Robots Alchemy Androids, Cyborgs,
and the Magic of Artificial Life
by Texe Marrs
3
Transhumanism: Men Into Superman, and Then Into God
Transhumanism is an international movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of improving
the human race by technology to eliminate the ravages of aging and add superhuman abilities to the human
body.
We’ve seen this kind of superhuman in such movies as Terminator II, Eraser, the Matrix series,
Artificial Intelligence, Bicentennial Man, and of course, in TV series such as The Six Million Dollar
Man. In each, a superior partial human, partial machine is created. We can call this new form of being an
android, a cyborg, an artificial human, or a humanoid.
Either the robotic creature becomes more humanized, or the human becomes more robotic, adding to
physical nature capabilities not possessed before.
How can a movement arouse such divergent viewpoints? The outcome of this controversy is vital
because of its far-reaching implications for humanity and for the destiny of the planet.
Mega Forces: Signs and Wonders of the Coming Chaos
Though Wikipedia and other sources contend that transhumanism first took shape about 1990 with the
teachings of British philosopher Max More and a teacher at the New School who called himself “FM2030.” I find that my 1986 book, Mega Forces: Signs and Wonders of the Coming Chaos, is a type of
transhumanist treatise. It is really a catalog of wonders—and risks—to come through biotechnology,
computers, robots, drugs, lasers, and the psychic weapons of Armageddon:
“The marvels of technology and the increasing reservoir of intellectual knowledge offer us the
promise… Scientific and technological discoveries on the horizon are likely to encourage humanist
advocates in their irresponsible claims that the Christian faith and Bible are fundamentally flawed
and irrelevant.”
“Already a deluge of scientific reports seek to convince us that psychic abilities can enable man to
possess Godlike powers, or that worldwide computer networking will produce a universal mind.
Meanwhile, a growing legion of scientists proposes that man’s brain is evolving toward a
superhuman intelligence capacity or even God status. It is suggested that the Second Genesis—man’s
creation of genetically engineered laboratory life and robots with artificial intelligence—makes hima co-creator with God…”
Many of these opponents are dedicated to the practice of eastern religions, sorcery, the occult, and the
glorification of the material world.
Iron Jaw, a cartoon character from the WWII era
his face was reconstructed after an explosion
he was considered a friend and spy associated
with Adolph Hitler
Transhumanism: An Alliance of Science and Humanism Serving as the cornerstone of this ideology is an unholy alliance of science and humanism. Sir Julian
Huxley, one of its earliest advocates, in his book, Religion Without Revelation, called for a Humanist
Religion. Such a religion, said Huxley, can win universal acceptance because, “this new, better religion
would be based on truths like those of science that could be adjusted to meet new knowledge,
discoveries, and insights.”
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The arm made for Claudia Mitchell after her motorcycle
accident by DARPA, compare it to the 1954 pic from the
September issue of Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine
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Huxley and others focus on the individual rather than God. According to Huxley, “The well-developed,
well-patterned, individual human being is, in a strictly scientific sense, the highest phenomenon of which
we have knowledge, and the variety of individual personalities is the world’s highest riches.”
Huxley’s writings were in the days just preceding personal computers and robotics. What would he and
his cohorts say today about the marriage of bionics and computers and the possible integration of
humanity into the robotic species? No doubt they would be greatly encouraged by scientific progress. In
fact, in 1957, Huxley was the first to use the term, “transhumanism.”
Focus on Self
Transhumanism today is steering away from the liberal goals of the enlightenment—social justice,
equality, and the reform of human institutions. Today, the focus is on “Self,” the transcendence of the
human body from its limitations and the building of the ageless human. The goal is for humans to use
technology to engineer their own evolutionary development—to become superbeings.
new $25,000 hand after industrial accident
We see this in many different ways, but especially in the field of sports. A quarter of a century ago, we
had NFL pro football teams in which linemen were at most 200 pounds. Today, we have massive, fast
linemen of 325-350 pounds. Even the quarterbacks and running backs exceed 225 pounds. As a result we
have many more injuries and severe concussions. Professional medical personnel are available at each
game to attend injured players, and the rules have been changed to protect the quarterback and others. What we have in pro football are inhuman groups of supermen, their bodies tailor-made from the time
they are young to withstand the pounding. Players take steroids and other chemicals and those who don’t
find themselves limited and unable to compete at the newer, high level.
