Scientific research threatens to divide into "superhumans" and "subhumans."
Transhumanism — a philosophical concept suggesting that human mental and physical abilities can be enhanced through technological advancements — is particularly popular among individuals like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. All these billionaires invest large sums in relevant scientific projects. However, they are often driven not so much by visionary or altruistic motives as by a desire to improve and prolong their own lives. We explain why the richest people on the planet have embraced neurotechnology and what consequences their interest may have for humanity.
A New Form of Life
The head of SpaceX and the richest person in the world, Elon Musk, suggested back in 2020 that in the future, people would be able to "upload their memories into a new or mechanical body." According to Musk, this will be possible thanks to neuro-computer interfaces — systems that allow for the exchange of information between the brain and electronic devices. In recent years, such interfaces and other neurotechnologies have enabled the conversion of thoughts from paralyzed patients into speech, as well as helped restore vision for several subjects blinded due to vascular pathologies.
Musk is one of the co-founders of Neuralink, a leader in neurotechnology research. Neurobiologists believe that the developments of this and other companies will eventually allow for the treatment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. However, some experts argue that billionaires like Musk, who promote neuro-scientific research, are more interested in achieving digital immortality than in more mundane goals such as helping subjects with neurodegenerative diseases.
According to media and transhumanism expert Alexander Thomas from the University of East London, the futuristic ideas of the richest people on the planet are based on the belief that humanity should "use science and technology to change the course of its evolutionary development." This goal is one of the main tenets among transhumanist supporters. "Transhumanists want to put an end to diseases, aging, and death, while radically enhancing cognitive, emotional, and physical capabilities of humans," Thomas continues.
Researchers of transhumanist ideas usually identify three "super" goals that followers of this concept strive for: superintelligence, super-longevity, and super-happiness. The latter implies that technology will not only raise the standard of living for people but will also inevitably make them happier. Transhumanists propose various methods to achieve this. Some, like Musk, dream of uploading data from the brain to a digital storage. Others insist that a person should retain their physical body but overcome the limitations imposed by their biological nature. Visionaries standing on these positions — including Musk, as well as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and PayPal founder Peter Thiel — are particularly interested in "designing" children, a technology for selecting genes in embryos that allows for "assembling" a child with specific traits: eye and hair color, height, intelligence, and personality traits. Critics compare these studies to eugenics and attempts to create a "Frankenstein monster," fraught with division into "superhumans" and "subhumans."
Among other approaches to hacking human physiology and overcoming the limitations imposed by biology are attempts to create an artificial womb (a device that allows for gestating a fetus without the involvement of a living being) and immortalism — a movement advocating for the maximum delay of aging and death. The most prominent representative of the latter is Brian Johnson, a 48-year-old entrepreneur and venture capitalist. His company, Kernel, develops devices for recording and analyzing brain activity. In an effort to slow aging, Johnson underwent a plasma infusion course from his 17-year-old son in 2021. Additionally, he has tried experimental therapy that had previously only been tested on mice, and Johnson's diet has been described by journalists as a "brown sludge" made from vegetable puree. According to the businessman, who received $800 million from PayPal for the sale of his company Braintree in 2013, all these methods are supposed to prolong his youth.
Many researchers and critics of transhumanism believe that billionaires seeking to transcend or enhance human corporeality are actually trying to create a new form of life, whether it be AI that encompasses all human knowledge or immortal superhumans. In such a worldview, humans appear merely as an intermediate species on the way to something smarter, healthier, and more advanced. Apparently, this is what Elon Musk meant when he referred to humanity as a "biological loader for digital superintelligence" in April 2025.
