Certain views on transhumanism alarmed me a bit. I know there’s a great likelihood that humans could live longer than usual. And even if immortality might one day become a fad, I don’t know if living forever is worth it. Despite the increase in mortality rates, there’s still the chronic problem on overpopulation. How much more if hardly anyone dies? Where do you expect to put the rest of the undead? You just bring in more lives and take nothing at all? And whether one likes it or not, our universe, this earth, our lives follow an unwritten decree, an inherent system, which in alchemy they call The Law of Conservation. With its underlying principle on “Equivalent Trade”, one must give something of equivalent value to gain something in exchange. Disrupting that flow is absolute avarice, if you ask me.
If you saw the anime Full Metal Alchemist, transhumanism was already tackled in there through the ideas of “human transmutation,” “life binding” alchemy, and the “philosopher’s stone.” These brought nothing but misery to the people who indulged in them. Failed human transmutations resulted to creatures called the “Humonculi” (humonculus for singular): immortal soulless human bodies with nothing more but senses and with no real “consciousness” of their past lives. They were walking zombies who only wished for the human way of life. Another disturbing creature in the world of FMA was the “Chimera” – two lives (animal and human mostly) fused together to form a creature of superior abilities.
This was the specialty of Tucker, the Life-binding Alchemist, who, in his desperate attempt to pass the Nationally Certified Alchemists’ yearly evaluation, ghoulishly attached the soul of his own daughter to that of their dog Alexander. He later became a chimera himself as a form of atonement. Souls attached to empty armors by means of blood seals were also among the long list of disturbing practices discussed in FMA.
If you saw the anime Full Metal Alchemist, transhumanism was already tackled in there through the ideas of “human transmutation,” “life binding” alchemy, and the “philosopher’s stone.” These brought nothing but misery to the people who indulged in them. Failed human transmutations resulted to creatures called the “Humonculi” (humonculus for singular): immortal soulless human bodies with nothing more but senses and with no real “consciousness” of their past lives. They were walking zombies who only wished for the human way of life. Another disturbing creature in the world of FMA was the “Chimera” – two lives (animal and human mostly) fused together to form a creature of superior abilities.
This was the specialty of Tucker, the Life-binding Alchemist, who, in his desperate attempt to pass the Nationally Certified Alchemists’ yearly evaluation, ghoulishly attached the soul of his own daughter to that of their dog Alexander. He later became a chimera himself as a form of atonement. Souls attached to empty armors by means of blood seals were also among the long list of disturbing practices discussed in FMA.
Suppose transhumanism fails? Scientists will have to use a lot of guinea pigs first before they can perfect that scientific endeavor. People may live forever yet they can never overcome their defective nature. As Louis de Pointe du Lac, the antihero of Interview with the Vampire, once said: “Can we fall back on nature?” Defy nature and you’re as good as abnormal. Will it not create unreasonable deaths instead (like liposuction, for instance)? How can you siphon one’s consciousness out of the frail human body into another container without risking further damage to it? Digitize the consciousness and store it in microchips (like FMP’s black technology)? What’s the best alternative to our deteriorating bodies? Synthetic rubber? Prosthesis? Like what they did to Robin Williams in The Bicentennial Man? And can consciousness guarantee physical movements? Can one gain immediate, conscious control no matter the body or container a person is deposited in?
As to the issue of immortality, if you ever read Anne Rice, you will come across important life philosophies in her books as narrated and depicted by her vampire characters. Vampires are immortals but they could still die. Immortality sounds so grandiose and utopian. Although it appears to sit at the pinnacle of all human aspirations, there is still a limit to immortality: you will live forever, unless someone kills you. Still, if someone wants to, you will nevertheless be dead meat. The character John McCloud of Highlander fame could kill an immortal by just detaching the body from the head. That’s also true with vampires when you dismember them or expose them to the sun. But that's just icing on the cake. Death comes regardless of dismemberment or exposure to the sun. Vampires suffer a natural death. When they could no longer find any pleasure in immortality – not the eternal engagement in art and music, not feeding, not the travels, not the superhuman abilities, not even the ethereal beauty that lures – and when nothing as in nothing more could induce them to want something more from this earth, they would unobtrusively go to a secluded place (maybe sniff around for an empty coffin in the cemetery) and lay there without feeding for days on end ‘til despair and hunger gradually drain the life out of them.
In short, immortality will eventually bore vampires to death. How can you possibly ensure “sustainable immortality”? LOL
In short, immortality will eventually bore vampires to death. How can you possibly ensure “sustainable immortality”? LOL
This is the prosaic truth: everything on earth exacts a price. In all our actions one must carefully assess whether the “prize is worth the price.” The Elric brothers, Ed and Al, were able to realize this earlier than many real-world children when an attempt to revive their departed mother resulted to the loss of the elder’s arm and leg and the younger one’s whole body.
So for every disillusioned mortal out there, here's the moral of the story: you cannot meddle with death. So, what’s your rationale for seeking a never-ending life? If you were to live forever, have you ever thought of all the things you might want to do for eternity? Do you really think it would be worth it? I don't know about you but I'm content with the way things are... or NOT.
So for every disillusioned mortal out there, here's the moral of the story: you cannot meddle with death. So, what’s your rationale for seeking a never-ending life? If you were to live forever, have you ever thought of all the things you might want to do for eternity? Do you really think it would be worth it? I don't know about you but I'm content with the way things are... or NOT.
P.S
Watch out for the whole new series of Hagaren no Renkinjutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)! It's a more faithful rendition of the manga series.
