World towards human singularity

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WORLD TOWARDS HUMAN SINGULARITY
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present the great revolution represented by the human singularity that
may occur in the future. What is Singularity? It is the characteristic of what is unique:
infrequent, out of the ordinary or extraordinary. Singularity is a term that refers to
something or someone who has a unique characteristic. The idea of uniqueness can be
used to present physical characteristics and behaviors of human beings that are
distinguished from what is considered standard. Human singularity refers to the use of
science and technology to create a new category of more evolved human beings. Human
uniqueness means making human beings defy the limits imposed by nature. This is the
idea of transhumanism, a theory that believes that the use of science and technology can
help to create a new category of evolved human beings even with the conquest of
immortality. In the same way that technological singularity can arise with artificial
superintelligence, so can human singularity with the formation of supermen.
Human uniqueness is achieved with transhumanism, which is a philosophy that aims to
improve the human condition through the use of science and technology (biotechnology,
nanotechnology and neurotechnology) to increase cognitive capacity and overcome
physical and psychological limitations of human beings. Transhumanism is an intellectual
movement that aims to transform the human condition through the development of widely
available technologies to considerably increase human intellectual, physical and
psychological capacities. What drives transhumanist philosophy is the eradication of any
form of suffering caused by disease, aging or even death. The objective is to reach the
maximum potential in terms of human development. The most common thesis is that
human beings are able to transform themselves into different beings with abilities so
greatly expanded from the natural condition, in order to deserve the post-human label,
leaving biological evolution in the background.
While classical humanism believes in education and culture as transformers of the human
being, transhumanism considers that this is not enough. Human evolution has to rely on
science and technology. This means that science and technology should intervene to take
control of human evolution itself and make evolution directed and planned. This
evolution would be not only biological, but also technological. With the genetic
manipulation of the human species, it would be possible to create new genes in the
laboratory that would modify the genetic code to be able to block the replication of
viruses, making our cells immune to attacks. This would be the way to protect human
beings from future pandemics. The modification of the human genome would gradually
increase until finally transforming the human being into a new biological species. And
computer-related artificial intelligence would play a big role in that, transferring the
contents of our mind (with memories of the past and traits of our personality) to a hard
disk, a method known as mind uploading.
The idea of altering or increasing the capacity of the human body through technology is
as old as humanity itself. From the moment that humans created tools and learned to use
fire, humanity has overcome its biological limitations. Evolution has given humanity
more sophisticated intelligence than any animal on the planet and humans have used that
intelligence to overcome their biological deficits. Transhumanism talks about using this
dynamic to not only impact the world around us, but to increase or even replace our
biology with technology. While mankind corrected poor vision with corrective lenses,
straightened a person's teeth with braces, or countless other examples of human beings

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altering bodies or senses through technology, the transhumanist wants to replace the eye
entirely or make mental transfers.
A transhuman, then, is someone who has taken this step and updated his body in a way
that not only overcome a deficient part to behave as commonly expected, but replaces
something that works perfectly well to do something more than is biologically possible.
Transhumanism is possible because of something known as neuroplasticity, this is, the
ability of neurons in our brain to make new connections and reconfigure their network in
response to new stimuli, information, trauma or dysfunction. Examples include learning
new skills, remembering information, people or events, making complex movements with
our bodies without consciously thinking about it, and taking on the cacophony of stimuli
around us and making sense of it all.
In many ways, our senses are interchangeable. The key is to understand what vision or
hearing, or touch, or smell, or any other sense is really like, and to convert external stimuli
into electrical signals that the brain processes in our sensory perception of the world
around us. Since the electrical signals that pass through our nervous system are not
different from each other, they differ only in the way the brain processes them, this leaves
the door open for our existing sensors to be reused through technology. If the eye is
essentially a video camera for our brain, why not change the camera? Thanks to
neuroplasticity, the brain may not know what to do with the different signals at first, but
it will find a way to interpret them.
It is no surprise that armies around the world are eager to lead the way to the new frontier
of transhumanism. Generals and war leaders have always sought ways to give their army
an advantage over an opponent. The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) reported that humans were the weakest link in defense systems. Some
examples of DARPA research on transhumanist technologies include allowing humans
to convert plant material into glucose, detecting threats through optical implants, and even
a way for humans to cling to the surface of a flat wall like lizards do.
As computer technologies advance alongside biotechnology, there is an increasing
convergence between the two in the form of neural interfaces that in the future may open
the door to link the human mind directly to Artificial Intelligence, in order to facilitate
greater learning, transfer mental health and overcome neurological conditions. How to
make the human being significantly improve in a matter of decades, or even a few years?
The answer is transhumanism, a movement determined to use revolutionary technologies
to transform humanity into something superior. It is important to take into account that
transhumanism would have consequences that would influence all areas of knowledge. It
is not just science that should think about it. We need to have an ethical and philosophical
approach to deal with this possibility. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits
and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human
limitations, as well as the ethics of using such technologies.
Some authors believe that humanity would already be transhuman, because the progress
of medicine in recent centuries has significantly altered the human species. However, it
did not take place consciously and, therefore, transhumanist. The year 1990 is seen as a
"fundamental change" in human existence by the transhuman community, with the first
study of gene therapy, projected babies, as well as the mind-expanding World Wide Web,
all appearing that year. In many ways, it can be argued that the conditions that eventually
lead to human Singularity were established by these events in 1990.

