Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Publicación cientíca en formato digital
ISSN-Versión Impresa 0798-1406 / ISSN-Versión on line 2542-3185
Depósito legal pp 197402ZU34
ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.40 N° 75
2022
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
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de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
En tre sus ob je ti vos fi gu ran: con tri buir con el pro gre so cien tí fi co de las Cien cias
Hu ma nas y So cia les, a tra vés de la di vul ga ción de los re sul ta dos lo gra dos por sus in ves-
ti ga do res; es ti mu lar la in ves ti ga ción en es tas áreas del sa ber; y pro pi ciar la pre sen ta-
ción, dis cu sión y con fron ta ción de las ideas y avan ces cien tí fi cos con com pro mi so so cial.
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas apa re ce dos ve ces al o y pu bli ca tra ba jos ori gi na les con
avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
ESTA PU BLI CA CIÓN APA RE CE RE SE ÑA DA, EN TRE OTROS ÍN DI CES, EN
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nes Cien tí fi cas y Tec no ló gi cas Ve ne zo la nas del FO NA CIT, La tin dex.
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Vol. 40, Nº 75 (2022), 808-823
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Recibido el 25/07/22 Aceptado el 02/11/22
Discriminatory manifestations in the
context of transhumanism: socio-legal aspect
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4075.48
Tetiana Mikhailina *
Iryna Zharovska **
Yaryna Bohiv ***
Olena Kovalchuk ****
Olena Romtsiv *****
Abstract
The aim of the research was to identify a set of discriminatory
challenges related to the development and implementation of
the concept of transhumanism in a digital society, as well as to
develop and justify a system of socio-legal measures aimed at
their partial leveling. The main methods employed by research
were: the system method, cybernetic and synergistic methods,
extrapolation methods, socio-legal modeling, as well as the
formal-legal method, the legal-practical method and the case method. The
research proposes and substantiates the concept of sociotechnological
inequality. It is concluded that there is a mutual conditionality of social
(socioeconomic) and sociotechnological inequality. On the other hand, a
better socioeconomic situation will also provide more opportunities for
technological modications of one’s own body. This may lead to a further
deepening of the transhumanist gap, the possibility of which is justied in
the research.
Keywords: discrimination and human rights; somatic rights and
transhumanism; digital society; sociotechnological
inequality; transhumanist gap.
* Department of Theory, History of State and Law and Philosophy of Law, Vasyl Stus Donetsk National
University, 21021, 21 600-richchia Str., Vinnytsia, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
1129-2470
** Department of Theory of Law and Constitutionalism Lviv Polytechnic National University 79005, 1/3
Kniazia Romana Str., Lviv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3821-8120
*** Department of Theory of Law and Constitutionalism Lviv Polytechnic National University 79005, 1/3
Kniazia Romana Str., Lviv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5906-4565
**** Department of Theory of Law and Constitutionalism Lviv Polytechnic National University, 79005, 1/3
Kniazia Romana Str., Lviv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5547-1625
**** Department of Theory of Law and Constitutionalism Lviv Polytechnic National University 79005, 1/3
Kniazia Romana Str., Lviv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3776-7120
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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Manifestaciones discriminatorias en el contexto del
transhumanismo: aspecto socio-jurídico
Resumen
El objetivo de la investigación fue identicar un conjunto de retos
discriminatorios relacionados con el desarrollo y la aplicación del concepto
de transhumanismo en una sociedad digital, así como desarrollar y
justicar un sistema de medidas socio-jurídicas destinadas a su nivelación
parcial. Los principales métodos empleados por investigación fueron: el
método de sistema, los métodos cibernéticos y sinérgicos, los métodos de
extrapolación, la modelización sociojurídica, así como el método formal-
legal, el método jurídico-práctico y el método del caso. La investigación
propone y fundamenta el concepto de desigualdad sociotecnológica. Se
concluye que existe la condicionalidad mutua de la desigualdad social
(socioeconómica) y sociotecnológica. Por otra parte, una mejor situación
socioeconómica también proporcionará más oportunidades para las
modicaciones tecnológicas del propio cuerpo. Esto puede conducir a una
mayor profundización de la brecha transhumanista, cuya posibilidad se
justica en la investigación.
