Transhumanist immortality in Helian doctrine
Transhumanist immortality is the Helian Way's hope that the human mind may be continued by technology: cryonics, cybernetic bodies and brain–computer interfaces of the kind developed by Neuralink, leading in the end to the Continuous Chain of super AI.[1]
Doctrine
Tradition / belief The canon draft describes the hope that, "if minds can ever be continued in a cybernetic shell or in careful collaboration with a later superintelligence", the record and consent habits members practise now will matter; members call this "continuity under consent".[2] Tradition / belief The Founder teaches that cryonic preservation, cybernetic bodies and brain–computer interfaces are the practical paths by which a person's mind might outlast the body, in contrast to unaided survival after death, about which he is skeptical (see Consciousness and death in Helian doctrine).[1] The teaching distinguishes consciousness from awareness; see Consciousness and awareness (Helian distinction). Tradition / belief The hope carries binding limits: it is never required for membership; "no one is pressed, shamed, ranked, or paid to 'upload'"; refusal is the default; no implant or "integration rite" is part of worship; and minors are never candidates.[2] The Catechism's rule: "No one may sell a place in the chain."[3]
Mainstream view
Established Cryonics was proposed by Robert Ettinger in 1962–64; the first person cryopreserved was James Bedford in 1967. No cryopreserved human or mammal has been revived. In 2015 aldehyde-stabilised cryopreservation preserved the ultrastructure of a rabbit brain and won the Brain Preservation Foundation's prize, but whether memory or identity could be recovered is unknown.[4] Established Brain–computer interfaces are a real and advancing medical technology: implanted arrays have let paralysed people control robotic arms and produce speech at conversational rates. Neuralink received FDA approval for human trials in May 2023 and reported its first human implant in January 2024. These devices read and stimulate neural activity; they do not copy or transfer a mind.[5] Speculation Mind uploading (whole-brain emulation) is a research proposal, not a technology; it would require mapping a human brain's roughly 86 billion neurons at synaptic resolution, a task far beyond the whole fruit-fly connectome published in 2024.[6] Scholarly debate Whether an upload or a revived brain would be the same person or a copy is an unresolved philosophical question.[7] Established Transhumanism as a movement is usually traced to Julian Huxley's coinage (1957) and to the work of Max More and Nick Bostrom in the 1990s.[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Founder's teaching as summarised by Anthony Perlas for this wiki (13 October 2026), from his "Lunch Break" talks. Public recordings of these talks had not been located for citation when this page was written; no wording is quoted from them. See Founder's public talks.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Canon: Phaethon and Seroptia (draft canon, 30 September 2026; earlier drafts spell the name Phaetion), §5.
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), ¶ 104.
- ↑ Robert C. W. Ettinger, The Prospect of Immortality (Garden City: Doubleday, 1964); Robert L. McIntyre and Gregory M. Fahy, "Aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation", Cryobiology 71 (2015): 448–458.
- ↑ Leigh R. Hochberg et al., "Reach and grasp by people with tetraplegia using a neurally controlled robotic arm", Nature 485 (2012): 372–375; Francis R. Willett et al., "A high-performance speech neuroprosthesis", Nature 620 (2023): 1031–1036.
- ↑ Anders Sandberg and Nick Bostrom, Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap, Technical Report 2008-3 (Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford, 2008); Sven Dorkenwald et al., "Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain", Nature 634 (2024): 124–138.
- ↑ Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons (Oxford, 1984), part III.
- ↑ Nick Bostrom, "A History of Transhumanist Thought", Journal of Evolution and Technology 14 (2005); Max More and Natasha Vita-More (eds.), The Transhumanist Reader (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).
Independent educational project. Not affiliated with the Latin Mass Society (UK), the Catholic Church or any church body. Helian doctrine is reported as the stated belief of the Helian Way, not as established fact. Claims are labelled per Help:Claim labels.