Cave 2.0. The dualistic roots of transhumanism

Abstract

Transhumanism (TH) is an intellectual trend that promotes the technological transformation of human beings. We will briefly expose the most conspicuous features of the TH, as well as the main criticisms that have been made to it (section 1). The aim of this article, however, is not to enter into this controversy, so we will provide only the essential keys to be able to move forward. And one of the most intriguing keys of the TH is that, beneath its techno-futurist patina, it refers to certain philosophical ideas as old as incompatible –in appearance– with each other. The TH refers to radical naturalism, as well as to existentialist nihilism. The thesis advocated here is that both, radical naturalism and existentialist nihilism, are products of the various waves of dualism. Once we separate, in the dualistic way, freedom on the one hand and nature on the other, we can count up to two, as the dualists do, or remain just in one, as existentialists do, who stand in freedom, and naturalists as well, who only count on nature. In any case, the image of the human being, which is freedom and nature (without “and”), is damaged. Then the aporetic and sickly animal appears, which has to be saved... from itself. How? Following the Procrustean method, but now with the bio and info prefixes instead of saw and hammer, until the poor human being fits into the utopian bed that some visionaries have dreamed (section 2). But there could be perhaps a way to improve human life without forcing the human scale. In order to draw this way between the radical naturalism, that mutilates, and the existentialist nihilism, that dislodges and stretches, we should deny in advance the dualism that generates both, and follow the common sense, in line with the Aristotelian tradition, rather than utopian daydreams (section 3). In our opinion, the Aristotelian concept of human nature enables us to judge anthropotechnics better than the normativity extracted from the futuristic visions of the TH (section 4).