Transhumanism: A 21st Century Primer

Transhumanism is a recent philosophical development that exists primarily in Western society and culture. This philosophy is grounded in Aristotelean metaphysics, Enlightenment humanism, Darwinian naturalism, the Nietzschean concept of the Übermensch, and Marxist ideology. Moreover, transhumanism rejects the validity of traditional monotheistic and polytheistic religions, denies the existence of God and the possibility of any transcendent eternal truth, and opposes the centrality of traditional family values. In praxis, transhumanism is focused on controlling and accelerating humanity’s evolutionary progress through the application of advanced technologies to human biology in order to achieve the posthuman and eventually upload the human mind to super computers to bring about cybernetic immortality.

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Transhumanism advocates the use of present and future technologies like genetic engineering, molecular nanotechnology, super computers, prosthetics, biotechnology, cryonics, mind uploading, cloning, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence (AI) to extend human life spans, increase human cognitive and physical abilities, eliminate diseases and suffering, and ameliorate social and economic inequalities. Transhumanists work to realize these posthuman goals by influencing cultural, social, and economic institutions. Ultimately, transhumanists hope to facilitate a human-machine synergy that will result in a technology-enabled cyber immortality in which the perceived limitations of present human phenomenology will give way to a posthuman utopia; a future in which human beings will exist, not in physical bodies, but rather in a disembodied state of digital perfection.

 

In response to the growing influence of transhumanist philosophy in the West and globally, this website serves as a primer for understanding transhumanism, a research platform providing resources germane to transhumanism, and a help to Christians for engaging transhumanists in both defending the Christian worldview and articulating the Gospel of Jesus Christ.