There was published a pamphlet called Aké bude Slovensko o sto rokov? (1920), [What will Slovakia be like in 100 years?] just a century ago. It offered a vision of Slovak national state's future – the state flourishing with social welfare, scientific and technological progress and moral maturity of citizens. Adaptation of "happy national home" idea for future, written by engineer Jozef Dohnány (1873 – 1947), carries marks characteristics for utopias. The conference paper approaches to Dohnány's vision as to a branch of modern dynamic utopic phenomenon, creating a communication space, especially in the 19.th and 20.th century, for expressing desires and ideals, testing possibilities of mental borders and calling for social or political mobilization in favour of achievement realistic, or even unrealistic aims. The paper uses interdisciplinary interpretative approach for analysis of Dohnány vision's ideological structure, compares it in relation to More's prototype of utopia and refers to representations of "period's presence" in utopic genre.
In the twentieth century, certain European elitist circles embraced Traditionalist thought, most notably promoted by its pioneer René Guénon (1886-1951). Ever since, a lose movement of like-minded people has handed down religiously-influenced theories opposing the modern world. Modern Traditionalists and modernity are thus fierce enemies. Any progress, modernization, or technological advances are to Traditionalists what regression, stagnation, and reactionary forces are to the avant-garde. So, what could be a possible link between Traditionalism and modern technology? Perhaps, the fundamental doubt of technology's belonging to the modern world. From the 1960s onwards, a self-proclaimed radical Traditionalist, who was further cherished as a New Age prophet, advocated ancient technology. True to the motto 'opposites attract,' the English writer John Michell (1933-2009) had reconciled many antagonisms. By linking astro-archaeology and various speculative earth mystery theories, Michell aimed to fuse prehistoric megalithic science and flying saucers. To Michell, the rejection of modernity and its by-products did not contradict the belief in extra-terrestrial means of prehistoric technology. The aim of this paper is the exposition of Michell's approach towards flying saucers as a technological means of prehistory from a modern Traditionalist and alternative archaeologist perspective.
Transhumanistická koncepcia lásky obecne predpokladá, že by sme mali romantickú lásku transformovať prostredníctvom súčasných možností vedy a techniky. Zástancovia transhumanistickej koncepcie lásky zvyčajne tvrdia, že správna technologická transformácia biologických základov lásky môže vyriešiť niektoré naše súčasné problémy s láskou. Proponenti transhumanistickej koncepcie lásky sa preto zvyčajne domnievajú, že korektná realizácia ich návrhu by taktiež viedla k vylepšeniu romantickej lásky. Hlavný zámer tejto štúdie spočíva v kritickej analýze niektorých filozofických a konceptuálnych nedostatkov, ktoré sú spojené s predstavou, že je vhodné aby pokročilé technológie transformovali lásku. Prvá časť štúdie je venovaná deskripcii filozofie transhumanistickej koncepcie lásky. Druhá časť štúdie je zameraná na analýzu predpokladov transhumanistickej koncepcie lásky. Tretia časť článku je sústredená na problémy prípadného zneužitia transhumanistickej lásky. V poslednej časti štúdie sa pokúsim ukázať, že aj korektná realizácia transhumanistickej lásky môže viesť k dôsledkom, ktoré sú problematické z hľadiska filozofických domnienok o výhodách transhumanistickej lásky. and The transhumanist conception of love broadly states that we should transform romantic love through the means of science and advanced technology. Advocates of the transhumanist conception of love usually claim that the right technological transformation of biological groundings of romantic love could solve some of our current problems with love. Proponents of the transhumanist conception of love therefore typically believe that the correct realization of their proposal would also lead to the enhancement of romantic love. In this study I will, however, argue that this may not be the case. The first part of the study is dedicated to the description of the concept and philosophy of the transhumanist conception of love. The second part of the study is centered on the analysis of the premises for the transhumanist conception of love. The third part is focused on the possibility of misuses of transhumanist love. And in the last part I will try to show that the correct realization of transhumanist love could implicate consequences that may be troublesome for the philosophical assumptions about the benefits of the conception of transhumanist love.
In The Singularity Is Near (2005), pioneering transhumanist Raymond Kurzweil described the end goal of a six-epoch evolutionary cosmogony, claiming that "once non-biological intelligence gets a foothold in the human brain ... the machine intelligence in our brains will grow exponentially ... Ultimately, the entire universe will become saturated with our intelligence. This is the destiny of the universe". A hundred years earlier, Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, rolled out her own evolutionary cosmogony in The Secret Doctrine (1888), in which the "spiritual nature" of human beings, along with the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, as well as the chemical elements, are all developed through a complex cyclic progression of seven planetary stages, linked together via "rounds" and "chains," culminating in the spiritualization of all matter in the universe. At a glance, it may seem these two conceptual models, separated by years of history, have little to do with one another. Yet as I argue in this paper, the contemporary ideas of transhumanists share the logics of turn-of-the-century theosophists and theosophically informed esoteric groups, albeit in a reductive, materialistic, and technologically deterministic mode. Both intellectual expressions are anchored in a historical context awash in new forms of technology and scientific advancement and therefore share in the utopic hopes and apocalyptic nightmares about the transformation of human bodies and human consciousness. To highlight these similarities, I use three case studies: the Temple of the People in Halcyon, California; the prognostications of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophical Society; and G. I. Gurdjieff's notion of the "machine man". These case studies point to a link between the logics and use of metaphors in esotericism and transhumanism – the one religious, the other scientific – as well as the application of evolutionary principles to the developing stages of human consciousnesses and the cosmos.