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A common feature of transhumanism and philosophical post-humanism is the future
vision of a new intelligent species, in which humanity will evolve and eventually
complement or replace. Transhumanism underlines the evolutionary perspective,
sometimes including the creation of a highly intelligent animal species through cognitive
improvement (ie, biological elevation), but clings to a "post-human future" as the ultimate
goal of evolution. The human being has to evolve not only to survive the internal threats
existing on planet Earth, the threats coming from space and the need to make space travel
in search of their survival as a species in the Universe in which we live. The search for
human singularity with transhumanism associated with technological singularity with
artificial superintelligence are the resources that would enable humanity to achieve these
goals.
The internal threats to planet Earth that threaten the survival of humanity concern
pandemics such as the current deadly Coronavirus pandemic and others that may arise in
the future and earthquakes, as well as the catastrophic climate change that may occur from
the middle of the 21st century that they demand scientific and technological advances to
overcome them, but also scientific and technological advances (biotechnology,
nanotechnology and neurotechnology) to increase the cognitive capacity and overcome
physical and psychological limitations of human beings based on transhumanism.
The future threats to the survival of humanity represented by the distancing of the Moon
in relation to Earth, the collision of asteroids on the planet Earth, the explosion of
supernovae with the release of gamma radiation and X-rays, the collision of the
Andromeda Galaxy with the Milky Way Galaxy where the solar system is located, the
death of the Sun and the end of the Universe in which we live require scientific and
technological advances that enable space travel and the capacity for human beings to
survive them based on transhumanism. The human singularity that would exist with
human beings challenging the limits imposed by nature is absolutely necessary to ensure
their survival as a species today and in the future. Immediate and future threats will not
be successfully addressed without the advancement of science and technology that is the
passport to humanity's survival.
There has long been a human obsession with overcoming death. In the past, man sought
to overcome death through religions. In the contemporary era, people came to believe that
it would be possible to overcome death with the use of science and technology. The belief
that, if it is not possible to overcome death, but that it would be possible to prolong life,
is based on the fact that man's life expectancy evolved from 30 years in 1500, 37 years in
1800, 45 years in 1900, 46.5 years in 1950 and 80 years in 2012. The conquest of a longer
existence in the 20th century resulted from the improvement of sanitary conditions in
cities and the creation of public health services. In addition, science has discovered
vaccines and antibiotics that have made it possible to prevent disease and control
epidemics. The increase in the level of education and income also contributed to
improving the quality of life and further extending longevity in the third or - perhaps we
can say - the fourth age.
The year 2045 will mark the beginning of an era in which medicine can offer humanity
the possibility of living for a time never before seen in history. Organs that are not
working can be exchanged for better ones created especially for us. Parts of the heart,
lung and even the brain can be replaced. Tiny computer circuits will be implanted in the
body to control chemical reactions that take place inside cells. We will be just steps away
from immortality. This is the forecast of a group of scientists known to occupy the

