The first transgenic organism was created in 1974 when Annie Chang and  Stanley Cohen  expressed  Staphylococcus aureus  genes in  Escherichia coli . [ 3 ]  In 1978, yeast cells were the first eukaryotic organisms to undergo gene transfer. [ 4 ]  Mouse cells were first transformed in 1979, followed by mouse embryos in 1980. Most of the very first transmutations were performed by  microinjection  of DNA directly into cells. Scientists were able to develop other methods to perform the transformations, such as incorporating transgenes into  retroviruses  and then infecting cells; using electroinfusion, which takes advantage of an electric current to pass foreign DNA through the cell wall;  biolistics , which is the procedure of shooting DNA bullets into cells; and also delivering DNA into the newly fertilized egg. [ 5 ]


The first transgenic animals were only intended for genetic research to study the specific function of a gene, and by 2003, thousands of genes had been studied.


A variety of  transgenic plants  have been designed for agriculture to produce  genetically modified crops , such as corn, soybean, rapeseed oil, cotton, rice and more. As of 2012 [update] , these GMO crops were planted on 170 million hectares globally. [ 6 ]


One example of a transgenic plant species is  golden rice .  In 1997, [ citation needed ]  five million children developed  xerophthalmia , a medical condition caused by  vitamin A  deficiency, in Southeast Asia alone. [ 7 ]   Of those children, a quarter million went blind. [ 7 ]   To combat this, scientists used  biolistics  to insert the daffodil  phytoene synthase  gene into Asia indigenous rice  cultivars . [ 8 ]   The daffodil insertion increased the production of  β-carotene . [ 8 ]   The product was a transgenic rice species rich in vitamin A, called  golden rice .  Little is known about the impact of golden rice on xerophthalmia because anti-GMO campaigns have prevented the full commercial release of golden rice into agricultural systems in need. [ 9 ]


The escape of genetically-engineered plant genes via hybridization with wild relatives was first discussed and examined in Mexico [ 10 ]  and Europe in the mid-1990s. There is agreement that escape of transgenes is inevitable, even "some proof that it is happening". [ 6 ]   Up until 2008 there were few documented cases. [ 6 ] [ 11 ]


Corn sampled in 2000 from the  Sierra Juarez, Oaxaca , Mexico contained a transgenic 35S promoter, while a large sample taken by a different method from the same region in 2003 and 2004 did not. A sample from another region from 2002 also did not, but directed samples taken in 2004 did, suggesting transgene persistence or re-introduction. [ 12 ]  A 2009 study found recombinant proteins in 3.1% and 1.8% of samples, most commonly in southeast Mexico. Seed and grain import from the United States could explain the frequency and distribution of transgenes in west-central Mexico, but not in the southeast. Also, 5.0% of corn seed lots in Mexican corn stocks expressed recombinant proteins despite the moratorium on GM crops. [ 13 ]


In 2011, transgenic cotton was found in Mexico among wild cotton, after 15 years of GMO cotton cultivation. [ 14 ]


Transgenic rapeseed  Brassicus napus  – hybridized with a native Japanese species,  Brassica rapa  – was found in Japan in 2011 [ 15 ]  after having been identified in 2006 in  Québec , Canada. [ 16 ]  They were persistent over a six-year study period, without herbicide selection pressure and despite hybridization with the wild form. This was the first report of the  introgression —the stable incorporation of genes from one gene pool into another—of an herbicide-resistance transgene from  Brassica napus  into the wild form gene pool. [ 17 ]


Transgenic  creeping bentgrass , engineered to be  glyphosate -tolerant as "one of the first wind-pollinated, perennial, and highly outcrossing transgenic crops", was planted in 2003 as part of a large (about 160 ha) field trial in central Oregon near  Madras, Oregon . In 2004, its pollen was found to have reached wild growing bentgrass populations up to 14 kilometres away. Cross-pollinating  Agrostis gigantea  was even found at a distance of 21 kilometres. [ 18 ]  The grower,  Scotts Company  could not remove all genetically engineered plants, and in 2007, the  U.S. Department of Agriculture  fined Scotts $500,000 for noncompliance with regulations. [ 19 ]


The long-term monitoring and controlling of a particular transgene has been shown not to be feasible. [ 20 ]  The  European Food Safety Authority  published a guidance for risk assessment in 2010. [ 21 ]


Genetically modified mice  are the most common animal model for transgenic research. [ 22 ]  Transgenic mice are currently being used to study a variety of diseases including cancer, obesity, heart disease, arthritis, anxiety, and Parkinson's disease. [ 23 ]  The two most common types of genetically modified mice are  knockout mice  and  oncomice . Knockout mice are a type of mouse model that uses transgenic insertion to disrupt an existing gene's expression. In order to create knockout mice, a transgene with the desired sequence is inserted into an isolated mouse  blastocyst  using  electroporation . Then,  homologous recombination  occurs naturally within some cells, replacing the gene of interest with the designed transgene. Through this process, researchers were able to demonstrate that a transgene can be integrated into the genome of an animal, serve a specific function within the cell, and be passed down to future generations. [ 24 ]


Oncomice are another genetically modified mouse species created by inserting transgenes that increase the animal's vulnerability to cancer. Cancer researchers utilize oncomice to study the profiles of different cancers in order to apply this knowledge to human studies. [ 24 ]


Multiple studies have been conducted concerning transgenesis in  Drosophila melanogaster , the fruit fly.  This organism has been a helpful genetic model for over 100 years, due to its well-understood developmental pattern.  The transfer of transgenes into the  Drosophila  genome has been performed using various techniques, including  P element ,  Cre-loxP , and  ΦC31  insertion.  The most practiced method used thus far to insert transgenes into the  Drosophila  genome utilizes P elements. The transposable P elements, also known as  transposons , are segments of bacterial DNA that are translocated into the genome, without the presence of a complementary sequence in the host's genome.  P elements are administered in pairs of two, which flank the DNA insertion region of interest.  Additionally, P elements often consist of two plasmid components, one known as the P element transposase and the other, the P transposon backbone.  The transposase plasmid portion drives the transposition of the P transposon backbone, containing the transgene of interest and often a marker, between the two terminal sites of the transposon. Success of this insertion results in the nonreversible addition of the transgene of interest into the genome. While this method has been proven effective, the insertion sites of the P elements are often uncontrollable, resulting in an unfavorable, random insertion of the transgene into the  Drosophila  genome. [ 25 ]


To improve the location and precision of the transgenic process, an enzyme known as  Cre  has been introduced.  Cre has proven to be a key element in a process known as  recombinase-mediated cassette exchange  (RMCE).  While it has shown to have a lower efficiency of transgenic transformation than the P element transposases, Cre greatly lessens the labor-intensive abundance [ clarification needed ]  of balancing random P insertions. Cre aids in the targeted transgenesis of the DNA gene segment of interest, as it supports the mapping of the transgene insertion sites, known as loxP sites.  These sites, unlike P elements, can be specifically inserted to flank a chromosomal segment of interest, aiding in targeted transgenesis.  The Cre transposase is important in the catalytic cleavage of the base pairs present at the carefully positioned loxP sites, permitting more specific insertions of the transgenic donor plasmid of interest. [ 26 ]


To overcome the limitations and low yields that transposon-mediated and Cre-loxP transformation methods produce, the bacteriophage  ΦC31  has recently been utilized. Recent breakthrough studies involve the microinjection of the bacteriophage ΦC31 integrase, which shows improved transgene insertion of large DNA fragments that are unable to be transposed by P elements alone. This method involves the recombination between an attachment (attP) site in the  phage  and an attachment site in the bacterial host genome (attB).  Compared to usual P element transgene insertion methods, ΦC31 integrates the entire transgene vector, including bacterial sequences and antibiotic resistance genes.  Unfortunately, the presence of these additional insertions has been found to affect the level and reproducibility of transgene expression.


One agricultural application is to selectively breed animals for particular traits: Transgenic cattle with an increased muscle phenotype has been produced by overexpressing a short hairpin RNA with homology to the myostatin mRNA using  RNA interference . [ 27 ]
Transgenes are being used to produce milk with high levels of proteins or silk from the milk of goats. Another agricultural application is to selectively breed animals, which are resistant to diseases or animals for biopharmaceutical production. [ 27 ]


The application of transgenes is a rapidly growing area of  molecular biology . As of 2005 it was predicted that in the next two decades, 300,000 lines of transgenic mice will be generated. [ 28 ]  Researchers have identified many applications for transgenes, particularly in the medical field. Scientists are focusing on the use of transgenes to study the function of the  human genome  in order to better understand disease, adapting animal organs for  transplantation  into humans, and the production of  pharmaceutical products  such as  insulin ,  growth hormone , and blood anti-clotting factors from the milk of transgenic cows. [ citation needed ]


As of 2004 there were five thousand known  genetic diseases , and the potential to treat these diseases using transgenic animals is, perhaps, one of the most promising applications of transgenes. There is a potential to use human  gene therapy  to replace a mutated gene with an unmutated copy of a transgene in order to treat the genetic disorder. This can be done through the use of Cre-Lox or  knockout . Moreover, genetic disorders are being studied through the use of transgenic mice, pigs, rabbits, and rats. Transgenic rabbits have been created to study inherited cardiac arrhythmias, as the rabbit heart markedly better resembles the human heart as compared to the mouse. [ 29 ] [ 30 ]  More recently, scientists have also begun using transgenic goats to study genetic disorders related to  fertility . [ 31 ]


Transgenes may be used for  xenotransplantation  from pig organs. Through the study of xeno-organ rejection, it was found that an acute rejection of the transplanted organ occurs upon the organ's contact with blood from the recipient due to the recognition of foreign  antibodies  on  endothelial cells  of the transplanted organ. Scientists have identified the antigen in pigs that causes this reaction, and therefore are able to transplant the organ without immediate rejection by removal of the antigen. However, the antigen begins to be expressed later on, and rejection occurs. Therefore, further research is being conducted. [ citation needed ]
Transgenic  microorganisms  capable of producing catalytic  proteins  or  enzymes  which increase the rate of industrial reactions.


