Elevating the Human Condition
author Paul A. Spiegel Humanity stands on the brink of the Age of Longevity. Advances in science hold the promise of extending the healthy lifespan beyond the roughly 120 years presently accepted as the “natural” limit’, achieving radical life extension...
We humans have again and again underestimated not only the size of the cosmos—a planet, a solar system, a galaxy, a universe, maybe a hierarchy of parallel universes—but we’ve also repeatedly underestimated the power of the human mind to understand our cosmos.
The EPHES (Engineering Philosophy & Ethics in Society) series of international interdisciplinary conferences intend to be places to debate and share common concerns of researchers from different “hard” and social sciences, engineering, philosophy and other humanities, when trying to capture the high sense for the Human Being in the Age of Surprise / Digital Era / Emergent Technologies Era / Knowledge Society.
A couple of days ago, author Dustin Ashley argued for what he called “Cishumanism” – a bridge, per se, between Transhumanism and Neo-Luddism.
Cishumanism, like transhumanism, is based upon the enhancement of human capabilities beyond the capability of normal humans. Unlike transhumanism, cishumanism is also based upon the idea that the human body shouldn’t be enhanced without proper reason.
In a recent article over at the ironically named “Evolution News”, an intelligent design blog, ID advocate and frequent critic of transhumanism Wesley J. Smith gets nearly everything wrong.
Are the fundamental objectives of transhumanism inherent in being human?
In the 17th & 18th Centuries with the Enlightenment movement the rise of humanism was witnessed and the disconnection from the ‘Real’ authority. The rise of humanism and the control of science and technology has pushed our knowledge of the world around us, how has this affected the autonomous human subject? Where do the ethical and moral implications of technology leave the human? Where will humanism lead us too? What is this term, referred to as ‘posthumanism’? What does it mean to be ‘posthuman’? How does it differ from transhumanism? This piece will discuss these terms and the consequences of the concepts and the individuality that can be seen as at risk, or empowered by the continuing movement and progress of science and technology.
Roby Guerra interviews Italian transhumanist Stefano Vaj about transhumanism, posthumanism, and more.
