Announcement

Collapse

Deeper Waters Forum Guidelines

Notice – The ministries featured in this section of TheologyWeb are guests of this site and in some cases not bargaining for the rough and tumble world of debate forums, though sometimes they are. Additionally, this area is frequented and highlighted for guests who also very often are not acclimated to debate fora. As such, the rules of conduct here will be more strict than in the general forum. This will be something within the discretion of the Moderators and the Ministry Representative, but we simply ask that you conduct yourselves in a manner considerate of the fact that these ministries are our invited guests. You can always feel free to start a related thread in general forum without such extra restrictions. Thank you.

Deeper Waters is founded on the belief that the Christian community has long been in the shallow end of Christianity while there are treasures of the deep waiting to be discovered. Too many in the shallow end are not prepared when they go out beyond those waters and are quickly devoured by sharks. We wish to aid Christians to equip them to navigate the deeper waters of the ocean of truth and come up with treasure in the end.

We also wish to give special aid to those often neglected, that is, the disabled community. This is especially so since our founders are both on the autism spectrum and have a special desire to reach those on that spectrum. While they are a special emphasis, we seek to help others with any disability realize that God can use them and that they are as the Psalmist says, fearfully and wonderfully made.

General TheologyWeb forum rules: here.
See more
See less

Book Plunge: Humans 2.0

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Book Plunge: Humans 2.0

    What lies ahead?

    Link

    -----

    What do I think of Fazale Rana and Ken Samples’s newest book published by RTB? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

    “What hath God wrought?” Such was the question asked at the invention of the telegraph. We have updated our technology more and more so that when we watch shows such as Stranger Things and see the technology of the 80’s, we see it as primitive. When my wife and I go walking in the morning, we see students waiting for the school bus. I think they are likely some of our first digital citizens and will always grow up in a world with smartphones, the internet everywhere, and 9/11 being always a part of their lives.

    Comic books showed us a world that fifty years ago we could only dream of. Now, some of those dreams are becoming reality. Unfortunately, when dreams do come true, it is not always a good thing. We could inadvertently create a nightmare by the actions that we do. Our intentions might be good at the start, but there are always people that will take good things and use them for nefarious means.

    So it is with the idea known as transhumanism. It is through technological advances and gene therapies and ideas like that that we hope to push the limits of human potential. Many of us live with some such enhancements. I sit at my desk and from the outside, I look like an average person, although a bit underweight and thus small, but internally on my spine right now is a steel rod meant to keep me straight physically and control my scoliosis.

    When I read a book like this one then, I find myself getting excited and concerned both. I like the idea of extending human lifespans so that 90 will be seen as what 50 is today. I like the idea of heightened intelligence and memory. I also have to wonder whose job it was to read Iron Man comics since there’s a story from them at the start of every chapter. That must have been enjoyable research.

    But as a person with a disability, I have my concerns. Will I be seen as a defective human being and people like me need to be removed from the gene pool? Who will determine who gets enhancements and who doesn’t? Are we close to playing God in a way that we shouldn’t?

    Rana and Samples have written this book to first off introduce us to the idea. They are not ones who are totally saying we have to scrap all these ideas. There are some good things coming. If we can take some steps to avoid suffering, is that not a good thing?

    Their main concern is who is it we are going to end up being at the end? Will we still be humans? At this, this is probably my biggest criticism of the book is I don’t think humans are truly defined. If we say the image of God, we need to say what that image is exactly. Is the image something of the kind that technological advances can remove it? That doesn’t sound much like the image of God.

    The writers explain much of the technology and science behind the ideas. If you’re like me, your eyes will, unfortunately, kind of glaze over these sections. They’re great while you read them, but afterward, you’re not sure what you read. On the plus side, they tell you where to skip ahead to in the book if you don’t want to read those.

    There’s also philosophical and theological looks at the topics going into ethics. What is the right thing to do in this situation? How should Christians respond to technology in general? I personally think these advancements are inevitable, so what will we do when they come?

    There’s also sections on how DNA works, the question of artificial intelligence, and even artificial wombs. People very much into science and technology will likely get a great deal out of this. I was a bit surprised that I don’t remember anything from the Matrix being mentioned in these kinds of sections, but that could be a sign of how even something like that is in our past.

