Page - 46 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

46 | Claudia Setzer www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 35–47 Moravec,24 have visualised complete freedom from the body, most thinkers seem to be in the camp that individual humans will remain a “mixed reality” of physical body and technological enhancement. We can easily see the potential ethical problems with enhanced uses of technol- ogy to extend human functioning on both small and large scales. Totalitarian regimes might seek to create superhumans. Definitions of “normal” may be too restrictive, as for example, when the use of cochlear implants is understood by some in the deaf community as assuming their culture is deficient. Benefits of enhancement are likely to be distributed unequally. Distortion can be a problem when we “go large” if we consider the de-individuation that occurs and breaks down inhibitions. Efficiency of communication technology means that hate, racism, and anti-Semitism can reach a mass audience.25 Online bullying has driven some to despair. We also face the prob- lem of simple overload, which reduces meaning. Jaron Lanier suggests that “the hive turns against personhood” and “small brains may have saved humanity from an ear- lier outbreak of meaninglessness”.26 We cannot, however, reject the body-machine future because most of us already are a mixed reality of body and technology. Who would give up their eyeglasses or hearing aids? Who would reject a pacemaker that gives many more years of life? Who would (or could) step out of the global network without losing opportunities to know and see others? Eiesland shows that technology allows the disabled more agency and interaction with the world, thus withholding it is unethical. But this truth applies to all of us, because we are all limited by our bodily capacities. Transhumanists profess a range of worldviews, including atheist, humanist, and religious. The gospel author was profoundly religious, familiar with God’s promises in the Hebrew Bible, which he believed were fulfilled in Jesus. John’s gospel illuminates the role of the senses in answering the human longing to end separation. Body and spirit are part of an open, fluctuating reality, as a certain porousness exists between heaven and earth, present and future, human and divine. His understanding sets the senses to work to expand human possibility. As we continue to enhance our senses via technology, perhaps we will “have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). 24 Moravec 1997. 25 See Foxman/Wolf 2013. 26 Lanier 2011, 53; 174.