REVIEW BY
ELUEMELEM, Frank N (PhD Cde)
ON
THE TRANSHUMAN WORLD AND ITS FEARS: A Fearological Guide for the Developing Countries
WRITTEN BY
MICHAEL BASSEY ENEYO
The concept of trans-humanism seems not to be an emerging philosophical field of study in the academic research domain. Michael Bassey Eneyo, a well-known fearologist, in this novel book of his; titled “The Transhuman World And Its Fears; A fearological Guide For The Developing Countries” juxtaposes the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of technological advancements with the fearological thoughts that he brought to bare. He x-rays and analyses the challenges and benefits of the complex advancement in science and technology with respect to their effects on the humanoid species within our visible universe that may likely exist in an envisioned world of super-intelligent agents such as robots, expert systems, and their likes.
This book, by Michael Bassey Eneyo analyses the likely degrees of fear that may bedevil the human species in the universe due to the trans-humanism agenda.
Michael Bassey Eneyo, in his philosophical thoughts, took a deep dive into an enormous conflagration of topical issues already eroding and devastating man’s natural domicile and way of doing things; bringing man into what I call the disruptive era; arising from human-machine interaction which is in relation to fundamental psychological theories of human behaviour and persuasive technology.
Trans-humanism, in a nutshell, is the resultant effect of complex advancements in science and technology with the deliberate intention to help humans overcome the prevailing challenges of their physical and social environments; thereby making life easier and smarter. In a bid to create these multi-faceted challenge-overcoming possibilities; myriads of new, higher and deeper problems are created for man with various degrees of fears and disadvantages.
Trans-humanism is a philosophical movement that advocates and predicts the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that are able to greatly enhance longevity, mood, and cognitive abilities. These possibilities can be made manifest through the use of artificial intelligence; a high-level complex advancement in computer science and technology.
Michael Bassey Eneyo in this book, particularly in chapter one, took time to explain the historical background of trans-humanism philosophy with respect to Julian Huxley’s work in 1957; which was a resolve to continue the theory that supports human evolution; by teaching that human evolution can also be technology and society driven. Michael Bassey Eneyo enunciates that trans-humanism is one of the 21st century philosophies that advocate the use of science and technology in an attempt to overcome human limitations; in areas of the longevity of life and reduction in human sufferings. From my intellectual evaluation, I am truly convinced that the extra-sensory perception of the author as expressed in this book is highly optimistic with respect to his philosophical and fearological prowess of thoughts about artificial intelligence concepts which he sees as what will be one of the major causes of envisioned trans-human world.
Talking about artificial intelligence (AI), it can be described, in a nutshell, as the branch of computer science that is used to make computer machines behave like humans using fuzzy logic and heuristic programming; otherwise known as “the rule of the thumb”. There are several components or branches of Artificial Intelligence, namely; expert system development, robotics, artificial neural network, speech recognition, natural language processing, machine vision, deep learning, and machine learning, etc.
Expert system development is the branch of AI that makes use of the knowledge of experts on a machine, say computer machine, to achieve definite tasks that are even beyond human limits. It has three major components known as knowledge base, inference engine, and user interface. The knowledge base consists of both necessary data and knowledge of experts in the field where the expert system is to be deployed.
The Inference engine takes care of all the programmable logic arrays and heuristic application programming interfaces (heuristic APIs).
The user interface makes reference to the concept of human-computer interaction (HCI) and persuasive technology strategies deployed into the machine according to Fogg’s Behavioural Model (FBM), Harri-Oinas Kukkonem Model, and Robert Cialdini Model of Interaction Designs. It is pertinent to note that all AI systems are tested before deployment using Turing Test as postulated by Alan Turing. A.I testing may solve some of the ethical issues of trans-humanism.
Michael Bassey Eneyo’s philosophical thoughts of fear and fearology from chapter six through chapter seven of this book vocalizes the workings of fear in humans and exposition of the fear territory. He went further to explain the importance of fear and how fear can be used as a tool to manage the problems of the envisioned world of trans-humanism. In his opinion and thought; fear would be very useful in moderating the future world if attention is paid to knowing how it functions in shaping and molding human actions as seen in chapter nine.
The envisioned world of trans-humanism is in congruence with a concept in engineering thermodynamics called “perpetual working machine (PWM) of its first kind”. PWM is an ideal machine with 100% efficiency but may never be realised in this visible universe due to friction, air resistance, and other negating factors. The mere fact that humans live in an enclosed space called universe with various dimensions of energy inter-conversions at different levels and how they relate to matter (in this case man, who is the epicentre of any definite body of organised knowledge and philosophical thoughts). Primordial studies of an enclosed system showed that a lot of reactions and bombardments happen because one matter must interact with another matter at different energy levels in relation to variations in temperature, pressure, distance, and time. Every enclosed system is affected by itself and its surrounding known as “environment of system”.
The big bang theory postulates that our visible creation/universe emanated from a point of low enthalpy to a high enthalpy state. This is in consonance with the philosophical thoughts of trans-humanism expressed by Eneyo in this novel book of his. It is pertinent to note that enthalpy simply means the degree of disorderliness of a system.
It is therefore important to say, at this juncture, that the whole concepts of engineering thermodynamics, energy inter-conversions, the big bang theory, wave-particle duality/paradox of light, quantum mechanics, Le’Chatelle’s Principle, Schrodinger wave law Equation, Ascholli-Azillar Principles, Cauchi-Rannian Integral Equation, Libnitz Inequalities, Furier’s series, random number series, fibonacchi series and theory of spontaneous generation show that the universe where humans dwell has been in continuous and contentious disorderliness.
The finesse, dexterity, intellectual prowess, and pretty good juxtaposition of transhumanism and fearism philosophies and concepts as expressed and interrelated in this book would go along away to helping the government of nations as a guide to national legislation and governance.
I, hereby truly and strongly, recommend this book for heads of government and academic scholars at different levels for consideration in research and development. This book is specifically recommended as a decision support system (DSS) for programmers, artificial intelligence, and neural network experts, scientists, technologists, psychologists, philosophers, and religious leaders at all levels. Directors General and Chief executive officers (CEOs) of companies and business systems are not left out as this book can play a major role in decision making, policy reformation, and information dissemination.
ELUEMELEM, Frank N
S/W Engineer,
Product Interaction Designer and
Persuasive Technology Advocate.
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