Transgene use in humans is currently fraught with issues. Transformation of genes into human cells has not been perfected yet. The most famous example of this involved certain patients developing  T-cell leukemia  after being treated for  X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency  (X-SCID). [ 32 ]  This was attributed to the close proximity of the inserted gene to the  LMO2  promoter, which controls the transcription of the LMO2 proto-oncogene. [ 33 ]


Transhumanism  is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the  enhancement of the human condition  by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cognition, and well-being. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]


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. [ 4 ]  Some transhumanists speculate that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings of such vastly greater abilities as to merit the label of  posthuman  beings. [ 2 ]


Another topic of transhumanist research is how to protect humanity against  existential risks  from  artificial general intelligence , asteroid impact,  gray goo , high-energy particle collision experiments, natural or synthetic pandemic, and nuclear warfare. [ 5 ]


The biologist  Julian Huxley  popularised the term "transhumanism" in a 1957 essay. [ 6 ]  The contemporary meaning of the term was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of  futurology , a man who changed his name to  FM-2030 . In the 1960s, he taught "new concepts of the human" at  The New School  when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles, and worldviews "transitional" to posthumanity as " transhuman ". [ 7 ]  The assertion laid the intellectual groundwork for the British philosopher  Max More  to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a  futurist  philosophy in 1990, organizing in California a school of thought that has since grown into the worldwide transhumanist movement. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]


Influenced by seminal works of  science fiction , the transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives, including philosophy and religion. [ 7 ]


In 2017,  Penn State University Press , in cooperation with philosopher  Stefan Lorenz Sorgner  and sociologist  James Hughes , established the  Journal of Posthuman Studies [ 10 ]  as the first academic journal explicitly dedicated to the posthuman, with the goal of clarifying the notions of  posthumanism  and transhumanism, as well as comparing and contrasting both.


Despite its professed strong attachment to the values of  liberalism  and forward-thinking, some critics argue transhumanism is a dangerous resurgence of many  discriminatory  attitudes and  elitist  ideals of the discredited  eugenics  movements of the past. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ]


According to  Nick Bostrom ,  transcendentalist  impulses have been expressed at least as far back as the quest for  immortality  in the  Epic of Gilgamesh , as well as in historical quests for the  Fountain of Youth , the  Elixir of Life , and other efforts to stave off aging and death. [ 2 ]


Transhumanists draw upon and claim continuity from intellectual and cultural traditions such as the ancient philosophy of  Aristotle  or the scientific tradition of  Roger Bacon . [ 14 ]  In his  Divine Comedy ,  Dante  coined the word  trasumanar  meaning "to transcend human nature, to pass beyond human nature" in the first  canto  of  Paradiso . [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ]


The interweaving of transhumanist aspirations with the scientific imagination can be seen in the works of some precursors of  Enlightenment  such as  Francis Bacon . [ 19 ] [ 20 ]  One of the early precursors to transhumanist ideas is  René Descartes 's  Discourse on Method  (1637), in which Descartes envisions a new kind of medicine that can grant both physical immortality and stronger minds. [ 21 ]


In his first edition of  Political Justice  (1793),  William Godwin  included arguments favoring the possibility of "earthly  immortality " (what would now be called  physical immortality ). Godwin explored the themes of  life extension  and immortality in his  gothic novel   St. Leon , which became popular (and notorious) at the time of its publication in 1799, but is now mostly forgotten.  St. Leon  may have inspired his daughter  Mary Shelley 's novel  Frankenstein . [ 22 ]


Ether Day , marking a significant milestone in human history, celebrated its 175th anniversary on October 16, 2021. It was on this day that dentist  William T. G. Morton  achieved a groundbreaking feat by administering the first public  ether   anesthesia  in Boston. This breakthrough not only allowed for the alleviation of pain with a reasonable level of risk but also helped protect people from  psychological trauma  by inducing  unconsciousness . [ 23 ]


There is debate about whether the  philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche  can be considered an influence on transhumanism, despite its exaltation of the  Übermensch  (overhuman), due to its emphasis on  self-actualization  rather than technological transformation. [ 2 ] [ 24 ] [ 25 ] [ 26 ]  The transhumanist philosophies of More and Sorgner have been influenced strongly by Nietzschean thinking. [ 24 ]  By contrast,  The Transhumanist Declaration  "advocates the well-being of all sentience (whether in artificial intellects, humans, posthumans, or non-human animals)". [ 27 ]


The late 19th- to early 20th-century movement known as  Russian cosmism , by Russian philosopher  N. F. Fyodorov , is noted for anticipating transhumanist ideas. [ 28 ]  In 1966,  FM-2030  (formerly F. M. Esfandiary), a  futurist  who taught "new concepts of the human" at  The New School , in  New York City , began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and worldviews transitional to  posthumanity  as " transhuman ". [ 29 ]


Fundamental ideas of transhumanism were first advanced in 1923 by the British geneticist  J. B. S. Haldane  in his essay  Daedalus: Science and the Future , which predicted that great benefits would come from the application of advanced sciences to human biology—and that every such advance would first appear to someone as blasphemy or perversion, "indecent and unnatural". [ 30 ]  In particular, he was interested in the development of the science of  eugenics ,  ectogenesis  (creating and sustaining life in an artificial environment), and the application of genetics to improve human characteristics such as health and intelligence.


His article inspired academic and popular interest.  J. D. Bernal , a crystallographer at  Cambridge , wrote  The World, the Flesh and the Devil  in 1929, in which he speculated on the prospects of  space colonization  and radical changes to human bodies and intelligence through  bionic implants  and  cognitive enhancement . [ 31 ]  These ideas have been common transhumanist themes ever since. [ 2 ]


The biologist Julian Huxley is generally regarded as the founder of transhumanism after using the term for the title of an influential 1957 article. [ 6 ]  But the term derives from a 1940 paper by the Canadian philosopher  W. D. Lighthall . [ 32 ]  Huxley describes transhumanism in these terms:


Up till now human life has generally been, as  Hobbes  described it, "nasty, brutish and short"; the great majority of human beings (if they have not already died young) have been afflicted with misery… we can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted… The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself—not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. [ 6 ]


Huxley's definition differs, albeit not substantially, from the one commonly in use since the 1980s. The ideas raised by these thinkers were explored in the  science fiction  of the 1960s, notably in  Arthur C. Clarke 's  2001: A Space Odyssey , in which an alien artifact grants transcendent power to its wielder. [ 33 ]


Japanese  Metabolist  architects produced a manifesto in 1960 which outlined goals to "encourage active metabolic development of our society" [ 34 ]  through design and technology. In the  Material and Man  section of the manifesto, Noboru Kawazoe suggests that:


After several decades, with the rapid progress of communication technology, every one will have a "brain wave receiver" in his ear, which conveys directly and exactly what other people think about him and vice versa. What I think will be known by all the people. There is no more individual consciousness, only the will of mankind as a whole. [ 35 ]


The concept of the  technological singularity , or the ultra-rapid advent of superhuman intelligence, was first proposed by the British  cryptologist   I. J. Good  in 1965:


Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an "intelligence explosion," and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make. [ 36 ]


Computer scientist   Marvin Minsky  wrote on relationships between human and  artificial intelligence  beginning in the 1960s. [ 37 ]  Over the succeeding decades, this field continued to generate influential thinkers, such as  Hans Moravec  and  Ray Kurzweil , who oscillated between the technical arena and futuristic speculations in the transhumanist vein. [ 38 ] [ 39 ]  The coalescence of an identifiable transhumanist movement began in the last decades of the 20th century. In 1972,  Robert Ettinger , whose 1964  Prospect of Immortality  founded the  cryonics movement , [ 40 ]  contributed to the conceptualization of "transhumanity" with his 1972  Man into Superman. [ 41 ]  FM-2030 published the  Upwingers Manifesto  in 1973. [ 42 ]


The first self-described transhumanists met formally in the early 1980s at the  University of California, Los Angeles , which became the main center of transhumanist thought. Here,  FM-2030  lectured on his " Third Way " futurist ideology. [ 43 ]  At the  EZTV  Media venue, frequented by transhumanists and other futurists,  Natasha Vita-More  presented  Breaking Away , her 1980 experimental film with the theme of humans breaking away from their biological limitations and the Earth's gravity as they head into space. [ 44 ] [ 45 ]  FM-2030 and Vita-More soon began holding gatherings for transhumanists in  Los Angeles , which included students from FM-2030's courses and audiences from Vita-More's artistic productions. In 1982, Vita-More authored the  Transhumanist Arts Statement [ 46 ]  and in 1988 she produced the cable TV show  TransCentury Update  on transhumanity, a program that reached over 100,000 viewers.


In 1986,  Eric Drexler  published  Engines of Creation : The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, [ 47 ]  which discussed the prospects for  nanotechnology  and  molecular assemblers , and founded the  Foresight Institute . As the first nonprofit organization to research, advocate for, and perform  cryonics , the Southern California offices of the  Alcor Life Extension Foundation  became a center for futurists. In 1988, the first issue of  Extropy Magazine  was published by  Max More  and Tom Morrow. In 1990, More, a strategic philosopher, created his own particular transhumanist doctrine, which took the form of the  Principles of Extropy,  and laid the foundation of modern transhumanism by giving it a new definition: [ 48 ]


Transhumanism is a class of philosophies that seek to guide us towards a posthuman condition. Transhumanism shares many elements of humanism, including a respect for reason and science, a commitment to progress, and a valuing of human (or transhuman) existence in this life. [...] Transhumanism differs from humanism in recognizing and anticipating the radical alterations in the nature and possibilities of our lives resulting from various sciences and technologies [...].


