Philosophy of Humanism, Transhumanism and Post-Humanism

By

Dr. Paul Cottrell

April 9, 2016

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Introduction

In this paper I cover humanism, transhumanism and post-humanism. We are at a

crossroad, whereby technology maybe redefining what it means to be human. For example,

humans have not evolved much physically since the last 500,000 years. Yes, it is true that

physical characteristics have changed, e.g., height and bone density; but these changes are

minuscule compared to the radical changes waiting for us. We are now experiencing radical

augmentations that eliminates physical defects. Such augmentation in prosthetics, hearing aids,

and advances in augmented sight are beginning to be more common.

The philosophy of humanism is explored through the lens of modernism, relativism, and

post-relativism. Philosophy has evolved and has affected our social constructs. By realizing that

post-relativism represents a global consciousness we can deduce that larger patterns of social

behavior are emerging, whereby the position that one holds may not be fully valid. This post-

relativism explains ecological imbalance due to self determination and the systemic risks that

buildup throughout society, even if those social contracts seemed at the face-of-it beneficial. For

example, social programs to help redistribute wealth might actually erode the productivity of the

society and its longer sustainability. Transhumanism and post-humanism is explored by

reviewing research from Chu and others. Transhumanism is the technological extension of the

human body. Post-humanism is when the human form is no longer recognized via the trans-

human evolutionary progression; with the possibility of no form at all—pure energy.

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Humanism

The Definition of humanism

Humanism can be defined as a framework focusing on the physical realm instead of the

spiritual realm. The rational thinking of humanism dispels the notion of supernatural matters.

The moral character is not anchored onto a certain religious doctrine within the philosophy of

humanism. Rational thought, prescribed in the enlightenment, is core to humanism. Some in the

religious sectors of society would consider humanism as an immoral or at best amoral

conviction. Humanism can have morality without a supreme being ruling over us through

religious edicts. Morality can be derived through the rationality of self-preservation. For

example, without having some rule of law on property then as a population grows there might be

increases in theft within the society. It is perfectly rational that laws are created to prevent such

theft from occurring, without having religious connotations associated with the law.

In terms of a brief history of humanism, Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer coined the term

for a new classical curriculum in German secondary schools (Niethammer, 1808). In Giustiniani

(1859), Goerg Voigt in 1856 used humanism to describe renaissance humanism to revive

classical learning (p. 172). During the French Enlightenment, the term humanism was used to

describe the general love of humanity and was the cornerstone of philanthropic societies.

Humanism after the French Revolution started to gain criticism from religious factions due to the

perception that human reason alone could create the idea of human virtue, without any need for a

religious foundation. Anti-religious establishments continued to use humanism as a philosophy

centered on humankind by Left Hegelians and Karl Marx whom criticize the close involvement

of the church in the repressive German government. But through religious humanism the

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humanist ethics can be integrated into religious rituals and beliefs that centered on human needs,

interests, and abilities; therefore, it is not necessarily true that humanism is completely agnostic

or atheistic.

Modernism

Modernism is applied to forms that previous philosophical frameworks do not apply.

This philosophical genus was borne out of the industrialization of societies, the rapid growth of

cities, and the massive mechanical carnage of World War One. I will define modernism for our

purposes as a framework that defines the most efficient or best way to achieving something.

Parochialism fits well into the modernism framework.

Just as in works of art in the vein of modernism, colors are primary and shapes are

limited. When viewing society in a modernism framework there are also limited structures to

choose from, e.g. capitalism or communism. As can be seen, modernism is very polarized or

deontological. People are viewed as right or wrong. Modernism leaves little room for dissenting

opinions, almost in a religious sense.

An example of modernism for our purposes is the case when combating terrorism, the

defending country considers that the enemy has no justification what-so-ever in its operations.

Through modernism one does not reflect on the possible justifiable motives of the counterparty.

This deontological view of the world leads to increase warfare and income inequality. It is also

the bases for colonialism and racism. Very little consideration, if any, is allocated to

understanding why other points of view might be valid.

There was a need to move out of the parochialism that promoted the monolithic thinking

within modernism. What emerged was relativism, whereby different points of view are

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considered valid, or at least considered relevant for consideration. This led to liberal ideas

within political science—instead of the might-makes-right approach. Due to the fact that

modernism might not be the best philosophical framework to apply solutions to racism or sexism

relativism provides some comfort.

