Transhumanism: The footsteps of the twenty-first century renaissance and India

 

Leaving the foundation of secular-democracy, India has now joined the task of omnipotent state-building, which has created an atmosphere of uninterrupted insecurity in the country. A fear is at work in everyone's mind. Apart from the two largest ethnic groups in the country - the Hindus and the Muslims - the smaller ethnic groups who have enjoyed a total of social and religious independence for so long, they are also feeling the flames now. But in the 21st century, Indian psychology has liberated itself from the traditional Hindu-Muslim conflict and has risen to the level of conservative traditionalist versus free-minded progressive. And that is why there is still an atmosphere of solidarity in the midst of adversity. But it will not be possible to achieve the path of democratic social progress in this way. It will only create a stagnant mental waste and state of emotional turmoil.

While the United States, China and Russia is making extensive use of transhumanism to edit the m-RNA genes and healing the bodies of wounded soldiers through brain-to-computer interfaces, today's India is dreaming of gold particles from milk, covering the half-naked body with clay and giving the diagnosis of cow urine. At the juncture of man and machine, where an invincible military-ruled future awaits, today's backwardness of India is giving rise to despair. 

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The Italian Renaissance was a cultural shock that brought humanistic accents to art, literature, philosophy, music, science, politics, religion, and so on. The triumph of civil rights over conventional narrow-mindedness was a pledge of that renaissance.  But after the Second World War, this renaissance began to fade from the heart of the world. Nuclear power and the use of computers are the most important examples in this regard. And now, in this twenty-first century renaissance, the idea of ​​transhumanism has emerged instead of the old humanism. The question is, what is transhumanism? Transhumanism is a philosophical thought flow of futurism that seeks to create, through a combination of new technology and biology, a marvelous human being or a superior human race, whose mental and physical abilities are not limited in any way. This is the evolution of the future, the footsteps of today's renaissance. Now some people are realizing that, most are not.

A discourse by Wells, The Discovery of the Future, still claims relevance today. Here he spoke of two kinds of consciousness. One is the consciousness that operates in the majority of the people of the society, that is, the consciousness of the absolutely opposing class about the future and its own existence, and the other, the thinking of a smaller group, that is, those who both imagine and compose the future with sophisticated wisdom. Wells says, “The former type of mind, when one gets it in its purity, is retrospective in habit, and it interprets the things of the present, and gives value to this and denies it to that, entirely with relation to the past. The latter type of mind is constructive in habit, it interprets the things of the present and gives value to this or that, entirely in relation to things designed or foreseen”. To put it bluntly, one is the conservative or institutionalist consciousness which favors the preservation of the past and the other is the progressive or anti-institutional one which builds a new society, a new world by dusting off all immutable beings. It is very difficult to understand why this obvious duality. But whenever the mind is hesitant to make a party-choice decision in an environment of uncertainty in life, there is an indescribable conflict between morality, religious behavior and political idealism. In this churning, a group has blamed and thought that the past lawlessness is the result of today's turmoil that is, "they who break the law at any point break it altogether". Others believe that today's actions will ensure the future, "let the dead bury its dead." Transhumanism is one such term that will turn from the same conflicting realities into narratives of the future.

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Many also interpret transhumanism as post-humanism. But where transhumanism speaks in favor of the transcendence of the bio-evolutionary senses through technological intelligence, post-humanism stands only for bio-evolution. Transhumanism has many commitments, such as democratic transhumanism, extropianism, immortality, liberalism, post-sexuality, post-politics, singularism, technologicalism, and communism. But it actually frees man from the limitations given by nature and gives birth to a monstrous powerful generation. Transhumanism not only changes the exterior of the human body through technology-based surgery, it also changes the human nervous system. The purpose of transhumanism is to replace the peripheral nervous system that humans have, which determines the characteristics of the individual through the brain. This is possible today with the help of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and sensory science. Key aids in this work are sophisticated management such as simulated reality, artificial intelligence, superhuman intelligence, 3D bioprinting, mind uploading, chemical brain preservation and chrononics. And in this way the creation of new human race has become possible.

Neil Harbison (Google Images)

Neil Harbison was the first man to put an antenna on his head. Not only did he overcome his color blindness, but he could now perceive the vibrations and waves of the antenna, the electromagnetic radiation and the various signals and information transmitted by the satellite. Moon Ribas, who has been named the world's first female cyborg with a seismic sensor under her feet. With the help of this she got a hint of an earthquake. Rob Spence, who lost one of his eyes in an accident. But now he has replaced his eye with a wireless video camera and now he can see almost everything like a Terminator. Kevin Warwick has created a robotic arm that moves following signals from his brain. Liz Parrish who has been able to reduce age through dual-gene therapy. James Young who made a hand in the context of spinal muscle-conduction. This is the transhuman future. Can it be called anything other than renaissance? We are about to get new citizenship in a new world. The world is now moving to another level. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic region is home to some of the world's most important grain seeds. The GitHub Archive program is storing digital versions of all the world's intelligence in 21 TB movies. These have begun to accumulate in deep soil in the Arctic region. 

