Facilitating dialogue to promote open and multi-faceted discussion and awareness

I am interested in the implications of the transhuman agenda for the doing  of Christian theology and, equally, its implications for faithfulness to Christian confession. The possibility of humankind co-opting the bio-evolutionary process and implementing advanced technologies for the purpose of enhancing and transcending the human experience seems nearly inevitable, given the significant progress in regenerative medicine, nanotechnology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Futurists predict that in a short time (considering the telescoping nature of technological and cultural evolution) humanity will be able to dramatically prolong human life, reduce mortality, and even eventually transfer human consciousness to non-organic, computing entities. In the sphere of virtual reality, it is being realized more and more that reality itself is a construct of patterns of information. The ability to manipulate and transform these patterns into other patterns is increasing exponentially. This suggests that the limitations of human experience (physical laws, natality, mortality, and sensory dynamics) are more permeable than ever imagined.

The horizon of the post-human emergence is then, in fact, quite proximal to us. The human species, for the first time, faces extinction, not because of predation or cosmic catastrophe, but because of its own self-willed transcendence into something physically, cognitively, spatially, and temporally superior. This is cause for great concern among today’s religious ethicists and theologians. The protest(s) go(es) something like this: If humans can, by their own design, bring an end to suffering as they have experienced it since their advent after mutating from their ancestral hominids, then the long-standing moral institutions of charity, compassion, empathy, and care will no longer be needed by them. Suffering and mortality provide the foundation for the maternal and paternal instincts of nurturing and care. If the (post)human can live indefinitely in an un-embodied state and in a space where manipulated patterns of information provide limitless and timeless realities, then the need for progeny itself will be terminated. Among those existing entities, physical pain, morbidity, and death will be non-existent metaphysical categories. Thus, there is no longer a need for the Christian ethos of love, care, and compassion. Additionally, the Christian theological paradigm, which is predicated on embodied (incarnate) life in need of salvation from God’s eternal enemy (Death) will cease to be relevant to anyone: an outdated historical artifact from humanity’s violent and unstable past. Therefore, according to these rightly concerned members of theological academé, fidelity to the Cristian cause demands resistance to the transhuman agenda. This manifests itself in objection to public funding for stem cell research and other scientific ventures that push the limits of human ability and experience.

While I do not altogether disagree that the self-willed extinction of the human species presents daunting ethical and religious challenges, I also cannot fully endorse the feelings and actions of those who resist it. And this hesitancy arises precisely from my my theological sensibilities. While the Christian tradition does speak to those who have an embodied existence, I believe that Christian proctology and eschatology call for participation (or, as some theologians have put it, co-creation) with God in the revision and reconstitution of conscious life into something that radically affirms creativity, unending life, and a just-peace. The capacity to project oneself into multiple virtual constructs at once, to constantly reinvent environments for the betterment of those entities that exist in them, and to think at such a level as to appropriate the very fabric of the universe (or multiverse) through cognitive enhancement is an actualization of the Christian hope. It is not some far-fetched utopian dream, but a dynamic, gradual process whereby people can rise to new levels of harmony and productive engagement. Additionally, it does not remove (post)humanity from dependence on God, but radically reaffirms our need to rely on the source of life and energy itself for our happiness and future.

I want to say I failed, but how can I say so when I learned  so much. In the traditional sense I did fail. I didn’t make it to Sunday, yes, I ate something last night. I was at a friends apartment hanging out until it was clearly past my bed time so I could wake up at 5 a.m. Again I got in the car and it hit me. I would like to say it was something spiritual that God challenged my life with that made me feel release from my fast, but it wasn’t. I was driving home and began to feel immensely sick and dizzy. I got to my apartment where my roommate also was laying day sick from some unknown illness that I was desperate not to catch.

I began to see how he was and explained I was starting to feel really bad. Well I went to go lay down hopeful that sleeping would be an adequate way to forget the dizziness, nausea, and headache I was going through. Well after laying there for a while just praying it became to the point that I could no longer bear it. Nearly for days and I was done. I cheated out, ate about a two spoonfuls of rice and a piece of toast. Yet while I was disappointed with myself that my body got to the best of me I subtly realized something I have never actually experienced before.

We hear over and over again that Africa is a starving nation, and it’s not just Africa, but many places around the world even some places here in America (albeit not in as a sever fashion). I have never felt so hungry in my life as I did that night and as much as I hate to admit it, I had my way out. I knew no matter how bad it got out I could always eat something, but I could never imagine what that means to not be able to at all. While I can’t imagine that I know there are people who go through that every day. The become so hungry and have no way out, none at all, not even a shelter to find, no scraps to find.

It makes me want to do something, to want to change something, to find a way to feed people. I have heard all of the statistics, I know what the improbable is, I know what the church in America is capable of. Beyond all of this I know what can be done, but I am not worried about the can I am worried about the how. How do we do this? How do we stop world hunger with using the power of the church and with showing the love of Christ that needs to be clearly shown. How can we spread the gospel to those who are dying of hunger? Shoes, clothes, presents, friends are all very very good things to be given to people around the world, but so many lack just the necessity of food and water. Diseases may come from a lack of shoes, but death comes so much more immediately from lack of food. I want help. I want to know what we can do to show the church what we have a responsibility to do. I know I would love to see followers of Christ who have never experienced this feeling to go without food for even three or four days. Learn what it does to your body to lack food, to be completely without. Any thoughts I would love to hear, but for now I am going to contemplate more on what I think we can do.