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Wealthy tech investor and futurist Herbert Sim claims a new mutant race of humans could be coming within the next five years. He says his new startup is working on “upgrading” humanity by turning them into transhumans.
“Transhumanism can help to extend your life for 500 years and then it’s amazing to think what we can achieve,” Sim told DailyMail.com. “Humanity has now reached a point where we are at a crossroads and we’re trying to accept technology into our lives to enhance our lifestyles.”
He added that his tech start-up is working on how to upgrade people’s brains using a helmet that reads brainwaves.
“All of this technology is here to help humans transcend and live longer,” Sim said. “These are possible superpowers that humans can have through the use of genetic technology.”
But, what if you don’t want to be turned into a mutant? Too bad.
“The humans that are left over, they will not be able to contribute to society as effectively as these transhumans, and this is when humanity will then become obsolete,” he said.
Herbert Sim also added, “At the moment, lots of people have only seen this technology in films and see it as a downfall but I believe it’s our redemption. The way I see it is that technology and science are here to empower humans the same way medicines and phones are here to make our lives better.”
He is far from alone in thinking that transhumans are coming. Several futurists think humans will eventually become cyborgs, or bionic hybrids, with downloadable brains by the year 2100.
Futurist and transhumanist Zoltan Istvan claimed in 2022 that “humans are already on the way to soon heading down to body shops or supermarkets to upgrade themselves.”
Istvan also thinks that in order for humans to survive we will be forced to become mutants, or transhumans.
“I think an AI that’s as smart as humans will be the biggest advance, and that will probably happen in 25 years or less. But the bigger issue is then how much smarter that AI becomes than us,” he said. “I suspect within a few years of its inception, it will already be thousands of times smarter than us, then eventually millions of times more intelligent by 2100.
“We must attempt to merge with this AI before it becomes too smart, or humans will be totally left behind, and the planet will belong to AI, not to us.”
He also warned, much like Herbert Sim, that those who don’t do so will be left behind, potentially creating a two-tier society. That, unfortunately, could occur if society evolves to a point where the rich become advanced transhumans, or bionic hybrids, and the poor have to fend for themselves in a real-world dystopia.