The COVID-19 pandemic has advanced the transhumanist vision of a federal policy paper released two years ago, according to a Canadian academic..When Concordia University political science professor Travis Smith wrote his 2005 PhD dissertation at Harvard University, he argued medicine could be used to destroy liberal democracy..In an interview with the Western Standard, he said recent scientific advances have made the technocratic dreams of Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) an impending possibility..“There is no end and no restrictions upon the kinds of experiments that we would conduct upon nature, including human nature, in order to transform it. ‘Supersede’ it is the language that Francis Bacon used. The goal is to supersede humanity, and to super impose upon us new natures,” Smith said..“It was envisioned that there should be effectively a single authority politically, but really, the real rulers were the scientists — so, an oligarchy of the wise.”.Smith said a Policy Horizons Canada document called “Exploring Biodigital Convergence” manifests the centuries-old concept. The February 2020 paper said Canadian policy makers should support and guide a process where human existence is transformed by the merger of man and machine..“It actually promises that we’re going to change bodies, change minds, and change behavior,” Smith said. “So what kind of democratic free person reads that and thinks, ‘Oh that sounds like a good thing. I can’t wait to sign up to having my body, my mind, my behavior changed by whoever’s in charge’?”.To illustrate this potential future, the authors envision surveillance “bugbots” to guard against intruders, artificial intelligence to monitor neighbourhoods for pathogens, municipalities that regularly check household feces for disease, and building codes that require automated efficiency and capture carbon for credits..Smith said there’s nothing “idyllic or idealistic or romantic” about the portrayal..“There’ll be thousands of thousands of minute regulations of your everyday existence [by] artificial intelligences that surround you, watch you, make its recommendations to you, and I’m sure, apply sanctions to you, both rewards and punishments, for making the correct choices to earn more carbon credits or earn more social credits.”.The pandemic has brought this techno-regulated world closer according to Smith. In the province of Quebec where he teaches, two doses of COVID-19 vaccines no longer allow recipients into bars and restaurants. The QR-coded vaccine passport now requires three doses. .“There’s no limit to what treatments they could require or procedures you would have to undergo… to continue enjoying whatever freedoms they permit you to continue to indulge in. But [it’s] your freedom in the Orwellian sense in which slavery is freedom because you only get your freedoms because you obey. And what choices are going to be left to you?”.As lockdowns, social distancing, masks, and vaccines were imposed worldwide, Smith saw more evidence that all humanity is being steered to a similar and possibly post-human existence..“With the direction that the current last two years has shown us that we’re on track for, why would you expect there’ll be different rules in different places?” Smith asked..“The convergence, it will mean a great deal of homogeneity, a great deal of uniformity… The only difference would be, are you among the ultra elite or are you among the masses? Are you among those who make the rules and benefit the most from everybody else’s compliance? Or are you one of the ones that submits?”.Smith says a two-tiered humanity is inherent to this futurist vision, yet even those on top will still be bound in many ways..“There’s no way a power that could create superhumans yields equality. The essence of the project is to generate superiority, and it will depend on the generation of inferiority as well. The project is you create superhumans and subhumans,” he said..“We all know with totalitarian societies that the elites are always forced to conform and have to behave in fashions that reach consensus and uniformity because failing to conform is to be guaranteed rejection from the elite.”.Smith said there’s a “good chance” technocrats could one day control our actions, speech, and thoughts in ways not yet possible. Alternatively, disillusionment over the failure of lockdowns and the vaccine to stop the pandemic could create a backlash to forestall a technocratic agenda..“Human beings aren’t going to consent to all of this all at once… It requires manipulation, or it requires dissimulation, or it requires coercion, or at least a heck of a lot of cajoling,” Smith said..“To use the language of The Godfather, they have to be given an offer they can’t refuse. What’s the alternative? The alternative is, if anybody’s allowed to opt out, they get to live in a Brave New World style savage reservation.”.Lee Harding is a freelance journalist living in Saskatchewan.