God Complex
Philosopher Émile Torres, reflecting on existential risks and the threat of human extinction, introduced the acronym TESCREAL, formed from the first letters of various worldview concepts: transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism. These concepts largely shape the views of billionaires dreaming of "transcending" humanity in its current form. For example, extropianism is a doctrine suggesting that technical and scientific progress contributes to the improvement of human quality of life. Singularitarianism is based on the belief in the possibility and necessity of a technological singularity — a moment in the future when humans will lose control over technological progress, and technological progress will become irreversible and affect the development of human civilization. Effective altruism is not aimed at helping a specific person or group of people, but at achieving the maximum increase in social good. Similarly, longtermism implies a desire to improve the fate of humanity in the long term.
Critics of these concepts point out that they all, in one way or another, relate to the distant future and often have an abstract nature. Opponents of such visionary thinking note that it is impossible to predict the state of the planet and humanity centuries from now, so it is better to focus on more immediate problems such as global warming, hunger, and wars, rather than trying to create superintelligence or transfer consciousness into a computer.
However, the richest people on the planet are often preoccupied with the distant future. For example, PayPal founder and Palantir software company developer Peter Thiel has long been interested in various futuristic concepts, from colonizing Mars and seasteading (living in the sea in floating communities free from the jurisdiction of any country) to cryonics, the technology of preserving people in a state of deep cooling in the hope of bringing them back to life in the distant future. At the same time, Thiel is considered one of the main ideologues of the conservative turn in recent years: he criticizes political correctness and multiculturalism, supports U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, and states that only radical measures can save humanity from stagnation.
When journalist and political commentator Ross Douthat asked Thiel if he wanted humanity to thrive, he hesitated. In the same conversation, the entrepreneur referred to Robert Heinlein's science fiction novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" from 1966. In it, convicts sent to the Moon learn from a self-aware computer nicknamed Mike that resources will soon run out and the colony will starve. With the support of AI, the lunar inhabitants raise a revolution against the tyranny of the Earth Federation and for the establishment of an independent democratic state. In the spirit of billionaire futurists, the plot of the work can be interpreted as a confrontation between an intelligent computer, that is, a more advanced form of life, and outdated bureaucratic structures.
"Listening to Thiel, it’s hard to shake the thought that he and his billionaire friends are tired of the human race," writes Canadian journalist Jit Hir. "They want to escape from the lower beings surrounding them." Hir points out the decision by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia) and his wife Priscilla Chan to cut funding for the elementary school for children from disadvantaged families that they opened in 2016. As a result, the school closed, and 400 children had to be placed in other educational institutions. "Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos essentially rented out all of Venice to hold a wedding costing tens of millions, to which he invited his plutocrat friends," Hir continues.
Another billionaire futurist is Sam Altman, CEO of the artificial intelligence development company OpenAI. In the summer of 2025, Altman proclaimed the advent of the era of superintelligence, which will be characterized by going beyond what is accessible to ordinary people. "We don’t know how far beyond human intelligence we can go, but we will find out soon," Altman said. At the same time, in 2023, the CEO of OpenAI acknowledged climate change as a serious problem but stated that it would not have critical significance for humanity, as the "super-smart AI" that will emerge in the coming years will help develop renewable energy, capture carbon more efficiently, and quickly take measures to protect the environment.
"In other words, he said: 'The best way to save ourselves from global warming is to build a machine with no exact specifications, the secret of which no one knows, and then ask it to grant us three wishes,'" commented astrophysicist and science popularizer Adam Becker on Altman's forecasts. The ideas of technological billionaires seem to Becker, like many scientists and philosophers, a dangerous utopia.
A similar idea to Altman's thesis was expressed in the fall of 2024 by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt: according to him, to emerge from the climate crisis, more energy needs to be consumed. Schmidt's logic is that humanity will no longer be able to achieve climate normalization on its own. Therefore, energy should be spent on creating AI that will someday develop to the point where it can solve environmental problems for people.
"When you aim for utopia, it offers you the overcoming of all limits, which in turn allows you to ignore everything else," says science popularizer Adam Becker. "If you know what your ultimate goal is and what will happen in the future, then you don’t have to worry about laws, you don’t have to worry about morality."