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forefront of research that permeates topics such as computer science, biology and
biotechnology. Among them are George Church, a professor at Harvard University in the
United States, Aubrey de Gray gerontologist and biomedical specialist in anti-aging and
engineer Raymond Kurzweil, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
They are the leaders of a kind of new philosophy, called Singularity.
According to the inventor and futurist Raymond Kurzweil, the “father” of the so-called
concept of Singularity, we headed towards the difficulty of distinguishing between what
is organic and what is machine in the future. Artificial intelligence will evolve so much
that in 2025 it will be difficult to recognize a human beeing of a robot. It should be noted
that singularity marks a transition point between two «domains», or two «worlds», at a
point or an instant. In astronomy, singularity means a place in space (black hole) where a
body does not age because time stops. In medicine, the heralds of immortality claim that
it is nothing more than a real consequence of an ongoing revolution that is already
triggering an increase in unprecedented speed in increasing human life expectancy.
Considering the speed of innovation, a person born in 2050 will have a 95% chance of
living a thousand years, according to Aubrey de Gray. At the moment, the aforementioned
group of scientists is involved in the growth of the University of Singularity, already
installed in Silicon Valley, in the United States. Making an analogy with single-celled
bacteria that have lived for millions of years without aging, members of the University of
the Singularity say that our germ cells, like eggs and sperm, can also live indefinitely
which they claim to believe in the greatest prolongation of human life.
The certainty of this group of researchers in the success of their research is based on the
advances already achieved and those that are sure to come. In the opinion of these
researchers, based on the resources we currently have, a child born today will be able to
live at least until the age of 150. One of the fields in which advances have been most
notable is that of stem cells. In the field of cardiology, experiments with 16 patients with
heart failure, all of them had part of the heart tissue regenerated with stem cells taken
from the organ itself. The replacement of diseased organs by healthy ones is another
reason cited by scientists to justify the belief in a spectacularly long life. Trachea, bladder,
urethra and blood vessels have already been created and implanted in humans. And there
are experiences of implanting more organs, including the heart and liver.
One of the most important factors associated with a man's lifetime is his genetics. Your
DNA indicates what your average life will be and can also bring about changes that
predispose you to diseases. For this reason, a large part of the efforts are concentrated on
inventing resources that interfere with each person's genetic material. Avoiding the
possible damage that food can cause to DNA is also a support point for science that seeks
immortality. According to the main representative of the Singularity, the engineer
Raymond Kurzweil, a calorie restricted diet, with only the necessary nutrients for life,
can lead us to live much longer. These are just examples of the instruments currently
available to push the human race beyond the limits of longevity.
Another researcher dedicated to the study of human longevity is Lawrence Alexander, a
surgeon, urologist and neurogeneticist who announced that the sequencing of the genome
will allow us to arrive at personalized medicine, guided by our genetic characteristics that,
through modeling carried out with increasingly powerful computers, we can understand
the human body. According to Lawrence Alexander, progress will develop in three waves.
First, with medical electronics that can now, through brain implants, treat Parkinson's

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disease, treat depression and Alzheimer's disease. Then comes the wave of bioengineering
and, finally, nanomedicine, medicine on a microscopic scale. From 2020, we can expect
decades of extra life. According to Lawrence Alexander, it is possible to reach a life
expectancy that we cannot imagine today.
English biogerontologist Aubrey de Gray linked to the University of the Singularity is
convinced that aging is a biological process that can be perfectly controlled, in the same
way that science has already managed to fight many diseases that were once considered
incurable. De Gray, who has a degree in computer science, but has become one of the
world's leading theorists on human longevity compared the human body to a car. With
periodic and adequate maintenance - fix a defect here, put a lubricant there, replace an
old part there - you can significantly increase the life of a car. Although the human body
is much more complex than a car, De Gray believes that it is possible to do the same,
regularly combating the processes that lead to the aging and death of cells.
It is difficult to find in the scientific community anyone who agrees with De Grey's
stunning predictions. The prevailing opinion is that, despite all the technology, there
should be no significant advances in human longevity in the near future. On the subject,
scientists gathered in a panel promoted a few years ago by Scientific American magazine
gave no reason for much optimism: considering all the impending achievements, such as
gene therapy and the possibility of replacing almost all natural organs, and even
hibernation life expectancy on the planet will reach 140 years at most in 2500.
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* Fernando Alcoforado, 80, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System,
member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional
Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of
strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the

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books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem
Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os
condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro
para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).

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