Palabras clave: discriminación y derechos humanos; derechos
somáticos y transhumanismo; sociedad digital;
desigualdad sociotecnológica; brecha transhumanista.
Introduction
The formation and development of digital society is condently
spreading its inuence in all spheres of life, giving humanity new
opportunities, but also creates many challenges. One of such challenges
is undoubtedly the formation of the concept of transhumanism, as the
technological improvement of one’s own body is too tempting not only in
terms of combating disease and aging, but also in terms of gaining additional
competitive advantages. However, these same competitive advantages
potentially involve numerous discriminatory risks.
International law has long and consistently established mechanisms
to ensure equality and protection against all forms of discrimination. In
particular, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Articles 1 and 7
states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
... All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination
to equal protection of the law. All persons have the right to equal protection
against any discrimination that violates this Declaration and against any
incitement to such discrimination” (Universal declaration of human rights:
810
Tetiana Mikhailina, Iryna Zharovska, Yaryna Bohiv, Olena Kovalchuk y Olena Romtsiv
Discriminatory manifestations in the context of transhumanism: socio-legal aspect
Proclaimed by the united nations general assembly, Paris, December 1948,
2021), and in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms of 04.11.1950 (ratied by the Law of Ukraine
475/97-ВР of 17.07.97) Article 14 prohibits discrimination, namely “The
exercise of the rights and freedoms recognized in this Convention shall be
ensured without discrimination on any grounds - sex, race, color, language,
religion, political or other beliefs, national or social origin, belonging
to national minorities, property status, birth, or other grounds» (Law of
Ukraine, 1997).
The national laws of all modern democracies are also moving towards
the prohibition of discrimination, but with varying degrees of generalization
and concretization. Thus, in Ukraine, the basic provisions on equality are
contained in the Basic Law, including Article 21 of the Constitution of
Ukraine that stipulates «all people are free and equal in their dignity and
rights» (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 1996).
In addition, the Law of Ukraine “On Principles of Preventing and
Combating Discrimination in Ukraine” of 6 September 2012, 5207-
VI, provides a legal denition of discrimination (as a situation in which a
person and / or group of persons on the basis of race, color skin, political,
religious and other beliefs, sex, age, disability, ethnic and social origin,
citizenship, marital and property status, place of residence, linguistic
or other characteristics that were, are and may be valid or presumed, is
restricted in recognition , exercise or use of rights and freedoms in any
form established by this Law, except when such restriction has a legitimate,
objectively justied purpose, ways to achieve which are appropriate and
necessary), establishes forms of discrimination, as well as general principles
of state non-discrimination policy (Law of Ukraine, 2012).
1. Literature review
But a signicant degree of generalization of the above legal requirements
(including the rules of a special law) leads to doubts about their eective
implementation. In the eld, which at the present stage is practically
outside the scope of legal regulation, the issue of implementation of anti-
discrimination legislation is moving into the plane of their interpretation.
Antoshkina et al., (2021) rightly emphasize the need to implement common
law requirements in the interpretation (p.27), and, perhaps, only their
application can, if not save, then at least somewhat improve the situation in
terms of the research topic.
The problem is that the general principles of law were developed
and implemented by people and in relation to people. In the case of the
implementation of the transhumanist concept, everything will depend on
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the degree and depth of modication of the human body. And if with applied
and cosmetic improvement the situation looks more or less clear, because
a person who has undergone such modications does not lose his human
essence, then in the case of connection (merging) of the human brain with
articial intelligence (hereinafter - AI) the question arises, whether such a
transhuman can be considered a person in the full sense of the word.
That is, in a very broad interpretation of the above legal norms, this
can be recognized in some way as «other features» of the person. But what
should we do if the term «human» instead of «person» is used in national
law or relevant international law?
