POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND RISKS OF TRANSHUMANISM THROUGH THE MOVIES I, ROBOT AND BLADE RUNNER

Abstract

At all times, people wanted to make progress, improve all areas of their lives, and to find a solution that could solve most of the difficulties that people are facing every day. The presented thesis gives a critical assessment of the main idea of the theory of transhumanism, specifically of the statement that a human being is not the highest stage of evolution and therefore a person can be improved due to advanced technologies. The relevance of this work lies in the fact that transhumanism is an actively developing international movement that is closely connected with philosophical issues. These issues are examined through the prism of theoretical background and two science fiction movies “I, Robot” (2004) directed by Alex Proyas and “Blade Runner” (1982 ) by Ridley Scott. The thesis aims to show the pros and cons of the transhumanism movement and its impact on human beings. The question of human uniqueness is analyzed as well, taking into consideration the characters from both movies where the gap between human beings and robots/replicates appears. Both movies raise similar questions about human’s uniqueness and the possibility of human beings to live in peace with artificial intelligence without losing its nature. From ancient times, the search for a panacea for all problems is the cornerstone of happiness. Transhumanism is an attempt by humanity to achieve it since the main vector of this international movement is human well-being and deliverance from related obstacles. Nevertheless, this idea can lead dystopian future, while that future is not as bright as transhumanism’s followers consider. If transhumanism’s plans and dreams come true one day, then dystopian movie’s scenarios and dystopian plots of books will become a reality in the near future. Keywords: Transhumanism,NBIC Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Electroslavery, Human Morality