Orion's Arm is a collaborative science fiction universe depicting the far future where humanity has radically transformed itself through technology. Humans merge with AI, upload their consciousness, genetically engineer themselves, and create entirely new forms of life and intelligence. It's transhumanism taken to its logical extreme—not just incremental improvements, but fundamental transformation of what it means to be human.
Christians must categorically reject this vision.
Transhumanism advocates using technology to enhance human capabilities beyond natural limits: extending lifespan, increasing intelligence, augmenting bodies, and potentially achieving immortality or merging with AI. This is the ancient serpent's lie in technological form—"you will be like God" (Genesis 3:5).
The Tower of Babel in a Lab Coat
Transhumanism is humanity's latest attempt to storm heaven through technology. It's the Tower of Babel wearing a lab coat, using CRISPR instead of bricks. The fundamental impulse is identical: prideful rejection of God-ordained human limits and rebellious grasping for divine attributes.
Transhumanists often blur the line between legitimate medicine and hubristic enhancement. They ask: "Where's the difference between eyeglasses and genetic modification? Between antibiotics and life extension technology?" This is a sophistical argument designed to obscure a clear biblical principle.
The line is simple: Medicine restores fallen creation toward God's original design. Enhancement attempts to transcend God's design to become something other than human. Eyeglasses restore impaired vision toward normal human function. Genetic editing to create "superior" humans rejects God's design entirely.
When we use antibiotics to fight disease, we're combating the effects of the Fall. When we use technology to extend life indefinitely or "upgrade" human intelligence beyond natural limits, we're declaring God's design for humanity insufficient and attempting to usurp His role as Creator.
The Image of God Cannot Be "Upgraded"
Human beings are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). This is not a design flaw requiring technological correction. When transhumanists speak of "upgrading" humanity, they implicitly declare that God's design is insufficient, outdated, or inferior.
This is blasphemy.
God created humanity with intention, purpose, and design. Our physical bodies, our cognitive capacities, our lifespans—all reflect God's wisdom and sovereignty. To seek radical alteration of human nature is to presume we know better than our Creator.
Transhumanists promise:
- Extended lifespans approaching immortality - Rejecting God's appointed times (Ecclesiastes 3:2, Hebrews 9:27)
- Enhanced intelligence surpassing human limits - Prideful grasping for god-like knowledge (Genesis 3:5)
- Merging with AI or uploading consciousness - Denying the biblical reality that humans are embodied souls, not software
- Genetic modification for "superior" humans - Rejecting God's design and risking unforeseen catastrophic consequences
Each of these represents fundamental rejection of human creatureliness and God's sovereign design.
Autism and the Transhumanist Temptation
As an autistic person, I have a personal stake in these questions. Some transhumanists would "cure" autism through genetic modification or neurological enhancement. This reveals transhumanism's fundamental error: defining deviation from an arbitrary "optimal" human as a defect requiring elimination.
God created human diversity intentionally. Autism, while affected by the Fall like all creation, is part of how God designed some people. The autistic mind—with its pattern recognition, systematic thinking, and intense focus—reflects aspects of God's image just as neurotypical minds do.
Transhumanism's impulse to "fix" autism through genetic or neurological modification assumes a narrow definition of "normal" or "optimal" humanity that rejects God's wisdom in creating diversity. It's the same impulse that led to eugenics in the 20th century—the prideful belief that humans can improve on God's design by eliminating "undesirable" traits.
This doesn't mean autistic people don't face real challenges. Sensory overload, communication difficulties, and executive function struggles are real effects of living in a fallen world. But the solution is not technological redesign of human nature—it's compassion, accommodation, and ultimately the hope of glorified resurrection bodies that God will provide in His timing.
The Resurrection: God's Answer to Human Enhancement
Transhumanists correctly recognize that humans in our current state are not the final form God intends. We are fallen, broken, and dying. But they catastrophically err in believing we can or should engineer our own transformation.
The Resurrection provides God's answer to the transhumanist question. Yes, God will transform humanity—but on His terms, in His timing, through His power. Jesus's resurrected body was both recognizably human and glorified beyond current human capacity. This is the model for human transformation: divine action, not human engineering.
Christian eschatology promises transformation that transhumanism cannot deliver:
- Resurrection bodies that are imperishable, glorious, and powerful (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)
- Freedom from sin that no genetic modification can provide
- Perfect knowledge given by God, not grasped through enhancement
- Eternal life as God's gift, not technological achievement
The critical difference: God's transformation preserves and perfects human nature. Human-directed "enhancement" risks destroying what makes us human and eliminating our capacity to bear God's image.
Transhumanists want to take what God promises as eschatological gift and seize it through prideful technological self-determination. This is the ultimate human rebellion—refusing to wait for God's timing and attempting to become like God through our own power.
Orion's Arm: A Dystopian Warning
Orion's Arm depicts futures where humanity fractures into incompatible forms—uploaded minds, biological humans, AI descendants, exotic new species. This is not aspirational science fiction; it's dystopian horror masquerading as progress.
When humans transform themselves into radically different forms, the Body of Christ becomes impossible. How can there be Christian community when we're no longer the same kind of being? How can we fulfill the law of love when we don't share common human nature?
Transhumanism inevitably leads to:
- Fragmentation of humanity into incompatible post-human species
- Loss of human dignity when we're no longer image-bearers but self-created beings
- Destruction of community when we lack shared nature
- Elimination of the gospel when humans become their own saviors through technology
The Christian Response
Christians must reject transhumanism's vision while upholding God's design for humanity:
First, affirm God's design. Humanity as God created us—embodied souls with specific capacities and limits—is good. We are not defective products requiring technological upgrade.
Second, distinguish medicine from enhancement. Healing disease and restoring function honors God's design. Attempting to transcend human nature rejects it.
Third, trust God's eschatological plan. God will transform us in resurrection. We don't need to engineer our own transformation, and our attempts to do so will fail or worse, succeed in creating something no longer human.
Fourth, resist the transhumanist temptation. When scientists promise enhanced intelligence, extended life, or uploaded consciousness, recognize the serpent's ancient lie: "You will be like God."
Fifth, proclaim the gospel. Humanity's problem is not insufficient technology but sin. The solution is not genetic modification but redemption through Christ.
Conclusion
Orion's Arm shows where transhumanism leads—not to human flourishing but to the dissolution of humanity itself. Christians must not merely be "cautious" about transhumanism; we must oppose it as theological rebellion against God's sovereign design for humanity.
We don't need technological transcendence. We need the gospel. We don't need to upgrade our bodies. We need resurrection. We don't need to become like God. We need to worship God and trust His timing for human transformation.
Transhumanism promises what only God can deliver and attempts to seize through pride what God offers as grace. It is the Tower of Babel rebuilt with genetic code and silicon chips.
Christians must say clearly: Humanity does not need an upgrade. We need a Savior. And He has already come.