Beyond Machine Man: Who we really are and why Transhumanism is just an empty promise!

By Arne Klingenberg

Who are we? Are we our DNA or is it all in the brain? Are we our conscious minds, an unconscious one or both? What is the real nature of consciousness or the root cause of racism? Do we have free will? Are we our emotions and do egos actually exist? What does neuroscience really say about us? Are we mere actors in a giant computer simulation? Wi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beam Publishing
• Release date: Mar 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781876538088

Arne Klingenberg

Arne Klingenberg was born in Switzerland (1963) where he graduated with tertiary degrees in macro-and microeconomics. He pursued a successful business career that took him more than 50 times around-the-world; starting out as assistant sales manager flying coach, he eventually got promoted to sales director traveling business, before ending up as CEO in first class. He helped to improve products while talking with factory workers and wined and dined (a.k.a. negotiating) with billionaires. While traveling for six months a year and living in seven countries, he experienced a myriad of cultures, customs and creeds, helping him to unravel the mysteries of life. He eventually resigned from his demanding position to focus on writing and consulting. Arne Klingenberg is the author of three practical philosophy books about happiness and other mind and consciousness matters. Since 1995 he advises highly accomplished leaders, helping them to solve both personal and corporate problems (in four languages). Arne and his Japanese-born wife, Miyuki, live mostly in the tropical parts of Australia where they've designed and built a fully self-cooling eco-house. He loves reading, writing and various sports (e.g. for over 38 years Arne practices Wing Chun kung fu, having learned directly from great grandmasters Lo Man Kam and Ip Chun), besides enjoying good food and wine in great company.

Book preview

The Big Questions

Who am I? Is there life after death? And if so, where did we come from and where will we go to? Is there a God or an ultimate reality? Respectively, who or what is the intelligence behind the billions of intelligent effects we can observe?

Since time immemorial these questions have been asked by a great many, if not all, people. And a myriad of philosophers, religious proponents, and scientists of the believing, agnostic or atheistic kind have attempted to answer them, each in their own ways, to this very day.

Who are we? And ultimately, are we going to be always alive or will we be dead forever?

In today’s official world of technocratic government, academia and media, it sure looks like the answers are already very clear. Actually, even just asking such questions aloud will expose you (or me) to total ridicule, or at best earn us an obviously condescending smile.

To proponents of The Party Line these questions have long been answered by accredited science and they look forward to eventually enlighten all of the dumb and superstitious who still stubbornly cling to silly notions like spirituality or worse, religion. In the meantime, they are more than happy to bless us with their benevolent rule. Or so they imagine it to be.

Will modern science really be able to prolong life by merging us with machines? Or is transhumanism just an empty promise to keep us hooked to a rather destructive and depressing way of life for the majority of people, and endless riches for a select few? Will the loudly announced technical singularity actually lead us to the promised land – eternal life and heaven on Earth? And if so, would it be for all of us or just for our well-heeled rulers and their well-paid enablers?

This book will discuss all of the above – with the exception of religious matters as that would go beyond the scope of our discussions – and attempt to show you why the final words about who we really are have not been spoken yet; why the current materialistic paradigm of officialdom is likely to be very wrong and how the consequences of their fundamental errors are rather dire for us as individuals and society as a whole. Moreover, we will analyze what the ultimate truths may turn out to be and the many reasons why.

We have much grounds to cover and it will be an exciting ride, so hold on and keep reading! But first, allow me a couple of quick points: while we will discuss the latest insights into various disciplines of cutting-edge science, we will aim to keep it as simple and concise as possible in the main text and refer you to the Notes section for direct links to the very technical aspects and other information that help us to prove the points we are making here.

You may also notice that the language of your author is colorful at times and generally a bit playful with the odd sprinkling of dark humor, despite the serious and profound nature of the topics; this is simply part of my character coupled with the belief that books should elevate, educate and entertain us all at the same time. And hopefully, you will find that I have succeeded in this endeavor!

Since my very early childhood days, I have somehow felt the answers to the big questions without actually asking them in an explicit manner. To me, whether we are always alive or not was never even a question, simply because I just knew how it is, or so it seemed.