Thus, based on the above-mentioned, the purpose of this research is to
identify a set of discriminatory challenges related to the development and
implementation of the concept of transhumanism in digital society, as well
as the development and justication of a system of socio-legal measures
aimed at their partial leveling.
2. Research methodology
The research methodology consists of a set of general scientic and
special methods aimed at obtaining a veried scientic result. Of course,
the basis of legal and technological research should be, above all, the system
method, as well as cybernetic and synergetic methods, which logically
follow from the theory of systems.
The interdisciplinarity of scientic work determines the use of
extrapolation, as it allows you to make the most of the positive achievements
and developments of related elds of knowledge, through the prism of
which the subject is analyzed. It will certainly be useful to use the formal-
legal method, because discrimination, although a social phenomenon, but
it acquires very clear signs and manifestations, through the prohibition of
discrimination its legal nature reveals. An analysis of the terminology used
in national anti-discrimination and supranational legislation is also needed.
One of the fundamental methods of work, as a study aimed at modern,
not yet formed legal relations, are socio-legal modeling and legal-prognostic
method, which are designed both speculatively and with additional
application of the case method, to form ideas about possible scenarios
of society development during the implementation of the concept of
transhumanism, to identify the positive and negative consequences of these
development options, to predict possible discriminatory risks. In addition,
the methodological approaches and principles on which the work is based
are highlighted.
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Tetiana Mikhailina, Iryna Zharovska, Yaryna Bohiv, Olena Kovalchuk y Olena Romtsiv
Discriminatory manifestations in the context of transhumanism: socio-legal aspect
First of all, there are the principles of determinism and interdisciplinarity
as the quintessence of the general objective conditionality of legal, social and
technological phenomena, which determines their sustainable continuous
development, but also creates new challenges, including inequality and
discrimination. The humanistic approach is also used, because the concept
of transhumanism directly challenges human nature itself, which creates
discriminatory threats.
3. Results
3.1 Transhumanism as a doctrinal teaching and socio-legal
phenomenon
Transhumanism is a relatively new phenomenon in social and legal
reality, so its doctrinal justication lies in the vast majority of modern
publications. The most popular in scientic discourse is the denition of
transhumanism, formulated in 1990 by the transhumanist philosopher.
More (1996), as a class of life philosophies that seek to continue and
accelerate the evolution of intelligent life beyond its current human form
and human limitations through science and technology, guided by the
principles and values that contribute to life. In fact, if we analyze the
philosophical origins of the doctrine, the emergence of transhumanism
began much earlier with the ideas of critical rationalism.
The Encyclopedia Britannica provides the following denition of
«transhumanism»: a social and philosophical movement devoted to
promoting the research and development of robust human-enhancement
technologies. Such technologies would augment or increase human sensory
reception, emotive ability, or cognitive capacity as well as radically improve
human health and extend human life spans. Such modications resulting
from the addition of biological or physical technologies would be more or
less permanent and integrated into the human body (Ostberg, 2022).
In the legal eld, the formulation of the legal denition of transhumanism
began with The Transhumanist Manifesto in 1993, namely: it is the modern
worldview and the modern legal philosophy, which aims to ensure the
human right to modernize their bodies, freedom from aging and is based on
tolerance, justice, preservation of life, glorication of the mind, protection
of person as a subject of the transformation process.
Thus, the legal context of transhumanism is based primarily on the
right to transform one’s own body, which derives from the «philosophical
principle of self-transformation» (More, 2010). Gromovchuk (2022) notes
that the human right to modify one’s body can be positioned as a somatic
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right to external identity, and is the ability of person to change one’s
anatomy or phenotype regardless of the motivating factors that guide him/
her to making such a decision (p. 7).
That is, for transhumanism the highest value is «posthuman», a new
type of person who is open to change, including body modications,
cultivated by the development of biotechnology (Babina, 2021). But the
modern concept of transhumanism actually perceives transformations
much more broadly and considers them in the following aspects: 1)
improving the physical characteristics of person; 2) improving the cognitive
(mental) characteristics of person; 3) improving the emotional, behavioral
characteristics of person.
