"A fanatical technological suppression of the self"

21 November 2017 Blog, Transhumanism An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

Seventh in the PE Series, Reviewing Chapter Six

Transhumanism Enters Popular Culture by Frederick Meekins describes how societal goals for adopting technologies are influenced by the Arts — in the form of comics, movies and TV shows. I recall the time when our culture was shaped by the Arts such as beautiful oil paintings, classical music, literary gems, and by the Bible as it was upheld and interpreted in all of these. Alas.

Meekins points out that if you are a Star Trek fan then you can understand the complexities of Transhumanism, even with its jargon packed with words like cybernetics, panspermia, nanotechnology and etc. He goes into some detail about "the Borg," aliens who "represent the totalitarian strain of Transhumanism… (p 217)

"Borg" is derived from the word "cyborg," which has come to categorize an entity whose physical components are as much robotic and mechanical as they are biological and organic. However, the greatest atrocity committed by the Borg is not so much that they impose these cybernetic enhancements against the will of those forced to undergo these procedures, it is that the Borg obliterate, or at least sublimate, the sense of individuality altogether. Through the systems of censors and processors placed within the bodies of those taken in by or assimilated by the Borg, the individual is incorporated into the Borg group consciousness known as the "collective."…

This communal solidarity is achieved through a fanatic technological suppression of the self… By minimizing the distinctiveness of each individual within the context of the larger group, even if one claims to be elevating the status of everyone by ensuring that each voice plays a part in determining the overall consensus, this notion of the ultimate communal entity having the only real value minimizes the worth of any of its singular components to the point of fostering a mentality of easy bio-disposability.

When a Borg falls in battle, the body is not respectfully retrieved, even when comrades are nearby. Rather, data components are extracted from the corpse with the remains at best reclaimed for what it can "give back to the community."...

As with other faiths and creeds, transhumanism can be viewed as having a number of denominations. Those bending their knees to the Borg as the patron saint of the Church of Our Beloved Central Processor believe that merging man and metal …ought to be the path pursued to take the species to the level beyond the merely human. The second path… [would be] by directly tinkering with the genetic blueprint already there to advance the capabilities of individuals to levels beyond baseline humans. This would be accomplished in part by adding genes from other species into the code for human beings. (p 219)

Will there come a point where the church will "have to grapple with just how much of the genetic code can be tampered with before it is no longer human?" (p 225) These and other not unlikely scenarios are considered in Meekins' PE essay.

This chapter was so insightful that I went on to read and enjoy one of his ebooks on Smashwords.com, and I enjoy receiving his e-news, sent nearly daily from epistolizer.blogspot.com.

To summarize and end his article, he quoted Genesis 11:6, And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Beware: popular culture is the wave.

Dr. J. Michael Bennett weighs in

27 October 2017 Blog, Transhumanism An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

Third in a Series, Reviewing Chapter Two of Pandemonium's Engine

The second essay of Pandemonium's Engine, Nimrod: The First (and Future) Transhuman "Super Soldier," by J. Michael Bennett, PhD, was an odyssey in reading. At 60 pages, it is PE's second longest chapter, and it nearly bowled me over.

Will the Beast of The Revelation be the first "posthuman?" What a funny question. Becoming familiar with HER jargon is disorienting. As I read Dr. Bennett's insights, I felt my head growing from its usual size, sitting on my shoulders, to enlarging to fill a cavernous, musty chapel, stale with the mildew of ancient liturgies; till finally I felt myself inside an immense and empty castle that held too many secrets and whispers. Haunted, it could not be inhabited. But as I left, I felt some wonder and dread over the ways of evil that are normally invisible, yet so gigantic and targeted in their mission —to destroy us!

Dr. Bennett's has been a leader in a government aerospace laboratory and a small business owner. He has been called "Dr. Future" and I enjoyed listening to an interview with him on BlogTalkRadio.

Dr. Bennett is a conservative Christian who advises extreme caution in exploring the realm of the "sciences" relating to the Transhuman movement. You may enjoy visiting his website, https://www.futurequake.com. There you will find a link to a speech he made to a United Nations IIIHS Conference on the Coming Collision of Heaven and Earth. If you take time to listen to this presentation, you will gain respect for Dr. Bennett as a Bible-believing Christian who has fearlessly researched where most dare not tread. Never study the occult if you are not ensconced in the power of the blood of Jesus.

On the web, I found this further background:

He received his Ph.D in engineering in 2003... He served as a leader in a military lab for sixteen years, developing protection technologies and other weird science contraptions. Since 2003, he has operated his own company, which combines technology development and consulting for military, governmental and commercial organizations, with his own in-house development of novel protection technologies. These technologies, invented and patented by Dr. Future, have been a major success in the marketplace, currently protecting police cars, race cars and military vehicles, and soon to include commercial buildings.

His chapter covers many facts that are relatively unknown to the general populace such as Hitler's close occult ties and overarching goals, Nimrod's (the Nimrod of Genesis 10) history in myth and literature, Masonic rituals and much more.

Bennett states that the book of Enoch describes the work of demons in creating the Nephilim and animal-human hybrids in an effort to destroy the ‘seed of the woman.’ Will we gain important insights by reading such works found in the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Our Canon does not include the book of Enoch except by reference in Jude: And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jude 1:14, 15)

I see a stage set for a battle that will fulfill every prophetic word even as it shatters believing hearts that failed to prepare for the worst. Our journey to fathom transhumanism must pass through wells without water (2 Peter:17) and many disturbances, but we can return and rest in the Atonement and find strength in Jesus’ words: All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. (Mat 28:18).

Angel fish
Public Domain, Link

...and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ... the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind ...the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. -Genesis 1

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