A "Post-Human" Future?

Many observers recognize that human biotechnologies can pose serious risks to individuals and society. Others embrace a vision of a “post-human” or “transhumanist” future where people will be so dramatically transformed that they are no longer human. While this is a marginal view, transhumanist advocates are vocal proponents of “enhancing” physical and cognitive abilities through genetic modification, implants, and other techniques in hopes of transcending aspects of the human condition including death.

Death vs Google

By Pete Shanks | 11.07.2018

Biopolitical Times

Five years ago, Time magazine published the cover story illustrated at left: Can Google Solve Death? We have an answer: No. At least, not the way they thought they could. That’s a conclusion drawn from a new scientific paper describing a very large study that STAT summarized:

Life span has little to do with genes, analysis of large ancestry database shows

The company that Google set up for this task, Calico, has always been rather secretive and it...

A "Post-Human" Future?

Transhuman Selfishness as Governing Principle

By Pete Shanks | 12.16.2020

Biopolitical Times

Transhumanist participation in electoral politics often seems like a complete farce, worthy of nothing but laughter. Sometimes, however, the transhumanist vision seems more like a dire warning of disasters ahead if we do not, as a society, change our course.

Zoltan Istvan was the founder of the U.S. Transhumanist Party, and still owns the trademark, though his own most recent run for President was as a Republican. The Transhumanist Party in 2020 nominated Johannon Ben Zion, apparently to...

U.S. States

The slippery slope of the human gene editing debate

By John Evans, Oxford University Press Blog | 09.22.2020

Aggregated News

The ethical debate about what is now called “human gene editing” (HGE) began sixty years ago. At the time, eugenicist...

Society

What Is Transhumanism and Why Do People Associate It With Eugenics?

By Aditi Murti , The Swaddle | 08.07.2019

Aggregated News

The New York Times recently reported that financier and recently-arrested sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein apparently believes in a philosophical strain called transhumanism.

Human Genetic Modification