This is your Brain on Transhumanism

I've had a fascination with Transhumanism ever since I've heard of the concept - the notions that humans can and should use technology to transcend natural human limitations, of both the human body and the human mind.

I do not really consider myself a full-fledged Transhumanist - while having a longer life span would be nice (as would be other generic "health improvement" technologies), all in all I am fairly happy with how my mind and body currently function. Still, I try to keep an eye on Transhumanist technological developments - after all, you never know if something useful might come from it.

And one such field of technology that not only deserves plenty of attention but is also a matter of current concern rather than a far-future fancy - alterations of how the human brain works.

Such tools are admittedly still crude, but they do exist. Almost everyone has taken stimulants at some point in their lives, if only in the form of caffeine. Then there are recreational drugs like alcohol, cigarettes, or cannabis which also have significant effects on the brain (if they hadn't, nobody would bother with them). Then there is the increasing number of "performance-enhancing" drugs, anti-depressants, and others like Ritalin which have varying levels of efficiency and side effects.

And these are just the deliberate attempts to alter our cognitive functions. Take parasites, for instance - do you really love your cats, or is this just your toxoplasma speaking? And is there are a meaningful difference between the answers?

Then there is the matter of learning - every time you come across new information, your brain will rewire itself to accommodate this information. While this is usually a good thing, it can have some rather nasty side effects - for example, if you are constantly inundated with stories that a particular group is violent or otherwise not to be trusted, then your subconscious will make note of that and influence your decisions and behavior even though what is commonly referred to as the "consciousness" believes itself to be free of prejudice and bias (on that topic I strongly recommend Cordelia Fine's A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives).

So the way our brains, our minds operate is constantly changed and altered - sometimes by our choosing, but often not. But the future will likely offer plenty of new technological approaches for changing the way our minds work - and that is one of the core promises of Transhumanism.

So, if you had the opportunity to change your brain, would you trust yourself to make such decisions wisely? And if you do, what kinds of changes would you ask for without fearing for the loss of your Self - of what makes you "you"?