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.


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...

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...

Aggregated News

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

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.
Press Statement
Press Statement

This webcast explores the new techniques of synthetic biology and gene editing, and their capacity to redesign nature, from seeds to insects to people.

The technologies are being rapidly developed and robustly funded, in most cases well ahead of safety assessments, public engagement, and social oversight. What does this mean for people and the planet – and what can we do about it?

Moderated by Marcy Darnovsky, Center for Genetics and Society

If you were unable to join us, or would like to see the webcast again, click below to watch the event in its entirety.

You can find written replies to some of the questions and comments that were submitted by participants here