Relativism

Relativism has been a common philosophical framework in contemporary thought. It is

through relativism and phenomenology that different points-of-view are considered legitimate

for consideration, albeit through logic. For example, there is the understanding that subjectivity

can lead to different points-of-view; therefore, modernism is nullified because of the parochial

perspective.

Through relativism a political correct world emerges. This political correctness is not

necessarily a good characteristic, since not all perspectives are equivalent. But it’s true that

through relativism idealism sprouts. In political science relativism promotes the idea of trusting

a peaceful existence amongst nation states, similar to the Westphalian ideals of Europe.

Relativism can also be a philosophical framework for how races or genders interrelate. For

example, the civil rights era in the 1960’s promoted equal racial treatment. It was through the

realization that different races should have equal opportunities and the ability to express their

ideas under the protection of the law. Within modernism, racial equality is hard to obtain.

Relativism helped with establishing that other vantage points need to be considered, but

this sort of philosophical framework can lead to systemic risk. For example, within the context

of free financial markets, laissez faire capitalism led to a financial collapse of 2008. It was the

erroneous market belief that by reducing risk through engineering securitization products that the

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overall financial system would be more stable, whereas the financial system became more fragile

and contagious when these financially engineered securities reached a critical mass—similar to a

nuclear reaction reaching critical mass. When certain elements in a system goes into

disequilibrium nonlinear effects result. Sometimes these nonlinear effects are positive, but

usually the system performs in a chaotic manner and results in negative externalities. The main

point is that relativism can lead to nonlinear system behavior that is detrimental to the system.

For example, freedom of religion is a worthy cause to uphold but it is also true that when one

religious system overpowers another religious system the social cohesion erodes and can lead to

physical conflict, such as the crusades.

Post-relativism

I will define post-relativism as a philosophical framework to address the negative

externalities of relativism. Post-relativism allows for room regarding phenomenological

perspectives with also an understanding that social systems are chaotic systems that have a

tendency to go into a chaotic attraction, whereby the system becomes imbalanced. We see this

quite clearly in financial markets where the economic system seems stable but then starts to

tremor in the labor market, credit markets, or commercial trading markets which leads to severe

market corrects, e.g., higher unemployment and the freezing up of credit.

Another way to apply post-relativism is in the current struggle in the Middle East. In a

pure relativistic sense, there would be an equal weight of legitimacy amongst all parties

involved, such as Israeli, Shiite, Sunni, and Western Powers. In reality pure relativism is not

solving the issues that pledge this region. It is not the intent of this writing to have a real solution

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for the conflict in the Middle East, but I would like to comment that post-relativism might be a

philosophical framework to build on to provide lasting peace in the region.

The key point to consider in post-relativism is that systems can produce negative

externalities and produce ecological imbalance within the system or out into other surrounding

systems. So keeping a vigilant eye on certain agents or actors that can create systemic risk is

paramount and a system of rules and regulations must be established to prevent one agent of the

system from disturbing the Nash equilibrium of the system. This concept of post-relativism is

antithetical to pure capitalism or pure socialism because either system can cause disequilibrium.

Therefore, it is the duty of the citizens of the society to create proper regulatory structures to

prevent these externalities from arising, albeit to the best of their ability to circumvent the

negative effects of the social system.

Within the post-relativism framework there are hints of higher intelligence. The idea that

a complex system has numerous feedback loops that produce unpredictable phenomena, an

assumption can be made that there is intelligence—or complex information—that can be derived

from the system. The realization that our actions perturb our complex social system which leads

to nonlinear phenomena is important to remember. This leads to the concept of artificial

intelligence and how human beings will interface with such technology or new species. Will we

remain human in this new era of artificial intelligence or will be need to evolve into techno-

species? Is transhumanism the result of a nonlinear event called the singularity?

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Transhumanism

Chu

It has been proposed that conscious evolution will be a serious contender to natural

evolution. Chu (2014) proposed the purposefulness of conscious evolution because the

information derived from the past is explicitly incorporated into the decision making process,

whereas an unconscious evolution has implicit information and is encoded into the genes and

natural environment.

Chu did suggest that this explicit information does not mean that the outcomes will be

completely known. This is similar to trading the financial markets, assuming the markets are a

Markov chain structure, a non-random system. We can see this conscious evolution taking place

in our everyday world, whereby humans use tools and information to change our environment to

make it more hospitable. We also derive complex understanding from informational systems

allowing for us to develop warning systems for severe weather or tsunamis—reducing historic

death tolls from similar events.

