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Evaluating the posthuman future - Some philosophical problems
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Evaluating the posthuman future - Some philosophical problems
Annotation
PII
S0236-20070000392-2-1
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Seren Holm 
Edition
Issue 4
Pages
5-15
Abstract
Imagining a future scenario where human beings have evolved in ways so that they are no longer human but post- or transhuman has been a recurrent trope in the science fiction literature since the very inception of this genre. More recently the possibility of a future including posthumans has received significant philosophical attention due to the emergence of activist ‘transhumanism'. This paper will analyse some of the philosophical problems in evaluating whether a posthuman future is a good future that we ought to pursue. It will first briefly describe the transhumanists conception of the posthuman, and the different routes envisaged from the current human condition to the future posthuman condition. The second part will then present and analyse some fundamental philosophical problems we encounter when we try to assess whether and to what extent the posthuman future is good and/or desirable; and it will be concluded that assessing the ethical desirability of the posthuman future is close to impossible.
Keywords
POSTHUMANISM, POSTHUMAN FUTURE, DESIRABLE FUTURE, SCENARIOS MATCHING
Date of publication
01.08.2016
Number of purchasers
1
Views
1047
Readers community rating
0.0 (0 votes)
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