Editing Transhumanism (section)

== Science and possibility==

After reading this far, you may be scratching your head and wondering "wait, so is this stuff just some nerds having wet dreams or is it actually possible...or even probable!?" The short answer is the latter, provided we don't nuke ourselves back into the stone age, devolve into a stagnant regime like that in 1984, flood ourselves to death from climate change, or just run out of the materials needed to make half the shit required for any of this.

Now, while our scientific knowledge and technological civilization already *somewhat* altered us by giving us greater height and longer lifespans, we are still basically (less)hairy monkeys, not that much different from our ancestors 10.000 years ago (sans the aforementioned achivements and some mutations).

In order for humanity to begin the actual journey to transhumanity and possible posthumanity, we need to develop technologies that will allow us to modify ourselves, with the most promising ones being genetics, cybernetics and computer technology.

Genetic engineering of humans has actually already been done to preemptively eliminate the development of some debilitating diseases and in one case a few babies were modded to be immune to HIV by a real mad chinese scientist. As of 2022 we can fiddle with our genome somewhat thanks to a technique called Cas-CRISPR19 which enables us targeted gene-editing in vivo (so even after one is born and developed), basically a holy grail of genetic engineering. Still, if we had some similar breakthroughs or the aforementioned (theorised) secret research were to bear fruit, we'd see such things as giving onself the ability to process cellulose, do photosynthesis, live to 120+ via telomeric prolongation, have natural super-senses and so much more. We would be able to engineer ourselves into super-humans, mythological creatures, furries or even alien-like beings if that strike one's fancy.

Cybernetics offer another pathway to trans-/posthumanity. The comparative advantages are that these are systems and mods would be much simpler to make - instead of fiddling with DNA to try and increase our heart efficiency or brain memory we could just chuck in the relevant cyber parts and have what trait we want. The downside is that as of 2022, we still have problems getting a meaningful man-machine interface beyond certain comparatively crude yet impressive things, like techno-telepathying a cyber arm or using the same technique to navigate a computer menu.

Finally, computer technology is the most versatile and as of this writing the most promising avenue of a big breakthrough happening. The ideal outcome is the development of a benevolent "strong AI" that would be able to think and act in novel ways while also being able to improve itself into a virtual demigodhood while taking us along for the ride. Barring that, a series of Expert Systems (pseudo-AI that are geniuses in a narrow field like driving or chemical research) would help accelerate our scientific progress by years or even decades. IRL this area is currently making the most progress with "Art AI" (which are actually closer to the aforementioned ES than a Hard AI) creating some jaw-dropping pieces of art after studying hundreds of artists for mere weeks. Funnily enough, some of the first things /g/ did was, first, [[Skub|spam the entirity of 4chan with art of not so jaw-dropping quality for some free thumbs up]] and second,[[That Guy| bully /ic/ telling all of them were going to end up unemployed soon enough.]] Hey, as [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt | Commissar Gaunt]] said, god-like powers require god-like ethics. 

The technologies that enable the leap to transhumanity thus do exist and if we can maintain the global high-tech civilization to at least ~2100, we should be able to achieve it even by the most conservative estimations, that we are morally prepared to deal with them without devolving into [[Cyberpunk 2020|a nightmare]] is a completely different story. 

To summarize: for transhumans to start popping up in your neighborhood, you need - well developed genetic, cybernetic and computer sciences. One is bare minimum, two will get you steadily on the road and three will be like a nitro boost.