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Rapidly evolving technology is radically transforming our everyday lives. The relationship between science, technology and human beings is addressed by an intellectual movement called transhumanism. Its experts discussed the benefits and dangers of the ever-closer relationship between technology and humans at MODEM on Friday.
How does the development of technology affect people’s lives? What can be born from the increasingly close interaction between humans and machines? Transhumanism is an intellectual trend that seeks answers to such burning questions affecting the future of humanity. “It does not see technological reality in a utopian, pink haze but also tries to deal with how we can practically survive in the 21st century defined by the ecological crisis, which we can increasingly experience here in Hungary in hot summers and flash floods; how to survive through the use of technology,” aesthete, philosopher and researcher, co-founder of Absentology and Poli-P, Márk Horváth said.
Transhumanism, for example, also explores whether human capabilities can be expanded with the achievements of technology.
The conference also discussed how technology could overcome human biological and genetic limitations. This trend promises to create a new, transformed human condition. However, according to experts, this also raises numerous ethical and social problems, so discussing the dangers and risks is essential. “A brutal social problem is emerging. The rich, who can pay, will have a greater advantage over the poor, and those who cannot do so will not live long, while the rich will live long. Such plans already exist,” philosopher, aesthete, writer, habilitated university lecturer, professor at Széchenyi István University, Zsolt Pálfalusi emphasised.
In 2021, the Méliusz Library, MODEM and the city of Debrecen have jointly decided to initiate a discourse on large-scale technological and civilisational changes. This is particularly relevant in the “cívis” city, as we live in a dynamically changing development that brings the presence of the most modern technologies,” as Deputy Mayor István Puskás mentioned at the conference. “To understand what is happening in our city, in our world, it is a significant added value to talk about it with experts on a given topic at conferences from time to time, exchange information and knowledge,” he underlined.
The event entitled “Human 2.0., The Aesthetics of Transhumanism” is the first domestic, Hungarian-language conference on transhumanism, which the Méliusz Library, MODEM, Techno Lab Debrecen and the Society of Library and Information Science jointly organised.
Source:debrecen.hu | Photo credit:dehir.hu
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