One of the possible benefits of conscious evolution is that experiences, memories, and

information can be passed to memes for any generation. This allows for more rapid information

transfer and leads to higher semantic understanding. It is due to this feature of conscious

evolution that there is a growing group of people fearful of the singularity, whereby this

evolutionary process leads to the extermination of humankind as it is defined in our current

context. But we can see the obvious benefits of being able to transfer learnt experiences much

quicker and process information faster. For example, look at the amount of time it takes to raise

a child to a level that the child understands adult level conversations. What if we could at the

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moment at birth upload knowledge to the child? The long-term and compounding benefits to

society should be exponential in theory. It might also be true that there is a negative externality

that degrades society—perhaps we need a lower diffusion of knowledge and the ability to purge

generationally to evolve healthy at the individual or societal level.

Vita-More

In Vita-More (2012) an exhaustive analysis of the possible body augmentations were

performed which helped imagine the possible paths of transhumanism. Vita-More suggested that

someday individuals might change their skin color or their whole arm on a daily basis, similar to

how we change our cloths today. We might even gravitate to transhumanist designers, as we do

today with clothing designers. She also contends that as we progress through transhumanism

that the actual human bipedal form will start to morph into something much more alien or insect

like.

Another aspect of Vita-More’s research into transhumanism relates to the need for

information processing augmentation. We are already seeing how we are interfacing with

technology on a daily or hourly bases via smart phones, smart watches, and augmented reality.

These devices are getting much smaller and cheaper year-over-year and will eventually be

integrated into our clothing and physical body. The body integration features already exist

today. For example, bionic eyes and ear drums are available today. Advances in prosthetics are

developing everyday with mind-to-motor control which is starting to showcase integration of

electronics into the human nervous system.

But with all due respect to the scholarly research that Vita-More presents in her doctoral

dissertation, I must comment that it seems a bit designer bias. She assumed that individuals will

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want to support a designer industry that allows for plug-and-play arms and legs. Seems a bit

science fiction, but there are obvious uses for this technology for individuals that actually need

this sort of augmentation, e.g. victims of accidents or birth defects. The main point is that there

seems to be little evidence that would support large scale designer bodies, but I am using the

current zeitgeist landscape to determine such opinions.

What is more relevant is the human response to artificial intelligence regarding the need

for human labor. It is very possible that the need for human labor will be drastically reduced

forcing humans to compete with artificial intelligence and force computational integration

between the human brain and the artificial intelligent brain. This I think is much more probable

for the inflection point towards transhumanism, not the need for designer bodies—which seems a

bit egotistic and antithetical to a higher morality. It is possible that through the transhumanist

movement that our current economic and monetary system would be nullified by a much more

egalitarian society, which seems at the surface to be anti-materialism; whereas Vita-More seems

to be promoting more materialism.

Barrat

In Barrat (2013) there was a well presented possibility of dystopia with artificial

intelligence and the trend toward transhumanism. Barrat suggested that there will be a hard

takeoff with artificial intelligence leading to superintelligence. A hard takeoff is when a

technology advances very rapidly and does not allow for a slower diffusion into the population.

A soft takeoff is the opposite, whereby the technology has a gradual assent and a modest

diffusion rate. A soft takeoff allows for the society to adapt and coexist with the technology.

Hard takeoffs proposed by Barrat do not allow for coexistence in any meaningful way.

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The hard takeoff hypothesis would lead to a dystopic future because artificial

intelligence, once reaching general intelligence, would lead to superintelligence in a very sho rt

amount of time—possibly months. A super intelligent system would possibly have the ability to

control our energy supply, or be able to institute a holocaust onto mankind. Due to the principle

that super intelligent systems have many magnitudes more of cognitive ability compared to the

human species, it is possible that the super intelligent system will decide that humans are like

bugs and need to be destroyed or at the very least made into pets.

Barrat’s dystopic prediction might come true, but it is more plausible that artificial

intelligence will have a soft takeoff and there will be many variations of artificial intelligent

species. Some of these species will be kind and some will not be. In addition, with a soft takeoff

humankind will learn to either work with these artificial intelligent species or will learn to

integrate with them biologically, which leads to the advancements into the realm of

transhumanism.

Kurtzweil

The most prominent writer on the singularity is Kay Kurtzweil. He is well known for his

predictions regarding technology advancements. In Kurtzweil (2005) it was suggested that

technological advancements in computer power and data storage will lead to a hard takeoff of

artificial intelligence, as well as advancements in material science, nanotechnology, and

biotechnology. Kurtzweil called this point-in-time that technology advances rapidly the

singularity. Most of the technological advancement we have had since the industrial revolution

has followed an exponential curve fit. The point on this exponential curve where a massive

acceleration takes place is this singularity point.