Github Archtic Vault(Google Images)

Even if an atomic bomb were to explode, they would be preserved for the next 1,000 years. On the other hand, the rush to establish colonies on the moon has begun in different countries. If we, India, do not wake up now, the next world will just not reject us, it will imprison us in slavery.

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‘No Facts, Only Interpretations’

  

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In the rainy sky of that day, the clouds were playing with the sun and the gentle breeze seemed to keep the Bengalis busy with hilsa fish and khichuri. Whether it is an epidemic or something else, the people of Bengal will be in a frenzy in the midst of fishing and hustle and bustle. This is the touch of life, the essence of fragrance. These unspoken tweets, at least, kept me alive.

Leaning on the pillow, I was gazing enchanted on the page where Shakti Chatterjee's 'Abani Bari Acho' was printed. There was silent peace in the air. My wife came to me with a breathless run and said, ‘madhyamika-uccamadhyamika uṭhe gelo go’ i.e., Secondary-higher secondary is gone up. At first I showed indifference and said, 'What else comes in it'. Then seeing her steady bloodshot eyes, I had to take a break from the submerged bliss of poetry. In that momentary stillness, there was an innocent blink of an eye, a little numbness, a slight helplessness. Where I read that Nehru said, 'If all is well with the universities, all would be well with the nation', I do not remember. There was only one word floating on the TV channel - 'Change after 34 years'. I only remember, decades ago, exactly the same movement revolved around TV. The repetition is determined by the unambiguous syntax, I said, 'What else comes in it'.

It's not that it was a very capricious comment. Perhaps, the manifestation of the subconscious was its culmination. I was very young then. At home, there was an argument between parents and uncles over the education policy of the then Left Front government regarding computer education. At that time there was no obstacle for the neighbors to come in the house. Everyone could come and join the afternoon debate. That was the standard of socialization. As of now, there was no need to worry so much about going to relatives and friends. Lest anyone think anything of it. Anyway, one of the words of our neighbor Haldhari Dadu, still resonates in my ears today, he was 92 then, "For two hundred years only education policy has changed, nothing else."

True enough that we have come from tol-pathshala education to toll tax, but what has really changed? Shivnath Shastri, in his book 'Ramtanu Lahiṛi O Tatkalin Bangasamaj, wrote, ‘A few days ago, after writing in the pathshala, the Brahmin children would go to tol and start reading grammar and those who wanted to educate their children for the kingdom would let them read Persian. Those who wanted to work for the zamindari government or to be engaged in business, would eventually stay in Guru-Mahasaya's pathshala’. Education is for the job, not for knowledge - that was the attitude. Rajnarayan Basu wrote in 'Sekal Ar Ekal', "Practicing writing on palm leaves till the age of ten, then on banana leaves till the age of fifteen, then on paper till the age of twenty. Being able to read a book called ‘Datakarna’ or ‘Gurudakshina’ was the last limit of Guru-Mahasaya's education. There was no knowledge in the country that would elevate the heart and mind, help to understand the world and man." After this tradition, during the British rule, the excitement of being a clerk or a lawyer was paramount. And that's why he jumped up to bilati-chair from chatai and memorized, “Pumpkin lau-kumra cucumber shosha / Brinjal bartaku ploughman chasha”. I also remember in our school, the chronological names of the Mughal emperors were memorized as “Babar Holo Abar Jwar Sarilo Oushodhe”. So what was in the nineteenth century, so in the twenty-first century is going on in parallel.

By the end of the twentieth century, country's manufacturing industry-based economy was still in place. As a result, there was a rush to make children doctors-engineers. And now, in the services industry-based economic age, the new education policy will prepare thoughtless but hardworking workers who will only work, eat, vote and die. However, today is not the time to criticize, the results of the newly implemented education policy will be seen in the next decade. Only then will it be understood, then criticism will be justified. In the words of Suranjanbabu, if the transition from "British education policy to American education policy" can break the stagnation of two hundred years, then it is good, otherwise, 'What else comes in it'. So now it is better to ignore the rule of the wife queen and focus on coffee and fried hilsa. Stay with 'Shakti' or 'Jibanananda'.