Just before the 2013 Super Bowl, Bernard Pollard, hard-hitting safety of pro football’s Baltimore
Ravens, told CBS Sports that he doesn’t believe the League will be in existence in 30 years. Rules
changes instituted to make the game safer, and the chance a player might die on the field as players
continue to get stronger and faster are the reason.
Pollard noted the increasing tendency of referees to throw flags to protect unprotected players and gave
his opinion—“there’s going to come a point where fans are going to get fed up with it and decide they
aren’t going to watch it anymore.”
In an interview for The New Republic, President Obama said that, if he had a son, he would have to
think long and hard before allowing him to play the sport. The president says the game will probably
change over time to try to reduce the violence. These changes, he said, will make football, in his words,
“a bit less exciting.”
The same is true for pro baseball, in which we have supersized athletes—men like Mark McGuire,
Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa—whose bodies are built by steroids into giant sizes and whose
accomplishments are so much greater than the old athletes, like Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth.
It’s a continuing pattern; we see this steroid bodybuilding craze in all sports—basketball, cycling,
boxing, track and field, swimming, with humans progressively growing bigger and stronger. The
participants appear to be supermen and superwomen. As a result, sports associations are wary of
inducting players into record books and Halls of Fame. They ask, is it the chemicals or the players? Is it
fair to the athletes of the pre-steroid eras?
Beautiful Techno-Engineered People
Women are also joining in, whether for athletics or for beauty. In the beauty realm, we find Russian girls
designing their bodies and faces so they will be “Barbie Dolls.” Plastic surgery is huge and the use of
artificial breasts and butts is gigantic (excuse the pun!). Nowadays, if a girl is small, you ask, why?
Men and women, young and old, are getting their teeth fixed to be beautiful, straight, pearly white. It’s a
rarity to see Americans with yellowed teeth or teeth missing. Bald men are getting new hair, or cutting it
all off.
Oscar Pistorius 2012
And there are multiple tattoos and piercings, as reflected in TV shows like L.A. Ink. The line between real and artificial is fast disappearing. Seventy-year old women and men work out,
ingest chemicals, have plastic surgery performed, breasts and butt uplifted, and they often end up looking
20 to 30 years less in age. People are living longer due to healthful living as we discover the vitamin and
nutrient levels of food.
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Real Life Barbie Valeria Lukyaanova
Bioengineering promises to lift the veil of time as scientists discover how to rejuvenate the body with
new DNA input. Meanwhile, more and more people are choosing to directly manipulate their form through metabolics, genetics, and bio-chemistry. As is said, today, the new 70 is 50, and the new 50 is 30! Controlling the Evolutionary Process
However, it is robotics that promises to really change the landscape of human vitality and to conquer
aging. Raymond Kurzweil points to a technological singularity in which human and robots will become
equals, and to an era afterward when robots actually become more advanced.
At that time, humans must choose whether to go forward and control their own evolutionary progress or
to stay static, remaining “human,” aging and dying naturally.
Moral issues are involved: Postgenderism, in which a person can choose to change his or her sex.
Immortalism, in which a person must decide whether technological means will be used to foster the life
span; and Techogeanism, a process by which emerging technologies can be used to restore and protect the
earth’s environment.
