This book examines the contributions of the transhumanism approach to technology, in particular the contributed chapters are wary of the implications of this popular idea.
The volume is organized into four parts concerning philosophical, military, technological and sociological aspects of transhumanism, but the reader is free to choose various reading patterns. Topics discussed include gene editing, the singularity, ethical machines, metaphors in AI, mind uploading, and the philosophy of art, and some perspectives taken or discussed examine transhumanism within the context of the philosophy of technology, transhumanism as a derailed anthropology, and critical sociological aspects that consider transhumanism in the context of topical concerns such as whiteness, maleness, and masculinity.
The book will be of value to researchers engaged with artificial intelligence, and the ethical, societal, and philosophical impacts of science and technology.
Table of Content
Part I: Philosophical Aspects.- Aspects of Mind Uploading.- Transhumanism as a Derailed Anthropology.- Transhumanism and Philosophy of Technology.- Senseless Transhumanism.- Elements of a Posthuman Philosophy of Art.- Part II: Military Aspects.- Transcending Natural Limitations: The Military-Industrial Complex and the Transhumanist Temptation.- When CRISPR Meets Fantasy: Transhumanism and the Military in the Age of Gene Editing.- War in Times of “Beyond Man”: Reflections on a “Grand” Contemporary Topic.- Part III: Technological Aspects.- The Singularity Hoax: Why Computers Will Never Be More Intelligent than Humans.- Ethical Machine Safety Test.- ‘Action’ and Ascription: On Misleading Metaphors in the Debate About Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism.- Part IV: Sociological Aspects.- Transhumanism and/as Whiteness.- Promethean Shame Revisited: A Praxio-onto-epistemological Analysis of Cyber Futures.- Where from and Where to – Trans- and Post-humanistic Phantasms: Antichrist, Headbirth and the Feminist Cyborg.- Co-creation in Trans-human Realities: Setting the Stage for Transformative Learning.