The Education of Humans and Transhumans in the Twenty-First Century

Charles Tandy

《Journal of Futures Studies》 10卷2期 (2005/11) Pp. 85-95

並列摘要

Previously philosophers often approached the question of the contents of a liberal arts (or humanistic or general) education from a perspective based on cultural immersion or what the heritage of their special culture told them. Thus the importance of Confucius or Plato or of Buddhism or Christianity, to cite only four examples, in philosophies of education past. Our particular cultural traditions informed our felt educational needs to become ”us” or ”human” (instead of barbarian) or to become ”educated” or ”transhuman” (instead of merely human). (And the advent of democracy suggested that all citizens, not just monarchs, must be liberally educated to be philosopher-rulers.)
We say nothing new when we say that liberal education or interdisciplinary philosophy or the quest for wisdom is necessary to living a good life in a good society. What is new is that we take seriously the global metamorphosis that catalyzed in the 20(superscript th) century and is rapidly expanding today. The 20(superscript th) century-with its world wars and doomsday weapons (WMDs)-took many of us Earthlings by surprise. If we survive all doomsday dangers over the next few years and decades and centuries, then our future as humans or transhumans may be longer-much longer-than the mere 10,000 years of past civilizational existence. Thus liberal education in our global village must take into account the relative lack of reality of the past 10,000 years compared to the (possible) reality of our upcoming 1,000 months and 10,000 years and 100,000 centuries. According to the ”big bang” account of the origin of the universe accepted by most scientists today, our pasts are short and almost non-existent compared to the potential reality of a very long future. This paper explores the implications of such a complex reality for the education of humans and transhumans in the 21(superscript st) century.