Moreover, each type of change ultimately gives dierent advantages to
person in society, compared to others. According to the general principles
of law, the right of one person ends where the right of another person
begins. From this it follows that the right to modify one’s own body is
permissible to the extent that it does not harm another person. But there
is a logical question, whether the potential risk of discrimination against a
non-advanced person can be considered such harm.
And how to assess the discriminatory risks between people who have
undergone dierent types of transformations, among those identied above
(whether in this case the modications will conict with each other, and in
which cases). And most importantly, whether it is possible to consider the
potential threat of the very sign of humanity, which is becoming especially
relevant in light of the rapid development of articial intelligence.
3.2 The origins of the concept of transhumanism and the factors
contributing to its formation
As already mentioned, the concept of transhumanism has been
actively developing for about three decades, and its origins can be found
in the doctrine of the formation of the so-called «posthuman». According
to N. Bostrom, based on the research of Drexler Eric K. and Kurzweil
R., transhumanism contributes to an interdisciplinary approach to
understanding and assessing opportunities for improving the human
condition and the human body, which arise due to the development of
technologies (Eric & Nanosystems, 1992; Kurzweil, 1999).
Attention is paid to both modern technologies, such as genetic
engineering and information technology, and expected technologies of the
future, such as molecular nanotechnology and articial intelligence. The
range of thoughts, feelings, experiences and actions available to human
bodies is probably only a tiny part of what is possible. And, in N. Bostrom’s
comparison of an ordinary modern human with a chimpanzee, humans
may not even have the ability to form a realistic intuitive understanding of
what it is like to be a radically improved human («posthuman»).
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Tetiana Mikhailina, Iryna Zharovska, Yaryna Bohiv, Olena Kovalchuk y Olena Romtsiv
Discriminatory manifestations in the context of transhumanism: socio-legal aspect
According to the scientist, our current way of life covers only an
insignicant subspace of what is possible or allowed by physical limitations,
but this framework expands signicantly with the gradual transition of
human to transhuman and then posthuman (Bostrom, 2020, p. 499-500;
Bostrom, 2003a-2003b). That is, at the present stage, transhumanism,
as a teaching and as a socio-legal phenomenon, is not devoid of a certain
mythologizing and idealization. Of course, before the transhuman (not to
mention the posthuman) opens up fundamentally new, unprecedented
opportunities to overcome disease, prolong life expectancy, scientic
breakthroughs and more.
However, it would be more appropriate to feel cautious optimism in this
regard, given not only the positive expectations, but also the possible crisis
in society related to the implementation of the concept of transhumanism.
Because it is dicult to talk about the discovery of the universe of a new
person and humanity, while humanity itself may lose its signicance.
Criticism of realism should not grow into the idealization of the future
posthuman (in the modernized world of which ordinary people may not
nd a place).
Rather, we should focus on socio-legal modeling of socio-technological
development options and the creation at the legislative level of eective
safeguards to prevent discrimination from transhuman in the economic
sphere (e.g., in production, services), sports, medicine, science, etc.
The formation and establishment of the concept of transhumanism
was facilitated by a number of factors, ranging from the general pattern
of technological development to the complex processes of evolution of
the human brain and human consciousness. In view of this, it is advisable
to identify two main reasons for the emergence of modern philosophical
direction and its logical division into external (related to the development
of science) and internal (caused by modernization of human essence)
for a better understanding of the origins and specics of transhumanism
(Dovhan & Mikhailina, 2021).
The arguments that conrm the set of external causes include the
following. Ross (2020) believes that the intellectual core of transhumanism
is to move to the next stage of human evolution. The tools that contribute
to improvement are nano-, bio- and info technologies, especially articial
intelligence and genetic engineering.
