One very interesting argument in favour of transhumanism comes from academic speaker, author and businessman Juan Enriquez. During his 2009 TEDtalk, entitled The Next Species of Human, he discussed his predictions for augmenting ourselves and improving our bodies through technology and science. He states that we will see these developments from current experiments in three major areas that have become trends through TED talks over the last 25 years. These include; the ability to engineer cells, the advancement of engineering tissues and finally the continuing research into robotics. In terms of engineering cells Enriquez cites the work of Craig Venter, a biotechnologist, who had already engineered a fully programmable cell. It allows DNA to …show more content…
In terms of sight he predicts that in ten to 15 machine generations people with such implants will be able to see ultraviolet rays as well as infrared. Essentially we are becoming more advanced and less of what defines ‘traditional’ human being. Enriquez can see only positives for this and uses examples cited in Darwin ‘Origin of the Species’ (1859) to reinforce his argument. Stating there have been 22 species of hominid that have existed, evolved and eventually gone extinct, but each time evolution ahs improved on its previous design, so why should we not improve with the tools we have at our disposal to progress and evolve ourselves. Evolution is natural state and therefore by augmenting our bodies and our world, we are doing nothing more than evolving as nature intended. Our next step, as he closes his talk is named ‘Homoevolutis, meaning hominids that take direct and deliberate control over the evolution of their species and others’ (2009). He makes valid points throughout and a convincing, well-researched and thorough argument for pro-transhumanism. By bringing together cell engineering, biological tissue creation and robotics, there is very little, in theory that we could not accomplish in terms of medical procedures and human augmentation in the future. This of course would be ‘the ultimate reboot’ (Enriquez 2009) of the human, as we know