Some people today envision a future where human beings will have evolved beyond our bodies to a super artificially intelligent posthuman that may or may not inhabit a body (biological or robotic). They see the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) as a dream come true and they want to encourage and support AI so that AI can free us from our biological constraints and usher in a utopia. Others, transhumanists, see AI as a tool for us to enhance our human limitations and incorporate AI into a cyborg-like utopian future. These transhumanists also want to encourage and support AI with a utopian future in mind. And many others see AI as only an important tool for business and other uses. How should we see and deal with AI in our lives today?
Transhumans or cyborgs are here today. People today with pacemakers, advanced prosthetics, cochlear implants, or other technological implants can be considered real-live cyborgs. They may not be like the Six Million Dollar Man from that old TV show who had superhuman capabilities, but they do have technological enhancements. And I also would argue that it is not much different than the basic tools we use today. Smart phones seem to almost be body parts for some people, but even a simple lever enhances our capabilities. So in some ways, we have been enhancing our abilities since Adam and Eve, and God started the technology enhancements with the technology of clothing (Genesis 3:21).
Today’s hype is all about enhancing our brain power with AI. Will that make us all cyborgs? Will that lead us to “evolve” beyond our biological selves to this posthuman future? Technology has always changed society. Unfortunately we do not always see the downsides of new technology. Social media is here to stay and it can be a good way to stay in contact with people. However, social media is also addictive and can create echo chambers of like thinking. AI has already been shown to be addictive when it becomes a companion. We need to evaluate the new technology, like AI, to make certain it is a good tool for us. You need to figure out what the cost of this new technology is.
- Technology has a tendency to isolate, so does this technology help or hinder social relationships?
- In making life easier in one part of your life, does this technology make another part of your life more difficult?
- Does this technology make life easier for one segment of society at a cost to another segment of society?
- Does this technology satisfy a felt need while costing you some real needs?
You need to evaluate any new technology. One may need to not use this technology if the cost is too high, or to limit its use to prevent addictions and harm to others. What is the cost of AI today? What will be the cost tomorrow when AI is much more powerful? How will it change society? How for the better and how for the worse? These are questions to ask and to decide what we can do and whether this is a technology that is good to use or not.
Note I only explored the posthuman future from an AI superintelligence viewpoint. Others see the posthuman future with biologically modified humans to be like elves, dwarves, dog-people, cat-people, vampires, and the like. This view also aims to free us from our biological constraints by modifying them.
As Christians, we know who we are and whose we are (Galatians 2:20). We have a God who loves us (1John 4:19), became human for us (John 1:1,14), and died for us (Romans 5:6-8). We are sons and daughters of the Heavenly King (2 Corinthians 6:18). We are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), so we are not constrained by our biology, because it is God who formed us (Psalm 139:13-16). We are who we are in order to serve him by serving others (Ephesians 2:10). Transhumanism and Posthumanism is all about using technology to become like God (Genesis 11:4). We are not God.
Let me leave you with this quote from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg from a podcast (found in this AP article). “When people in the tech industry talk about building this one true AI, it’s almost as if they think they’re creating God or something.”
This post was inspired in part by the article “Resisting a Posthuman Future” by C. Ben Mitchell, found in the Summer 2025 edition of the Concordia Journal on page 21.
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The AI idealism in our culture reflects not only the rugged and frequently prideful independence of Western individualism that insists we will eventually succeed and transcend on our own without any external help from (or accountability to) anyone else, thank you very much … but it goes even further in its idealism and attempts to transcend our very mortal selves.
Christians already know that’s simply not possible without the Holy Spirit and God’s guidance and empowerment. Jesus assured us 2000 years ago that “Without me, you can do nothing.” He knows in infinitely greater detail than we do how he made us and what limits he designed us to function in and live under. He not only knows us better than we know ourselves, but he also knows far better than we ever will what all the external natural and supernatural forces are that can oppose, deceive, and destroy us. He knows all our physical and moral weaknesses, is intimately familiar with the full extent of our ignorance, and the cyclic, undisciplined, self-indulgent nature of our thought processes, and our huge capacity for self-deception and stubbornness. Atheists sense a lot of this already, so they’re looking for ways to free themselves from the drag that all of that produces in their lives. But it won’t happen under our own power or through any means we can invent ourselves, independent on God. They too are looking for a road to perfection, but unfortunately, what is imperfect can never become or produce what is perfect.
AI-based “transhumanism” is inspired by the false idea that our physical bodies and brains are the sum total of our beings, and that what defines us is simply our mental capacity and intelligence … which is rooted in our physical brains, of course. This false narrative also forms the heart of some pro-abortion arguments claiming that a fetus isn’t really a human being until its brainwaves begin, or it has enough brain development to enable it to sense pain. Since secular naturalists do not accept any possibility of anything supernatural, they reject the fact that every living human body is inhabited by a human spirit. For them, it’s purely intelligence that forms the root and heart of our being, not the presence of any ‘soul’ – and to illustrate their point, they have produced a great many SIFI movies and TV shows illustrating that all it takes for some computer, robot, or android to be ‘alive’ is for it to have a sufficiently sophisticated algorithm in its central processor that can closely replicate human behavior and emotions.
It’s an understandable falsehood that’s really hard for unchurched unbelievers to let go of because they sense there’s more to people than their physical bodies, yet at the same time they cannot accept that there are non-physical, non-corporeal spirits temporarily inhabiting those physical bodies, so they reject the idea that it’s really the human spirit that forms the true heart and core of a human being, and is the one component that is immortal and will actually survive the death of the body … and depart from it at that time.
When our present body dies, our brain, the visible, tangible ‘seat of our intelligence’, will rot away right along with the rest of our physical body. I’ve seen time-lapse videos of dead bodies where the flesh gradually turns black and eventually sloughs away, and the brain turns into disorganized gray-white goo and drains out of the skull. The secular atheists and agnostics know all this – they can’t deny it – so they grasp at whatever straws they can invent to prolong and supersede our very finite, limited, and brief human existence here in this world.
Their desire to transcend mortal human nature is also due, in no small part, to the fact that they also do not or will not acknowledge the existence of any other plane of existence beyond this physical world. They don’t believe in Paradise or Hades, neither in heaven nor hell. Earth is all they see and know and accept, so they try to invent ways to cling to it as long as possible, not realizing it’s a fool’s errand in the long run because human civilization is once again on the road to total corruption and destruction, just as in the days before the great, worldwide flood in Genesis. Jesus said, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” (Matt. 24:22). Only those who know, accept, and follow Jesus Christ will survive and prosper in the end, because he’s the only one who can enable that. He declares absolutely, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) “I am the door.” (John 10:9).
Jeff Lemke