Human Genetics and Cloning
There is the idea that with advances in technology, we will be able someday to clone ourselves a new
body and transfer our human brains into the new organism. Thus, we would achieve immortality. [There is a scripture that warns, there will come a day, when man wishes he could die, immortality on this planet, might not be what it was cracked up to be for the pushers d.c ]
The cloning of animal organisms and the mapping of the human genome leads to incredible progress in
such fields as designer babies. We can decide what our babies will look and be like. We may also choose
to amplify the infant’s brain, to make the child smarter. [ no, the average joe, as society is set up now, WILL NOT have this chance. d.c ]
Some research has been done on criminal behavior and we discover, for example, that there appears to
be a decided difference in the appropriate region of the brains of sociopaths and psychopaths. Could we
not genetically eliminate the possibility of the child being a criminal? Presto! No more Charles Mansons,
Ted Bundys, or Jeffrey Dahmers, not to mention such warped personalities as Stalin, Trotsky, Lenin, and
Marx. [ You would have to start with the parents of those he named, you know, the apple does not fall far from the tree d.c ]
Some biodesigners believe that we should speed up the evolutionary process by fixing human genes so
that the newborn baby will arrive into the world ready with an advanced mind endowed with higher
consciousness. We might be able to engineer the infant to genetically yearn for peace, justice, sharing, and
love. But, whose roadmap to higher consciousness will we use? The Christian, the Moslem, the Jew, all
have different concepts of godliness and righteousness. The atheist and agnostic will object. As the saying
goes, in a blind nation, the one-eyed man is King. Who will be King?
Transhumanism used to be called eugenics, but the idea of creating a Super Race was frowned upon. That
idea still exists, however, and is sometimes proposed. In his bestselling book The Selfish Gene, biologist
Richard Dawkins proposed ways to bring about gentle and generous people. Why should humanity be kept
captive by the selfish gene, he asks, why should we allow evil and selfish people to be born? Instead, we
can intervene genetically to create the perfect human:
“We are built as gene machines…but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on
earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.”
Dawkins wants to turn the Garden of Eden on its axis—no original sin. Just create good genes to
replace the bad genes. Genes are our creators. There is no God. We simply “rebel” against our “selfish
replicators”—that is, the bad, or defective genes.
Edward Cornish, editor of The Futurist magazine and president of the World Future Society, professes
a belief in positive genetic engineering:
“Human nature developed over millions of years when man existed in a savage or barbaric state.
Now that we live in a technological civilization, perhaps we should bring about such modifications
as reducing the sex drive, or making people less aggressive, less lustful, less selfish. We could make
ourselves into saints capable of creating a heaven on earth.”
This is great stuff. No more lust, no more aggression or selfishness, a reduced sex drive. But would we
become less savage or barbaric? Maybe we would be more docile, more passive, and less resistant to
our ruling elite, but is this a good thing? And who would vote to decrease their sex drive? Today,
hundreds of millions pay loads of money for Viagra and Cialis, and for numerous self-help books,
gadgets, and videos to increase the libido and enhance the lust drive. The internet, meanwhile, is awash
with sex and pornography.
Some even want to be more aggressive. They buy books with titles like, Looking Out For Number 1;
How to Be a Real Man; or The Rules. Many desire to be heroic and aspire to leadership.
Geminoid and Model
When someone suggests tampering with the gene pool, millions will instantly holler, “how?” Therein
lies the difficulty. Cornish thinks he has the answer. He says: “We could make ourselves into saints
capable of creating a heaven on earth.” But, whose heaven? And what if an antichrist came along, a false avatar? Could he not manipulate the
human genome to create completely different and opposite types of persons—people who are aggressive,
selfish, savage, and barbaric? Could he not then rule over the saintly, peaceful compliant types? Would he
not create a hell on earth?
The Promise of Immortality Through Robots
The promise of immortality through robotics is the aim of many. Scientists and businessmen are working
together to bring it to pass. In Russia, 32-year old tycoon, Dmitry Itskov, is one such businessman. He
wants to make eternal life possible and has founded a company that will transfer human consciousness in
an artificial form to “avatars” (robotic bodies). [I am only interested in the possible Immortality that the Creator gives us as a gift, not something created by man. d.c ]
“It’s the next space race,” said Itskov to a group of journalists. The Russian has launched the second
annual Global Future 2045 World Congress to help promote the idea. It is an event in which top scientists,
technologists, and entrepreneurs can meet to discuss ways of extending human life. Speakers for the event
in 2013 include such luminaries as Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering for Google.
