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Perfecting Human Futures

Transhuman Visions and Technological Imaginations

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Editors:
  1. J. Benjamin Hurlbut

    1. Center for Biology and Society, Arizona State University, TEMPE, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

    1. Center for Jewish Studies, Arizona State University, TEMPE, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • The Future of Human Body
  • Human Enhancement: New Developments in Science and Technology
  • Introduction and Survey
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-VIII
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  2. Introduction: Technology, Utopianism and Eschatology

    • Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, J. Benjamin Hurlbut
    Pages 1-32

  3. Technological Imaginations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 33-33
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    2. What Does the Debate on (Post)human Futures Tell Us?

      • Armin Grunwald
      Pages 35-50

    3. Manifestations of the Posthuman in the Postsecular Imagination

      • Elaine Graham
      Pages 51-72

    4. Perfecting the Human: Posthuman Imaginaries and Technologies of Reason

      • Sheila Jasanoff
      Pages 73-95

    5. Heidegger on Techno-Posthumanism

      • Michael E. Zimmerman
      Pages 97-117

  4. Ethics and Politics of Envisioned Futures

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 119-119
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    2. Transhumanism Is Humanism, and Humanism Is Transhumanism

      • Micha Brumlik
      Pages 121-140

    3. Three Transhumanist Types of (Post)Human Perfection

      • Stefan Lorenz Sorgner
      Pages 141-157

    4. Reduced Heritage

      • Thorsten Moos
      Pages 159-178

    5. The Cognitive and Practical Relevance of Technological Visions

      • Franc Mali
      Pages 179-194

    6. Enhancing Machine Nature

      • Alfred Nordmann
      Pages 195-214

  5. The Transhumanist Imagination in Context

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 215-215
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    2. Perfecting European Democracy

      • Brice Laurent
      Pages 217-237

    3. Technologies of Transcendence at Singularity University

      • Margarita Boenig-Liptsin, J. Benjamin Hurlbut
      Pages 239-267

    4. Scientific Humanisms and Technological Utopias

      • Nasser Zakariya
      Pages 269-289

    5. Future Vision in Transhumanist Writings and the Religious Public

      • John H. Evans
      Pages 291-306

    6. The Quest for Enhanced Consciousness in Everyday Life

      • G. Pascal Zachary
      Pages 307-325

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 327-380
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Keywords

About this book

Humans have always imagined better futures. From the desire to overcome death to the aspiration to dominion over the world, imaginations of the technological future reveal the commitments, values, and norms of those who construct them.  Today, the human future is thrown into question by emerging technologies that promise radical control over human life and elicit corollary imaginations of human perfectibility. This interdisciplinary volume assembles scholars of science and technology studies, sociology, philosophy, theology, ethics, and history to examine imaginations of technological progress that promises to transcend the constraints of human body and being. Attending in particular to transhumanist and posthumanist visions, the volume breaks new ground by exploring their utopian and eschatological dimensions and situating them within a broader context of ideas, institutions, and practices of innovation. The volume invites specialists and general readers to explore the stakes of contemporary imaginations of technological innovation as a source of progress, a force of social and historical transformation, and as the defining essence of human life.

Reviews

“The central aim of this volume is to interrogate social visions that desire to overcome the limitations of human finitude through technological advancement. … this volume is a valuable resource for specialists and general readers to explore the stakes of imagined technological futures as a source of social, technological, and human transformation and is effective in stimulating further reading on the topic. I would not hesitate in recommending Perfecting Human Futures to my colleagues … .” (Michael G. Sherbert, Nanoethics, Vol. 10, 2016)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Center for Biology and Society, Arizona State University, TEMPE, USA

    J. Benjamin Hurlbut

  • Center for Jewish Studies, Arizona State University, TEMPE, USA

    Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

About the editors

J. Benjamin Hurlbut is Assistant Professor of Bioscience Ethics in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism and Director of the Center of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. 

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