In 1992, More and Morrow founded the  Extropy Institute , a catalyst for networking futurists and brainstorming new  memeplexes  by organizing a series of conferences and, more importantly, providing a mailing list, which exposed many to transhumanist views for the first time during the rise of  cyberculture  and the  cyberdelic  counterculture. In 1998, philosophers  Nick Bostrom  and  David Pearce  founded the  World Transhumanist Association  (WTA), an international non-governmental organization working toward the recognition of transhumanism as a legitimate subject of  scientific inquiry  and  public policy . [ 49 ]  In 2002, the WTA modified and adopted  The Transhumanist Declaration. [ 27 ] [ 50 ] [ 51 ]   The Transhumanist FAQ , prepared by the WTA (later  Humanity+ ), gave two formal definitions for transhumanism: [ 52 ]


In possible contrast with other transhumanist organizations, WTA officials considered that social forces could undermine their futurist visions and needed to be addressed. [ 7 ]  A particular concern is equal access to  human enhancement  technologies across classes and borders. [ 53 ]  In 2006, a  political struggle  within the transhumanist movement between the  libertarian right  and the  liberal left  resulted in a more  centre-leftward  positioning of the WTA under its former executive director  James Hughes . [ 53 ] [ 54 ]  In 2006, the board of directors of the Extropy Institute ceased operations of the organization, saying that its mission was "essentially completed". [ 55 ]  This left the World Transhumanist Association as the leading international transhumanist organization. In 2008, as part of a rebranding effort, the WTA changed its name to " Humanity+ ". [ 56 ]  In 2012, the transhumanist  Longevity Party  had been initiated as an international union of people who promote the development of scientific and technological means to significant life extension that now has more than 30 national organisations throughout the world. [ 57 ] [ 58 ]


The  Mormon  Transhumanist Association was founded in 2006. [ 59 ]  By 2012, it had hundreds of members. [ 60 ]


The first transhumanist elected member of a parliament was  Giuseppe Vatinno , in Italy. [ 61 ]


It is a matter of debate whether transhumanism is a branch of  posthumanism  and how this philosophical movement should be conceptualised with regard to transhumanism. [ 62 ] [ 63 ]  Transhumanism is often referred to as a variant or  activist  form of posthumanism by its  conservative , [ 64 ]   Christian [ 65 ]  and  progressive [ 66 ] [ 67 ]  critics. [ 68 ]


A common feature of transhumanism and philosophical posthumanism is the future vision of a new intelligent species, into which humanity will evolve and which eventually will supplement or supersede it. Transhumanism stresses the evolutionary perspective, including sometimes the creation of a highly intelligent animal species by way of cognitive enhancement (i.e.  biological uplift ), [ 7 ]  but clings to a "posthuman future" as the final goal of participant evolution. [ 69 ] [ 70 ]


Nevertheless, the idea of creating  intelligent artificial beings  (proposed, for example, by roboticist  Hans Moravec ) has influenced transhumanism. [ 38 ]  Moravec's ideas and transhumanism have also been characterised as a "complacent" or " apocalyptic " variant of posthumanism and contrasted with " cultural posthumanism " in  humanities  and the arts. [ 71 ]  While such a "cultural posthumanism" would offer resources for rethinking the relationships between humans and increasingly sophisticated machines, transhumanism and similar posthumanisms are, in this view, not abandoning obsolete concepts of the " autonomous liberal subject ", but are expanding its " prerogatives " into the realm of the  posthuman . [ 72 ]  Transhumanist self-characterisations as a continuation of  humanism  and  Enlightenment  thinking correspond with this view.


Some  secular humanists  conceive transhumanism as an offspring of the humanist  freethought  movement and argue that transhumanists differ from the humanist mainstream by having a specific focus on technological approaches to resolving human concerns (i.e.  technocentrism ) and on the issue of mortality. [ 73 ]  Other progressives have argued that posthumanism, in its philosophical or activist forms, amounts to a shift away from concerns about  social justice , from the  reform of human institutions  and from other Enlightenment preoccupations, toward narcissistic longings to transcend the human body in quest of more exquisite ways of being. [ 74 ]


The philosophy of transhumanism is closely related to  technoself studies , an interdisciplinary domain of scholarly research dealing with all aspects of human identity in a technological society and focusing on the changing nature of relationships between humans and technology. [ 75 ]


You awake one morning to find your brain has another lobe functioning. Invisible, this auxiliary lobe answers your questions with information beyond the realm of your own memory, suggests plausible courses of action, and asks questions that help bring out relevant facts. You quickly come to rely on the new lobe so much that you stop wondering how it works. You just use it. This is the dream of artificial intelligence.


While many transhumanist theorists and advocates seek to apply reason, science and technology to reduce poverty, disease, disability, and malnutrition around the globe, [ 52 ]  transhumanism is distinctive in its particular focus on the applications of technologies to the improvement of human bodies at the individual level. Many transhumanists actively assess the potential for future technologies and innovative social systems to improve the quality of  all life , while seeking to make the material reality of the human condition fulfill the promise of legal and political equality by eliminating  congenital mental and physical barriers .


Transhumanist philosophers argue that there not only exists a  perfectionist ethical imperative  for humans to strive for progress and improvement of the human condition, but that it is possible and desirable for humanity to enter a transhuman phase of existence in which humans enhance themselves beyond what is naturally human. In such a phase, natural evolution would be replaced with deliberate participatory or  directed evolution .


Some theorists such as  Ray Kurzweil  think that the  pace of technological innovation is accelerating  and that the next 50 years may yield not only radical technological advances, but possibly a  technological singularity , which may fundamentally change the nature of human beings. [ 77 ]  Transhumanists who foresee this massive technological change generally maintain that it is desirable, but some are concerned about the dangers of extremely rapid technological change and propose options for ensuring that advanced technology is used responsibly. For example, Bostrom has written extensively on  existential risks  to humanity's future welfare, including ones that emerging technologies could create. [ 78 ]  In contrast, some proponents of transhumanism view it as essential to humanity's survival. For instance, Stephen Hawking points out that the "external transmission" phase of human evolution, where  knowledge production  and  knowledge management  is more important than transmission of information via  evolution , may be the point at which  human civilization  becomes unstable and self-destructs, one of Hawking's explanations for the  Fermi paradox . To counter this, Hawking emphasizes either self-design of the  human genome  or mechanical enhancement (e.g.,  brain-computer interface ) to enhance  human intelligence  and reduce  aggression , without which he implies human civilization may be too stupid collectively to survive an increasingly unstable system, resulting in  societal collapse . [ 79 ]


While many people believe that all transhumanists are striving for  immortality , that is not necessarily true. Hank Pellissier, managing director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (2011–2012), surveyed transhumanists. He found that, of the 818 respondents, 23.8% did not want immortality. [ 80 ]  Some of the reasons argued were boredom, Earth's overpopulation, and the desire "to go to an afterlife". [ 80 ]


Certain transhumanist philosophers hold that since all assumptions about what others experience are fallible, and that therefore all attempts to help or protect beings that are incapable of correcting what others assume about them, no matter how well-intentioned, are in danger of actually hurting them, all  sentient  beings deserve to be  sapient . These thinkers argue that the ability to discuss in a  falsification-based  way constitutes a  threshold that is not arbitrary  at which it becomes possible for someone to speak for themself in a way that is independent of exterior assumptions. They also argue that all beings capable of experiencing something deserve to be elevated to this threshold if they are not at it, typically saying that the underlying change that leads to the threshold is an increase in the preciseness of the brain's ability to discriminate. This includes increasing the neuron count and connectivity in animals as well as accelerating the development of connectivity to shorten or ideally skip non-sapient childhood incapable of independently deciding for oneself. Transhumanists of this description stress that the genetic engineering that they advocate is general insertion into both the somatic cells of living beings and in germ cells, and not purging of people without the modifications, deeming the latter not only unethical but also unnecessary due to the possibilities of efficient genetic engineering. [ 81 ] [ 82 ] [ 83 ] [ 84 ]


Transhumanists engage in  interdisciplinary  approaches to understand and evaluate possibilities for overcoming biological limitations by drawing on  futurology  and various fields of ethics. [ citation needed ]  Unlike many philosophers, social critics, and activists who morally value preservation of natural systems, transhumanists see the concept of the specifically natural as problematically nebulous at best and an obstacle to progress at worst. [ 85 ]  In keeping with this, many prominent transhumanist advocates, such as Dan Agin, call transhumanism's critics, on the political right and left jointly, " bioconservatives " or " bioluddites ", the latter term alluding to the 19th-century  anti-industrialisation  social movement that opposed the replacement of human manual labourers by machines. [ 86 ]


A belief of counter-transhumanism is that transhumanism can cause unfair human enhancement in many areas of life, but specifically on the social plane. This can be compared to steroid use,  where athletes who use steroids in sports have an advantage over those who do not . The same disparity may happen when people have certain neural implants that give them an advantage in the workplace and in education. [ 87 ]  Additionally, according to M.J. McNamee and S.D. Edwards, many fear that the improvements afforded by a specific, privileged section of society will lead to a division of the human species into two different species. [ 88 ]  The idea of two human species, one at a great physical and economic advantage over with the other, is troublesome at best. One may be incapable of breeding with the other, and may by consequence of lower physical health and ability, be considered of a lower moral standing than the other. [ 88 ]


Nick Bostrom  has said that transhumanism advocates for the wellbeing of all sentient beings, including  non-human animals ,  extraterrestrials , and artificial forms of life. [ 89 ]  This view is reiterated by  David Pearce , who advocates the use of biotechnology to eradicate suffering in all  sentient beings . [ 90 ]


There is a variety of opinions within transhumanist thought. Many of the leading transhumanist thinkers hold views that are under constant revision and development. [ 91 ]  Some distinctive currents of transhumanism are identified and listed here in alphabetical order:


Although many transhumanists are  atheists ,  agnostics , or  secular humanists , some have  religious  or  spiritual  views. [ 49 ]  Despite the prevailing secular attitude, some transhumanists pursue hopes traditionally espoused by religions, such as  immortality , [ 94 ]  while several controversial  new religious movements  from the late 20th century have explicitly embraced transhumanist goals of transforming the human condition by applying technology to alter the mind and body, such as  Raëlism . [ 97 ]  But most thinkers associated with the transhumanism focus on the practical goals of using technology to help achieve longer and healthier lives, while speculating that future understanding of  neurotheology  and the application of  neurotechnology  will enable humans to gain greater control of  altered states of consciousness , which were commonly interpreted as  spiritual experiences , and thus achieve more profound  self-knowledge . [ 98 ]  Transhumanist Buddhists have sought to explore areas of agreement between various types of Buddhism and  Buddhist-derived meditation  and mind-expanding neurotechnologies. [ 99 ]  They have been criticised for appropriating  mindfulness  as a tool for transcending humanness. [ 100 ]


