Looking at our current existence within this technological hyper object. A hyper object is a phenomenon so vast that we as humans have a hard time comprehending its scale. It is pioneered by philosopher Tim Morton, who is best known for identifying global warming and the climate crisis we are in as our current hyper object. I draw parallels between global warming as a huge hyper object, and this technological hyper object that I believe we are also currently locked into.

Performativity of our human lives, including identity expression and emotional ties, are now warped by technology’s capabilities.

Referencing philosophies like Byung Chul-han, I look at how technology has led to the distortion of how we view our real lives, how we view physicality vs digitization. Information and media distorts real-life events. The way we engage with technology causes us to lose awareness in everything else around us. We fantasize about synthetic bodies and disembodied immortality.

Ownership of data and powerful tech is concentrated in the hands of a few, widening the gap between the controlled and the one in control. Data collected about our bodies and behavior give a select few that are in power an intrusive lens into our lives to capitalize on. How do we want to shape our human lives moving towards the future? Do we want to allow people in power to define what it means to be human in our future?

Using concepts of transhumanism and posthumanism to make sense of all of this, specifically looking at the ethics of technology when it comes to human enhancement. Alot of technologies today are directed towards some form of enhancement of our human capabilities, or to provide a therapeutic purpose. So for example, these brain computer interfaces that are being developed to address anything from Parkinson’s to neuromuscular deficiencies, or carbon fiber prosthetics, also known as bionic cheetah legs.

When we look at all the tech advancements within the field of our human bodies, we actually start to see transhumanism arising. Where transhumanism focuses on perfecting the human body, or to eliminate flaws within the body or human lives, which if you really scrutinize is a form of modern day eugenics. Well known transhumanists out there are people like Elon Musk, who already have alot of power in how tech is created today. In fact, we as humans do have this natural predisposition to behave this way. Adrienne maree brown has a quote that says we are trained to be capitalists to survive in this world, and that essentially forces us to believe that we have to constantly be better than each other to survive or succeed. But the capitalist system we are forced to operate within dehumanizes our experiences, and pulls us away from what matters most to being human.

When you zoom out at why this is important to talk about, we can see that these conversations are so complex we don’t quite know how to form an opinion around it. Things like genetic engineering could lend itself to directed evolution, and removing human aging or flaws directly opposes that fact that humans will age into disability. Disability and human flaws is the very essence of human life.

So where is the distinction between providing therapy to bring a human to reach a “normalized state” vs an enhanced state? This also brings up issues of equal access, opportunities and much more. It is for this very reason that these topics are important to bring to light, so people can have informed awareness and agency when it comes to deciding how they want to integrate technology into their human lives.