My dear father was both an outspoken atheist and mortally afraid of dying, which is a very common and rather understandable occurrence among atheists, and actually even among some believers of religious faiths, as strange as that may sound right now.

I clearly remember the first time he expressed his fear of dying, of ceasing to exist – for good. It was late one night when I woke up to the sound of clonking bottles as he selected a new drink from the bar that was located just outside my bedroom. Our first conversation is still fresh in my memory simply because his ‘confession’ came as a total surprise to me! Until that very moment, I had simply assumed that everybody else also knew that we do live forever.

Admittedly, psychologists or psychiatrists reading the above might now rub their hands in utter glee before quickly offering a lot of insights into the hows and whys an obviously delusional child might think like this. Well, we’ll see about that a bit later on while we discuss the many myths of neuroscience and psychotropic drugs, among other things, but let’s just continue with the story.

I remember telling my father that there is really nothing to worry about, that for sure we will all continue to live. The good, the bad and even the ugly. He listened intently, visibly surprised, even puzzled. And yet he continued to express his many doubts and fears. Dad thought that I’m simply being a nice son trying to comfort his beloved father. Yet as much as he was certain about the truth of the matter, so was I.

Over the following months, we had many more of these late night discussions. And when it finally dawned on me that he wasn’t going to change his mind on this, and that indeed there was nothing else I could possibly add to get him to reconsider, I told him that when the day will eventually come, he will likely have the best and most pleasant surprise of his life.

He smiled his kind smile, glad that I care about him yet seemingly a bit worried about my youthful ignorance. And I went back to bed, equally concerned about my Dad and his mental pain, while also wondering about his rather strange and outright depressing beliefs.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. Lao Tzu

Three Perspectives

Our collective consciousness is made up of endless individual thoughts, beliefs and opinions, besides countless hopes, dreams and desires, and a myriad of emotions and feelings. And yet there are a great many similarities in the way we perceive our world.

Not to judge but solely for the purpose of our discussion, let’s sort human consciousness into the following three very general types of thought or awareness – a concept first introduced and elaborated upon in my second book (see chapter Notes for details).

Since consciousness goes far beyond mere thinking, analyzing and reasoning, we could call them the three main modes of experiencing the world, or simply, The Three Perspectives:

The Materialistic Perspective – hereafter referred to as Machine Man or Homo Machina

The Religious Perspective – Believing Man or Homo Credo

The Spiritual Perspective – Mystic Man or Homo Mysticum

Of course, these three categories or perspectives are both very broad and fluid. For example, it is certainly possible to be a religious person but also believe in mainstream science (up to a certain point, depending on their respective dogmas). And likewise there are a great many scientists who believe in a God, however defined; not every scientist is a radical physical reductionist or atheist, even though only researchers of that particular flavor seem to receive both media exposure and government grants.

Mystic Man too can (but doesn’t have to) be deeply devout while at the same time be most interested in the latest achievements of science, in particular the amazing insights into quantum mechanics and the many challenges these pose to proponents of purely mechanical points of views. Quite naturally, Homo Mysticum has a tendency to come up with far broader interpretations of science than the typical materialistic scientist or medical doctor.

By making the three distinctions, we certainly don’t wish to assign any moral or other values whatsoever. That would be irrelevant anyway as the quality of our individual lives, the sum total of our beliefs and the resulting consciousness is a most personal experience. And as such it is beyond criticism by third parties – for as long as we don’t harm others, of course.

So let’s take a look at the main differences between the three perspectives and how these outlooks shape the corresponding realities experienced:

Machine Man or Homo Machina: People who think that they are their body – ruled by a more or less intelligent brain, aided and abetted by a better or worse set of DNA. This is the purely materialistic perspective, incessantly propagated and promoted by academia, governments, and the mainstream media. According to reductionist Machine Man, We are just smart animals.

Believing Man or Homo Credo: People who also identify themselves as their body but believe that they somehow or another have a spiritual eternal soul. It is believed to be somewhere, deep down and hidden within themselves. This is the religious perspective and it is mostly based on scripture, faith, and cultural traditions.