Kurzweil (2012), in «How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human
Thought Revealed», argues that thousands of scientists and engineers
today are working hard to create a repository of human consciousness
like modern Google -cloud (p. 13). Thus, one of the prerequisites could be
considered the idea of creating a human brain articially, put forward by
Henry Markram in the project «Blue Brain 2005-2023» (EPFL, n.d.).
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From this it follows that the combination of human and articial
intelligence is scientically desirable in order to make maximum progress
in the discovery of brain abilities. Among the arguments that conrm the
internal causes, we can highlight, above all, the processes of modernization
of human consciousness.
Melyakova (2020) characterizes them, relying in her judgments on the
pleasure that is at the very top of achievable freedoms of posthuman. That
is, modern person, going through all stages of its development, has formed
its own pyramid of values, the most signicant of which is called pleasure.
But to achieve it, according to the author, ordinary people need to move in
their development in the direction of transhuman.
According to Dzoban (2021), the implementation of transhumanist
postulates precedes the formation of the information society and the
deepening of person into the «virtual» computer world.
One of the prerequisites for this set of internal causes can be considered
the implementation of Synchron’s brain-computer interface device test
program on humans (implantation of chips in the brain), or rather the
human will to participate in the experiment and accept the possibility of
interfering with his/her brain.
The implantation of the Stentrode device, according to company
representatives, will take place through a blood vessel in the human neck
directly into the brain (Center for Devices & Radiological Health, n.d.),
which, rstly, characterizes a certain intervention in human consciousness
through modernization of his/her body, and secondly, gives a modied
person competitive advantages due to partial merge with articial
intelligence technologies and improvement of its cognitive abilities and
expansion of access to information.
It can be argued that this is a signicant layer of the problem of socio-
technological conditionality of today’s law. It should be noted that, as a
rule, the modernization of law is caused by a change in the public interest.
Thus, if scientic and technological discoveries have an impact on a person,
it leads to changes in the legal dimension. Given this, it can be seen that
elements of the transhumanist concept can already be traced in law.
We are talking about the formation of the fourth generation of human
rights - born by the evolution of social processes of human rights, which
includes somatic (the right to change gender, organ transplantation,
cloning, same-sex marriage, articial insemination, euthanasia, child-
free family and independent of government intervention life according to
religious, moral views) and information (right to virtual reality, access to
the Internet and others) rights (Dovhan, 2020, p. 45).
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Tetiana Mikhailina, Iryna Zharovska, Yaryna Bohiv, Olena Kovalchuk y Olena Romtsiv
Discriminatory manifestations in the context of transhumanism: socio-legal aspect
The latter becomes especially relevant in light of the fact that in 2021
the well-known company Facebook was renamed Meta and began to
actively promote the idea of the so-called «metauniverse», i.e., a full virtual
world with which people can interact through connected or embedded
special technology. Moreover, if we analyze the possible legal basis of such
relations, now it is almost a solid legal gap.
It is natural that the unresolved problems of the real world (including
social inequality) move to the virtual world, but, at the same time, there will
be a huge layer of completely new issues: partly - «borrowed» from the real
world, and partly - completely unconventional for mankind at the present
stage of its development.
This directly indicates the need to analyze the forms and types of human
integration with technological devices, as well as the risks associated with
it. The latter becomes especially relevant in light of the fact that in 2021 the
well-known company Facebook was renamed Meta and began to actively
promote the idea of the so-called «metauniverse», i.e., a full virtual world
with which people can interact through connected or embedded special
technology.
Moreover, if we analyze the possible legal basis of such relations, now
it is almost a solid legal gap. It is natural that the unresolved problems of
the real world (including social inequality) move to the virtual world, but,
at the same time, there will be a huge layer of completely new issues: partly
- «borrowed» from the real world, and partly - completely unconventional
for mankind at the present stage of its development. This directly indicates
the need to analyze the forms and types of human integration with
technological devices, as well as the risks related to this.
