JOURNALS

ABSTRACT

Man is constantly seeking to improve himself and to overcome the challenge of the limitations of life and death. Several approaches in addressing this challenge abound. However, the transhumanist solution to this primeval quandary is via cybernetic immortality. The idea is premised on a materialist cum functionalist idea of personhood, where the essence of man is narrowed to the information in the brain; hence, the possibility of codifying man’s consciousness into a software and transferring it into cyberspace or silicone bodies. While this transhumanist project has been hitherto evaluated from various perspectives, there is hardly literature that discusses its possible inadvertent ecological consequences. On the other hand, Africa enjoys a rich ecological heritage and understanding of the human person, life, and reality that is metaphysical, anthropocentric, and holistic. In the face of the possible global ecological challenge, that the transhumanist quest for cybernetic immortality portends, this book chapter, therefore, intends to foray into the African anthropoholist physico-spiritual ecology, to see what insights can be gleaned from her in cautioning and cushioning against this daring techno-scientific utopia, which possesses the potential of disrupting the equilibrium of the ecosystem.