Some transhumanists believe in the compatibility between the human mind and computer hardware, with the theoretical implication that human consciousness may someday be transferred to alternative media (a speculative technique commonly known as  mind uploading ). [ 101 ]  One extreme formulation of this idea that interests some transhumanists is the proposal of the  Omega Point  by Christian cosmologist  Frank Tipler . Drawing upon ideas in  digitalism , Tipler has advanced the notion that the collapse of the  Universe  billions of years hence could create the conditions for the perpetuation of humanity in a  simulated reality  within a megacomputer and thus achieve a form of " posthuman godhood ". Before Tipler, the term Omega Point was used by  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin , a  paleontologist  and  Jesuit  theologian who saw an evolutionary  telos  in the development of an encompassing  noosphere , a global consciousness. [ 102 ] [ 103 ] [ 104 ]


Viewed from the perspective of some Christian thinkers, the idea of mind uploading is asserted to represent a  denigration of the human body , characteristic of  gnostic  manichaean belief. [ 105 ]  Transhumanism and its presumed intellectual progenitors have also been described as  neo-gnostic  by non-Christian and secular commentators. [ 106 ] [ 107 ]


The first dialogue between transhumanism and faith was a one-day conference at the  University of Toronto  in 2004. [ 108 ]  Religious critics alone faulted transhumanism for offering no eternal truths or relationship with the divine. They commented that a philosophy bereft of these beliefs leaves humanity adrift in a foggy sea of  postmodern   cynicism  and  anomie . Transhumanists responded that such criticisms reflect a failure to look at the actual content of transhumanist philosophy, which, far from being cynical, is rooted in optimistic, idealistic attitudes that trace back to the  Enlightenment . [ 109 ]  Following this dialogue,  William Sims Bainbridge , a  sociologist of religion , conducted a pilot study, published in the  Journal of Evolution and Technology , suggesting that religious attitudes were negatively correlated with acceptance of transhumanist ideas and indicating that people with highly religious worldviews tended to perceive transhumanism as a direct, competitive (though ultimately futile) affront to their spiritual beliefs. [ 110 ]


Since 2006, the Mormon Transhumanist Association sponsors conferences and lectures on the intersection of technology and religion. [ 111 ]  The Christian Transhumanist Association [ 112 ]  was established in 2014.


Since 2009, the  American Academy of Religion  holds a "Transhumanism and Religion" consultation during its annual meeting, where scholars in the field of  religious studies  seek to identify and critically evaluate any implicit religious beliefs that might underlie key transhumanist claims and assumptions; consider how transhumanism challenges religious traditions to develop their own ideas of the human future, in particular the prospect of human transformation, whether by technological or other means; and provide critical and constructive assessments of an envisioned future that place greater confidence in nanotechnology, robotics and information technology to achieve virtual immortality and create a superior posthuman species. [ 113 ]


The physicist and transhumanist thinker  Giulio Prisco  states that "cosmist religions based on science, might be our best protection from reckless pursuit of superintelligence and other risky technologies." [ 114 ]  He also recognizes the importance of spiritual ideas, such as those of Russian Orthodox philosopher  Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov , to the origins of the transhumanism movement.


While some transhumanists [ who? ]  take an abstract and theoretical approach to the perceived benefits of emerging technologies, others have offered specific proposals for modifications to the human body, including heritable ones. Transhumanists are often concerned with methods of enhancing the human  nervous system . Though some, such as  Kevin Warwick , propose modification of the  peripheral nervous system , the brain is considered the common denominator of personhood and is thus a primary focus of transhumanist ambitions. [ 115 ]


In fact, Warwick has gone a lot further than merely making a proposal. In 2002 he had a 100 electrode array surgically implanted into the median nerves of his left arm to link his nervous system directly with a computer and thus to also connect with the internet. As a consequence, he carried out a series of experiments. He was able to directly control a robot hand using his neural signals and to feel the force applied by the hand through feedback from the fingertips. He also experienced a form of ultrasonic sensory input and conducted the first purely electronic communication between his own nervous system and that of his wife who also had electrodes implanted. [ 116 ]


As proponents of  self-improvement  and  body modification , transhumanists tend to use existing technologies and techniques that supposedly improve cognitive and physical performance, while engaging in routines and lifestyles designed to improve health and longevity. [ 117 ]  Depending on their age, some [ who? ]  transhumanists express concern that they will not live to reap the benefits of future technologies. However, many have a great interest in  life extension  strategies and in funding research in  cryonics  to make the latter a viable option of last resort, rather than remaining an unproven method. [ 118 ]


While most transhumanist theory focuses on future technologies and the changes they may bring, many today are already involved in the practice on a very basic level. It is not uncommon for many to receive cosmetic changes to their physical form via cosmetic surgery, even if it is not required for health reasons. Human growth hormones attempt to alter the natural development of shorter children or those who have been born with a physical deficiency. Doctors prescribe medicines such as Ritalin and Adderall to improve cognitive focus, and many people take "lifestyle" drugs such as Viagra, Propecia, and Botox to restore aspects of youthfulness that have been lost in maturity. [ 119 ]


Other transhumanists, such as cyborg artist  Neil Harbisson , use technologies and techniques to improve their senses and perception of reality. Harbisson's antenna, which is permanently implanted in his skull, allows him to sense colours beyond human perception such as infrareds and ultraviolets. [ 120 ]


Transhumanists support the  emergence  and  convergence  of technologies including  nanotechnology ,  biotechnology ,  information technology  and  cognitive science  (NBIC), as well as hypothetical future technologies like  simulated reality ,  artificial intelligence ,  superintelligence ,  3D bioprinting ,  mind uploading , chemical brain preservation and  cryonics . They believe that humans can and should use these technologies to become  more than human . [ 121 ]  Therefore, they support the recognition or protection of  cognitive liberty ,  morphological freedom  and  procreative liberty  as  civil liberties , so as to guarantee individuals the choice of using  human enhancement technologies  on themselves and their children. [ 122 ]  Some speculate that human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies may facilitate more radical human enhancement no later than at the midpoint of the 21st century. Kurzweil's book  The Singularity is Near  and Michio Kaku's book  Physics of the Future  outline various human enhancement technologies and give insight on how these technologies may impact the human race. [ 77 ] [ 123 ]


Some reports on the converging technologies and NBIC concepts have criticised their transhumanist orientation and alleged  science fictional  character. [ 124 ]  At the same time, research on brain and body alteration technologies has been accelerated under the sponsorship of the  U.S. Department of Defense , which is interested in the battlefield advantages they would provide to the  supersoldiers  of the United States and its allies. [ 125 ]  There has already been a brain research program to "extend the ability to manage information", while military scientists are now looking at stretching the human capacity for combat to a maximum 168 hours without sleep. [ 126 ]


Neuroscientist  Anders Sandberg  has been practicing on the method of scanning ultra-thin sections of the brain. This method is being used to help better understand the architecture of the brain. It is currently being used on mice. This is the first step towards hypothetically  uploading contents of the human brain, including memories and emotions, onto a computer . [ 127 ] [ 128 ]


Some detractors have criticized transhumanists' views on human enhancement, arguing that the pursuit of radical transformation could undermine human dignity and identity. Critics also contend that transhumanists often underestimate the ethical complexities and potential unintended consequences of their proposed technologies, such as exacerbating social inequalities or creating unforeseen risks to individuals and society. These concerns have led to debates about whether transhumanist ideals prioritize technological progress over considerations of moral and societal responsibility ( McNamee, Michael J.; Edwards, Steven D. (2006).  "Transhumanism, Medical Technology and Slippery Slopes" .  Journal of Medical Ethics .  32  (9):  513– 518.  doi : 10.1136/jme.2005.013789 .  PMC   2563415 .  PMID   16943331 . ).


The very notion and prospect of human enhancement and related issues arouse public controversy. [ 129 ]  Criticisms of transhumanism and its proposals take two main forms: those objecting to the likelihood of transhumanist goals being achieved (practical criticisms) and those objecting to the moral principles or worldview sustaining transhumanist proposals or underlying transhumanism itself (ethical criticisms). Critics and opponents often see transhumanists' goals as posing threats to human values.


The human enhancement debate is, for some, framed by the opposition between strong  bioconservatism  and transhumanism. The former opposes any form of human enhancement, whereas the latter advocates for all possible human enhancements. [ 130 ]  But many philosophers hold a more nuanced view in favour of some enhancements while rejecting the transhumanist carte blanche approach. [ 131 ]


Some of the most widely known critiques of the transhumanist program are novels and fictional films. These works, despite presenting imagined worlds rather than philosophical analyses, are used as touchstones for some of the more formal arguments. [ 7 ]  Various arguments have been made to the effect that a society that adopts human enhancement technologies may come to resemble the  dystopia  depicted in the 1932 novel  Brave New World  by  Aldous Huxley . [ 132 ]


On another front, some authors consider humanity already transhuman, because medical advances in recent centuries have significantly altered our species. But this has not happened in a conscious and therefore transhumanistic way. [ 133 ]  From such a perspective, transhumanism is perpetually aspirational: as new technologies become mainstream, the adoption of new yet-unadopted technologies becomes a new shifting goal.


