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A long with inflation and the state of democracy, Americans are increasingly worried about human extinction. A survey from 2017 found that roughly 40% of the U.S. public thinks “the odds that global warming will cause humans to become extinct are 50% or higher.” Another survey published last year reports that 55% of us are either “very worried” or “somewhat worried” that advanced artificial intelligence “could eventually pose a threat to the existence of the human race.”
These concerns are not irrational. After all, the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists is that climate change will have catastrophic consequences in the coming decades. The people running artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI, meanwhile, are explicit that the technologies they’re building could lead to the annihilation of our species. In a 2023 interview, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, said that “the bad case — and I think this […]
It is the sneakiness of the Transhuman argument which has always disturbed me. They use the same words but twist the meaning – a fundamentally dishonest position if you ask me. As the article stated:
“Human extinction, they say, is the most obvious type of “existential catastrophe,” and as the influential transhumanist and long termist Nick Bostrom writes, existential catastrophes are the “one kind of catastrophe that must be avoided at any cost.”
Transhumanists and longtermists believe that it’s really important to actually create a new species of posthumans, and many would say that if Homo sapiens disappears in the process, so much for the better.
The catch — the sneaky move on their part — is that these people define “humanity” in a very unusual way. For most of us, “humanity” means our particular species, Homo sapiens. If “humanity” dies out, then our species no longer exists. In contrast, for these transhumanists and longtermists, “humanity” refers to both our species and whatever “posthuman” descendants we might have, so long as they possess certain capacities like consciousness. ”
This intellectual dishonesty must be confronted at every turn.