Super-humanism
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The term superhuman refers to humans or human-like beings with enhanced qualities and abilities that exceed those naturally found in humans. These qualities may be acquired through natural ability, self-actualization or technological aids. The related concept of a super race refers to an entire category of beings with the same or varying superhuman characteristics, created from present-day human beings by deploying various means such as eugenics,
euthenics Euthenics () is the study of improvement of human functioning and well-being by improvement of living conditions. "Improvement" is conducted by altering external factors such as education and the controllable environments, including environmental ...
,
genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...
,
nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...
, and/or brain–computer interfacing to accelerate the process of human evolution. Throughout history, the discussion of superhuman traits and the idea of the ideal human in physical, mental, or spiritual form has influenced politics, policy, philosophy, science and various social movements, as well as featuring prominently in culture. Groups advocating the deliberate pursuit of superhuman qualities for philosophical, political, or moral reasons are sometimes referred to as superhumanist. Modern depictions of this have evolved and are shown in
superhero fiction Superhero fiction is a genre of speculative fiction examining the adventure fiction, adventures, personalities and ethics of costumed crime fighters known as superheroes, who often possess Superpower (ability), superhuman powers and battle simil ...
or through technologically aided people or cyborgs.


In philosophy


Nietzsche

The '' Ãœbermensch'' or "Superman" was postulated in the later writings of Friedrich Nietzsche as a type of supreme, ultra- aristocratic achievement which becomes possible in the transcendence of modernity, morals or nihilism. Nietzsche believed in creating the perfect human, or at least a definition of one, and achieving this perfection through the enhancement of individual and cultural health, creativity, and power, and that to be a successful human one would focus on the realities of our world, rather than the beyond world, or afterlife. Nietzsche explores the idea of a superhuman in his work ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', in which he discusses the reality of humans existing as just that, and their potential to be more, through risks taken to advance humanity. This belief focuses not on a man who is bettering oneself but instead establishes values which create a meaning to life greater than one person, and positively influencing the lives of others with an overarching goal of humanity. These goals help one overcome life's feeling of meaninglessness.


Transhumanism

In transhumanism and futurology, superhuman abilities are the technological aim either of human enhancement by genetic modification or cybernetic implants or of future superhuman artificial intelligence. Human enhancement is an attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the
human body The human body is the structure of a Human, human being. It is composed of many different types of Cell (biology), cells that together create Tissue (biology), tissues and subsequently organ systems. They ensure homeostasis and the life, viabi ...
through natural or artificial means. Human enhancement may be through the use of technological means to select or alter human characteristics and capacities, whether or not the alteration results in characteristics and capacities that lie beyond the existing human range. Some bioethicists restrict the term to the non-therapeutic application of specific technologies — neuro-, cyber-, gene- and nano-technologies — to human biology. According to transhumanist thinkers, a
posthuman Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The concept aims at addressing a variety of ...
is a hypothetical
future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
being "''whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards.''" Fictionalized accounts of transhumanism include the characters from the '' X-Men'' franchise and cyborgs such as those found in the '' Ghost in the Shell'' franchise.