In a 1992 book, sociologist Max Dublin pointed to many past failed predictions of technological progress and argued that modern futurist predictions would prove similarly inaccurate. He also objected to what he saw as  scientism , fanaticism and  nihilism  by a few in advancing transhumanist causes. Dublin also said that historical parallels existed between  Millenarian  religions and  Communist doctrines . [ 134 ]


Although generally sympathetic to transhumanism, public health professor  Gregory Stock  is skeptical of the technical feasibility and mass appeal of the  cyborgization  of humanity predicted by Raymond Kurzweil,  Hans Moravec  and  Kevin Warwick . He said that, throughout the 21st century, many humans will be deeply integrated into systems of machines, but remain biological. Primary changes to their own form and character would arise not from  cyberware , but from the direct manipulation of their  genetics ,  metabolism  and  biochemistry . [ 135 ]


In her 1992 book  Science as Salvation , philosopher  Mary Midgley  traces the notion of achieving immortality by  transcendence  of the material human body (echoed in the transhumanist tenet of  mind uploading ) to a group of male scientific thinkers of the early 20th century, including  J. B. S. Haldane  and members of his circle. She characterizes these ideas as "quasi-scientific dreams and prophesies" involving  visions of escape  from the body coupled with "self-indulgent, uncontrolled power-fantasies". Her argument focuses on what she perceives as the  pseudoscientific  speculations and irrational, fear-of-death-driven fantasies of these thinkers, their disregard for  laymen  and the remoteness of their  eschatological  visions. [ 136 ]


Another critique is aimed mainly at " algeny " (a portmanteau of  alchemy  and  genetics ), which  Jeremy Rifkin  defined as "the upgrading of existing organisms and the design of wholly new ones with the intent of 'perfecting' their performance". [ 137 ]  It emphasizes the issue of  biocomplexity  and the unpredictability of attempts to guide the development of products of biological  evolution . This argument, elaborated in particular by the biologist  Stuart Newman , is based on the recognition that  cloning  and  germline   genetic engineering  of animals are error-prone and inherently disruptive of embryonic  development . Accordingly, so it is argued, it would create unacceptable risks to use such methods on human embryos. Performing experiments, particularly ones with permanent biological consequences, on developing humans would thus be in violation of accepted principles governing research on human subjects (see the 1964  Declaration of Helsinki ). Moreover, because improvements in experimental outcomes in one species are not automatically transferable to a new species without further experimentation, it is claimed that there is no ethical route to genetic manipulation of humans at early developmental stages. [ 138 ]


As a practical matter, international protocols on human subject research may not present a legal obstacle to attempts by transhumanists and others to improve their offspring by germinal choice technology. According to legal scholar Kirsten Rabe Smolensky, existing laws protect parents who choose to enhance their child's genome from future liability arising from adverse outcomes of the procedure. [ 139 ]


Transhumanists and other supporters of human genetic engineering do not dismiss practical concerns out of hand, insofar as there is a high degree of uncertainty about the timelines and likely outcomes of genetic modification experiments in humans. But  bioethicist   James Hughes  suggests that one possible ethical route to the genetic manipulation of humans at early developmental stages is the building of computer models of the human genome, the proteins it specifies and the tissue engineering he argues that it also codes for. With the exponential progress in  bioinformatics , Hughes believes that a virtual model of genetic expression in the human body will not be far behind and that it will soon be possible to accelerate approval of genetic modifications by simulating their effects on virtual humans. [ 7 ]   Public health  professor  Gregory Stock  points to  artificial chromosomes  as a safer alternative to existing genetic engineering techniques. [ 135 ]


Thinkers [ who? ]  who defend the likelihood of  accelerating change  point to a past pattern of exponential increases in humanity's technological capacities. Kurzweil developed this position in his 2005 book  The Singularity Is Near .


It has been argued that, in transhumanist thought, humans attempt to substitute themselves for  God . The 2002  Vatican  statement  Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God, [ 140 ]  stated that "changing the genetic identity of man as a human person through the production of an  infrahuman  being is radically immoral", implying, that "man has full right of disposal over his own biological nature". The statement also argues that creation of a superhuman or spiritually superior being is "unthinkable", since true improvement can come only through religious experience and " realizing more fully the image of God ". Christian theologians and lay activists of several churches and denominations have expressed similar objections to transhumanism and claimed that Christians attain in the afterlife what radical transhumanism promises, such as indefinite  life extension  or the abolition of suffering. In this view, transhumanism is just another representative of the long line of  utopian  movements which seek to  create "heaven on earth" . [ 141 ] [ 142 ]  On the other hand, religious thinkers allied with transhumanist goals such as the theologians Ronald Cole-Turner and  Ted Peters  hold that the doctrine of "co-creation" provides an obligation to use genetic engineering to improve human biology. [ 143 ] [ 144 ]


Other critics target what they claim to be an instrumental conception of the human body in the writings of Minsky, Moravec, and some other transhumanists. [ 72 ]  Reflecting a strain of  feminist  criticism of the transhumanist program, philosopher  Susan Bordo  points to "contemporary obsessions with slenderness, youth and physical perfection", which she sees as affecting both men and women, but in distinct ways, as "the logical (if extreme) manifestations of anxieties and fantasies fostered by our culture." [ 145 ]  Some critics question other social implications of the movement's focus on  body modification . Political scientist Klaus-Gerd Giesen, in particular, has asserted that transhumanism's concentration on altering the human body represents the logical yet tragic consequence of  atomized individualism  and body  commodification  within a  consumer culture . [ 106 ]


Bostrom responds that the desire to  regain youth , specifically, and transcend the natural limitations of the human body, in general, is pan-cultural and pan-historical, not uniquely tied to the culture of the 20th century. He argues that the transhumanist program is an attempt to channel that desire into a scientific project on par with the  Human Genome Project  and achieve humanity's oldest hope, rather than a puerile fantasy or social trend. [ 2 ]


In his 2003 book  Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age ,  environmental ethicist   Bill McKibben  argued at length against many of the technologies that are postulated or supported by transhumanists, including  germinal choice technology ,  nanomedicine  and  life extension  strategies. He claims that it would be morally wrong for humans to tamper with fundamental aspects of themselves (or their children) in an attempt to overcome universal human limitations, such as vulnerability to  aging ,  maximum life span  and biological constraints on physical and cognitive ability. Attempts to "improve" themselves through such manipulation would remove limitations that provide a necessary context for the experience of meaningful human choice. He claims that human lives would no longer seem meaningful in a world where such limitations could be overcome technologically. Even the goal of using germinal choice technology for clearly therapeutic purposes should be relinquished, since it would inevitably produce temptations to tamper with such things as cognitive capacities. He argues that it is possible for societies to benefit from renouncing particular technologies, using as examples  Ming China ,  Tokugawa Japan  and the contemporary  Amish . [ 147 ]


Biopolitical  activist  Jeremy Rifkin  and biologist  Stuart Newman  accept that biotechnology has the power to make profound changes in  organismal  identity. They argue against the genetic engineering of human beings because they fear the blurring of the boundary between human and  artifact . [ 138 ] [ 148 ]  Philosopher Keekok Lee sees such developments as part of an accelerating trend in  modernization  in which technology has been used to transform the "natural" into the "artefactual". [ 149 ]  In the extreme, this could lead to the manufacturing and enslavement of " monsters " such as  human clones ,  human-animal   chimeras , or  bioroids , but even lesser dislocations of humans and non-humans from  social  and  ecological  systems are seen as problematic. The film  Blade Runner  (1982) and the novels  The Boys From Brazil  (1976) and  The Island of Doctor Moreau  (1896) depict elements of such scenarios, but Mary Shelley's 1818 novel  Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus   is most often alluded to by critics who suggest that biotechnologies could create  objectified  and  socially unmoored  people as well as  subhumans . Such critics propose that strict measures be implemented to prevent what they portray as  dehumanizing  possibilities from ever happening, usually in the form of an international  ban  on human genetic engineering. [ 150 ]


Science journalist   Ronald Bailey  claims that McKibben's historical examples are flawed and support different conclusions when studied more closely. [ 151 ]  For example, few groups are more cautious than the Amish about embracing new technologies, but, though they shun television and use horses and buggies, some are welcoming the possibilities of  gene therapy  since inbreeding has afflicted them with a number of rare genetic diseases. [ 135 ]  Bailey and other supporters of technological alteration of human biology also reject the claim that life would be experienced as meaningless if some human limitations are overcome with  enhancement technologies  as extremely subjective.


Writing in  Reason  magazine, Bailey has accused opponents of research involving the modification of animals as indulging in  alarmism  when they speculate about the creation of subhuman creatures with human-like intelligence and brains resembling those of  Homo sapiens . Bailey insists that the aim of conducting research on animals is simply to produce human  health care  benefits. [ 152 ]


A different response comes from transhumanist  personhood theorists  who object to what they characterize as the anthropomorphobia fueling some criticisms of this research, which science fiction writer  Isaac Asimov  termed the " Frankenstein complex ". For example,  Woody Evans  argues that, provided they are  self-aware , human clones, human-animal chimeras and  uplifted animals  would all be unique persons deserving of respect, dignity, rights, responsibilities, and  citizenship . [ 153 ]  They conclude that the coming ethical issue is not the creation of so-called monsters, but what they characterize as the " yuck factor " and " human-racism ", that would judge and treat these creations as monstrous. [ 49 ] [ 154 ]  In book 3 of his  Corrupting the Image  series, Douglas Hamp goes so far as to suggest that the Beast of John's Apocalypse is himself a hybrid who will induce humanity to take "the  mark of the Beast ," in the hopes of obtaining perfection and immortality. [ 155 ]


At least one  public interest  organization, the U.S.-based  Center for Genetics and Society , was formed, in 2001, with the specific goal of opposing transhumanist agendas that involve transgenerational modification of human biology, such as full-term  human cloning  and  germinal choice technology . The  Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future  of the  Chicago-Kent College of Law  critically scrutinizes proposed applications of genetic and nanotechnologies to human biology in an academic setting.