Critics of AI futurism warn that the ideas popular among billionaires could lead to the emergence of a god complex among the richest people on the planet — the belief that they should determine the fate of humanity. "Musk sees himself as a messiah," explains philosopher Émile Torres. "He believes he has a crucial role in the history of not only humanity but the entire cosmos."
History Repeats Itself
Some researchers explain the fascination of billionaires with futuristic ideas with vague prospects and their belief in their own infallibility as stemming from a conviction that they are better than everyone else. Even if they do not state this directly, their willingness to take responsibility for billions of lives shows that they actually believe so. The roots of such a worldview among American businessmen can be traced back to the late 1800s or the so-called "Gilded Age" — a period of rapid economic growth when many from humble backgrounds became wealthy through entrepreneurial talent. A class of nouveau riche emerged. They were wealthy but lacked social weight. Often, they were not taken seriously by hereditary members of the upper class.
"This new breed of wealthy people needed some moral justification for their wealth," explains historian David Nasaw. "They needed — in a very intuitive, intimate sense — a sign that their wealth was not just luck and that they were not charlatans. They needed to show that what they were doing was important for all humanity."
Some of the "new rich" found such justification in the ideas of social Darwinism — a set of concepts explaining the structure of society in biological terms. Just as biologists identify natural selection as the main factor of evolution, in which individuals best suited to certain conditions survive, so supporters of social Darwinism believe that among individuals and entire nations, the strongest survive (or thrive). In subsequent years, such ideas were criticized not only for their inaccuracy but also for providing a quasi-scientific justification for authoritarian and imperialist ideologies, racism, fascism, and eugenics. However, many wealthy individuals were inspired by social Darwinist theories to justify their success: they became wealthy not through inheritance, manipulation, or fortunate circumstances, but because they were stronger and better than everyone else. Now, the rhetoric of billionaires has changed, but some researchers believe that the underlying reasoning about conquering space and overcoming physiological limitations still reflects entrepreneurs' belief in their superiority.
"Technological billionaires do not openly speak about the survival of the fittest," clarifies author of the book "Oligarchy in America" Luke Winslow. "But we hear phrases from them like: 'We need to move fast and break things.' This is a very Darwinian way of thinking because if you break everything, a catastrophe will occur in which the strongest will survive. There will be no government crutches allowing the weak to survive. You will uproot them. This idea is very popular in Silicon Valley. It is a justification for wealth and power based on the belief that they deserve it."
That billionaires tend to gravitate towards biological theories explaining their superiority over others' natural abilities is also supported by scientific research. One such study, conducted by psychologists Michael Kraus and Dacher Keltner, showed that wealthy individuals are much more likely to believe that personality is shaped by innate qualities rather than social influences and that each person's personality traits are final and unchangeable. Echoes of the belief in the superiority of wealthy individuals over all others can also be found in the rhetoric of modern billionaires.
Struggle for the Future
Nevertheless, within the framework of such ideas, it turns out that even among white people, some are better than others, specifically — billionaires are better than everyone else. Because of this, they allegedly have the moral right and financial means to contemplate transcending corporeality and developing "superintelligence," without worrying about more pressing issues. "These guys see themselves as supermen," says Dartmouth College sociology professor Brooke Harrington about billionaire futurists. "They believe they are genetically superior to others and that humanity should consist of people with such genes." As an example of such reasoning, Brooke cites the "Manifesto of the Techno-Optimist" by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, which speaks of "becoming technological superhumans" and "conquering dragons."
"Their vision of the future is not inclusive," states philosopher Émile Torres, criticizing technological billionaires. "If it were inclusive, it would include people. But it doesn’t include people. This future is for post-humans. Their vision is elitist and extremely undemocratic. Right now, they are investing billions and trillions of dollars to create a new world governed by post-humans, without even asking for the opinions and preferences of the rest of humanity. They are doing this without our consent, and they do not care what others think about it. They believe in their vision and will try to bring it to life, regardless of how others feel about it."