Mystic Man or Homo Mysticum: People who know that they are the eternal spiritual soul, but are temporarily having a human experience in a body made out of flesh, blood and bones. This is the mystical perspective, based on real personal experiences made and the subsequent insights gained. The essential point here is the need to have made profound personal experiences,so simply reading a book by Deepak Chopra (et alia; insert any name of a New Age or Personal Development guru) or believing a holy book of any kind just won’t do as it is still taken on faith.

So who is right and who is wrong? Is there a right and wrong? And why does it matter so much? The ways we feel, think and talk are all influenced by our overall consciousness; it literally determines how we see and experience the world we live in today. Our macro perspective largely decides what choices we make in our life and how we act; the kind of things we do and equally, those things we don’t do!

In other words, the overall quality of our lives greatly depends on our deepest-held beliefs. The perspective we more or less consciously choose decides much about the degree of our success; how healthy, wealthy and happy we will be in life. Therefore it is rather crucial to get it right. Not just for each one of us on an individual level, but also for society as a whole.

The primary example of course is how we deal with the fact of our own mortality and the losing of our loved ones. How we approach and deal with this inevitable and tough reality of life has a great influence on how we live our lives, including how happy we are. Let’s see how the three differing perspectives produce dramatically different results:

Machine Man: Adherents of this belief system think that when they die, well, they will be dead. Forever. They believe that they basically cease to exist, respectively turn to fertilizer and worm fodder. This is the realm of both agnostics and atheists; they harbor great fears about their own eventual deaths and increasingly so as they grow older. They also suffer major psychological repercussions like anxiety or depression. The death of loved ones too affect them greatly; often they are and remain inconsolable. The most common solution to deal with this subject is self-medication with copious amounts of alcohol and both legal and illegal drugs. The idea is to not even think or talk about it because it is just too frightening or painful to bear; Homo Machina well and truly hates to talk about death or the dead. Suppressing thoughts or memories and simply trying to move on is the usual method, yet that is not an easy task, even while being intoxicated (and sometimes particularly so). Another approach is trying to run away from death by being extremely health-conscious, but of course that is neither a guarantee of good health nor will it necessarily prolong life. And at the latest with advancing age, all of their fears and worries will simply return with a vengeance.

Believing Man: Homo Credo generally approach their own mortality far more optimistically, regardless of the countless different forms and flavors of their particular beliefs. Believing people mourn their dead yet at the same time they believe – to various degrees – that the deceased person continues to exist as a soul, hopefully in some sort of heaven, of course. And they are fairly sure that by living a pious life they will be enabled to join their loved ones in paradise and live together happily ever after. Homo Credo usually talk about their souls as being something different than they are at present, yet they will magically turn into that very thing upon death (saying things like: he bared his soul, speaking to my soul, wake up your soul, I feel it in my soul, I have sold my soul, SOS – save our souls, we have an eternal soul that will never die, I am the captain of my soul). Some believe in having a soul that goes to heaven, but that their current physical bodies will eventually become resurrected , somehow (from the already decomposed atoms?), and that they will become again that body and live forever here on planet Earth. No matter what their individual beliefs may be, what is common is the general self-identification as being their physical bodies, which oddly enough is fundamentally the exact same belief as the ones held by atheists and agnostics (a.k.a. Machine Man). And yet, research findings consistently show that Believing Man generally tends to be happier and otherwise more stable in terms of their emotions than Homo Machina. It comes as a result of their faith and relationship with God (however defined), which of course gets decried and ridiculed by atheists as having, or needing to have, an imaginary friend.

Mystic Man: Mystics who identify themselves as eternal beings of energy may also deeply miss the person, spirit or soul who has passed away and will honor their dead bodies, yet at the same time they continue to feel connected with a beloved person through their mutual bands – and means of communication – of love. They are totally sure about seeing their loved ones again rather soon, knowing full well that time, after all, is very relative; indeed they are already looking forward to it! This state of consciousness simply helps to be far more relaxed and happy in the current here and now – devoid of all fears of dying and much of the heartache that comes with the losing of loved ones. Homo Mysticum is also not in the least burdened by the assorted religious dogmas that induce fear or gloom and doom in order to control people. It therefore enables a life of real freedom and great joy, provided it is actually authentic upon having personally experienced spiritual realities.