Some critics of  libertarian transhumanism  have focused on the likely socioeconomic consequences in societies in which  divisions between rich and poor  are on the rise.  Bill McKibben , for example, suggests that emerging human enhancement technologies would be disproportionately available to those with greater financial resources, thereby exacerbating the gap between rich and poor and creating a "genetic divide". [ 147 ]  Even  Lee M. Silver , the biologist and  science writer  who coined the term " reprogenetics " and supports its applications, has expressed concern that these methods could create a two-tiered society of genetically engineered "haves" and "have nots" if  social democratic reforms  lag behind implementation of enhancement technologies. [ 156 ]  The 1997 film  Gattaca  depicts a dystopian society in which one's social class depends entirely on genetic potential and is often cited by critics in support of these views. [ 7 ]


These criticisms are also voiced by  non-libertarian  transhumanist advocates, especially self-described  democratic transhumanists , who believe that the majority of current or future  social  and  environmental issues  (such as  unemployment  and  resource depletion ) must be addressed by a combination of political and technological solutions (like a  guaranteed minimum income  and  alternative technology ). Therefore, on the specific issue of an emerging genetic divide due to unequal access to human enhancement technologies, bioethicist James Hughes, in his 2004 book  Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future , argues that  progressives  or, more precisely,  techno-progressives , must articulate and implement public policies (i.e., a  universal health care   voucher  system that covers human enhancement technologies) to attenuate this problem as much as possible, rather than trying to ban human enhancement technologies. The latter, he argues, might actually worsen the problem by making these technologies unsafe or available only to the wealthy on the local  black market  or in countries where such a ban is not enforced. [ 7 ]


Sometimes, as in the writings of  Leon Kass , the fear is that various institutions and practices judged as fundamental to civilized society would be damaged or destroyed. [ 157 ]  In his 2002 book  Our Posthuman Future  and in a 2004  Foreign Policy  magazine article, political economist and philosopher  Francis Fukuyama  designates transhumanism as the  world's most dangerous idea  because he believes it may undermine the egalitarian ideals of  democracy  (in general) and  liberal democracy  (in particular) through a fundamental alteration of " human nature ". [ 64 ]  Social philosopher  Jürgen Habermas  makes a similar argument in his 2003 book  The Future of Human Nature , in which he asserts that moral autonomy depends on not being subject to another's unilaterally imposed specifications. Habermas thus suggests that the human "species ethic" would be undermined by embryo-stage genetic alteration. [ 158 ]  Critics such as Kass and Fukuyama hold that attempts to significantly alter human biology are not only inherently immoral, but also threaten the  social order . Alternatively, they argue that implementation of such technologies would likely lead to the "naturalizing" of  social hierarchies  or place new means of control in the hands of totalitarian regimes.  AI  pioneer  Joseph Weizenbaum  criticizes what he sees as  misanthropic  tendencies in the language and ideas of some of his colleagues, in particular Minsky and Moravec, which, by devaluing the human organism per se, promotes a discourse that enables divisive and undemocratic social policies. [ 159 ]


In a 2004 article in the libertarian monthly  Reason ,  science journalist  Ronald Bailey  contested Fukuyama's assertions by arguing that political equality has never rested on the facts of human biology. He asserts that  liberalism  was founded not on the proposition of effective equality of human beings, or  de facto  equality, but on the assertion of an equality in political rights and before the law, or  de jure  equality. Bailey asserts that the products of genetic engineering may well ameliorate rather than exacerbate human inequality, giving to the many what were once the privileges of the few. Moreover, he argues, "the crowning achievement of the Enlightenment is the principle of tolerance". In fact, he says, political liberalism is already the solution to the issue of human and  posthuman  rights since in liberal societies the law is meant to apply equally to all, no matter how rich or poor, powerful or powerless, educated or ignorant, enhanced or unenhanced. [ 160 ]  Other thinkers sympathetic to transhumanist ideas, such as  Russell Blackford , have also objected to the appeal to  tradition  and what they see as  alarmism  involved in  Brave New World -type arguments. [ 161 ]


In addition to the socioeconomic risks and implications of transhumanism, there are indeed implications and possible consequences in regard to cultural aesthetics. Currently, there are a number of ways in which people choose to represent themselves in society. The way in which a person dresses, hair styles, and body alteration all serve to identify the way a person presents themselves and is perceived by society. According to Foucault, [ 162 ]  society already governs and controls bodies by making them feel watched. This "surveillance" of society dictates how the majority of individuals choose to express themselves aesthetically.


One of the risks outlined in a 2004 article by Jerold Abrams is the elimination of differences in favor of universality. This, he argues, will eliminate the ability of individuals to subvert the possibly oppressive, dominant structure of society by way of uniquely expressing themselves externally. Such control over a population would have dangerous implications of tyranny. Yet another consequence of enhancing the human form not only cognitively, but physically, will be the reinforcement of "desirable" traits which are perpetuated by the dominant social structure. [ 162 ]


The tradition of human enhancement originated with the eugenics movement that was once prominent in the biological sciences, and was later  politicized  in various ways. This continuity is especially clear in the case of  Julian Huxley  himself. [ 163 ]


The major transhumanist organizations strongly condemn the  coercion  involved in such policies and reject the  racist  and  classist  assumptions on which they were based, along with the  pseudoscientific  notions that eugenic improvements could be accomplished in a practically meaningful time frame through selective human breeding. [ 164 ]  Instead, most transhumanist thinkers advocate a " new eugenics ", a form of  egalitarian   liberal eugenics . [ 165 ]  In their 2000 book  From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice , non-transhumanist bioethicists Allen Buchanan, Dan Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler have argued that liberal societies have an obligation to encourage as wide an adoption of eugenic enhancement technologies as possible (so long as such policies do not infringe on individuals'  reproductive rights  or exert undue pressures on prospective parents to use these technologies) to maximize  public health  and minimize the inequalities that may result from both natural genetic endowments and unequal access to genetic enhancements. [ 166 ]  Most transhumanists holding similar views nonetheless distance themselves from the term "eugenics" (preferring " germinal choice " or " reprogenetics ") [ 156 ]  to avoid having their position confused with the discredited theories and practices of early-20th-century eugenic movements. [ 167 ]


Health law professor  George Annas  and technology law professor  Lori Andrews  are prominent advocates of the position that the use of these technologies could lead to human- posthuman   caste  warfare. [ 150 ] [ 168 ]


In his 2003 book  Our Final Hour , British  Astronomer Royal   Martin Rees  argues that advanced science and technology bring as much risk of disaster as opportunity for progress. However, Rees does not advocate a halt to scientific activity. Instead, he calls for tighter security and perhaps an end to traditional scientific openness. [ 169 ]  Advocates of the  precautionary principle , such as many in the  environmental movement , also favor slow, careful progress or a halt in potentially dangerous areas. Some precautionists believe that  artificial intelligence  and  robotics  present possibilities of alternative forms of cognition that may threaten human life. [ 170 ]


Transhumanists do not necessarily rule out specific restrictions on emerging technologies so as to lessen the prospect of  existential risk . Generally, however, they counter that proposals based on the precautionary principle are often  unrealistic  and sometimes even counter-productive as opposed to the  technogaian  current of transhumanism, which they claim is both realistic and productive. In his television series  Connections , science historian  James Burke  dissects several views on  technological change , including precautionism and the restriction of  open inquiry . Burke questions the practicality of some of these views, but concludes that maintaining the  status quo  of inquiry and development poses hazards of its own, such as a disorienting rate of change and the depletion of our planet's resources. The common transhumanist position is a pragmatic one where society takes deliberate action to ensure the early arrival of the benefits of safe,  clean ,  alternative technology , rather than fostering what it considers to be  anti-scientific views  and  technophobia .


Nick Bostrom  argues that even barring the occurrence of a singular  global catastrophic event , basic  Malthusian  and evolutionary forces facilitated by technological progress threaten to eliminate the positive aspects of human society. [ 171 ]


One transhumanist solution proposed by Bostrom to counter existential risks is control of  differential technological development , a series of attempts to influence the sequence in which technologies are developed. In this approach, planners would strive to retard the development of possibly harmful technologies and their applications, while accelerating the development of likely beneficial technologies, especially those that offer protection against the harmful effects of others. [ 78 ]


In their 2021 book  Calamity Theory , Joshua Schuster and Derek Woods critique existential risks by arguing against Bostrom’s transhumanist perspective, which emphasizes controlling and mitigating these risks through technological advancements. They contend that this approach relies too much on  fringe science  and speculative technologies and fails to address deeper philosophical and ethical problems about the nature of human existence and its limitations. Instead, they advocate an approach more grounded in secular  existentialist philosophy , focusing on  mental fortitude ,  community resilience , international  peacebuilding , and  environmental stewardship  to better cope with existential risks. [ 5 ]


Although most people focus on the scientific and technological barriers on the road to human enhancement, Robbert Zandbergen argues that contemporary transhumanists' failure to critically engage the cultural current of  antinatalism  is a far bigger obstacle to a posthuman future. Antinatalism is a stance seeking to discourage, restrict, or terminate  human reproduction  to solve existential problems. If transhumanists fail to take this threat to human continuity seriously, they run the risk of seeing the collapse of the entire edifice of radical enhancement. [ 172 ]


Simone and Malcolm Collins , founders of Pronatalist.org, are activists known primarily for their views and advocacy related to a secular and voluntaristic form of  pronatalism , a stance encouraging higher birth rates to reverse  demographic decline  and its negative implications for the viability of modern societies and the possibility of a better future. [ 173 ]  Critical of transhumanism, they have expressed concern that  life extension  would worsen the problem of  gerontocracy , causing toxic imbalances in power. The Collinses lament that  voluntarily childfree  transhumanists who "want to live forever believe they are the epitome of centuries of human cultural and biological evolution. They don’t think they can make kids that are better than them." [ 174 ]


Transhumanism has increasingly been co-opted by  anti-democratic  movements as a common enemy  stereotype . These movements range from  Putin sympathizers  to radical  anti-vaxxers  and  Christian fundamentalists . Critics argue that nonsensical claims often stem from deliberate ignorance, and terms like "Putin sympathizer" or " conspiracy theorist " are used to defame legitimate criticism. [ 175 ]


Political scientists like Markus Linden point out that Putin, in his speeches, argues against the so-called "liberal-globalist American egocentrism" and  cancel culture , which parallels the agitation seen in  alternative media . These discourses also occur on platforms like  Nachdenkseiten ,  Rubikon , and  Compact , where they are presented as analyses of the decline of Western democracy. [ 175 ]


The  propagandistic  use of the term "transhumanism" aims to create a comprehensive  counter-narrative  that unites  right-wing extremists ,  theocratic  groups, and liberals. Transhumanism is portrayed as a threat to traditional values and human nature. These narratives can also be found among ideologues like  Alexander Dugin , who condemns transhumanism as the work of the devil, and Christian fundamentalists who equate it with the denial of traditional values. [ 175 ]


The use of the term "transhumanism" as an ideological rallying point for the  Querfront  is also evident in the fusion of  right-wing ,  left-wing , and libertarian ideas that collectively oppose liberal democracies. This development emphasizes individual conceptions of humanity that are often incompatible with a  pluralistic society . It requires a critical examination of the political implications of transhumanism and its instrumentalization by anti-democratic forces. [ 175 ]


A  transplastomic plant  is a  genetically modified plant  in which  genes  are inactivated, modified or new foreign genes are inserted into the  DNA  of  plastids  like the  chloroplast  instead of nuclear DNA.


