Toxic Marriage of Transhumanism, AI and Eugenics: the Handless Maiden Forces Redemption

Irina Kuzminsky's new book confronts the history, promises and dangers of transhumanism and human 'enhancement', addressing the two core questions underlying the whole transhumanist debate: what is a human being, and what is consciousness?Transhumanism is emerging as a new secular faith, distorting and inverting spiritual traditions of human transcendence, and positioning itself as a new religion, with artificial intelligence (AI) as its enabler. This new 'religion' is arriving at a much faster speed than our wisdom around it. The 'Superhuman' AI, supposedly imminent, is projected to outstrip all human abilities and render humans obsolete and expendable - except for the promoters, who see themselves as the privileged elite. This raises another troubling aspect of the 'toxic marriage': eugenics, with the author exposing in detail the shocking views of many of the influential and wealthy transhumanist proponents who see no problem with proposing the active reduction of the world population. The crux with transhumanism: if we start defining ourselves as comparable to the machines we ourselves have created, we are welcoming in our own devolution. In the words of Anne Baring, "The aim of this inhuman technology seems to be to eliminate our emotional intelligence: our capacity to feel, to imagine, to create, to dream, to love..." A child's life is judged in comparison to the utility of an AI. Humans are nothing special, just an entry on a balance sheet to be assessed in terms of data, efficiency and economic worth. Against this Kuzminsky places the image and conviction of the transcendence of the human soul and spirit, through the realisation of our higher self.The book is unique on another score: the Kuzminsky is not only a researcher, but a poet and artist as well, and her art work and poetry is displayed throughout the book.Each of the 22 chapters is introduced by one of her paintings followed by a poem, both related to the theme of the following pages. The author approaches the topic of transhumanism also from a background of deep exploration into the significance of the Sacred Feminine and its relevance for the topic of the book and for our time. This book is a gripping meditation on evolution, identity, the sacredness of life and the soul of humanity itself.