The Organic Transhuman

The common transhumanist looks towards the near post-human; the being that could result from unilateral improvement in all categories, as the definitive example of what a transhuman is: someone who is beyond the human threshold in all categories. Now, as anyone who is familiar with the Flynn Effect -- that IQ scores rise over time -- can tell you, where intelligence is concerned that standard is a sliding goal at best.

With this thought in mind, the goal of "early transhumanism" -- acheiving a state where a person may be made to only "slightly" exceed the range of what is normally possible (for them, at least) -- is actually acheivable right now, today; with only a modicum of what amounts to engineering work to work out a few kinks.

And it won't even require any permanent modifications to the human body. As it turns out, it is possible to induce savantism using transcranial magnetic stimulation:

The Medtronic was originally developed as a tool for brain surgery: by stimulating or slowing down specific regions of the brain, it allowed doctors to monitor the effects of surgery in real time. But it also produced, they noted, strange and unexpected effects on patients' mental functions: one minute they would lose the ability to speak, another minute they would speak easily but would make odd linguistic errors and so on. A number of researchers started to look into the possibilities, but one in particular intrigued Snyder: that people undergoing transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, could suddenly exhibit savant intelligence -- those isolated pockets of geniuslike mental ability that most often appear in autistic people.

(More on this here). If this were to be something that could be directed or controlled, the implications for the learning process are, to be frank, phenomenal. What this indicates, furthermore, is that this nootropic effect may -- or may not -- be something that we as individuals could be trained to induce upon ourselves. As has been utilized by groups such as Biofeedback Consultants, Inc., neurofeedback techniques -- where the neural patterns of the brain are 'read' and displayed for the person reading them, so that they can intimately know their "neural state" -- have been used extremely successfully to remediate many learning disabilities for younger children, and to strongly mitigate the impact of stress-related disorders in adults as well as the same learning benefit: "BCI", for example, refers to this as "Computer Assisted Learning": and they indicate that it could cost as little as $2,000 dollars per year. When compared to the $25,000-$30,000 unique cost per student for standard special education, the benefits here are quantitatively enourmous -- and could be applied for everyday, average Joes. Now, again -- recall; this requires no drugs, no special implants, nothing of the sort: in effect, this is an "organic transhuman effect." (It must be acknowledged at this point that the more able your "baseline state", the less impact this has overall -- but it is still beneficial; call it the difference between a 20% increase and a 5% increase. There's still increase.) Neurofeedback has even been demonstrated to produce the neurological states associated with today's known nootropics:

The low voltage slow type is reported in dementias as an early EEG change. This seems to respond to high alpha training from 10 or 11 to 14 Hz. This is the same EEG effect as nootropic medications (smart drugs) will provide.

What this implies is that it is literally possible to teach yourself to be smarter. When taken in tandem, however, with the potential benefits of the TMS effect -- which lingers for a short while after having been so exposed, but not indefinitely -- the potential for cognitive "improvement" is dramatic -- without the need for expensive habitual pill-popping nor for drastic surgical procedures. For the increase of, say, 2-4 thousand dollars per student, per year (that's less than 10% increased spending, which could be shaved off of the special education department requirements alone) it could be possible to radically transform the modern educational system so that rather than producing "adequacy", it produces "excellence." Imagine for a second that the average twelve-year-old could easily understand multi-differential calculus -- and learn it in such a manner that the memory stays with him well into adulthood. Is this not, in and of itself, nothing short of the onset of a better-than-human era?

Given the fact -- and it is fact -- that modern technology has already produced cybernetic arms and legs (what else would you call a robotic prosthetic arm that responds to neural input and relays sensation to the nervous system?), is there any question that we have already entered the "transhuman age"? The occasional indulgence in starry-eyed optimism is a good reminder of where we all want this ball of wax to go, as it were; that life is improving, and things are getting better: so -- indulge.

And -- as a response to the bio-Luddites of the world, the "Egalitarianism at Gunpoint" mentality crowd, for whom no improvement is fair unless everyone share it equally -- consider the following: so what if only the richest 10% of the population gain the benefit of such technologies for their children: that still turns close to 10% of the population into genius-level minds. Compare this to today's less than .5%, and then ask yourself: when was the last time a genius's works -- a sane genius, mind you -- failed to produce a better life for the least fortunate in life? Such as, say, finding a way to make this sort of thing cheap enough that anyone who wanted it could have it?

Read More:
-- Hybrid Sheep -- Twice the Slumberland Mileage per Gallon!
-- Egalitarianism At Gunpoint? A Guaranteed Abundance
-- The Singularity Is Here -- But Will We Notice?
-- What Limits, Enhancement? Creatine, Peg Legs, And You
-- The Tyranny of Compassion

EDIT: As it seems that some of the folks at RichardDawkins.net have developed an interest in this post, I offer up the following:
-- "There Are No Atheists In Foxholes": Pat Tillman & The Secular God
-- Follow-Up: One Morality Fits All?
-- What Would Society Be Without Religion?
-- The Dangers of Non-Secular Morality
I'm essentially amateur, I know -- but maybe they'll pique your curiosity.