Currently, the majority of transplastomic plants are a result of chloroplast manipulation due to poor expression in other  plastids . [ 1 ]  However, the technique has been successfully applied to the  chromoplasts  of  tomatoes . [ 2 ]


Chloroplasts in plants are thought to have originated from an engulfing event of a photosynthetic bacteria ( cyanobacterial ancestor ) by a eukaryote. [ 3 ]  There are many advantages to chloroplast DNA manipulation because of its bacterial origin. For example, the ability to introduce  multiple genes  (operons) in a single step instead of many steps and the simultaneous expression of many genes with its bacterial gene expression system. [ 4 ]  Other advantages include the ability to obtain organic products like  proteins  at a high concentration and the fact that production of these products will not be affected by  epigenetic regulation . [ 5 ]


The reason for product synthesis at high concentrations is because a single plant cell can potentially carry up to 100 chloroplasts. If all these plastids are transformed, all of them can express the introduced foreign  genes. [ 1 ]  This is may be advantageous compared to transformation of the nucleus, because the nucleus typically contains only  one or two copies of the gene . [ 1 ]


The advantages provided by chloroplast DNA manipulation has seen growing interest into this field of research and development, particularly in agricultural and pharmaceutical applications. [ 5 ]  However, there are some limitations in chloroplast DNA manipulation, such as the inability to manipulate  cereal crop  DNA material and poor expression of foreign DNA in non- green plastids as mentioned before. [ 5 ]  In addition, the lack of  post- translational modification  capability like  glycosylation  in plastids may make some human- related protein expression difficult. [ 6 ]  Nevertheless, much progress has been made into plant transplastomics, for example, the production of edible vaccines for  Tetanus  by using a transplastomic  tobacco  plant. [ 7 ]


The first requirement for transplastomic plant generation is to have a suitable  gene construct  that can be introduced into a plastid like a chloroplast in the form of an  E. coli   plasmid  vector. [ 8 ]  There are several key features of a suitable gene cassette including but not limited to ( 1 )  selectable marker  ( 2 ) flanking sequences ( 3 ) gene of interest ( 4 )  promoter sequences  ( 5 )  5' UTR  ( 6 )  3' UTR  ( 7 )  intercistronic elements . [ 9 ]  The selectable marker typically tends to be an antibiotic resistant gene, which would give the plant cell the ability to tolerate being grown on antibiotic containing agar plates. [ 5 ]  Flanking sequences are crucial for introduction of the gene construct at precise predetermined points of the plastid genome through  homologous recombination . [ 4 ]  The gene of interests introduced have many different applications and can range from pest resistance genes to vaccine antigen production. [ 4 ]  Intercistronic elements (IEE) are important for facilitating high levels of gene expression if multiple genes are introduced in the form of an  operon . [ 4 ]  Finally, the 5' UTR and 3' UTR enhances ribosomal binding and increases transcript stability respectively. [ 4 ]


The most common method for plastid transformations is  biolistics : Small gold or tungsten particles are coated with the plasmid vector and shot into young plant cells or plant embryos, penetrating multiple cell layers and into the plastid. [ 8 ]  There will then be a homologous recombination event between the shot plasmid vector and the  plastid's genome , hopefully resulting in a stable insertion of the gene cassette into the plastid. [ 8 ]  Whilst the  transformation  efficiency is lower than in  agrobacterial  mediated transformation, which is also common in plant genetic engineering, particle bombardment is especially suitable for chloroplast transformation. Other transformation methods include the use of  polyethylene glycol  (PEG)- mediated transformation, which involves the removal of the plant  cell wall  in order to expose the  "naked" plant cell  to the foreign genetic material for transformation in the presence of PEG. [ 8 ]  PEG- mediated transformation however, is notoriously time-consuming, very technical and labor-intensive as it requires the removal of the cell wall which is a key protective structural component of the plant cell. [ 10 ]  Interestingly, a paper released in 2018 has described a successful plastid transformation of the chloroplast from the microalgae species  N. oceanica  and  C. reinhardtii  through  electroporation . [ 10 ]  Whilst no study has been attempted yet for plastid transformation of  higher plants  using electroporation, this could be an interesting area of study for the future.


In order to persist and be stably maintained in the cell, a plasmid DNA molecule must contain an  origin of replication , which allows it to be replicated in the cell independently of the  chromosome . When foreign DNA is first introduced to the plant tissue, not all chloroplasts will have successfully integrated the introduced genetic material. [ 5 ]  There will be a mixture of normal and transformed chloroplast within the plant cells. This mix of normal and transformed chloroplasts are defined to be " heteroplasmic " chloroplast population. [ 5 ]  Stable gene expression of the introduced gene requires a " homoplasmic " population of transformed chloroplasts in the plant cells, where all the chloroplasts in the plant cell has successfully integrated the foreign genetic material. [ 5 ]  Typically, homoplasmicity can be achieved and identified through multiple rounds of selection on antibiotics. [ 5 ]  This is where the transformed plant tissue are grown repeatedly on agar plates that contain antibiotics like spectinomycin. [ 5 ]  Only plant cells that have successfully integrated the gene cassette as shown above will be able to express the antibiotic resistance selectable marker and therefore grow normally on agar plates containing antibiotics. [ 5 ]  Plant  tissue  that do not grow normally will have a bleached appearance as the spectinomycin antibiotic inhibits the  ribosomes  in the plastids of the plant cell, thereby preventing maintenance of the chloroplast [ 5 ]  However, as heteroplasmic population of chloroplasts may still be able to grow on agar plates effectively, many rounds of antibiotic selection and regrowth are required to cultivate a plant tissue that is homoplasmic and stable. [ 5 ]  Generation of homoplasmic plant tissue is considered to be a major difficulty in transplastomics and incredibly time-consuming. [ 8 ]


Some plant species such as  Nicotiana tabacum  are more receptive to transplastomics compared to members of the same genus such as  Nicotiana glauca  and  Nicotiana benthamiana . [ 11 ]  An experiment conducted in 2012 highlighted the possibility of facilitating transplastomics for difficult plant species using  grafting . Grafting occurs when two different plants are joined and continue to grow, this technique has been widely employed in agricultural applications and can even occur naturally in the wild. [ 12 ]  A transplastomic  N. tabacum  plant was engineered to have spectinomycin resistance and  GFP fluorescence . [ 11 ]  Whilst the nuclear transgenic plants  N. benthamiana  and  N. glauca  were engineered to have  kanamycin  antibiotic resistance and  YFP fluorescence . [ 11 ]  The transplastomic plant and the nuclear transgenic plants were then grafted unto each other and the grafted tissues were then analysed. [ 11 ]   Fluorescence microscopy  and antibiotic selection on agar plates with both kanamycin and spectinomycin revealed that the grafted plant tissue had both transplastomics and nuclear transgene DNA material. [ 11 ]  This was further confirmed through  PCR  analysis. [ 11 ]  This study highlighted that plastids like the chloroplast are able to pass between cells across graft junctions and result in the  transfer of genetic material  between two different plant cell lines. [ 11 ]  This finding is significant as it provides an alternative pathway for generation of transplastomic plants for species that are not as easily transformed using our current experimental methodology as seen above. [ 11 ]


Inducible expression  systems such as  theoriboswitches  and  pentatricopeptide repeat proteins  have been widely studied in an effort to control and modulate expression of transgene products in transplastomic plants. [ 13 ]  One big advantage in using inducible expression systems is to optimize concentration of transgene protein production. [ 13 ]  For example,  young plants  need to devote energy and resources into growth and development to become mature plants. [ 13 ]   Constitutive expression  of the transgene would therefore be detrimental for plant growth and development, as it takes away valuable energy and resources to express the foreign gene construct instead. [ 13 ]  This would result in a poorly developed transplastomic plant with low product yield. [ 13 ]  Inducible expression expression of the transgene would overcome this limitation and allow the plant to mature fully like a normal  wildtype  plant before it is induced chemically to begin production of the transgene which can then be harvested. [ 13 ]


Genetically modified plants must be safe for the environment and suitable for  coexistence with conventional and organic crops . A major hurdle for traditional nuclear genetically modified crops is posed by the potential  outcrossing  of the  transgene  via pollen movement. Initially it was thought that, plastid transformation, which yields transplastomic plants in which the pollen does not contain the transgene, not only increases biosafety, but also facilitates the coexistence of genetically modified, conventional and organic agriculture. Therefore, developing such crops was a major goal of research projects such as  Co-Extra  and Transcontainer.


