A few weeks ago, at the 2015 Barcelona Mobile World Congress, the development of "wearables" -technology that one wears- were on display. They might not have received the same attention had Apple not announced the launching of its smart watch, the iWatch, a few days after the congress.

While last year some 33 million wearable devices of various kinds were sold, according to Business Insider, they have not yet reached the general public. Their excessive size, price, and lack of functionality have slowed sales. However, Apple is willing to fix those bumps in the road. With a sleek design and perfect compatibility between all Apple brand devices, the Apple Watch (a.k.a. the iWatch) promises to be an irreplaceable companion.

Monitoring our vital signs

These inventions are also presented as an aid to improve consumers' health. Smart watches not only serve to call, check email or answer WhatsApp messages, they can also measure heart and pulmonary rates (which smart bracelets already did) and send the data directly to an assigned medical provider at any location. The ability to predict disease or accidents is touted as advantageous to many patients.

In fact, some incorporation of technology into our bodies is now the order of the day: pacemakers, insulin pumps and implants of all types allow many people to lead normal lives. Especially significant is the contribution of technology to the fields of pharmaceutical technology and neuroscience. The study of the brain is making strides and, within a few years, the completion of a map of the complex neural system (Human Connectome Project) is expected. At Google X, Google's technology lab, they are investigating nanoparticles introduced in the bloodstream that are able to detect mutations associated with different diseases and cancers.

But regardless of whether it is good to be constantly aware of our vital signs or the potential commercialization of this data, there is a more fundamental issue. Some voices, such as the writer Lev Grossman, have called wearables the technological Trojan horse since, although they apparently only involves a small harmless technological accessory, by incorporating them, we are accepting the beginning of a world destined to merge with our skin.

Without becoming technophobic, one must be aware of the fact that neither Apple nor Google are Doctors Without Borders and that the incorporation of mass technology is not a neutral thing. Questions immediately come up, like who will have access to this data: doctors, pharmaceutical companies, our bosses? On the other hand, we must not forget that not every part of society has access to these "advances," which may continue to increasing future social inequalities.

Devices for getting dressed

The incorporation of technology in our lives is changing many of our daily habits: from interpersonal communication, reading and studying to labor relations and internet purchases.

Now, the development of wearables -technology that one wears- tries to go one step further, gradually bringing technology to our body. In this regard, a wide variety of "smart" systems have already been announced or are on the market. These systems are meant to carry out a variety of functions: from glasses that allow us to access information to the rings that control home devices or can make a purchase with a simple gesture. The iWatch would be a step in this direction.

The basic idea that fascinates so many people is the improvement of human beings through technology. The next step, which transhumanism advocates, is that technological improvements will lead to a new leap forward for mankind.  

A post-human being

Transhumanism is a scientific-theoretical movement that upholds the possibility and moral obligation to technologically improve mankind's physical, intellectual and psychic abilities. In this sense, its goal is to reach a transhuman species, with greater physical, mental and intellectual capacities and subsequently a post-human one, a being who would no longer be human, but rather would be superior to humans, just as we left behind the Neanderthals.

Of course, this leap will be carried out through the application of new technologies and eugenics in order to eliminate all the undesirable aspects of the human condition, such as sickness, suffering, aging, and death (1). For transhumanism enthusiasts, technology can improve our "flaws" and delay our expiration date.

Research on extending life is receiving more money than ever. Google Ventures, a company that was born in 2009 as a venture branch of Google, will invest $425 million in small companies that conduct research on this topic this year alone.

Along with this company, we find Singularity University, jointly funded by Google and NASA (See: Aceprensa, 30-06-2010). Singularity refers to a qualitative leap in human beings that will eliminate our limitations of time and space, just as transhumanists argue. For them, the human species is the beginning, rather than the end, of evolution, as set forth in the Transhumanist Declaration.

However, despite the fact that this current is presented as a laudable commitment to the improvement of mankind, the vision it offers of human beings is purely material, which is why they cite perfection as represented by physical or intellectual increments and improvements. At the same time, differences between androids (humanoid robots) and cyborgs (humans with technological improvements— and many people already come into this category) refer to what they can do, not what they are to begin with.

Murillo and Bellver, among other authors, have highlighted transhumanism's lack of ethical limits, its materialistic vision and other problems inherit to it in the latest issue of the journal Cuadernos de Bioética (2).

Although the word transhumanist is not directly mentioned, the discourse of thinkers within this trend is becoming more frequent. The myth of the elixir of eternal youth has always existed in one way or another, but it was always seen as a defiance of nature, not as an improvement of it.

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Notes

(1) Bostrom, N., "A History of Transhumanist Thought," Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 14, April. 2005.

(2) Especially José Ignacio Murillo's article, "¿Necesita el posthumanismo la ética? La Normatividad de una Naturaleza abierta"– and Vicente Bellver Capella's article, "Ethics and policies in the face of research into extending human life", Cuadernos de Bioética, vol. XXV, Sep.-Dec. 2014.

See the original article published in Aceprensa (in Spanish)

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