Transhumanism and the Cure for Suffering

Steve Balch explores possible outcomes of an Artificial Intelligence that is meant to reduce human suffering but that is also devoid of the genetic “leash” of reproduction—“breaking the gene’s dominion over the quality of lived experience.” Perhaps an ersatz heaven on earth will emerge, Balch avers, but the greater likelihood is that AI will treat us “as collateral damage in whatever global makeover the intelligent machines may eventually oversee.”