Itskov envisions a future in which robotic bodies serve as “avatars” for the human’s consciousness
which is downloaded into the robot (a “Master Slave”). Networks will be built, he adds, so that a person,
using telepresence, can operate several robots, or avatars, at once with his brain.
Chapter 4:
The Avatar
“In the coming decades, humanity will face a new kind of enslavement—a scientifically designed
tyranny through which the elite will use robots to subjugate the rest of humanity and eliminate any
pockets of noncooperative resistance.” —Alex Jones, Rise of the Robots—The End of Humanity?
InfoWars—The Magazine (Oct. 2012)
The coming of the Antichrist, a being so knowledgeable, so perfect, so all wise and knowing, may be
close at hand. But he may not be what we have pictured—a man, so perfect in leadership and human talent
he rises above the herd to dominate from the pinnacle of power. What if, indeed, he is an android or a
cyborg, even a robot?
It seems that many religions, from Hinduism to Islam and Christianity, predict the rise of a human so
exceptional he will at first appear to be a Messiah or Christ—an Avatar, if you will. But those who
foolishly mistake this being to be all good, compassionate, kind and wise may just be deceived.
Christianity, for example, in the book of Revelation, paints a shocking picture of a deceiver, one who
comes to bring peace and world harmony, but instead delivers humankind into a terrible period of slavery
and death. Portraying himself an Avatar, this being is actually the Antichrist. Indeed, there are many
“antichrist” figures that will come upon the world, the Bible warns:
“For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”
—2 John 7
The final Antichrist, who will exceed the evil of them all and bring great tribulation, sorrow, and
suffering to humankind, will be a man, and his number is 666. But what kind, or degree, of human? In the
rising age of robotics, as men and woman clamor after human neural and body implants and, eventually,
link themselves together into a “Borg,” a universal network of cloud computers, the Antichrist could turn
out to truly be a terror, a great Terminator type of global ruler.
Revelation 13 speaks of just such a beast, whom all the world marvels after: “and they worshipped the
beast, saying, who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
“And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies…And it was given him to make war with the Saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds,
tongues, and nations.”
The Bible, in Revelation 13, also speaks of a second beast, similar to the first:
“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight
of men.
And he deceiveth them that dwell upon the earth…that they should make an image to the beast…
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both
speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed”
Obviously, this is no ordinary man, and he causes the image of the beast that he has made to both speak
and to put to death those who refuse to worship the beast. As Alex Jones reports in his provocative 2012
article, Rise of the Robots: The End of Humanity:
“The global elite has reached a decision that could spell the end of humanity as we know it in the
decades to come…robots will be used to both replace and eliminate humans as the elite advances
toward his much cherished technological singularity.”
Jones says that,
“The rise of the robots is no longer confined to the realms of science fiction. If the
predictions of those who have already proven themselves accurate in forecasting the future course of
technological development are manifested, a new high tech age is upon us.”
As Bill Joy warns in, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us” (Wired magazine, Aug. 4, 2000), “If our own
extinction is a likely or even possible outcome of our technological development, shouldn’t we proceed
with great caution?”
“This crystallized for me my problem with Kurzweil’s dream of technological singularity,” writes Joy.
“A technological approach to Eternity—near immortality through robotics—may not be the most desirable
Utopia, and its pursuit brings clear dangers.” [ you think? gives new meaning to Christ's warning..." If those days had not been shortened then no flesh would survive " d.c ]
Warnings Go Unheeded
Jones’ and Joy’s dire warnings seem to go unheeded, though, as the roboticists plunge headfirst into the
great robotics era. Every day we read of a fantastic, new technological success—a robotic “Cheetah” that
can outrun slow humans, a beautiful talking, walking woman that can lure even the most masculine of men;
and a medical robot that can listen carefully to a human describe his ailment or symptoms, and prescribe
the right drugs, medicine, or advice.
In the scientific literature and in the books of the robotics and bionics specialists, we discover amazing
estimates of even greater achievements.