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At the singularity and beyond there will be major advancements in artificial intelligence,

whereby we will reach artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI is an artificial intelligent

system that has human level of intelligence. In addition to massive advancements in artificial

intelligence, biotechnology will advance to a point that life extension and life augmentation is

possible. With advances in computer power and storage, AGI systems will be able to help

advance new discoveries in medicine and physics. This massive explosion of information and

new knowledge will lead further and more rapidly into new discoveries, whence the singularity

is a point where a big bang of discovery is possible.

In terms of transhumanism, Kurtzweil suggests that the advancements in nanotechnology

will help heal the body and prevent diseases. If a nanobot can be placed into the body and self-

replicate, then it is possible to augment our immune system to help fight diseases. Also the self-

replicating robots would be able to imbed themselves into the human brain to increase

neurological function, perhaps not just to improve Alzheimer’s patients but to actually increase

intelligence by adding more cortical power. As can be envisioned, nanotechnology could be a

serious contender to merging biology and technology, whereby allowing for transhumanism to

emerge. It might even be possible someday to use this nanotechnology and integrate it with the

DNA or RNA for biological replication.

Nanotechonology would also have the ability to scan the body’s health in real-time to

determine if medical attention is necessary. This would be essential in early detection of cancers

and organ system failures. With advancements in scanning technologies, the doctor or AGI

doctor will be able to have fine grain information on your biological system to customize

treatment.

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Cottrell

As Kurtzweil suggests, nanotechnology might even be the “cleanup crew” for our

polluted environment. Perhaps little nanobots will be able to filter water and convert carbon

dioxide into oxygen. If the singularity happens as Kurtzweil predicts rapid advancements in

technology of all sorts will lead to life expansion and life extension. Life expansion is when the

average life expectancy is advanced not incrementally but in many magnitudes of our current life

expectancy. Life extension is the augmentation proposed in transhumanism, whereby body parts

and cognitive functions can be improved.

In terms of transhumanism, I suspect that there will not be a hard takeoff for

superintelligence, but actually a s-curve. This s-curve trajectory is slow at the beginning and

accelerates in the middle, leading to a gradual flattening at the end. Superintelligence should

take place even in a s-curve development trajectory, though it will be very gradual and perhaps

more integrated into us. Transhumanism will most likely be the development path for a large

percentage of the human species, but there will be humans that prefer to stay biologically human

with very little technological improvement. So over time there will be different species of

humans.

In the transhumanism’s corner is the fact that humans are the labor force that runs the

world economy. Due to our social structures and politics the debt structures will need to be

serviced. If most of the labor force is supplanted by artificial intelligence how can we support

private and public debt with a lower tax base? If there are less human beings working, then there

will be more stress on administering social programs—leading to more debt. For humans to

compete with the artificial intelligent workforce, human beings will need to integrate

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technologically which leads to life expansion and larger cognitive capacity. Perhaps the main

driver for transhumanism will be economic survival.

I do suspect that by 2025 artificial intelligence will be pervasive in our society and lead to

career opportunities, advanced capabilities conducting doctoral level research, and advancements

in medicine and science. But the lower value careers will be eliminated by artificial intelligence,

leading to more unemployment for the lower value workforce. This economic structural

adjustment will most likely not be a smooth transition and will be quite disruptive. This social

disruption will force “new deal” proposals from governments to quiet the masses that are

affected by these structural adjustments. Unfortunately, these new social programs will be

ineffective in the long-term because the artificial intelligence will evolve up the value chain

leading to more unemployment.

There will be humanists and transhumanists coexisting but that might not be a long-term

conditionality. The humanists might be forced out of existence due to economic realities. It

might be that the transhuman evolution is a natural phenomenon and that the humanists will not

be able to survive. But it is possible that through the advancements of artificial intelligence and

nanotechnology that the need to work will be eliminated and that humans will live in a utopic

existence. This might be the case but our current debt structures, monetary system, and capital

ownership might need to be curtailed or radically restructured.

Post-humanism

Chu

Chu (2014) considers the cosmic being the end to the human existence. The cosmic being

is when humans totally transcend our physical constraints and live as the ultimate super being,

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where all living things are one with the universe. In the tail-end of transhumanism there will be

the lack for the need of a physical form that resembles a human body as we know it to be. Once

the human form is no longer in existence transhumanism will reach the transition point to post-

humanism.

