Abstract
Transhumanism established a set of values conveying emerging technology and humanity in three essential areas: critical thinking, visionary narratives, and technological innovation. The philosophy established values, goals, and principles that synthesize epistemological and metaphysical views. Its roots stem from historical systems of thinking that form social and cultural attitudes. For example, the diversity of global culture, human rights, the economics of techno production and supply, the ecology of well-being, the development of human enhancement interventions, radical life extension, and the politics of laws and policy-making. This synergistic approach brought greater insight into assessing the challenges and conflicts we face and how to build practical and applied solutions. The expression of transhumanist thinking is practical optimism.
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References
Max More authored the “Philosophy of Transhumanism” in 1990. A detailed essay on transhumanism’s beginnings, see The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future (Wiley-Blackwell).
“It is often confused with, compared to, and even equated with posthumanism. Transhumanism arrived during what is often referred to as the postmodernist era, although it has only a modest overlap with postmodernism. Ironically, transhumanism shares some postmodernist values, such as a need for change, reevaluating knowledge, recognition of multiple identities, and opposition to sharp classifications of what humans and humanity ought to be. Nevertheless, transhumanism does not throw out the entirety of the past because of a few mistaken ideas. Humanism and scientific knowledge have proven their quality and value. In this way, transhumanism seeks a transmodernity or hypermodernism rather than arguing explicitly against modernism. One aspect of transhumanism that we hope to explore and elucidate throughout this book is the need for inclusivity, plurality, and continuous questioning of our knowledge, as we are a species and a society that is forever changing. The roots and core themes of transhumanism address some of the underlying themes that have formed its philosophical outlook” (More and Vita-More, 2012).
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In my Doctorate Dissertation, I explain the difference: “One outcome of the integration and interaction where the human body and its biology with machines was consequential in bringing about the concept of the cyborg (Clynes 1960:27). Rather than being positioned as an endpoint to the integration of human, machine, and computer, the alternative strategy proposed in the thesis focuses on the [transhuman] platform diverse body (substrate autonomous person; i.e., transhuman) because, unlike the cyborg, it steers its own transformative evolution in becoming posthuman.” (Vita-More, 2012).
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Vita-More, N. (2016). Transhumanism: The Growing Worldview. In: Lee, N. (eds) Google It. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6415-4_27
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