Well, this is refreshing: Transhumanist and now former James Hughes disciple Justice De Thezier, has made a New Year’s Resolution to “quit transhumanism.” In the blog Cyborg Democracy, De Thezier, the founder of the Quebec Transhumanist Association seems to have recognized that transhumanism is something of a quasi-religion rather than a truly rational philosphy. He writes:
Transhumanism is a rather desperate pipe dream that, ironically, replaces the role of religion for many of its “rationalist” adherents. Good for De Thezier for seeing that truth and deciding to pursue other agendas....[H]aving invested so much time and energy in promoting transhumanism—and, let’s be honest, having been seduced by the siren songs of a ”posthuman future”—I came to the awkward realization that I, a self-professed free and critical thinker, had willingly blinded myself to the flaws of transhumanism, which I became increasingly aware were *inherencies* that undermine any diversity of views or ”leftist awakening” among transhumanists:
1. An uncritical support for technology in general and fringe science in particular;
2. A distortive ”us vs. them” tribe-like mentality and identity; and,
3. A vulnerability to unrealistic utopian and dystopian ”future hype”.
After spending a year as the self-appointed yet half-hearted ”devil’s advocate” of the WTA, not only have I come to the conclusion that it is quite quixotic to think I or any lone individual can do anything to change what a prominent transhumanist has called ”the minimum constituents without which this ideology would not be what it is”, without being falsely accused of trying to ”reduce diversity” or, worse, ”thought police”; but I’ve decided to quit transhumanism.