Chu suggests that this post-human form is more angelic, but with a technological

medium. In religion there seems to be other species in different dimensions working in concert

with our plane of existence. Religion defines this angelic medium the spirit world. Chu proposes

that through technology we will possess the mega capable cloud that allows for transhuman and

post-human species to know each other’s thoughts, whereby a collective conscious emerges. At

the being of this collective conscious are individual beings as nodes pooled together allowing for

cognitive networking.

Over time the collective conscious will eventually lead to hyper conductivity and merge

all the individual nodes into one collective being. Similar to individuals in a society leading to a

city. The city is a being from an organizational stand point. As this advanced cloud becomes

more connected and leads to superintelligence the early post-human species will evolve into

pieces of information in this cloud, leading to the end of the need for physical form. This cloud

of conductivity is strengthened by more post-human species fully committing to the cloud. This

cloud is the ultimate oneness of mankind and the universe from Chu’s perspective.

The question is if the post-human period of existence in the physical form will be short

lived and become a cosmic being quickly or if there will be a slow diffusion into the cloud of

hyper conductivity. Either way, Chu considers the cosmic being as a self-similar pattern of

nature, whereby by the universe started as an explosion of material and energy leading to a larger

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self-organizing behavior. Imagine the universe before the big bang as a system of complexity

that led to a big crunch. This big crunch led to the singularity of the big bang, which will lead to

another big crunch of material and energy. This cosmic being concept from Chu is considered

the natural progression of nature to lead to higher forms of organization.

Vita-More

When we consider the transitional point of transhumanism and post-humanism Vita-More

(2012) contemplated the new physical form. This new form will not resemble the human form.

It is possible that the post-human will not be bipedal. It is possible that the post-human will

levitate and not need legs at all. There is a strong possibility that mobility will not be a serious

consideration and that just thinking will allow our needs to be fulfilled in a more evolved post

human era.

Vita-More’s research investigated more of the possibility of augmentation leading to new

human forms. She also investigated the possibility of mind uploads, which seems to be similar

to the beginning of Chu’s cosmic being—assuming that the mind uploads have hyper

conductivity with each other. There seems to be a desire in the singularity movement, which

Vita-More is a participant, to have technology provide immortality. Mind uploads provide this

possibility of immortality, but the assumption is that the true underlying being is also able to be

uploaded. This is what Chalmers (1996) considers the hard problem of consciousness. The hard

problem of consciousness is for us to understand why there is subjective reality. If there is such

subjectivity, then it might not be possible to truly upload the full person into the cloud. Perhaps

we are more than just thoughts.

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Let’s assume we are just neurological connections that can be compressed into digitized

information and uploaded into a mind database. Does that mean that “you” are uploaded or does

it mean a copy that is similar to “you” is uploaded? I believe that Vita-More proposed that mind

uploading is “you,” whereas Chalmers proposes the opposite.

Barrat

Barrat (2013) describes the post-human era as dystopic. This dystopia resides in the idea

that humans will not be able to coevolve with artificial intelligence because the artificial

intelligence will rapidly takeoff and become super intelligent. This superintelligence, according

to Barrat, will view the human species as a nuisance and initiate a designed extinction.

With enough computer power the artificial intelligent species, or AGI, might lead to a

superintelligence—but the lead time for this takeoff is in question. Barrat proposes a hard

takeoff, but I am not sure if Barrat has considered the possibility of inhibitory feedback loops in

our social system or ecosystem that might retard the superintelligence to emerge under a hard

takeoff scenario.

Barrat does shed light on the singularity movement. The singularity movement suggests

that all these advancements from humanism to post-humanism is our “natural” evolutionary

progression for our species. Barrat suggests that all this artificial intelligence will most likely

lead to the end of our species in a very disruptive way.

Kurtzweil

Kurtzweil (2005) investigated the possibility of post-humanism; whereby the main driver

is genetic modification, nanotechnology, and advanced artificial intelligence. Genetic

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modification will allow our species to evolve faster than the normal evolutionary process. There

is a problem with increasing the speed of evolution, it might be out of sync with other species in

the ecosystem leading to disequilibrium. The benefits might outweigh the risks because genetic

modification can target certain diseases and allow for proteins to inhibit the progression of these

diseases or allow for immunity from it. Through genetic modification we rapidly evolve away

from human into post-human.

