The minds body problem: a new history of what it means to be human

 

"Much of Challenger's argument consists of showing how our minds are integrally connected with not only our brains but the rest of our bodies, our nervous systems and inner organs. She cites the work of the Portuguese-American neuroscientist Antonio Damasio as showing that “the human mind has its foundations in ‘bodily feelings, primordial and modified.’”2 Philosophers such as René Descartes have represented the mind as being categorically distinct from the body. Others, such as Baruch Spinoza, a major influence on Damasio, have argued that mind and body are not different substances but aspects of each other. According to this view, the human mind is not simply an instrument of conscious cognition that can be detached from its organic base. It is a locus of feeling, conscious and unconscious, flowing directly from a somatic foundation. 

If our minds are linked with our bodies in this way, “transcending biology”could entail the loss of much that makes us human. Preconscious thought processes that may underlie many kinds of human creativity could be left behind with the body. Forms of artistic creation such as dance and music depend on bodily sensation. It is unclear how these kinds of self-expression could be retained or replicated in transhumanist plans for uncoupling mind and body. The feelings that link us with other living things, including other humans, could also be lost. Empathy is not one of the human attributes that commonly figures on the list of those qualities that transhumanists aim to enhance or preserve. It is hard to resist the conclusion that if anything survived the displacement of the mind from the biological organism, it would not be a human being. Rather than “man remaining man,”as postulated by Huxley, a posthuman species would have come into being. "

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