Abdeldayem Hassanein

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Editor’s Note: It is extremely important that supporters of transhumanism understand the opinions of peoples from every nation. I, Kimberly Forsythe, decided to reach out to people from other cultures and asked them to give me their opinions on the topic of transhumanist tech. My goal is to better understand why some may object to the idea based on various cultural differences.

As I receive the essays, I will publish them. My hope is that we can work together to build more international bridges and achieve progress that works for as many people as possible. This first essay was written by Abdeldayem Hassanein, an MD and medical writer from Egypt.

He was already familiar with some aspects of transhumanism, especially the areas of bionics and nanotechnology. I asked him to write a piece from his point of view. Here is Abdeldayem’s essay in its entirety.

~ Kimberly Forsythe, Member, United States Transhumanist Party, December 4, 2020

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“A person can never be broken. Our built environment, our technologies, are broken and disabled.”

~ Hugh Herr

Hugh Herr, a victim of leg amputation, said the above sentence during a presentation where he expressed his opinion about bionics. Bionics are prostheses that combine the qualities of both technology and biology. The bionic leg has three attachment layers to the human body: mechanical, biological, and electrical. Joints are supplemented with a special metallic blade sensitive to body voltage. With voltage zero, the blade relaxes while with 1-degree voltage, the blade stiffens, enabling the handicapped to walk without support. The equipment is attached to the nerve ending at the site of amputation. Hugh was injured by frostbite after falling while he was climbing a mountain. [3]

Bionics are categorized under the “Human+” outlook, a philosophy encouraging innovation and updating. Yet, some nations hate some aspects of this philosophy like its seeking for immortality on Earth, age conversion, as well as its experimentation with genetic materials.

In 2017, eye bionics appeared. An elder patient with an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, with decades of blindness, all of a sudden shouted in happiness after a surgical operation where sensors were implanted in his eye retinae and were combined with eyeglasses supplemented with a camera. He found himself capable of differentiating between orange trees and apple trees. He could watch TV but without color discrimination. [4]

Scientists in the Biotechnology department in one bionic center spent 200 days evaluating the mode of manufacture of a leg for a female dancer  who lost her leg after a blast injury in Afghanistan. She could successfully return to her beloved dancing. [2]

Hand prostheses previously were only cosmetic. With bionics, however, the amputated person can play with cards, open a door with a key, shake the hand, count the currency precisely, and drive a car. It was a dramatic moment when a pretty girl of 20 years old, who was born mute due to congenital anomalies in her ears, started to hear after implantation of metallic sensors near the eight cranial nerves – devices which provided her with sound magnifiers. [1] [5]

It appears that science is a double-edged weapon. Aspirin, the first drug lowering fever, was abused during the Spanish Influenza pandemic and caused a lot of toxicities from an overdose. Thalidomide, a drug supposed to calm pregnant ladies, was an investigational drug under the supervision of German and American researchers. The German regulatory body was in hurry to pass Stage 3 of evaluation and allowed German citizens to use thalidomide while pregnant, while the American regulators preferred to postpone its usage for further evaluation. The result was the birth in Germany of a couple of babies with serious congenital anomalies called Phaecomalia, where the baby lacks both arms and legs.

Transhumanists are not always welcomed. The so-called Haredi Jews in Jerusalem are conservative to the degree that they disallow TV inside the home, allow Internet only at work, and disallow couples meeting except in the dark. Such a style makes them resistant to many activities of the Transhumanists. [7]

Some historians think that science alone is not sufficient to lead humans to utopia. Also, the classic way of research, including meta-analysis, systematic review, and even experimental studies would not be sufficient to alleviate all human sufferings. Scientists made a lot of efforts in search for COVID-19 vaccine, while a only little effort was devoted to investigating the disappearance of half a trillion bees inside the USA during only the past 14 years, a phenomenon is known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Bees are required for forest pollination and hence may help reduce ground-level ozone pollution by supporting forests that absorb ground-level ozone. Without this effect, the phenomenon of global warming may be accelerated.

However, there is some hope in regard to adoption of emerging technologies throughout the world. For example, nanotechnology supplies gold nanoparticles to treat cancer of the female genital tract, and the materials are considered cheap. Some hospitals use nano-painting due to its bactericidal effects. [8]

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[1] Connolly, Christine. “Prosthetic hands from touch bionics.” Industrial Robot: An International Journal 35, no. 4 (2008): 290-293.

[2] Rouse, Elliott J., Nathan C. Villagaray-Carski, Robert W. Emerson, and Hugh M. Herr. “Design and testing of a bionic dancing prosthesis.” PloS one 10, no. 8 (2015): e0135148.

[3] Herr, Hugh M., and Alena M. Grabowski. “Bionic ankle-foot prosthesis normalizes walking gait for persons with leg amputation.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279, no. 1728 (2012): 457-464.

[4] Coffey, Valerie C. “Vision accomplished: the bionic eye.” Optics and Photonics News 28, no. 4 (2017): 24-3.

[5] Kral, Andrej, and Thomas Lenarz. “How the brain learns to listen: deafness and the bionic ear.” Neuroforum 21, no. 1 (2015): 21-28.

[6] Kribs-Zaleta, Christopher M., and Christopher Mitchell. “Modeling colony collapse disorder in honeybees as a contagion.” Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering 11, no. 6 (2014): 1275.

[7] Friedman, Menachem. “The Haredi (ultra-orthodox) society: Sources, trends and processes.” Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies (1991).

[8] Naddafi, K., H. Jabbari, and M. Chehrehei. “Effect of nanosilver painting on control of hospital air-transmitted microorganisms.” Journal of Environmental Health Science & Engineering 7, no. 3 (2010): 223-228.