Our ideas about death define how we live our life. Dag Hammarskjöld

Who is right and who is wrong is therefore the wrong question to ask. The more important question should be which one of the three perspectives will make us the most happy, healthy, wealthy and wise we can possibly be.

Our overall fears and worries in life either increase or decrease, all depending on this underlying perspective. And likewise with having real peace of mind and generally being in high spirits, or not. Perhaps, in the end it doesn’t really matter whether our big picture view is only based on personal illusions or not; in terms of finding real happiness and success in life, what works best is obviously the right philosophy. While a life of chronic unhappiness indicates the need for a fundamental change of perspective.

We already mentioned that the three general perspectives are both broad and fluid in nature. This is especially so with the passing of time. When we’re still young, we never even think about growing older. But eventually we all do. Time waits for no one. And life in itself, with all its many challenges and occasional difficulties, is a great teacher. So our core beliefs are quite likely to change over time.

Some agnostics or atheists will turn to religion for comfort. And some Believing Man will turn into atheists because they are very upset with God for losing a loved one, ignoring their prayers, or a host of other reasons. Sometimes Homo Machina and Homo Credo will make deeply mystical experiences that will completely change their outlooks and lives, giving them the deep certainty and peace of mind of Homo Mysticum.

Current science is telling us in most certain terms that we are our bodies. This mainstream scientific view is promoted by governments via state schools, the higher education system, and by giving research grants only to approved scientists and researchers. Despite the many question marks raised by the latest insights into the totally mysterious and absolutely astonishing worlds of quantum physics, the reductionist and mechanical belief system is also promoted by mainstream media – sponsored by the ‘almighty’ pharmaceutical industry and other companies and organizations harboring all kinds of self-serving interests.

Alternative views are generally excluded or decried as heresy, respectively ridiculed as being just the playgrounds of the uneducated and unwashed masses that still need to cling to superseded superstitions. Supremacists of the atheistic kind privately – and increasingly publicly – consider the spiritual or religious to be rather dumb, people with both a low IQ and education. Welcome to the world of technocrats.

At best, people who experience different kind of realities are thought to be mentally unstable or simply a bit confused. The cause is said to be some kind of a still unproven yet much-believed-in chemical imbalance in their brains (more on this to come!), and therefore they are in urgent need of medication. Or at least, some form of sedation to keep them quiet and docile. In any case, when it comes to making all the important decisions in our modern societies, these people have to be ignored. Let the enlightened experts and smart technocrats decide what is best for them… or so they’d like it to be from now on.

But let’s start to gently rattle this narrow cage of thought and inquiry and look a bit closer into the assorted absurdities of the absolutist views of Homo Machina. We will ask many questions and look into a lot of the evidence that portrays very different perspectives. First however, I’d like to entertain you with a story about the adventures of Paul Schmitz, an incredibly unlucky racist whose life is about to be turned upside down. Completely. And most dramatically so.

It is an entirely fictional story, and although the conclusions reached are for real and hopefully meaningful to you as well, it is written in a rather lighthearted way, and is best read with a good dose of humor and a twinkle in the eyes.

There is absolutely no offense intended in any way whatsoever. However, allow me a word of warning: at times our story may appear to be(come) a bit morbid, perhaps even bordering on the macabre. So the fainthearted may need to ‘fast-read forward’ and skip some of the seemingly gory bits. But try to bear and read it with a grin or better, be simply amazed and amused! The ‘tough’ parts are actually illustrating some points rather nicely, perhaps even in a self-evident way. So here we go with the tale:

The Unfortunate Racist

Paul Schmitz woke up feeling grumpy. His Jewish neighbor’s wife must have cooked something smelly last night and he could swear the unpleasant odors were still wafting up the stairways. He hated Jews. And women were inferior beings anyway. They were only good for some things. Like you know. Plus cooking. And cleaning. Or bearing children to proudly follow in the footsteps of the righteous path as outlined by the Fuehrer and the Party. With bravery and honor.