Reflecting on the possible consequences of such an obsession among technological billionaires with overcoming bodily limitations, achieving immortality, and developing neural networks to the level of "superintelligence," many researchers working in this field come to grim conclusions. For example, according to neurobiology professor Michael Hendricks, "the obsession of wealthy people with silly transhumanist ideas" hinders people from realizing the practical potential of neuroscience. "Neuralink is developing serious technologies, and then Musk comes along and starts talking about telepathy and the like," Hendricks continues.
Lawyer Kristen Matthews, specializing in the sanctity of mental processes, fears that "sci-fi hype will lead to restrictions and slow the development of technologies that could help people who genuinely need assistance." Another concern relates to the potential exacerbation of inequality in the world under the influence of billionaires striving for a technological utopia. "The question arises as to whose future will be superhuman," reflects transhumanism expert Alexander Thomas. "We live in a world with a lot of inequality. Transhumanism, if developed in the current context, is likely to exacerbate this inequality. And this could have catastrophic consequences for the majority of people."
Another perspective on the future suggests that interest in transhumanist ideas will wane due to dissatisfaction among ordinary people and a lack of interest from world leaders. "It is quite possible that someday all this nonsense will be exposed," writes Rolling Stone columnist Alex Morris. "It seems that Trump is already getting tired of technological billionaires. And probably, in the future, so many people will oppose technocratic takeover that it will become impossible. The 'Gilded Age' flowed into the era of progressivism (a period in U.S. history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries characterized by high political activity among lower and middle-class representatives). It is not excluded that something similar could happen again."
At the same time, private funding from billionaires undoubtedly plays an important role in the development of science in general and neurotechnology in particular. The funds they invest allow researchers to work on the boldest projects that would be harder to secure government grants for, as they are too risky. Many of the breakthroughs already achieved in science would have been impossible without the involvement of billionaires willing to pay for expensive equipment and long-term experiments.
Moreover, many philanthropists recognize the problem associated with the skew in funding "technologies for the rich." For example, Sergey Brin, who carries a genetic mutation that increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, allocated $1.5 billion for research on this disease, with funding directed towards finding accessible treatment and prevention methods.
Brian Johnson, when asked what he would recommend to people who want to live to 100, gave this advice: "Try to lower your resting pulse; it determines the quality of your sleep. Whether you get enough sleep will determine whether you can get physical exercise, which will determine whether you eat properly. This sets off a positive cascade of actions." At first glance, this suggestion requires no expenses at all; however, not everyone can lower their pulse at will.
Igor Yaremenko, co-founder of the express delivery service for chemical reagents AppScience, believes that billionaires' interest in science-intensive industries is undoubtedly a positive phenomenon. "Their enormous investments in these areas lead to more founders starting such projects, more new startups emerging, creating an entirely new industry worth billions of dollars that simply did not exist before," says the entrepreneur. "At the same time, I see no harm to science in this. Fundamental research in these areas is being developed in state institutions and is driven by curiosity and the pursuit of pure knowledge. Private companies are not ready for such an approach, as they are fundamentally geared towards obtaining commercial profit as quickly as possible. If all science were private, fundamental research and discoveries, and consequently, the technological progress of humanity would likely be significantly limited and reduced. As long as governments allocate funds and engage in fundamental research, there is no harm in billionaires being interested in scientific topics and directing their capital there; there is only benefit. The main thing is that science does not become just a business."
Alexander Panov, founder and CEO of the Neiry group of companies, also does not believe that super-rich individuals interested in transhumanism hinder the development of neurotechnology. However, he says, regulatory prohibitions provoked by high-profile failed cases could become an obstacle to progress in this area. "People who spend their billions trying to extend the life of the body or some of its parts are not doing anything wrong as long as their efforts do not lead to something that could cause public resonance," says Panov, "but they understand all this and act cautiously."
