On Humanism and Transhumanism

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-1) ◽  
pp. 166-180
Author(s):  
Sergey Piletsky ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Aldous Huxley ◽  
Technological Opportunity ◽  
The World ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
Technological Bias

The paper raises the problem, quite widely discussed not only in the frame of modern philosophizing, but in the whole complex of socio-humanitarian knowledge – the problem of the perspectives of the formation of the epoch of transhumanism. What is it - the epoch of transhumanism? What are the peculiar properties of it? And what are the specifics of that technological bias which would allow put it into practice? Is there a genetic bond between transhumanism and the sources of the traditional humanism? And why the majority of not only philosophers, but all humanitarians speak out against ‘the unprecedented advantages’ and ‘the good’ of transhumanism, considering its realization as the era of ‘dehumanization’ of a human being? These and similar questions worry millions of intellectuals all over the world. The author of this paper tries to give his answers. He analyses the definitions of humanism, given in two authoritative philosophical dictionaries. Then he reinforces his analysis with not only his own reasonings and extrapolations, but with the positions of three outstanding thinkers and famous humanists of Renaissance – Lorenzo Valla, Pico della Mirandola and Erasmus Roterodamus. However the author tries to consider the historical tradition not isolated but to link with the technological opportunity of its transformation into those perspectives of transhumanism. That’s why the author draws attention to a remarkable writer-philosopher Aldous Huxley with his anti-utopian novel ‘Brave New World’. The author concludes the paper with offering to the reader’s attention his author’s speculative model how it can be.

scholarly journals SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IDEAS OF ALDOUS HUXLEY THROUGH BERNARD MARX’S CHARACTER IN BRAVE NEW WORLD

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muh Haris Zubaidillah
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
New World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Aldous Huxley ◽  
Happy Life ◽  
World State ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The World ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
Descriptive Method

Social and political ideas have important role and influence in society life. Because, it can change human's thought or mind. In this case, Aldous Huxley as author constructs a character in the novel Brave New World and it is his ideas. He includes his ideas through one of characters in his book. It is seen in character Bernard Marn's feeling, such as; Bernard Marx's feeling as nature of human, Bernard Marx's Feeling to Soma, and Bernard Marx's Feeling to the concept of happy life in The World State. So, the researcher feels a necessity to analyze political ideas of Aldous Huxley through Character Bernard Max in Brave New World. Based on the problem above, the researcher needs to analyze the political ideas of Aldous Huxley through character Bernard Mar in Brave New World by analyzing the character dialogue used the descriptive method. The descriptive method on the research involves a collection of technique used to specify, delineate or describe naturally the occurring of changing characterization without experimental manipulation. The researcher needs to analyze about what are the social and political ideas of Aldous Huxley through the character Bernard Marx constructed in the novel Brave New World. The researcher analyzed it by using Historical Literary Criticism. All the data are taken from the novel Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley. The analysis of data deals with the descriptions social and political ideas of Aldous Huxley through the character Bernard Marx constructed in Brave New World containing: Bernard Mary's feeling as nature of human Bernard Marx's Feeling to Soma, and Bernard Man's Feeling to the concept of happy life in The World State. The literary work is very dominant to socialized ideas, opinion, and massage as values to the society. Therefore, it has great influences to deliver values to the society through the reader. So, it can be concluded that author has power of his work and can include his ideas, opinion, and massage also values in his work as like Aldous Huxley. Then, political ideas of Aldous Huxley through character Bernard Marx in Brave New World are author's politic (Aldous Huxley), he attempted to express his ideas in a work.

scholarly journals The Midlife Crisis of the Network Society

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 107-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikki Usher ◽  
Matt Carlson
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Network Society ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Midlife Crisis ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
The World ◽  
Brave New World

The network society is moving into some sort of middle age, or has at least normalized into the daily set of expectations people have for how they live their lives, not to mention consume news and information. In their adolescence, the technological and temporal affordances that have come with these new digital technologies were supposed to make the world better, or least they could have. There was much we did not foresee, such as the way that this brave new world would turn journalism into distributed content, not only taking away news organizations’ gatekeeping power but also their business model. This is indeed a midlife crisis. The present moment provides a vantage point for stocktaking and the mix of awe, nostalgia, and ruefulness that comes with maturity.