Paul was a proud card-carrying member of the New Germany Party, the leading neo-Nazi organization that was spreading rapidly, particularly in the former East. He was looking forward to go to the party meeting tonight. Talk about the glorious past and the even more glorious future to come. And drink beer with his comrades, of course. Lots of beer.

Paul considered himself to be a good man. A good German patriot from good old Allemanic stock. He used to be a hard worker, before he was laid off from Allianz Stahlwerke, the large steel factory in Dresden that used to employ thousands of young hopeful Germans. Before those stinking Chinese communists started to sell the stuff at dumping prices, far below costs. Furious, he took a deep drag from his cigarette. His dark thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sharp coughing attack, taking away his breath.

He was the archetype of the Aryan race. 100 percent. Tall, strongly built with fair skin, short-cropped, blond hair and piercing blue-eyes that moved quickly, revealing a sharp intellect, a man of high intelligence. Or so he thought. Paul just knew that his race was superior to all the others. The only purpose of colored people was to serve. Him and his compatriots. The New Reich that was about to be unveiled, destined to rule the world. Of course they would first need to weed out the unwanted elements. Like the Jews. Gypsies. And definitely those godless homosexuals. The weak and unclean. Paul didn’t like blacks either. Those smelly Africans and devil worshipping Muslims. Totally useless eaters, all of them.

He left his apartment early this morning, after a hearty breakfast of German rye bread, assorted cold cuts of meats and cheese, washed down with copious amounts of strong coffee. He was scheduled to present himself to the Arbeitslosenamt, the local Bureau of Labor, to sort out some paperwork and talk about those elusive new job prospects. As he crossed the street he turned to yell at a passing refugee from Sri Lanka: Go home, you stinking pig! and was immediately hit and run over by the speeding bus that appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Witnesses were shocked as the accident scene was messy. Really messy. Blood and gore was just everywhere. And everyone agreed that there was no way the poor guy could have survived this.

Three months later the doctors woke Paul Schmitz from his induced coma and told him how lucky he was. That all his bones were completely shattered, but thanks to the availability of a donor they could replace the bones of his arms and legs with new ones. They had to use some artificial parts as well for his elbows, hips and knees. Plus some arteries. All Made in Germany, of course.

He was in agony and pain. Terrible pain. And yet he was glad to be alive, that the Teutonic gods had spared him so that he could continue to be of service to The Reich.

Who was the anonymous donor, he wondered one morning, feeling a bit better, almost euphoric, after the pain killers had fully kicked in. It’s such a noble and generous thing to do, he thought and decided to ask his nurse.

‘I can’t reveal any personal details for privacy reasons. Only that he was a Turkish engineer who passed away suddenly from a heart attack a few hours earlier,’ nurse Gertrud replied.

‘He was listed on the German Registry of Organ Donors,’ she added.

It hit Paul like a hammer. He must have been a bloody Muslim! he thought, feeling both alarmed and uncomfortable.

‘You’re a very lucky man, Herr Schmitz. There were actually two donors that helped to save your life,’ his nurse continued. ‘You have lost all your blood in the accident and during the ensuing operations, but there was a donor with the exact same blood type and rhesus factor who died just the night before.’

‘Is there anything you can tell me about him,’ Paul asked quietly.

‘Only that it was actually a woman, still very young,’ Gertrud offered and paused, looking sad before continuing, ‘She was a student at the local university who committed suicide when her visa was cancelled and she was about to be deported back to Somalia, her home country.’

Slowly the news sunk in. It was a woman who had saved his life, and not only that, to top it off, it was a black woman! Paul started to suddenly feel delirious, not sure whether he was actually awake or just dreaming.

‘You must rest now, Herr Schmitz,’ his nurse ordered with her soft but resolute voice.

