Findings & Forecasts 08/29/2012
Transhumanism: H+ or H– ?
Just when most people finally have some awareness of the word “Humanism,” that understanding is now eclipsed with the advent of Transhumanism, or H+. Like its predecessor, Transhumanism is all about man and what man can do or be, except that it now incorporates a sophisticated cocktail of science to make it happen.
To restate: Whereas Humanism relied on a metaphysical fantasy to achieve its goals, Transhumanism fortifies its metaphysical wish-list with supposedly objective science. Never mind that much, if not most, of that objective science hasn’t been invented yet. To a Transhuman, just the promise of future science is enough for them to count it as reality today.
Starting in the late 1990′s, a purposeful merging of four branches of science has produced a new discipline referred to as the “Convergence.” The four components are Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science, and are often referred to as NBIC. For those not familiar with the field of Cognitive Science, it is an interdisciplinary study that includes psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, learning sciences, linguistics, anthropology, sociology and education. (see Thagard, Paul, “Cognitive Science,”, 2008)
The merging of hard sciences with areas like psychology, philosophy, education and sociology should make you sweat. This is the final frontier of Technocracy started in the 1930′s, which merged science with social engineering. Whereas Technocracy was concerned with society as a whole, Transhumanism is concerned with the person himself.
Since I have been speaking and writing over the last 4 years about Technocracy and Transhumanism, they have started to spill over into the public media, and not because I was shining light on them, either. Indeed, they are capturing the public’s fancy.
The ABCNews headline two days ago, Human Immortality in 33 Years Claims Dmitry Itskov’s 2045 Initiative was not a surprise to me, but I am sure it left many scratching their head. At 31, Itskov is a Russian billionaire with a big vision and lots of cash to burn. It was not a journalistic fluke that ABCNews picked up his story: He is also a sensation in Huffington Post, Wired Magazine, IBTimes, countless radio shows and TV interviews, etc.
On his own website, Itskov writes “Neo-Humanity 2045: A Global Strategy for the Evolution of Humanity in the Third Millennium,” in which he states,
“The formation of such an intelligence will not limit the individuality or freedom of any single person — on the contrary, it will maximize creative development and facilitate the unlocking of boundless potential. All this will inevitably lead to the emergence of a new society — a society of immortal superpeople.
“Neo-humanity as an ideology, a socio-economic structure, and a new form of civilization will usher in a new era in people’s lives — the transition to a cosmic supercivilization of neo-humans.”
Neo-humanity? A new form of civilization? Immortal superpeople?
Itskov has plenty of “inter-faith” religious support listed on his website as well: The Dalai Lama, Swami Vishnudevananda Giri Ji Mahara, Mahasiddha Pilot Baba and even Lazar Puhalo, Archbishop of Ottawa of the Orthodox Church in America.
The average response to stuff like this is disbelief, and I say that from my own experience with many audiences. I encourage you to take it seriously however, because the billionaires of the world (aka the Global Elite) are getting behind Transhumanism and Technocracy with all the zeal they can muster. They are dragging in top scientists, top laboratories and top universities, throwing money at them like there is no tomorrow. They view themselves as the new controllers of human and societal evolution — and worse, they have a plan for you! If you don’t like that plan, then now is the time to speak up.
If it isn’t clear to you why Technocratic and Transhumans reject Biblical Christianity, it’s because the God of the Bible is in direct competition with their goals to recreate earth and the people in it, in their own image. Whereas the Bible speaks of the laws of sin and death as immutable truths, science now promises an escape into immortality, omniscience, omnipresence, etc. They are especially hostile toward the thought of needing a Savior because they believe they are fully capable of saving themselves and on their own terms.
Economy
There have been many studies over time that examine the relationship between the stock market and the economy. Does the economy improve because of rising stock prices or do stock prices rise because of an improving economy? The correct view makes a lot of difference in how you interpret today’s economy.
One such analysis was conducted on the Indian economy and market and concluded, “stock market development leads to economic growth” rather than the other way around. This relationship is termed “supply-leading” versus “demand-following” which would suggest the opposite.
Another study titled, Financial Development and Economic Growth: Time Series Evidence for the case of UK, pointedly concludes,
“The evidence obtained from the co-integration and causality test strongly supports the supply-leading hypothesis, which suggests that the causal directions run from the development of the financial sector to the real sector (measured by real GDP per capita)”
Conventional wisdom states just the opposite: Stocks rise as a result of economic development.
The fact of the matter is that the current uptick in economic activity, weak as it is, is the result of still-elevated stock prices. When stock prices turn down, economic activity will follow like the tail follows the dog. If you view today’s market as concluding a counter-trend bounce that precedes the next bear market leg down, as I do, then there is no reason to predict some kind of miracle economic recovery over the next 2 – 3 years, which I don’t.
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