Visions of Technological Transcendence: Human Enhancement and the Rhetoric of the Future

The human enhancement movement—with Transhumanism as its best-known and most influential manifestation—promotes dramatic mental and physical augmentations to be realized by the radical and coordinated appropriation of biotechnology and computer science. Goals of Transhumanism include immortality, the merger of humans and machines, human-level artificial intelligence, and space colonization. The discourse of human enhancement is marked by the imminent emergence of a posthuman species and the...