Ray Kurzweil

In 2005, the
inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
and futurist Ray Kurzweil
predicted A prediction (Latin ''præ-'', "before," and ''dicere'', "to say"), or forecast, is a statement about a future event or data. They are often, but not always, based upon experience or knowledge. There is no universal agreement about the exact ...
that over a 40-year period between 2005 and 2045, most human beings will gradually evolve into a super race of immortal cyborgs called '' Transhumans'' with super-bodies and super-brains (the super brains of the humanoid androids will have greater capacity not only in and of themselves, but also because they will be able to function more efficiently by storing some of their mental capacity in the cloud of the future greatly expanded Internet through brain–computer interfacing) by gradually replacing their
biological cells The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life forms. Every cell consists of a cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane, and contains many biomolecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA, as well as many small molecules of nutrients an ...
with new cells having a more efficient cellular energy processing system that will be based on nanobots manufactured using
nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...
. These nanobot based cells will enable those who possess these initially quasi android bodies ("Human body 2.0") to have much greater physical endurance as if they were permanently on
steroid A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and a ...
s, and many Olympic records will be routinely broken. The five senses will be enhanced first by
genetic enhancement Human genetic enhancement or human genetic engineering refers to human enhancement by means of a genetic modification. This could be done in order to cure diseases (gene therapy), prevent the possibility of getting a particular disease (similarly ...
and then by additional brain–computer interfacing. By about 2040, most humans will have become fully android ("Human body 3.0"). Finally, predicts Kurzweil, by 2045, because of the operation of
Moore's law Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empir ...
,
supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...
s linked together by the Internet will have developed enough memory capacity such that most of the now mostly android human race (except those who don't want to) will be able to upload themselves into the worldwide Internet supercomputer of 2045 and live forever after in virtual reality—an event he calls the '' Singularity''. Kurzweil predicts that soon after the "Singularity", the worldwide supercomputer will deploy other humanoid androids and robots in the
meat world Real life is a phrase used originally in literature to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds, and in acting to distinguish between actors and the characters they portray. It has become a popular term on the ...
. A
space navy A space force is a military branch of a nation's armed forces that conducts military operations in outer space and space warfare. The world's first space force was the Russian Space Forces, established in 1992 as an independent military service. ...
of these androids and robots will radiate outward from Earth (by now itself a gigantic worldwide
supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...
, except for extensive areas of the surface of Earth set up as nature reserves for those humans who wanted to remain in their natural state as well as to preserve the plants and animals in their natural ecosystems) on large fleets of interplanetary spaceships that will rocket outward into the solar system and convert all the matter they encounter into megacomputers made of
computronium Computronium is a material hypothesized by Norman Margolus and Tommaso Toffoli of MIT in 1991 to be used as "programmable matter", a substrate for computer modeling of virtually any real object. It also refers to a arrangement of matter that is t ...
(such as
Jupiter Brain A matrioshka brain is a hypothetical megastructure of immense computational capacity powered by a Dyson sphere. It was proposed in 1997 by Robert J. Bradbury (1956–2011). It is an example of a class-B stellar engine, employing the entire energy ...
s) in order to continually expand the computer capacity of the solar system and thus create ever more realistic virtual reality and solve ever more complex computer problems. Once the matter of the solar system has been mostly converted to computer substrate, forming a Matrioshka brain, according to Kurzweil, by about the beginning of the 22nd century, life will then expand outward into interstellar space in all directions, deploying miniature
starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...
s (to save on expensive
anti matter In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding particles in "ordinary" matter. Antimatter occurs in natural processes like cosmic ray collisions and some types of radioacti ...
starship fuel) that will be
Von Neumann probes The concept of Self-replicating spacecraft, as envisioned by mathematician John von Neumann, has been described by futurists including physicist Michio Kaku and discussed across a wide breadth of hard science fiction novels and stories. Self-rep ...
crewed by swarms of nanobots, to colonize the entire Milky Way Galaxy. When these nanobots arrive in a
planetary system A planetary system is a set of gravitationally In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interacti ...
, the nanobots will be programmed with software to begin converting some of the matter they encounter into more androids and robots. While in the process of doing so, they will continue converting all other matter they encounter not being used to create additional androids and robots into more megacomputers — the androids and robots created by the nanobots will build interplanetary spaceships to fan out into the planetary system and themselves help get this job done. Some of the androids and robots will then settle down in the meat world as immortal colonists on the surfaces of the Matrioshka brains thus constructed (regularly making backup copies of the contents of their brains so they can be reconstructed if they are killed in an accident), while others will upload themselves into the virtual reality based on these Matrioshka brains, keeping their bodies in cryonic storage. Eventually, the entire Galaxy, then the Local group, then the Virgo Supercluster, then the
Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex The Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex is a galaxy filament. It includes the Laniakea Supercluster which contains the Virgo Supercluster lobe which in turn contains the Local Group, the galaxy cluster that includes the Milky Way. This filament ...
and ultimately the entire Universe will be turned into a gigantic megacomputer.