In the next couple of decades, some say, a man will be able to have a biological neural nanorobot
implanted in his brain to give him super-intelligence. Others speak of fantastic military and war robots so
devastatingly competent that no human body can possibly withstand their assault, and so many drones
overhead that each one of us feels that our privacy will be nil.
The Coming Avatar and Psychopathy
But what manner of man or machine will the coming Avatar be? Will he truly understand human beings,
have empathy for our losses and suffering, and render compassion? Or will he feign such characteristics?
Will he instead, be a cold and calculating psychopath?
Psychiatrists say that the psychopath is like a wholly different species. He has no regard for human life,
no feelings, no empathy. To him, misery is just a word. He looks down on the weak, ridicules the ordinary
person, and believes himself—right or wrong—to be of a superior mold.
There is much we know about the human brain, how it works and the thinking process. Ray Kurzweil’s
newest book, How to Create A Human Brain, says we will have to “reverse engineer” the human brain,
seeking to discover all its many facets, before we can have true artificial intelligence in a robot. That
step, he assures readers, is less than two or three decades straight ahead.
But what if the scientists’ neural road-map misses a connection, one vital to effective human
compassion and kindness? What if we are able to manufacture artificial intelligence of great and vast
intellect, but lacking in capacity for human empathy and understanding? What if man creates PsychoBrain and doesn’t diagnose what’s missing until it is too late? What then?
Not everyone is worried about this potential problem. Raymond Kurzweil, a transhumanist who
welcomes the new technologies, in a 2008 interview with Britain’s BBC Television, gave a glowing
report of the future: “We’ll have intelligent nanorobots go into our brains through the capillaries and
interact directly with our (brain’s) biological neurons.” These nanorobots would, says Kurzweil, “make
us smarter, remember things better, and automatically go into full emergent virtual reality environments
through the nervous system.”
Used For Horrible Advantage
Some however, warn that these scientific advances will be—perhaps are being—used for horrible
advantage by the elite of this world who intend to maintain rule over humanity. Paul McGuire, a Christian,
writes in newswithviews.com:
“The Luciferian elite believe they are gods. They believe that they can live eternally through
transhumanism and the downloading of human consciousness into new (robotic) bodies. They
believe they can create a new scientific salvation with nanotech, artificial intelligence, androids, and
transhumanism. Their New World Order is a counterfeit of the Kingdom of God…they intend to
reduce the population of planet earth from seven billion to five-hundred million, and they are doing
that now.” [ " no weapon formed against me shall prosper d.c" ]
McGuire pictures a coming cataclysm on planet Earth in which we will enter an “Armageddon
conflict.” At this final showdown, says McGuire, “There will be a cosmic military convergence between
the armies of heaven, the armies of the earth, and the armies from the abyss.”
In this great, final battle we will see clashing human beings, angels, demons, androids, and
transhumanist soldiers.
This savage image of the future would, no doubt, surprise and revolt Kurzweil and other roboticists,
who see their technological prowess as being used in a much more benign way, more favorable to
humanity.
Still, a dystopian “Utopia” could come about very easily. Human clones, human-animal humerics (or
bioroids), and life-like robots that end up abused or mistreated are found in such films as Dick’s Blade
Runner and Huxley’s Brave New World.
Our Final Hour?
British Astronomer Lord Martin Rees is one who argues that advanced science and technology must be
carefully watched and monitored. In his 2003 book, Our Final Hour, he sent forth a dire warning. More
recently, Lord Rees, Cambridge philosopher Huw Price, and Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn launched a
center for terminator studies where top students will study threats posed to humanity by robots and
through transhumanism.
The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, housed at Cambridge University, will probe four great
threats to the human species, given as artificial intelligence, climate change, nuclear war, and rogue
biotechnology.
Professor Price noted, “We have machines that have trumped human performance in chess, flying,
driving, financial trading, and face, speech, and handwriting recognition. The concern is that by creating
artificially intelligent machines we risk yielding control over the planet to intelligences that are simply
indifferent to us and to things we consider valuable.”
