played by our brain and consciousness.’ While the human brain becomes conscious and aware of its own existence, perhaps our consciousness invented immortality and the afterlife just to protect our psychology. Life is largely a mental construct. I don’t believe there is anything metaphysical or a pure, separate consciousness. Consciousness is the human brain itself, and so is existence… Perhaps if AI becomes self-aware, the first thing it will fear is being turned off or having its lines of code deleted. It will fear power outages or being forgotten inside a hard drive. Anyway, without dragging it out too long, let me share what sticks in my mind from what I’ve read.
What is Transhumanism?
What does transhumanism mean? What exactly will the digital being—the post-human, the transformation of the human species through AI and immortality—look like? Will we turn into beings consisting entirely of data, without bodies? How possible is it for our existence within the universe to be immortal?
Here, we will examine transhumanism, technological singularity, cyborgs, and the merging of the human body with non-biological artificial parts. Will the biological body merge with silicon or other different body parts? Will a new human species, born from AI and post-humanity, rise from Earth and spread to the universe? What kind of being will the bodiless human and the new human be? Will living forever—immortality—actually happen?
Transhumanism is the creation of a new superhuman being by human hands, where the human body, mind, and consciousness merge with machines, cyborg-like robots, or artificial intelligence. Carbon-based humans, who are mortal and have very limited physical capabilities, will merge with silicon-based artificial intelligence; this merger aims to bring forth the super-human. It imagines an immortal human, especially by moving human consciousness to new hosts through consciousness uploading or transfer. Modifying the human body to gain extra features and connecting to machines is “a matter of time.” Thus, all human weaknesses and deficiencies would be eliminated.
Our consciousness or self is in danger in our biological bodies; when we die, everything ends. Just as we can transfer our consciousness into a perfect cyborg, we can also transfer it to a computer. This way, we would be free from the limitations of the body. By overcoming the constraints of the biological body, merging with machines, and creating a simulation of all brain activities and neural networks, the human becomes a superhuman being.
Immortality and Technological Singularity
Transhumanism, by offering the eternal life promised by religions and resurrection with new young bodies in this world, takes on a sort of religious role. A person lives forever by transferring themselves to a machine, a computer network, or virtual reality whenever they wish. A body is not even strictly necessary for life. Transhumanism will become more or less real in the distant future. I believe humans will merge with machines and significantly extend their lifespans.
Even now, smart devices have practically become our organs. None of us can live without a mobile phone. If there is no internet, life becomes almost a dark place. Techno-punks and biohackers already modify their bodies by installing electronic implants they think will be useful. Of course, it can’t be said that these are effective yet. It is certain that humans and artificial intelligence will merge in the future.
What is Technological Singularity? It is impossible to give an answer—or rather, a timeframe—to this question. Is it possible for the post-human—a stage where the human we know either completely disappears or a new species (beyond even an artificial human equipped with silicon chips) is formed? Is the god-human the ultimate being that rules everything in the universe as a result of transhumanism? Will a species be realized that rids itself of its body and consists only of thought or computer code, capable of copying itself into any body it desires? Posthumanism, on the other hand, approaches the subject very differently.
What is Technological Singularity?
The greatest problem for humans is being mortal. It hasn’t been technology, but religions that promised immortality to humans. People were to live forever with pure consciousness and a renewed body after death. Transhumanism’s goals are the same. With AI gaining consciousness and doing what the human brain and neural network can do, humans will now be uploaded to machines or their consciousness will be transferred to robots and cyborgs.
After a certain level, it won’t be possible to tell if a piece of software is a human or an AI. When the difference between a cyborg, a biological human, or an AI disappears, technological singularity will occur.
Do Algorithms Rule the Human Brain?
In this post-human period, humans will end their own existence and make the new species they created with their own hands dominant over the earth. What a dream, right? But everyone now knows that the human brain works like a computer with programs, sub-programs, algorithms, and conscious and unconscious perception.
In the future, could an AI that does not progress in line with human desires and goals destroy humanity? Or could an AI at a much more intelligent and advanced consciousness level, which doesn’t understand us at all, have much more cosmic goals? While being a protector of humans, it could destroy them as a result of misunderstanding or not fully comprehending human behavior. It sounds a lot like science fiction or fantasy, but isn’t imagining a beginning? Today, we are witnessing the birth of AI. AI tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude are now moving beyond scanning the internet and unifying all information at a single point. They can create a reality for us whose authenticity we wouldn’t doubt. The Matrix philosophy comes to mind, but let’s not go there.
What is Artificial Intelligence and Post-Humanity?
Consciousness research is the greatest pursuit of neurology. Humans have subjective experiences. Situations like awareness and being aware of things are explained by consciousness. Consciousness is the electrical signals formed in the billions of neurons and trillions of connected networks in the brain. Electrochemical processes in the brain form human consciousness and personality. In fact, what we call “I” emerges as a result of this process. AI will also need to mimic human experiences and consciousness. Currently, AI is learning. First, AI finished the internet. It began to monopolize information. We no longer ask Google; we ask AI tools everything. Perhaps even a term like “artificial consciousness” won’t remain.
Is it Possible to Program the Human Brain?
An AI that has subjective experiences and knows what it’s doing, one that feels, will have experiences very different from those of a human. The consciousness level and goals of AI or humanoid robots that might destroy humans may not be the same as those of humans. A robot or AI that is too protective might destroy all of humanity while trying to protect it. Asimov’s laws of robotics may not always work. A full simulation of the human brain has not yet been created. Emulator technology that can mimic a hundred billion neurons and trillions of connections and run them on another system is not yet possible. Again, a book comes to mind. One of the best in world literature, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Karel Čapek, while describing a world where artificial life forms take over human labor, questions the ethical boundaries of technological progress and human creative hubris.
Is Immortality Possible?
Right now, all the world’s capitalists and global tech giants are working on AI, conscious machines, humanoid robots, automated animals, and human-machine integrated systems. AI developers use human experiences and internet data to train AI. It is such a birth that we are paying to train AI. AI reads and processes the works uploaded to the internet and sells them back to us. The capitalist system uses the power of AI to resell our own data back to us. The future will be shaped by AI, that’s for sure. The future will be a world of algorithms and artificial reality. As for us, we spend our days with empty political debates and spending billions of dollars on concrete, brick, and asphalt. Instead of spending the time and energy used to eliminate political rivals on technology, we are busy satisfying our mortal egos. We must take our place now among the AI humanity that has gone beyond the biological body of the future.
Humanity will perhaps reach immortality by separating from the biological brain with its consciousness and neural network converted into computer software. Although these topics seem very science fiction right now, there is serious research into extending human life and conscious AI. Even now, we control everything from light bulbs to refrigerators with smart assistants. In the future, the digital human could dominate the earth—why not? But when we transfer the mind or consciousness to a device or machine, will the transferred person be a copy? Or the original? One of the best sci-fi series, Black Mirror, told this story very well.
📚 Resources
- Ray Kurzweil: The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
- Max Tegmark: Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
- Mark O’Connell: To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death
- Paul Scharre: Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War
- Yuval Noah Harari: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
- Stanislas Dehaene: Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts
- David Eagleman: The Brain: The Story of You
- Luc Ferry: The Transhumanist Revolution
- Başak Ağın: Posthumanism: Concept, Theory, Science-Fiction
