Throughout the world the human brain is adapting to new ways of understanding the future. In some places this is happening more rapidly than others. As humans use technology to build new fields of creativity we are evolving to adapt to it the new environment it creates. One aspect of the future that is already emerging is the post-human person, a new genus of the human species.
Homocyborgian is a human being with some processes controlled by mechanical, electronic, chemical, and technological components. Many professions will soon be run by cyborgian hybrids that are part human and part technology. In a sense many of us are already becoming cyborgs with laser vision and digital hearing devices, with Bluetooth earlobes and mechanical arms and legs, with computerized implants and extensions.
We need do not understand how cyborgs work to see how pervasive they are. We do not need to control the process of their invention and computer coding to see that we already are complicit in the evolution taking place.
A cyborgs transgresses the boundary of what it has traditionally meant to be human. It is transhuman, perhaps even ultrahuman. It is the next evolution of what it means to be human. The Cyborg Manifesto written in 1985 by feminist philosopher Diane Holloway is a classic that predicted how this would happen. It is a gradual process that is in full swing all around us. Consider yourself, and the implications of this in your own life. Then think about the future.
Scientists already predict that skin, human flesh as we know it now, may not be necessary for the new human. Think of what this will mean for the aging process of the human being. Editing of the human genome is on the cutting edge of an evolution in human flesh. All of nature is fluid and the advance happens gradually, inexorably so that it feels "natural" in the unfolding as it advances.
The human brain is becoming rewired and a new species is emerging. We hope that theology can embrace this new reality so that the advance incorporates the wisdom, compassion and divine love of the religious sentiment. The youngest generation emerging today is different from previous generations at the base level. Before the end of this century homocyborgians with virtually indestructible exoskeletons will supplant homosapiens with vulnerable flesh in many areas of daily life. Scientists are already working on the development of operating systems that will know us completely and love us for who we really are.
Reflections from Ilia Delio retreat based on her new book A Hunger for
Wholeness: Soul, Space, and Transcendence.