3.3 Protection of human rights and ways to protect against
discrimination in the era of transhumanism
It should be emphasized that the principle of protection against various
forms of discrimination is fundamental both at the level of international
and national law. For example, Part 1 of Art. 24 of the Constitution of
Ukraine states that there can be no privileges or restrictions on the grounds
of race, color, political, religious and other beliefs, gender, ethnic and social
origin, property status, place of residence, language or other characteristics.
However, the analysis of scientic developments suggests that in in terms of
formation of the information society a tendency to actively «improve your
body», to improve its functionality in accordance with modern standards of
beauty will gradually develop.
On the one hand, legal interference in such tendencies seems absurd at
rst glance, as it is an interference in the private life of a particular individual.
And according to part 1 of Art. 8 of the Convention for the Protection of
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Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, everyone has the right for
respect of his/her private and family life, home and correspondence. By
«private and family life» the European Court of Human Rights means a
term with a broad meaning (Council of Europe, 2018).
4. Discussion
However, analyzing the case law of the European Court, it can be
concluded that any interference in a person’s private life could be justied.
And in all other cases, the person is guaranteed non-interference from the
state and other entities in its decision-making on their own lives.
But such «non-interference» in the future may lead to the problem of
stratication of society into «advanced» and «ordinary», which will be even
more acute than the forms of discrimination that exist in the world today.
Thus, experts predict that due to technological progress, today’s
18-year-olds will have to retrain and get a new profession every ve years
(Future of Work 2030: how to prepare for change in Ukraine, n.d.), but
even this may not help them get a job in competition with modied people.
As for the older generation, for most of them, even retraining will create a
signicant problem due to lack of understanding of modern technologies.
That is, there will be an irreversible social gap, based on the availability of
new technologies and the ability to master them.
Based on the above-mentioned, the paper proposes the concept of
socio-technological inequality. Already at the present stage it is possible
to state the preconditions for the deepening of social inequality by socio-
technological inequality, i.e., the acquisition of social (socio-economic)
benets through technological (or IT) modication of one’s body.
Moreover, the mutual conditionality of social (socio-economic) and
socio-technological inequality is obvious. Thus, technological or information
and technological modications can provide social benets to improve
one’s appearance, i.e., increase attractiveness, get a job, higher income,
and so on. On the other hand, a better socio-economic situation will also
provide more opportunities for technological modications of one’s body.
This vicious circle may lead to further deepening of the transhumanist gap.
This allows us to formulate a hypothesis about the levels of discrimination
generated by the implementation of the transhumanist concept in the future:
1) human and transhuman; 2) human and ASI; 3) ASI and transhuman; 4)
transhuman and transhuman with modications, dierent in nature and
depth. Also based on the prognostic method of research, it was found that
the full implementation of the transhumanist concept through the analyzed
potential discriminatory risks can lead to a new round of crisis of legal
818
Tetiana Mikhailina, Iryna Zharovska, Yaryna Bohiv, Olena Kovalchuk y Olena Romtsiv
Discriminatory manifestations in the context of transhumanism: socio-legal aspect
awareness around the world, as legal awareness is currently uctuating due
to widespread implementation of the fourth generation of human rights
(somatic rights). But the dierences between humans are potentially much
smaller than those between humans as such and articial intelligence.
Partial leveling of the situation is possible through the application of a
set of measures related with: 1) further unication and internationalization
of legal regulation of the implementation of the transhumanist concept; 2)
moderate regulatory restrictions on the right to modify one’s own body and to
use articial intelligence; 3) conducting legal education activities at various
levels aimed at «smoothing» dierences and, consequently, discriminatory
risks between humans and transhuman, as well as developing algorithms
for legal protection and protection against discrimination in the era of
transhumanism and digital society.
Conclusions
This research suggests that the implementation and development of
the transhumanist concept, along with all the positive achievements and
opportunities to overcome the problem of aging and many incurable diseases,
can pose a completely new challenge to society, moving discrimination into
a completely dierent plane. That is, along with the traditional stratication
of society, there may be a stratication of society into two classes: humans
and transhumans - the gap between them will be much deeper and more
tangible than even the worst manifestations of inequality between people.