Old Lives

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-88
Author(s):  
Maren Tova Linett
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
New World ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Old People ◽  
World State ◽  
The World ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
Age Reading

Chapter 2 takes a disability studies approach to aging by viewing Brave New World (1932) as a thought experiment that explores the value of old age. Reading the novel alongside Ezekiel Emanuel’s claim that it would be best for everyone to die at around age seventy-five, before their abilities begin to decline, the chapter reads the absence of old people in the World State as an aspect of its dystopia. The chapter first argues that the persistent youth embraced by the society robs life of its narrative arc and thereby of an important aspect of its meaning. It then explores the reasons suggested by the novel that such a sacrifice of life narratives is not worthwhile, even to avoid periods of possible disability or frailty. Brave New World makes clear that the excision of old age has significant political, moral, and emotional costs.

Strange Old World - Late Paleocene—Early Eocene Climatic and Biotic Events in the Marine and Terrestrial Record. Edited by Marie-Pierre Aubry, Spencer Lucas, and William Berggren Columbia University Press, New York. 1998. 513 pages.

Paleobiology ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Clyde
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
New World ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Early Eocene ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Aldous Huxley ◽  
Old World ◽  
Biotic Events ◽  
Brave New World

In his 1932 book Brave New World, Aldous Huxley laid out a satirical blueprint of a future so strange to people of the time that it became a symbol of the frightening and unyielding momentum of scientific progress. Literature and popular culture have since been littered with images of a future earth so transformed by human progress (or extraterrestrial intervention) that we can hardly recognize it. Earth historians and paleontologists, however, have taken a different path into the bizarre. This group of time travelers has used the kind of technology that Huxley foreshadowed to recreate past worlds of similar disparity. These worlds are neither based on, nor entirely limited by, human imagination, but are based instead on scientific observation. In short, these strange old worlds are real, not imagined. As often is the case, however, truth can b e stranger than fiction.

Robots, Replicants, and Surrogates

2021 ◽  
pp. 84-111
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
New World ◽  
Attitudes And Perceptions ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
And Robotics

The human brain is an extraordinary machine. Its ability to process information and adapt to circumstances by reprogramming itself is unparalleled, and it remains the best source of inspiration for recent developments in artificial intelligence. This has given rise to machine learning, intelligent systems, and robotics. Robots and AI might right now still seem the reserve of blockbuster science fiction movies and documentaries, but it's no doubt the world is changing. This chapter explores the origins, attitudes, and perceptions of robotics and the multiple types of robots that exist today. Perhaps most importantly, it focuses on ethical and societal concerns over the question: Are we heading for a brave new world or a science fiction horror-show where AI and robots displace or, perhaps more worryingly, replace humans?

Conclusions and Future Predictions

2020 ◽  
pp. 399-412
Author(s):  
Michael B. A. Oldstone
Keyword(s):  
Human Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
New World ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Human History ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
New Challenges

This concluding chapter explains that as viruses like human immunodeficiency virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Zika, and West Nile evolve and emerge, humans are faced with new challenges. Simultaneously, perceptions about new infections and new plagues continue to change. What can and should be done? One must now consider the possible return of smallpox and its use as a weapon of bioterrorism. Meanwhile, even as the march to contain measles and poliomyelitis viruses continues at an impressive pace, bumps and setbacks have been encountered along the way, especially with measles having recurred in 2019 at the time of writing this book. Ultimately, the history of viruses, plagues, and people is an account of the world and the events that shape it. In the end, the splendor of human history is not in wars won, dynasties formed, or financial empires built but in improvement of the human condition. The obliteration of diseases that impinge on people’s health is a regal yardstick of civilization’s success, and those who accomplish that task will be among the true navigators of a brave new world.

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