In the Six Million Dollar Man, one of my favourite shows as a kid, Steve Austin, a test pilot, has a catastrophic crash leaving him severely wounded. But, opening sequence announced each episode: “we can rebuild him … We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man … better…stronger…faster.” He received a bionic eye, legs and a new right arm.
We are now in the midst of a series of profound developments in our power to change human biology through pharmaceutical,mechanical, genetic and digital augmentation. These areas are converging to open up new possibilities which move from therapy to human enhancement. The Six Million Dollar Man may be not that from realisation.
The movements most enthusiastic about enhancement most enthusiastically are often called Transhumanism and Posthumanism. The Transhumanist Declaration(revised 2009) states that “humanity’s potential is still mostly unrealized”that “there are possible scenarios that lead to wonderful and exceedingly worthwhile enhanced human conditions”.
We can think about this challenge by recognising two very different visions of the future.
Manichaeism
The Manichees is an old religion which taught that humans consist of dark (material body) and light (immaterial soul).Their Jesus had some human form but was not born of Mary and did have a realbody and so only appeared to suffer and rise again. He reveals that our souls share in God and to know this truth is to be enlightened and released from bodily prison. In the meantime, serious Manichees followed an ascetic lifestyle with a strict vegetarian diet and frequent prayer and fasting.
The parallels between Manichaeism and transhumanism are startling. For both, the body is a limitation, not a blessing, and full human potential is only possible with an escape from the current physical confines. Christians recognized that Manichaeism was a false teaching, partly because of its rejection of the body. Salvation required that Jesus was fully human: born of Mary, suffered under Pilate, crucified, rose and ascended bodily; and that he would return bodily. Christian spirituality calls for a discipline of the body, but not its rejection (Col 2:20-23; 1 Tim 4:1-5).
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology offers a different vision of the future. Christ will return to redeem the creation and raise his people, physically transforming bodies to be “like his glorious body” (Phil 3:21), imperishable,glorious, powerful and spiritual (1 Cor. 15:42). We will know God so richly that Paul can say that we will know him as he knows us (1 Cor. 11:12), and in knowing God we will grasp the truth of his world in ways that we cannot imagine. We will be not able to sin (Eph. 4:13; Heb. 12: 23). With this “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). This is a vision of wonderful transformation, not merely restoration to a created state but conformation into the image of the glorified Christ. Yet, in glory there is no denial of created,bodily human existence. We will be transformed physically, morally and cognitively — we will share in the glory of God’s Spirit in body, mind and will— and that will make us more human, fully human; conformed to the image of the One who is the image of God (Col 1:15).
Four Implications
- The desire to elevate the human condition is rooted in God’s purposes for us. It’s no surprise that we want not only healing, but enhancement. We are made for union with God, which will bring moral perfection, bodily glory and a new level of knowledge. But the technological path will not deliver.
- The biblical vision shows us the real source and timing of human transformation. We will be changed “in a flash,in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Cor 15:52). This is not something humans will achieve, but will be the final culminating gift of grace in Christ. Whatever we achieve now, it won’t be glory.
- Purported enhancements which lose significant aspects of human existence are not, in fact, enhancements. Human consciousness transferred to a dis-embodied digital existence is not the glorious freedom of the children of God.
- The Christian vision authorises the cautious use of enhancement. God has given humanity charge of the world, not only to keep it but also to develop it. Throughout history education, training and technology have changed the way humans live for the better; some enhancements may be considered a continuation of this theme in human culture.
C.S. Lewis famously wrote “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” Along the same lines, we should also continue to long for “another world”, and not settle for a pseudo-paradise of our own creation.