However, a study conducted on the  tobacco plant  in 2007 has disproved this theory. Led by Ralph Bock from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Germany, researchers studied genetically modified tobacco in which the transgene was integrated in chloroplasts. [ 14 ]   A transplastomic tobacco plant generated through chloroplast mediated transformation was bred with plants that were male sterile with an untouched chloroplast. [ 14 ]  The transplastomic plants were engineered to have  resistance  to the antibiotic  spectinomycin  and engineered to produce a  green fluorescent protein molecule  (GFP). [ 14 ]  Therefore, it was hypothesized that any offspring produced by from these two lines of tobacco plant should not be able to grow on spectinomycin or be fluorescent, as the genetic material in the chloroplast should not be able to transfer via pollen. [ 14 ]  However, it was found that some of the seeds were resistant to the antibiotic and could germinate on spectinomycin agar plates. [ 14 ]  Calculations showed that 1 out of every million  pollen  grains contained plastid genetic material, which would be significant in an agricultural farm setting. [ 14 ]  Because tobacco has a strong tendency towards self-fertilisation, the reliability of transplastomic plants is assumed to be even higher under field conditions. Therefore, the researchers believe that only one in 100,000,000 GM tobacco plants actually would transmit the transgene via pollen. Such values are more than satisfactory to ensure coexistence. However, for GM crops used in the production of pharmaceuticals, or in other cases in which absolutely no outcrossing is permitted, the researchers recommend the combination of chloroplast transformation with other  biological containment  methods, such as  cytoplasmic male sterility  or transgene mitigation strategies. This study showed that whilst transplastomic plants do not have absolute gene containment, the level of containment is extremely high and would allow for coexistence of conventional and genetically modified agricultural crops. [ 14 ]


There are public concerns regarding a possible transmission of antibiotic resistant genes to unwanted targets including bacteria and weeds. [ 15 ]  As a result of this, technologies have been developed to remove the selectable antibiotic resistance gene marker. One such technology that has been implemented is the  Cre/lox system , where the nuclear encoded Cre recombinase can be placed under control of an  inducible promoter  to remove the antibiotic resistant gene once homoplasmicity has been achieved from the transformation process. [ 16 ]


A recent example of transplastomics in agricultural applications was conferring potato plants protection against the  Colorado potato beetle . [ 17 ]  This beetle is dubbed a "super-pest" internationally because it has gained  resistance  against many  insecticides  and are extremely voracious feeders. [ 17 ]  The beetle is estimated to cause up to US$1.4 million in crop damages annually in Michigan alone. [ 18 ]  A study conducted in 2015 by Zhang utilized transplastomics to introduce  double stranded RNA  producing transgenes into the plastid genome. [ 17 ]  The double stranded RNA confers protection to the transgenic potato plant via a  RNA interference  methodology, where consumption of the plant tissue by the potato beetle would result in  silencing  of key genes required by the beetle for survival. [ 17 ]  There was a high level of protection conferred, the leaves of the transplastomic potato plant were mostly unconsumed when exposed to the adult beetles and larvae. [ 17 ]  The investigation also revealed an 83% killing efficacy for  larvae  that consumed the leaves of the transplastomic plant. [ 17 ]  This study highlights that as pests gain resistance to traditional chemical insecticides, the use of transplastomics to deliver RNAI- mediated crop protection strategies could become increasingly viable in the future. [ 17 ]


Another notable transplastomics based approach is the production of  artemisinic acid  through transplastomic tobacco plants which is the precursor molecule that can be used to produce  artemisinin . [ 19 ]   Artemisinin- based combination therapy  is the preferred and recommended treatment of choice by the  WHO  (World Health Organization) against  malaria . [ 19 ]  Artemisinin is naturally derived from the plant  Artemisia annua , however, only low concentrations of artemisinin in the plant can be harvested naturally and there is currently an insufficient supply for the global demand. [ 19 ]  A study conducted in 2016 led by Fuentes, managed to introduce the artemisininic acid production pathway into the chloroplast of  N. tabacum  through a  biolistics  approach before using their novel synthetic biology tool COSTREL ( co mbinatorial  s upertransformation of  t ransplastomic  r ecipient  l ines) to generate a transplastomic  N. tabacum  plant that had a very high arteminisin acid yield. [ 20 ]  This study illustrates the potential benefits of transplastomics for  bio-pharmaceutical  applications in the future.


Despite transplastomics being non- viable for non green plastids at the moment, plant transplastomics work done on the chloroplast genome has proved extremely valuable. [ 4 ]  The applications for chloroplast transformation includes and is not limited to agriculture, bio-fuel and bio-pharmaceuticals. [ 4 ]  This is because of a few factors, which include ease of multiple transgene expression in the form of operons and high copy number expression. [ 4 ]  The study of transplastomics still remains a work in progress. More research and development is still required to improve other areas such as transplastomics in non- green plastids, inability to transform  cereal crops  through transplastomics and a way to circumvent the lack of  glycosylation  capability in the chloroplast. [ 4 ]  Further improvements in this field of study will only give us a potential robust biotechnological route in many applications important in our day-to-day lives.


Aaron James Traywick [ 1 ]  (December 19, 1989 – April 29, 2018) was an American businessman and  life extension  activist in the  transhumanism  and  biohacking  communities. He sought to develop  gene therapies [ 2 ]  to make inexpensive treatments available for incurable conditions such as  AIDS  and the  herpes simplex virus . [ 3 ] [ 4 ]  His lack of any medical training and his unconventional methods—such as broadcasting an associate injecting himself with an "untested experimental gene therapy", then later doing the same to himself in an onstage public demonstration—drew widespread criticism.


Aaron Traywick was a resident of  Elmore, Alabama , and a graduate of  Stanhope Elmore High School . [ 5 ]  He graduated from the  University of Montevallo  in Alabama with a degree in interdisciplinary studies; he held no background in the sciences or formal training in clinical medicine. [ 6 ]


From January 2016 to his termination in July 2016, he worked to advocate investment in radical approaches towards  anti-aging  at the  Global Healthspan Policy Institute  started by his cousin. [ 7 ] [ 8 ]  In 2017 he founded Ascendance Biomedical in Washington, D.C., with the mission to "make cutting edge biomedical technologies available for everyone".


Traywick's self-administered  do it yourself  homemade gene therapies received substantial media attention. [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 3 ] [ 12 ] [ 4 ] [ 2 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] [ 19 ] [ 20 ]  In October 2017, Ascendance Biomedical shared a live broadcast of Traywick's associate Tristan Roberts injecting himself with an "untested experimental gene therapy" for HIV over Facebook's live-streaming service. [ 21 ]  During a presentation at the February 2018  BodyHacking Con  in Austin, Texas, Traywick injected himself with something he referred to at the time as a "research compound".  In a later conversation with BBC reporters, he spoke of it as a "treatment" for Herpes virus, a term with a specific meaning subject to FDA regulations. [ 22 ]   Shortly after the event, the  FDA  issued a statement on the inherent dangers of this approach to untested gene editing, without mentioning the company by name: [ 23 ]


The FDA is aware that gene therapy products intended for self-administration and "do it yourself" kits to produce gene therapies for self-administration are being made available to the public. The sale of these products is against the law. FDA is concerned about the safety risks involved. Consumers are cautioned to make sure that any gene therapy they are considering has either been approved by FDA or is being studied under appropriate regulatory oversight.


At the time of his death, Traywick was planning a  CRISPR  gene therapy trial for the treatment of lung cancer in Tijuana, Mexico, [ 24 ] [ 25 ]  and served as managing director for Inovium Rejuvenation, [ 26 ]  which was conducting pre-enrollment for FDA-approved trials in several US locations to reverse menopause, rejuvenate ovaries, restore fertility, and bring hormone levels back in line with those found in youth. [ 27 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ]


He is featured as a subject in the 2020  Showtime  documentary  Citizen Bio , directed by  Trish Dolman . [ 30 ]  He is also a subject in the limited  Netflix  series  Unnatural Selection . [ 31 ]


On April 29, 2018, Traywick was found dead in a  sensory deprivation isolation tank , or "float pod," at a float spa in Washington, D.C., aged 28. [ 32 ] [ 33 ] [ 34 ]  His body was discovered after spa staff noticed that he did not leave the float room after his appointment time had ended and the tank had automatically drained. [ 35 ]


A spokesperson for the spa told news media that drug paraphernalia was found among Traywick's belongings, though police did not confirm this at the time. [ 35 ]  Traywick's autopsy, reported on in June 2018, concluded that he died from drowning; the drug  ketamine  was also found in his system. Ketamine, a  dissociative anesthetic , is sometimes used as a  recreational drug . [ 36 ]


The  Uruz Project  had the goal of  breeding back  the extinct  aurochs  ( Bos p. primigenius ).  Uruz  is the old  Germanic  word for aurochs. The Uruz Project was initiated in 2013 by the True Nature Foundation [ 1 ]  and presented at TEDx DeExtinction, a day-long conference [ 2 ]   organised by the  Long Now Foundation  with the support of  TED  and in partnership with  National Geographic Society , [ 3 ]  to showcase the prospects of bringing extinct species back to life. The  de-extinction  movement itself is spearheaded by the  Long Now Foundation .


Technically,  Bos primigenius  is not wholly extinct. The wild subspecies  B. p. primigenius ,  indicus  and  africanus  are, but the species is still represented by  domestic cattle . Most, or all, of the relevant Aurochs characteristics, and therefore the underlying  DNA , needed to "breed back" an aurochs-like cattle type can be found in  B. p. taurus . Domestic cattle originated in the middle east, and there also has been  introgression  of European aurochs into domestic cattle in ancient times. [ 4 ]  The Uruz Project's goal is to collect all relevant data and reunite scattered aurochs characteristics, and thus DNA, in one animal.


Ecological restoration  projects cannot be complete without bringing back those key elements that help shape and reshape wild landscapes. The European aurochs ( Bos p. primigenius ) was a large and long-horned wild  bovine   herbivore  that existed from the most western tip of  Europe  until  Siberia  in present-day  Russia . Aurochs have played a major role in  human history . They are often depicted in  rock-art , including the famous, well-conserved  cave paintings  made by  Cro-Magnon  people in the  Lascaux Caves , estimated to be 17,300 years old. Aurochs and other large animals portrayed in  Paleolithic  cave art were often hunted for food.  Hunting  and  habitat loss  caused by  humans , including  agricultural  land conversion, caused the aurochs to go extinct in 1627, when the last individual, a female, died in  Poland ’s  Jaktorów  Forest. [ 5 ]


The aurochs is one of the  keystone species  that is missing in Europe. Their  grazing  and  browsing  patterns, trampling of the soil and  faeces  had a profound impact on the  vegetation  and  landscapes  it inhabited. Grazing results in a greater variety of  plant species , structures and  ecological niches  in a landscape that benefit both  biodiversity  and  production . [ 6 ]   Megaherbivores  like the aurochs also controlled  vegetation  development. [ 7 ]


The Uruz Project aims to breed an aurochs-like breed of cattle from a limited number of carefully selected primitive cattle breeds with known Aurochs characteristics. The project uses  Sayaguesa cattle ,  Maremmana primitiva  or  Hungarian grey cattle ,  Chianina  and  Watusi . The genome of the Aurochs has been completely reconstructed and serves as the baseline for the reconstruction of the Aurochs. [ 4 ] [ 8 ]