What is Transhumanism?
Transhumanists see the human condition as something that can be improved. Ageing, disease, and the limits of memory and mood are, to them, problems to be worked on, not fixed facts of life. They look to genetic engineering, medicine, computing, artificial intelligence and brain-machine links as tools. In politics, they ask governments to fund research, protect people's freedom to choose enhancements for themselves, and think ahead about the risks of powerful technology. Most stress that the aim is a better future for people in general. Critics fear it will do the opposite.
Core beliefs
- Technology should be used to improve human health, ability and well-being.
- People should be free to decide what happens to their own bodies and minds.
- Ageing and disease are worth defeating, and life extension is a fair goal.
- Gains should be spread widely and made safe.
- Societies should plan carefully for the dangers of strong new technologies.
History
Hopes for human betterment run back to Enlightenment thinkers. In 1923 the British biologist J. B. S. Haldane gave a talk, later a book, called Daedalus, picturing a future shaped by biology. His fellow biologist Julian Huxley used the word transhumanism in a 1957 essay, describing humanity going beyond itself. In the later 1900s the futurist FM-2030 wrote about people moving past old limits, and the extropian movement grew in California. The World Transhumanist Association was set up in 1998 and renamed Humanity+ in 2008. Small transhumanist parties have appeared in several countries, though none has won much support.
Variants
Libertarian transhumanists, tied to the extropians, want free choice, private innovation and little regulation. Democratic transhumanists want enhancement to be safe, regulated and open to all, with public funding. Some groups concentrate on life extension. Others concentrate on artificial intelligence and the idea of a coming "singularity", when machines might outthink people. A related field studies large-scale risks from technology. There are also religious transhumanists, who see enhancement as compatible with faith.
Criticisms
Bioconservatives argue that remaking human nature endangers dignity, equality and the meaning of ordinary life. Many religious critics say it oversteps proper human limits and puts hope in machines in place of God. On the left, critics fear that the rich would gain enhancements first and widen inequality, and some compare the aims to the eugenics movement of the past. Others doubt that its predictions about technology are realistic. Environmental thinkers worry about its trust in technical fixes.
In practice
Transhumanist parties have done little at the polls, but the ideas feed larger arguments. Governments debate how to treat gene editing, enhancement drugs, brain-computer interfaces and AI. The Oviedo Convention of 1997 bans inheritable changes to the human genome in countries that signed it. Public and private money for research on ageing and regenerative medicine has grown. On the 12 axes it scores at the extreme Embrace end on Technology, strongly toward Secular on Religion, and strongly toward Progressive on Morality.