http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7582-1418
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Abstract
Humans often seek to improve themselves, whether through self-discipline or through the use of science and technology. At some point in the future, techniques might become available that will change humans to such a degree that they might have to be regarded as something other than human: posthuman. This essay tries to define the point at which such a human-to-posthuman metamorphosis may occur. This is achieved by discerning what is it that makes human substance distinct, i.e. what is the human essence. This is accomplished by examining the features of the human body, looking at the mode of human existence in society and trying to grasp the importance of the body–soul relationship. Throughout the process, humans are compared to animals as well as entities from literature, film, and the gaming world. These are used as case studies to shape and test the ideas developed throughout the essay. This essay's conclusions might become useful when decisions will have to be made as to the legal status of posthumans, by providing a tool for discerning when metamorphosis has occurred. Moreover, insights from this essay might also inform debates surrounding the ethical status of certain modalities of human enhancement.
Acknowledgements
I would want to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, as well as Trevor Stammers and Matthew James for their help throughout the journey of this manuscript.
ORCID
Michal Pruski http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7582-1418
Notes on contributor
Michal Pruski is currently on the NHS Scientist Training Programme in Critical Care Science. He is academically trained in both Medical Science and Bioethics.
Notes
1 I am grateful to one of the reviewers for pointing out that human-nonhuman chimeras exist, and they certainly could fall into this category, as they are human embryos that have been augmented to an extent that would likely cause the type of changes, which this article describes.
2 Transhumanism, is regarded here as a significant human enhancement, but one that allows the one enhanced to retain a distinctively human existence (which this essay hopes to define).
3 The term ‘enhancement’ will be used interchangeably with the term ‘augmentation’. Nevertheless, no inference should be made that such augmentation should universally be accepted as enhancement. This essay, in principle, avoids making claims of endorsement, opposition, morality or immorality of posthumanism and the augmentations linked to it. Furthermore, if a group of posthumans reproduce to bring forth a posthuman offspring then the terms enhancement and augmentation are inappropriate because there would have been no human before to be augmented or enhanced. If a posthuman was created by using e.g. HeLa or HEK293 cells, then whether enhancement and augmentation were appropriate terms would depend on whether in the first instance, a human was created that then could have been augmented or enhanced. Perhaps this is how posthumans will come about, but the analysis presented here should still be helpful in identifying such posthumans.
4 Searched also with the use of hyphens and spaces.
5 As there are no archetypal real-life posthumans, sci-fi examples are necessary to highlight certain points.
6 One benefit of starting from a teleologically and holistically defined standard case, rather than from defining pathology, is that one does not have to consider all the pathological cases to arrive at the standard case. One only has to define the standard case to be able to assess any deviation from it. It would be humanly impossible to first consider all existing pathologies before defining a standard case. An alternative way of defining the standard case would involve some form of data analysis on the set presented by Ramsey (Citation2012, Citation2017). Nevertheless, this currently seems unfeasible.
7 See also Aristotle (Citationn.d., book I loc. 60) and Finnis (Citation2011, p. 176,) for certain limitations that can be expected from some forms of enquiry.
8 Some commentators would question the relevance, or even existence, of human essence, to any ethical debate surrounding human enhancement (Machery Citation2008, Buchanan Citation2009, Lewens Citation2012, Ramsey Citation2012, Citation2017). Nevertheless, even sceptics would likely agree that legal definitions of human and posthuman beings might at least be useful for the sake of general human governance and dispute-settling. Further, they might even agree that such a way of thinking is both innate to humans and appealing (Lewens Citation2012).
9 A person working practically on human enhancement.
10 Graafstra himself is mainly known for implanting chips, that provide an easy way for opening doors and sharing digital information, which do not modify the brain or its ability to perceive (Borkhataria Citation2016), so unless he is willing to discount such body modifications towards human evolution, he seems to not agree with his own claims.
11 Emphasis mine.
12 The emphasis on reason being the key distinguishing characteristic between brutes and humans is a repeating theme throughout De Officiis, see e.g. loc. 80801. Cicero, mentions reason as a unique characteristic of humans, when compared to other animals, in other places. In De Legibus, he notes that this is the characteristic that humans share with the Divine, and that humans are the only species, that have the concept of the Divine (loc. 45543).
13 There are examples of domesticated animals nursing the young of a different domesticated animal, but these animals are unlikely to be able to reflect on the altruistic nature of their actions (MacIntyre Citation2013, p. 82), and are perhaps acting more on their parental instincts rather than on knowingly benevolent intentions.
14 Cicero writes in his De Legibus (2014, loc.45719–45720) ‘all these virtues proceed from our natural inclination to love and cherish our associates’.
15 Cicero in De Officiis (44 BC, Citation2014 ed, e.g. loc. 80209), has also emphasized this.
16 Aristotle himself puts this only second to contemplation (Aristotle Citationn.d., ch.X, s. VII & VIII).
17 Cicero (44 BC, Citation2014 ed) in his De Officiis (ch. I), while possibly not giving brutes as much credit as he should, highlights how our perception of causes and effects in time allows our reason to evaluate our lives and meditate upon the future. He also highlights that brutes also cannot comprehend such concepts as beauty, loveliness, harmony, and propriety (e.g. loc. 74323).
18 Perhaps MacIntyre's (Citation2013) description of humans as ‘Dependent Rational Animals’ catches more of the human essence than Homo sapiens sapiens does.
19 Subject to a lack of reproductive pathology in the individuals concerned.
20 I thank one of the reviewers for pointing out that actually we cannot be sure about this, as such a hybrid was never reported to have been born. What might have happened on the embryonic level remains a mystery.
21 I am grateful to Fr Stuart Chalmers for suggesting this point to me.
22 This offers a somewhat more radical parallel to that of hominid interbreeding (Reich et al. Citation2011, Sankararaman et al. Citation2012, Stringer Citation2012, Saey Citation2016), hopefully mirroring better the more radical changes associated with posthuman metamorphosis.
23 K’Ehleyr also bore a child (ST:TNG Citation1993, s.2 e.20 & s.4 e.7), not unlike the mules mentioned previously in this essay. Hence, she truly blurred the species distinction (The Academy of Medical Sciences Citation2011, p. 17) between Humans and Klingons.
24 Space Marines provide a better example of enhancement than their female counterparts, the Sisters of Battle (see e.g. Watson Citation2009, p. 139), as they are more radically enhanced.
25 Timings given in Star Trek references are in hours:minutes:seconds towards the end (rather than from the start; in most cases the hours are omitted) of the motion pictures as presented on Netflix.
26 Other characteristics of the human body could be added here, but genes and the brain were discussed here in depth. For example, the dependence of the body on the endocrine system is also worth highlighting.
27 This is a subject for a potential follow-up paper.