Artificial intelligence

''Superhuman'' is one of the stages in classification of progress in artificial intelligence where an entity of artificial intelligence performs better than most humans do in a specific task. Examples of where computers have achieved superhuman performance include Backgammon, Bridge, Chess, Reversi, Scrabble, Go and Jeopardy!.


Anarchist philosophy

It is suggested that there is a relationship between the fall of a society and the perfection of mankind. Many economic, social and environmental factors, which all contribute to the sustainability of a society, are built upon the need for a solution to a problem. Superhumanism requires the ability to overcome these problems, either through physical, mental or emotional triumphs of purity and self-actualization. Through the elimination of these problems, many economies and social structures would be collapsed. Also, through advancement in areas such as Transhumanism, some believe that people humans will advance to a point of education and readiness that war will break out between one another, or tyrannies will reign, due to the high levels of advancements being achieved hence correlating with a need for power, eventually leading to an ultimate state of anarchy.


Religious connotations

As a major defining factor of the superhumanism philosophy, humans are expected to possess traits that are considered to be those of high moral grounds, dignity and intrinsic values. Many people who believe in superhumanism value the importance of independent responsibility in making the world a better, and more moral place. This often means being in, or establishing some sort of spirituality which allows one to follow guidelines and grounds of a moral structure, and achieve a certain level of clarity and purity in their self and their path to righteousness and betterment. Superhumanism is often referred to as a combination between religion and philosophy, which suggests that there should be a correlation between the actions of man, and the patterns of the earth, in which this unity established with God, nature and man can allow for super human feats to become possible.


In history


Nazi Germany

The Nietzschean notion of bettering one's self as an individual was expanded within the philosophy of Nazism to apply to whole groups and nations. Nazi racialist thinkers proposed perfecting the Aryan race through controlled breeding and coercive eugenics (including the murder of those deemed unfit) as a way of improving their racial stock and purifying their society. They intended to create a ''
herrenvolk The master race (german: Herrenrasse) is a pseudoscientific concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative "Aryan race" is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy. Members were referred to as "''Herrenmenschen''" ("master humans"). Th ...
'' (race of masters) wherein the Germanic " Ãœbermenschen" would rule over so-called inferior " untermenschen" such as Slavs and West Asians.


Homo Galactica

The
Neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
David Myatt advocated in the early 1990s that after the '' Western Imperium'', a proposed future autocratic state governing all the areas inhabited by the Aryan race, is established, and the birth rate of the Aryan race is brought up from its present level of about 1.6 to a replacement rate of 2.1, that then a new super-race called ''Homo Galactica'' should be created by
genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...
from the most perfect Aryans, which by then will have themselves been improved through
genetic enhancement Human genetic enhancement or human genetic engineering refers to human enhancement by means of a genetic modification. This could be done in order to cure diseases (gene therapy), prevent the possibility of getting a particular disease (similarly ...
. This new super race would be genetically engineered to have super brains, super senses, and more delicate hands to be able to travel in
starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...
s, which would be sent out to colonize the entire Milky Way Galaxy with the descendants of Aryans.


Real life examples


Athletics

Many acts performed by elite athletes are seen as superhuman. Elite athletes perform at a level that is perceived as unattainable by normal standards of performance. These are the result of a mixture of genetics, physical training, and mental conditioning. For example, the highest VO2 max test results ever recorded were from Norwegian cross-country skier, Bjorn Daehlie, who scored a 96 ml/kg/min. Another man, Dean Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 days in all 50 states in 2006. On February 4, 2015 actor and power lifter Hafthor Bjornsson broke a 1000-year-old record by carrying a 1,433 pound log on his back for 5 steps. Outside of athletics, many people have performed superhuman feats. The Blue Angels flight acrobatics team regularly pulls maneuvers equal to 4-6 times the force of gravity (g), with some turns as high as 8g. One man, Greg Poe, is a pilot who was able withstand turns of 12g. There are also many stories of people lifting extremely heavy objects under extreme stress, known as
hysterical strength Hysterical strength is a display of extreme physical strength by humans, beyond what is believed to be normal, usually occurring when people are in; or perceive themselves to be in life-or-death situations. The extra strength is commonly attribut ...
. These situations are created when abnormal tasks are completed due to the brain's heightened need for achievement.


