Tom Horn on Transhumanism, Grin Tech and the Future of Man and Beast

Clearly, the issues of GRIN technology are complex and terrifying, which is why SkyWatch TV has spent three years interviewing leading scientists and researchers to produce a new three-hour documentary titled Inhuman, but you can think of it as Transhumanism 101, covering these key issues.

Transhuman Eugenics

Advocates call transhumanism ‘self-directed evolution’, an exact repeat of a slogan used by early 20th-century eugenicists. This new eugenics combines biotechnology, nanotechnology, neural interfaces and related sciences to design a superior man and thus a new form of social Darwinism—the enhanced and the unenhanced. 

Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is a cutting edge discipline that builds new forms of life and biological functions not found in nature. Rather than building on “natural” nucleic acids, synthetic biology imagines an entirely new form of DNA.

Human Cloning

So-called “therapeutic cloning” is practiced every day in genetics engineering labs worldwide, where human and human-animal embryos are created for stem-cell harvesting. (The stem cells, in turn, are used to generate virtually any type of specialized cell in the human body.) A second form of human cloning is called “reproductive cloning” and is the technology that could be used to create a person who is genetically identical with a current or previously existing human.

Nanotechnology and Cybernetics

This technology merges human brains with machines, and it is progressing at a fantastic rate. Nanotechnology—the science of engineering materials or devices on an atomic and molecular scale between 1 to 100 nanometers (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter)—will provide the matrix for brain-machine interfaces. 

Germ-Line Genetic Engineering

In 2015, the world became aware of a powerful new genome editing system called CRISPR-Cas9, which is used in biology labs around the world. CRISPR is a precise way of editing DNA and is already hailed as the engine of a new era of genetics including the possibility of permanently modifying the human race.

The Legal Battle and Patenting New Life-Forms

Even now, debate rages over the “patenting” of transgenic seeds, animals, plants and synthetic life-forms by large corporations. The rush to patent human genes will escalate these issues. Genomes will be altered, watermarked and uploaded—creating a nightmare database shared by governments, scientists, medical professionals, insurers and employers; while providing a pretty lure for hackers and blackmailers. Who is to say what legal protections will be assumed in an age where human biology is altered and personhood theory challenges what bioethicists like Wesley J. Smith (also featured in INHUMAN) champion as “human exceptionalism” (the idea that human beings carry special moral status in nature and special rights, such as the right to life, plus unique responsibilities, such as stewardship of the environment)?