WaPo | This week, we’re talking about transhumanism. Need a primer? Catch up here.
Charles T. Rubin is author of “Eclipse of Man: Human Extinction and the Meaning of Progress.” He teaches political philosophy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
For
its proponents, transhumanism — the idea of using technology to
redesign humans beyond our biology — is just common sense. Who doesn’t
want to live a healthier, happier and wealthier life? And wouldn’t it be
great to live such an “enhanced” life indefinitely? For nearly as long
as we have written record, humans have rebelled at the limits of the
human condition, but with the development of modern science and
technology we have become increasingly able to overcome what once seemed
like absolute limits. Advances in fields such as genetics, synthetic
biology, neuropsychology, robotics, artificial intelligence and
nanotechnology are putting us on the verge of even more radical
breakthroughs, allowing us to imagine that we can ultimately rebuild
completely the flawed human product that evolution has bequeathed us.
