"I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment...” - Friedrich Nietzche, “ Thus Spoke Zarathustra”
This just in, after an ongoing study conducted by some of the world's most well-known intellectuals over the past 200,000 years, we are finally able to analyze the data concerning the inevitable fate of our species. The evidence that has led to the following claim is overwhelming and empirical, and has pushed us to no other conclusion than: We suck, and we probably won't be around much longer. Since the inception of written history, we have found a recurring pattern exclusive to our species. The pattern is as follows: Community, War, Dominion, Reproduction, Oppression, Innovation, Revolution, Repeat.
What has struck our highly qualified research team by surprise is the sheer lack of attention paid to this pattern by the majority of our young species. Understandably, this recurring theme may have played a critical role in the development of human civilization at the beginning of our journey. However, at this point in our story, this is no longer sustainable. But before we propose out a solution, a little back story is in order. In order to make survival a foreseeable outcome, man developed agrarian communities to replace the insufficient and inconvenient hunter-gatherer societal model. Inevitably, this new form of community resulted in the formation of hierarchies, where the power lied in the means of producing the resources vital to the survival of the entire community. For better or worse, these power structures created stability, and stability led to comfort for those in the good graces of the ruling class. This comfort led to reproduction, which inevitably led to a need for expansion.
This need for expansion required the ruling classes to instigate wars with other agrarian communities, which resulted in the conquering community oppressing the conquered. This led the oppressed and their sympathizers to come up with new ideas for the way things should be run and ended in the marginalized (sometimes) overthrowing the ruling class, and thus, becoming the new elite. And so the cycle continued until our species spread to all corners of the earth. The problem is, we continue to repeat this cycle, and it is killing us. As mentioned above, the innovation of a new societal model will only continue the cycle. This has led our highly qualified research team to conclude that it isn't the societal model's we adopt that are the problem: It is the fact that we are still human.
Enter the collection of thoughts and ideas known as Transhumanism, the belief that humanity in its current form is only one step on the evolutionary ladder, and just as we evolved from vague representations of our current selves, we may one day become something greater than human. In many ways, Transhumanism is not a set of beliefs, but a governing principle applying to the ongoing and unending development of a species, up until extinction, of course. It is an observation that in order to survive, a species must sooner or later adapt, and it is a belief that we too, can overcome ourselves as a species. It is also a principle, that as individuals we should persistently strive to overcome ourselves in everyday life. Transhumanism is a set of ideas that exceed self-improvement, it promotes self-mastery and growth with the ultimate goal of overcoming our very humanity.
In light of our proposal, our highly qualified research team has proposed to begin a regular series of articles on the ways mankind seeks to overcome itself, from cyborgs and occultists, to Buddhist monks, superheroes, and eugenics programs. For better or worse, we will pick apart the entire idea of Transhumanism and break it down into small, digestible chunks for your reading pleasure. It is our hope that you will join us in our quest to ending the tragedy that is human nature, and assist us in becoming something greater.
