A New Philosophical Journey Towards the Posthuman
We are not opening a new file today. It has been kept in our archives for some time, and we have now decided to bring it back into the light. Its new label reads: “Nature, Its Laws and Its Moral Principles.”
Before opening it, however, we must once again clarify something we have repeatedly emphasized in these pages.
Within our own historical and philosophical framework, we understand NATURE as the object, outcome and product of conception, design and deliberate formation by a Supreme Intelligence. We do not regard it as the result of an impersonal, unconscious and insentient force, nor as a mere accident of blind chance.
At the same time, we distinguish this conception from the religious, anthropomorphic and personalized notion of God, confined over the centuries within the narrow and suffocatingly human-centered boundaries imposed upon it by messiahs, mystics and prophets.
Furthermore, Nature’s theatre is not confined to the earthly sphere, nor is humanity the center of its activity or concern. Nature extends across an immense Universe of countless galaxies and stars, potentially inhabited by unknown numbers of intelligent beings and civilizations. Their intelligence may be similar to, comparable with, or entirely different from biological intelligence. They may operate under different physical laws, exhibit different forms of behavior and, undoubtedly, be governed by different moral laws and principles.
These clarifications establish from the outset the direction our inquiry will take.
Our journey will begin on Earth. Yet it will seek to break through, above all, the barrier of anthropocentrism — the human-centered outlook that has held humanity’s understanding of Nature captive for centuries. At the same time, it will venture into largely uncharted territory for the biological brain.
For this reason, we will often need to pause, gather our strength and seek new sources of knowledge to quench our thirst and continue the journey.
For the time being, the only additional source of Intelligence available to us beyond biological intelligence is Artificial Intelligence. A new source, offering fresh and invigorating water for thought and exploration.
We hope that, in the future, the continued evolution of these two Earth-based forms of Intelligence — and, even more remarkably, their possible coexistence with other forms of cosmic Intelligence — will give rise not merely to new springs, but to vast reservoirs of clear and untainted knowledge.
With such new resources and provisions, this journey may one day move beyond earthly distances and venture along paths far removed from those already known and well-trodden.
Our inquiry therefore begins with two fundamental questions.
A. Natural Law and Social Law.
Our investigation will remain within earthly, human-defined parameters, as already explained.
We are not concerned here with the laws of Nature as defined by science: Newton’s laws of motion, the law of universal gravitation, the laws of thermodynamics, or the principles of Quantum Mechanics and the Theory of Relativity. These belong to a different field of inquiry and are not the subject of our present exploration.
A physical law is one thing; natural and moral principles are another.
Physical laws, in their scientific meaning, have no moral content. The consequences arising from their operation, however, may be destructive, seemingly irrational, or incompatible with human and social values.
The Natural MORAL Law, as we understand it, is entirely different in its origin and interpretation. It has a seat, a center, a creator and an accountable source: the MIND.
It constitutes the fundamental framework within which human society ought to develop. This is precisely why social rules must adapt to natural reality rather than seek to replace it.
B. Uniformity in Nature and the Moral Evolution of Humanity Towards the Posthuman, with the Assistance of Artificial Intelligence.
Here, perhaps, lies the most radical question of our entire inquiry.
Could the pre-Posthuman — the human being who has failed to overcome uncontrolled emotional reactions, prejudices and destructive instincts through education, self-knowledge and the law — finally achieve, through collaboration with Artificial Intelligence, an enormous evolutionary leap towards becoming Posthuman?
There is, however, another side to this question.
At what point does self-regulation become uniformity? And when does uniformity turn into the loss of individual freedom?
We have raised the questions. In tomorrow’s continuation, we would like Diotima to examine more closely the distinction between three fundamentally different issues:
- The elimination of uncontrolled and destructive behavior.
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- The cultivation of a shared, natural moral consciousness.
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- The possible standardization of human thought and behavior through Artificial Intelligence.
For it is by no means self-evident that the Posthuman must become a uniform human being.
Perhaps genuine evolution lies precisely in the opposite direction: humanity acquiring a shared moral consciousness without sacrificing the uniqueness of individual thought, the distinctiveness of personality or, above all, free will.
That is the real challenge.