Science

One modern day method of achieving above average abilities include performance-enhancing drugs; these include substances such as painkillers, blood boosters,
stimulant Stimulants (also often referred to as psychostimulants or colloquially as uppers) is an overarching term that covers many drugs including those that increase activity of the central nervous system and the body, drugs that are pleasurable and inv ...
s, and
anabolic steroid Anabolic steroids, also known more properly as anabolic–androgenic steroids (AAS), are steroidal androgens that include natural androgens like testosterone (medication), testosterone as well as synthetic androgens that are structurally related ...
s, but can also encompass substances that aren't fully recognized as enhancers such as caffeine, protein supplements, and vitamins. While drugs as a form of achieving superhuman capabilities is a well known concept in fiction, such as films like '' Limitless'' and the Marvel Comics character
Nuke Nuke is most commonly used as a slang term for a nuclear weapon, or the act of detonating/setting one off. Nuke may also refer to: Computing * Nuke (software), a node-based compositor * Nuke (video games), a type of damaging attack that is mos ...
, in real life the current substances that are known and available don't produce such fantastical abilities. The results from some of these drugs are minimal, and often short term. However, they can still produce detrimental side effects, including many adverse psychological effects.
SARMS Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators or SARMs are a class of androgen receptor ligands that maintain some of the desirable effects of androgens, such as preventing osteoporosis and muscle loss while reducing risks of developing prostate cancer ...
and DMAA are safer forms to enhance physical performance. Other forms of enhancement include strengthening the material properties of bone by integrating it with titanium foam. More studies are needed to assess the long term effects of these emerging technologies. Technology can also be used to improve on human sensory and communication abilities as has been shown through experimentation with nervous system implants. In this way humans can take on senses such as ultrasonics for an accurate indication of distance and communicate much more directly between brains.


In popular culture


Fiction

Speculation about human nature and the possibilities of both human enhancement and future human evolution have made superhumans a popular subject of science fiction. Superhuman abilities are also associated with
superhero fiction Superhero fiction is a genre of speculative fiction examining the adventure fiction, adventures, personalities and ethics of costumed crime fighters known as superheroes, who often possess Superpower (ability), superhuman powers and battle simil ...
.


Art

In 1979, the British artist Nicholas Treadwell wrote a book entitled ''Superhumanism'', followed by ''Superhumanism 2'' in 1982. Treadwell defined his movement as "the first people's art movement – a movement, first and foremost, inspired by life, as opposed to inspired by art. It is a movement of art by the people, for the people, and about the people. It is about tolerance and human understanding. Initially, a superhumanist work will move you to feel – to laugh, to cry, to shudder, to be overwhelmed with compassion. They do not include any aesthetic gesture to distract from the vivid nature of the image. A superhumanist work will take a down to earth subject, and use original technical means to exaggerate it, achieving an over-the-top impact of its humanist theme". Treadwell used this art movement to emphasize the connection between mundane nature of humans, and the superior characteristics that exist in that simplicity.


Documentaries

'' Stan Lee's Superhumans'' was a television show devoted to finding people around the world who exhibit abilities that exceed normal human capabilities. The most flexible man in the world, is an example of a superhuman who travels the world finding physical and mental feats that expand the realm of what humans can do. '' Human Body: Pushing the Limits'' is a Discovery Channel show that explains what happens to people's strength, sight, brainpower, and sensing abilities when placed under extreme stress. These circumstances can lead to short-term superhuman abilities, which allow people to excel in advanced, or impossible tasks. ''How to Be Superhuman'' is a podcast series by
Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...
about people who have gone close to the limits of human endurance. The host Rob Pope, who was described as the "real life
Forrest Gump ''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth. It is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson and ...
" after running across the United States five times, interviews people who have achieved "superhuman" feats, such as Mark Beaumont, who cycled around the world in 78 days, and Diana Nyad, who completed a 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage at the age of 64.


See also


References

{{Reflist Human evolution Science fiction themes Superhero fiction themes Transhumanism