We propose and substantiate the concept of socio-technological
inequality. Already at the present stage it is possible to state the preconditions
for the deepening of social inequality by socio-technological inequality, i.e.,
the acquisition of social (socio-economic) benets through technological
(or IT) modication of one’s own body. The conclusion is made about the
mutual conditionality of social (socio-economic) and socio-technological
inequality.
Thus, technological or information and technological modications
can provide social benets to improve one’s appearance, i.e., increase
attractiveness, get a job, higher income, and so on. On the other hand, a
better socio-economic situation will also provide more opportunities for
technological modications of one’s body. This vicious circle may lead to
further deepening of the transhumanist gap, the possibility of which is
justied in the research.
The possibility of technological improvement is considered in the
context of the human right to modify one’s own body. The classication of
technological modications of the human body according to a number of
criteria is given.
819
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 75 (2022): 808-823
Therefore, on the volitional basis we divide technological modication
into: voluntarily modication; modication in accordance with social needs;
modication according to medical indicators (but, in accordance with the
bioethical principles of medical experiments with human participation,
if there is a medical indicator, the patient’s consent to the technological
modication of his/her own body must be taken into account).
Based on the essence of changes there are: actual technological
modications (for example, robotic prostheses); information and
technological modications related to the increase of human intellectual
abilities (through the improvement of the ability to process information)
or the ability to connect brain to information networks of various kinds
and certain information resources. Such modications are made possible
by intervening directly in the human brain; combined, namely, the use of a
complex of ways to improve one person.
According to the functional purpose we should be distinguish
technological modications into: special, i.e., designed to improve certain
aspects of the functioning of the human body; general, i.e., aimed at
improving the overall functionality of the human body.
The depth of modication can be distinguished as: connection of
technological or information-technological devices with the human body;
implantation of technological or information-technological devices in
the human body; merging of technological or information-technological
devices with the human body.
These categories («connection», «implantation», «merging»)
characterize the degree of depth of integration and the constancy or
temporariness of the use of information and technological devices to
improve the functioning of your own body. The hypothesis about the levels
of discrimination generated by the implementation of the transhumanist
concept is substantiated: 1) man and transhuman; 2) human and ASI; 3)
ASI and transhuman; 4) transhuman and transhuman with modications,
dierent in nature and depth.
It is argued that recognizing the subjectivity of articial intelligence will
inevitably lead to a new debate: possible, acceptable and admissible types of
legal liability for AI. In addition, the thesis is supported and further argued
that even before the full implementation of the transhumanist concept,
humanity must experience the discriminatory challenges associated with
the robotization of most areas of human activity. Competition with robots
is already reducing jobs in certain areas of production, but so far, such an
impact is not so signicant, but this could change in the near decades.
The research predicts that the full implementation of the transhumanist
concept through potential discriminatory risks could lead to a new round
of legal awareness crisis around the world, as legal awareness is currently
820
Tetiana Mikhailina, Iryna Zharovska, Yaryna Bohiv, Olena Kovalchuk y Olena Romtsiv
Discriminatory manifestations in the context of transhumanism: socio-legal aspect
uctuating due to the widespread implementation of the fourth generation
of human rights (somatic rights).
But the dierences between humans are potentially much smaller
than those between humans as such and articial intelligence. Partial
smoothing of the situation is possible through the application of a set of
measures related with: 1) further unication and internationalization of
legal regulation of the implementation of the transhumanist concept; 2)
moderate regulatory restrictions on the right to modify one’s own body
and to use articial intelligence; 3) conducting legal education activities
at various levels aimed at «smoothing» dierences and, consequently,
discriminatory risks between people and transhuman, as well as developing
algorithms for legal protection and protection against discrimination in the
era of transhumanism and digital society.
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
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Universidad del Zulia. Maracaibo-Venezuela
Vol.40 Nº 75