Washington Post features symposium on transhumanism

May 21, 2016 by

by Michael Cook, Bio Edge:

As a sign of growing interest in transhumanism, the Washington Post recently featured a symposium with several distinguished writers. It may indicate a growing interest in its aspirations, in an election year when a transhumanist, Zoltan Istvan, is seriously running for President.

At the moment, transhumanism is a ill-defined and fractured movement with many different strands, ranging from more-or-less mainstream to whacky. On the mainstream side, there is the National Intelligence Council’s 2012 long-term strategic analysis document  which devotes a section to “human augmentation”. It envisages technology which will help the elderly to cope with disability and soldiers to perform superhuman feats of strength, agility and alertness. On the whacky side, there are visions of a new species of humanity and uploading consciousness to the internet.

Here are a few predictions and evaluations from the WaPo’s contributors. Most of them were solidly in favour and relatively conservative on the transhumanist spectrum.

Ronald Bailey, the science correspondent for Reason magazine and author of “Liberation Biology” and “The End of Doom.”

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