    Transhumanism is something that we as Christians will have to think about and it is becoming more of a reality every day. We have technology today we could only dream of when we were younger. How will it be in the future? Only time will tell. Let us hope that we are ready to let this genie out of the bottle properly.

    In Christ,
    Nick Peters

  • #2
    I think most people would and will be very leery of putting technology into their bodies, other than things that help them live (pacemakers, artificial organs, limbs, etc)

    Particularly if it involves connecting to the brain. In sci-fi books and movies, you see people with neural implants to enhance their senses or adding in memory capacity (Johnny Mnemonic) or to connect to computers. But in reality that would be pretty scary.
    1. The technology would be invasive and could cause brain damage - and we might not know about it for years afterwards.
    2. Technology changes very fast, so anything you put inside your body or brain would become obsolete pretty quickly and who wants to have operations every couple of years?
    3. Doctors themselves are usually not keen on doing operations that are not absolutely necessary.

    Comment


    • #3
      tumblr_pcjzlbloAs1ukda9oo1_1280.jpg

      I have read enough science fiction to know why some of it wouldn't be possible and why other things should not be attempted
      sigpic

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Sparko View Post
        I think most people would and will be very leery of putting technology into their bodies, other than things that help them live (pacemakers, artificial organs, limbs, etc)

        Particularly if it involves connecting to the brain. In sci-fi books and movies, you see people with neural implants to enhance their senses or adding in memory capacity (Johnny Mnemonic) or to connect to computers. But in reality that would be pretty scary.
        1. The technology would be invasive and could cause brain damage - and we might not know about it for years afterwards.
        2. Technology changes very fast, so anything you put inside your body or brain would become obsolete pretty quickly and who wants to have operations every couple of years?
        3. Doctors themselves are usually not keen on doing operations that are not absolutely necessary.
        It won't be so shocking, because it will be incremental. 3-D printing is already making prosthetic hands available to more amputees. Gutfeld has pointed out that most people are already quasi-cyborgs because they are almost never separated from their smart phones. Since its original splash, "Google Glass" hasn't gotten much notice, but it's still around. Neural interfaces are happening, and they're not necessarily invasive. Another article.

        Eventually many people will be fine with the idea of "Ghost in the Shell" becoming reality.
        Geislerminian Antinomian Kenotic Charispneumaticostal Gender Mutualist-Egalitarian.

        Beige Federalist.

        Nationalist Christian.

        "Everybody is somebody's heretic."

        Social Justice is usually the opposite of actual justice.

        Proud member of the this space left blank community.

        Would-be Grand Vizier of the Padishah Maxi-Super-Ultra-Hyper-Mega-MAGA King Trumpius Rex.

        Justice for Ashli Babbitt!

        Justice for Matthew Perna!

        Arrest Ray Epps and his Fed bosses!

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by NorrinRadd View Post
          It won't be so shocking, because it will be incremental. 3-D printing is already making prosthetic hands available to more amputees. Gutfeld has pointed out that most people are already quasi-cyborgs because they are almost never separated from their smart phones. Since its original splash, "Google Glass" hasn't gotten much notice, but it's still around. Neural interfaces are happening, and they're not necessarily invasive. Another article.

          Eventually many people will be fine with the idea of "Ghost in the Shell" becoming reality.
          That second article you linked to about DARPA outlines many of the problems facing creating a non-invasive neural interface. We are nowhere close to having anything useful, much less a two way interface. There could always be breakthrough though.

          Comment

          Related Threads

          Collapse

          Topics Statistics Last Post
          Started by Apologiaphoenix, 03-15-2024, 10:19 PM
          14 responses
          75 views
          1 like
          Last Post rogue06
          by rogue06
           
          Started by Apologiaphoenix, 03-13-2024, 10:13 PM
          6 responses
          61 views
          0 likes
          Last Post Apologiaphoenix  
          Started by Apologiaphoenix, 03-12-2024, 09:36 PM
          1 response
          23 views
          0 likes
          Last Post rogue06
          by rogue06
           
          Started by Apologiaphoenix, 03-11-2024, 10:19 PM
          0 responses
          22 views
          2 likes
          Last Post Apologiaphoenix  
          Started by Apologiaphoenix, 03-08-2024, 11:59 AM
          5 responses
          50 views
          0 likes
          Last Post Apologiaphoenix  
          Working...
          X