Nanotechnology in Kurtzweil’s vision of post-humanism allows for immunity of disease

states, but also predicts the ability to have little machines repair cellular damage. For example,

neurological damage is projected to be repaired with nanobots that reconnect lost neural

connections and promote cellular growth. Another possibility of nanotechnology in terms of

post-humanism is that nanobots are a means for rapid evolution of our brain into a hyper

connected system that is linked with other individuals wired via nanobots. This hyper connected

species will eventually not need a human substrate and will lead to the cosmic being that Chu

proposes.

Advanced artificial intelligence will allow for advancements in conductivity within the

species leading to a hyper connected species with a deeper awareness. This awareness might be

disconcerting with concepts of individualism and civil liberties. Under the Kurtzweil vision of

post-humanism, his collectivism might be antithetical to our current sensibilities. This hyper

connected system becomes a being which I suspect will lead to unintended consequences.

Cottrell

Transhumanism is much easier to grasp because it is related to augmenting our current

biological configuration. But understanding post-humanism is quite another task all together. In

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post-humanism the human substrate is no longer used. This is similar to looking at our earlier

ancestry of vertebrates, they do not resemble our species from a physical perspective. So post-

humanism will be an era of a different type of human. Most likely this advanced evolved human

will be technological and biological, via the transformation through transhumanism. The

biological species will merge with the technological species during the transhuman phase. In the

post-human era the species will have the ability to be pure information or materialize at will.

This materializing ability will allow for shape shifting and travel to other ends of the

universe at the speed of light, since we can become pure energetic information. The problem

with this materialization ability is the subjective reality that Chalmers proposes. It is possible

that two people with 100 percent copies of each other, including experiences, prefers different

flavors of ice cream. Is there something beyond the physical body and neurological processes

that allow for this subjectivity? Are we nothing but connected cellular tissue, albeit an evolved

cellular blob?

My main point regarding post-humanism is that the current human form and how we

socialize will no longer exist in the post-human era. It is hard to imagine this post-humanism,

but it is possible that through materialization and shape shifting that we actually die in the

process, only to have another “being” materialize with their unique subjective reality. For

example, if you teleport a person from point A to point B it is quite possible the person’s cellular

tissue and memory is teleported but the being’s essence is not. This essence is the water well of

subjectivity. If it is true that the individual essence is not possible to teleport, perhaps post-

humanism does not maintain the individual essence of subjectivity as well.

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Conclusion

It is important to understand that artificial intelligence and the other promising

technologies at our grasps are going to change the social and philosophical framework relatively

quickly. Without having a discussion on those social and philosophical impacts we will be

evolving with this technology blindly, which might not be in our best interest.

Humanism has led to many different philosophical branches, especially in the context of

relativism and post-relativism. We need to consider that all perspectives might not have equal

validity, and systemic risks can build up leading to social disequilibrium. Transhumanism might

be such a systemic risk. Many researchers and corporations will benefit from rolling out

transhuman technologies, but we need to ask the important question. Are we better off as

individuals with transhuman technology? It is a battle for individualism and collectivism.

Penman (2015) suggested that our factors for civilization ebb and flow depending on

stress factors and childrearing, which lead to the hypothesis that the rise and fall of civilizations

are due by the most part through epigenetic changes. We are currently in a low civilization

factor and low vigor factor phase in the western world. The western world’s current social

makeup constitutes less nuclear families, more opulence and the need for stimulation. My

concern is that with the current epigenetic makeup in technological societies will lead individuals

to choose transhumanism instead of maintaining humanism.

Our society will be asked to answer the question, should I be human or evolve to

transhuman? There will be a small population that will want to maintain their human roots, but

that desire will be increasingly harder to maintain as transhumanism becomes the norm and the

dominate player economically and politically.

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References

Barrat, J. (2013). Our final invention: Artificial intelligence and the end of the human era. New

York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Chalmers, D. (1996). The conscious mind: In search of a fundamental theory. New York, NY:

Oxford University Press.

Chu, T. (2014). Human purpose and transhuman potential: A cosmic vision of our future

evolution. San Rafael, CA: Origin Press.

Giustiniani, V. (1859). Homo, humanus, and the meaning of humanism.

Kurtzweil, R. (2005). The Singularity is near: When humans transcend biology. New York, NY:

Penguin Group.

Niethammer, F. (1808). The dispute between philanthropinism and humanism in the educational

theory of our time.

Penman, J. (2015). Biohistory: Decline and fall of the west. United Kingdom: Cambridge

Scholars Publishing.

Vita-More, N. (2012). Life expansion: Towards an artistic, design-based theory of the

transhuman/posthuman (Doctoral dissertation).