*Transhumanism is said to be the cutting edge of science, a science that promises eternal human”life” transferred to non biological bodies. Much like Alchemy,Transhumanism seeks to convert one state of matter to another, and being that it is mostly influenced by dogmatic science it see’s the human mind in purely mechanistic terms.

Most of Modern science agrees that The brain is simply a computer,or a tool that can be replicated and tweaked and “uploaded”. Without considering that Consciousness itself may be more than just electrical impulses and trillions of bits and bytes of data. The ultimate goal being to transcend the fragile mortal biological body. It’s an ambitious goal, but one that should take into consideration the nature of consciousness, not simply the cutting and pasting of it into another temporary “container”.

Immortality is Something that the human race has dreamt of since we understood the concept of death. But Rather than dreaming and attempting to keep our physical bodies alive forever, maybe we need to look somewhere else. What’s something that you use every day. What’s something that has incredible power similar to that of our minds. What are you looking at right now? A thought provoking article surely, but what’s displaying it? A computer; running a program. What else is our mind but a type of computer running a program?

I think the brain is like a program in the mind, which is like a computer, so it’s theoretically possible to copy the brain onto a computer and so provide a form of life after death – Stephen Hawking

Many scientists and thinkers are suggesting that the answer to eternal life has literally been right in front of us for a while now. The head of British Telecom’s futurology unit stated that rapid advances in computing power would make cyber-immortality a reality within 50 years.
More recently (in 2013) one of todays great minds and Google’s director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, suggested that the ability to transfer the entire human mind to a computer will be achievable within four decades.

Based on conservative estimates of the amount of computation you need to functionally simulate a human brain, we’ll be able to expand the scope of our intelligence a billion-fold. – Ray Kurzweil

We’ve even begun to replicate the functions of a brain. In a study done by The Blue Brain project, Henry Markram and a team successfully simulated the neocortical column of a rat. A complex layer of brain tissue common to all mammals. Although we are still a ways off from replicating the human brain, it is extremely foreseeable that it will exist within many of our lifetimes. Whether it will be affordable to the masses that soon is another question. It could take time for it to become a common and affordable means to an end.

*Well…Not so Fast there, take into account that one of the leading “sources” of making such technology happen is the Pentagon’s DARPA. They most likely aren’t developing this for use by the masses, in fact quite the opposite, it would most likely be used as a tool to bait or control the masses

DARPA Cortical Modem connects the brain directly to a computer

A brain-computer interface has been developed by the US Defence Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that is capable of laying a heads-up display over a user’s natural vision.
The “cortical modem” also holds the potential to cure sight loss and enable “electronic telepathy and telekinesis” according to noted futurist Peter Rothman, writing for H+ Magazine.

The interface provides a direct link between the brain and an external device or software through manipulation of the visual cortex.Phillip Alvelda, chief of DARPA’s Biological Technologies, told the conference how the device could replace all virtual reality glasses, such as the Oculus Rift, by bypassing the visual sensory system entirely.

DARPA has led the way in a number of futurist and transhumanist projects, including a tiny implant that assists the body’s organs in healing themselves when injured. Their mission statement has evolved over time. Today, DARPA’s mission is still “to prevent technological surprise to the US, but also to create technological surprise for our enemies.”

And Who would those Enemies be? Well read this for some insight. It doesn’t involve bearded guys hiding in caves, it involves what will be left of the masses of humanity.

Original Articles: Here and Here