‘Herr Professor Doktor Heinzmann himself is visiting soon to check your progress. He’s the very best transplant surgeon in Dresden, indeed all of Saxony. Without him, you surely wouldn’t be here now,’ she added.

Paul suddenly felt weak and mentally drained. David Heinzmann is a Jewish name, for sure, he realized. He could not believe his luck, or should he say bad luck? First, his new bones were from a Muslim Turk. Second, all his blood came from a black African woman. And third, his new lease on life was given to him by a Jewish doctor. It must be a dream. A very bad dream, he thought before passing out.

A few months later Paul was well enough to be released. He started to drink even more than before his accident. Three to four litres of strong German beer a day washed down with a bottle of Doppelkorn, a popular German Schnapps with an alcohol content of 38% ABV. It helped him to feel better, for a while. Until he threw up after one of his many coughing fits. He still enjoyed a pack or two of his favorite cigarettes with his drinks, but inhaling was starting to get really painful at times.

These days he didn’t feel too good about himself. He was confused about what had happened to him. He still attended all meetings of the New German Party but he didn’t dare to tell his comrades about what the nurse had told him. The truth about his donors. How would they react if they knew that he now had black African blood pulsing through his veins? Or that his bones once carried a Muslim, one of these filthy Turks that robbed good Germans of their jobs…

One morning, the pains in his abdomen got simply too much to bear and he finally called for an ambulance. His breathing was very painful too. Even worse, he had again discovered blood in his sputum.

He was really unlucky. The attending doctor diagnosed him with a severe alcoholic cirrhosis needing a liver transplant real soon. It was the only way he would survive. Then Paul suddenly got lucky. An organ donor was taken to the hospital for some urgent medical attention, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Three surgeons and one anesthesiologist operated on Paul for 12 hours, assisted by several supporting nurses. When Paul awoke it was again nurse Gertrud who looked after him and told him the good news.

‘Herr Professor Heinzmann and his team did again a very good job on you and all went well. There should be no complications and you should be out of here in no time,’ she said with a warm smile.

‘Do you know…?’ Paul tried to ask her, but his voice trailed of.

‘All I can tell you is that it was the generosity of an itinerant traveler, a Gypsy from Romania, that saved your life,’ Gertrud said.

By now, our proud German Neo-Nazi – once a 100% member of the Aryan race – was ‘reduced’ to being only 77% of his former glorious self. (Transplanted bones now made up 10% of his body weight, assorted man-made medical supplies 3.5%, blood a further 7.5%, and the Gypsy liver another 2%.)

Upon his recovery and release, Paul had recurring nightmares and felt generally uneasy and nervous during the days. To know that his body was now composed of other people’s body parts deeply disturbed him. He still attended the weekly party meetings with his fellow comrades but could no longer partake in the important drinking rituals that bonded them together. Instead he had developed a taste for sugary food. He would gobble down any sweet stuff he could find, from chocolates and cakes, to cookies and pies, all washed down with lots of sodas. It helped him to feel better. To cope with his destiny.

During rehabilitation he was introduced to some basic relaxation and breathing techniques, so one day he decided to give it another try. He eventually overcame his animosity and joined yoga lessons given by an Indian teacher in one of the public housing estates that housed refugees from around the world. One evening the class was just about to conclude when they heard loud yelling and shouting followed by several big bangs. And suddenly the entire building was engulfed in flames and Paul fell unconscious, overcome by toxic fumes and the omnipresent smoke.

When he awoke in hospital, he was in pain. Terrible pain. Nurse Gertrud told him that they had to replace all his skin as he suffered from third degree burns to most of his body. He was suffering too much to ask her, but she already knew what Paul Schmitz wanted to know.

‘It was a Chinese chef who just died from mushroom poisoning. The poor man collected local mushrooms that looked just like an edible Chinese delicacy, unfortunately ours are most poisonous,’ she said, before adding, ‘Lucky for you his wife donated his entire body for organ transplants.’

‘What happened,’ Paul asked weakly, writhing in agony.

‘It was an arson attack by members of the New Germany Party.