The transhumans or posthumans we may become may quite possibly share our current DNA, but technologies and cultural practices are likely to gradually render our chromosomes almost vestigial components of our individual and species identity.
In narratives of human existence, technology often plays a dual role as a catalyst of the human subject’s actions towards a fulfilling existence, or as an enemy of social cohesion and the preservation of culture.
Aging is inarguably the most prevalent medically relevant phenomenon in the modern world and the primary ultimate target of biomedical research.
In early June 2005, upon opening my postbox for my Frascati, Italy apartment, a glossy, elegantly-designed brochure fell to the floor, revealing pink pictures of mothers and babies and sterile pictures of test-tubes. The brochure was a suspiciously-crafted campaign piece from the Committee of Science and Life, urging me not to vote in the upcoming…
By accident or design, transhumanism has often been depicted as a villain without redeeming qualities. Rather than considering transhumanism on its own terms, we are often given a false choice: threat or menace?
In The Global Spiral’s 2008 Special Issue on Transhumanism1, Guest Editor Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and five other authors, Ted Peters, Katherine Hayles, Don Ihde, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, and Andrew Pickering, provocatively relay their concerns about transhumanism to expectant ears. This responsive second Special Issue on Transhumanism is an opportunity for ten transhumanist authors to evaluate the criticisms…
Bioengineering and genetic enhancement will bring the posthuman age in which humans live longer, possess new physical and cognitive abilities, and are liberated from suffering due to aging and disease. Moreover, humans will attain “cognitive immortality.”
Are Christianity and Darwinism mutually exclusive? In contexts where the answers to this question have led to political and legal battles of great intensity, the consequences can be saddening as compared to those from Darwin’s own country, where historically the polarisation has not been so pronounced. In England there were plenty of folk deeply shocked…