At the Brew Talks Oct. 25, Associate Professor of Library Science and Theological Librarian Chris Rosser shared his thoughts on Christianity and transhumanism in a talk titled “Dead Batteries: Our Transhuman Future in Light of the Cross.”
Though Rosser said the topic is not near and dear to his heart, he said similarities between “the ways some people reverently describe the transhuman future they anticipate and the way Christians often talk about resurrection, especially bodily resurrection” are interesting.
Transhumanism, according to Rosser, is a kind of story—“a happy eschatology about humankind transcending our biological limitations.”
“The birth of the fully transhuman signals the death of humanity as we know it and good riddance, really, because humans are so messy,” Rosser said. “In the post-human world envisioned by transhumanists, what it means to be human is no longer constrained by the body. Minds are uploaded, attaining a kind of cosmic consciousness. Immortality is real. By our technology, we have wiped every tear from every eye. In short, we make our world a technological utopia.”
Rosser said Christianity and transhumanism both tell stories about how humanity gets saved. Christianity tells the story of “beauty subsuming ugliness so Christ becomes all in all,” while transhumanism’s story is about the ugly and undesirable being “sloughed off and left behind in the jet-stream of perpetual progress.”
Rosser illustrated these points through the film “Elysium.” He said an interesting message emerged from the story in the film and shared how it related to transhumanism.
“In ‘Elysium,’ the salvation and healing of humanity is artificial,” Rosser said. “Humans have created the machines that ‘heal all our diseases.’ This Elysium in this sky profoundly resonates with a transhuman vision for humanity’s future. In Elysium, salvation from below comes through the willing sacrifice of a man who exceeds his biology by becoming part machine. In the Christian story, salvation from above comes through a God who empties god-self of divinity by putting on humanity.”
“This film reminded me of another story and caused me to respond with different questions,” Rosser said. “I asked of the film the following theological questions: How is humanity depicted? Is salvation a possibility and by what means? As I wondered about these questions, I was reminded of a very different story from the ancient Greek myths to which the film seems to explicitly refer, a story that I encountered while we were living and working in Japan. This story is known as kumo no su, ‘The Spider’s Thread.’”
“The Spider’s Thread,” according to Rosser, tells the story of the great Buddha who was walking along the shores of heaven when he looked down and noticed a thief in hell who was helping a spider free itself from an evil bird. Moved by the thief’s kindness, Buddha spun a spider’s thread and lowered it down from heaven to hell. The thief noticed the thread, recognized his opportunity for escape, grasped the thread and began to climb. Other inhabitants of hell noticed the thief escaping on the spider’s thread, and they too grasped the thread. Fearing the thread would break, the thief screamed at those beneath him to get off. Upon hearing the thief’s selfish words, the great Buddha released the thread and the climbers plummeted back into hell.
“Think with me for a moment about salvation as portrayed in this story,” Rosser said. “Who is ultimately responsible for salvation? Of course, the thief’s salvation was his own to keep or lose. Now I want you to consider with me the shape of salvation depicted in the Christian story. We see this shape in the familiar passage of Philippians 2—descent from glory to utter humiliation and back to glory. The shape of salvation here is movement from perfect beauty and life, to deformity and death and criminalization and shame, but then resurrection and return to life and beauty.”
According to Rosser, the idea of transhumanism can be found in film, television and video games, and “problematizes transhuman salvation.” It confronts individuals with the question, “Is salvation ours to win or lose? Does salvation ultimately come from above or from below?”
“I like the story of Elysium,” Rosser said. “It challenges the story of salvation through a transhuman future, sort of. It displays an interesting inversion of the shape of Christian salvation, sort of. Anyway, I hope to God that Elysium is not our transhuman future.”
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