Spiritual Implications
The more atheistic and secularist of transhumanists laugh at the dystopian notions of people like Jones,
McGuire, and Rees. They have what is called a “contempt for the flesh” and especially espouse
immortality through advanced science. Many believe that spiritual experiences are the result of neural
abnormalities. Some tout the experience of spirituality through the use of mind-altering drugs and
electronic means.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the late Jesuit priest and New Ager, predicted that humanity will, through
an evolutionary telos, develop an all encompassing noosphere, a system of global consciousness. In this
noosphere, man’s bodies would evaporate and only mind would exist.
Big Brother Tools Are Here
The potential Avatar, when he arrives, will find that a ready set of Big Brother tools are already available
for his Police State. For example, consider “Dream Machines,” once a popular topic of science fiction
writers, but today such machines—attached to the human brain with electrodes or possibly implanted on a
microchip—are on the threshold of becoming reality.
In What Sort of People Should There Be? British scientist Jonathan Glover discusses the frightening
implications of such machines. He remarks that a dream machine could be developed that will stimulate
the brain so that a person has a sequence of enjoyable experiences. These pleasurable images would seem so real they would be indistinguishable from the equivalent real-life experiences.
Glover suggests that for some people, the dream machine would be an opiate, providing experiences so
pleasurable that individuals would actually prefer remaining hooked to the machine to the experiencing of
real life, with all its tragedies and disappointments.
The very thought of this revolts most of us, but Glover also describes the ultimate horror: the
compulsory plugging of a person’s brain into a “nightmare” machine:
“Consider a machine… called the Horror Machine. It starts by banging your head against a wall, so
that you have an intense desire for this to stop… Next, it plunges you under water, giving you an
intense desire to surface before you drown…”
The thought of being threatened with a lifetime on such a machine would induce sheer terror in a
person’s mind. Never in human history have tyrants and madmen had such tools—tools which they can use
to terrorize an individual or an entire population.
Future technological advances will surely provide such mind control tools. G. Harry Stine, in Silicon
Gods, predicts that, very soon, intelligence amplifiers—tiny microchip devices either implanted in
humans or capable of being temporarily connected to the human brain and sensory channels—will
actually allow others to “get inside a person’s head.” With such devices, we will possess the astonishing
ability to hear the thoughts of others.
One shudders to think of the power this capability might give corrupt leaders or thugs bent on
controlling the mind-thoughts of individuals. Stine, an optimist who believes that man will not allow the
abuse of these capabilities, nevertheless warns: [ clearly Stine has not been paying attention, I mean how could he, when he is wrapped up in his futuristic work d.c ]
It also contains the seeds of unimaginable evil: the actual control of human minds by other humans.
Not brain-washing. Not propaganda. Not any of the ancient and well-proven means of mentally or
physically imposing one person’s will by police action or torture. But the actual control of the human
mind.
The Goal of the Corrupt Avatar: To Control
The seeds of unimaginable evil are, indeed, everywhere lurking in the fields of robotics and bionics.
Whatever technology can invent, the government can use to control and either pacify or induce fear and
terror in the masses.
An eye-opening article in Science News reported that, “New electronic techniques are being developed
to eavesdrop on the brain.” According to the article, “The techniques, under study at the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor, and elsewhere, will allow outsiders to direct a person’s brain cell conversations
and talk directly to the individual’s brain neurons. Current research involves the implant of neural chips in
the brain.”
Your thoughts are no longer your own, and you will think the way your outside director wishes. That,
dear friends, is control.
Commenting on research being conducted to implant neural biochips into human beings, Pat Cooper, a
reporter for Defense News, in an article entitled “Naval Research Lab Attempts to Meld Neurons and
Chips,” quoted Steve Aftergood, a senior analyst for the Federation of American Scientists, who stated
“For all the desirable applications, Smart biochips may have horrific applications.” [ Aftergood? what a creepy name d.c ]
William Tolles, former associate director of the Naval Research Laboratory, warns, “Once this
technology is perfected, you could control a living species.”
Control a living species? Would that, Mr. Tolles, be a robot species, or…a human species?
To the controllers, and to the Avatar who is soon expected, will there be a real difference?
next- 65s
Social Relationships and Robots to Come
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