Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown Future of Human Enhancement

Should technology be used to improve human faculties such as cognition and longevity? This thought-provoking dialogue between transhumanism and religion examines enhancement technologies that could radically alter the human species.

Transhumanism or human enhancement is an intellectual and cultural movement that advocates the use of emerging technologies to change human traits. Although they may sound like science fiction, the possibilities suggested by transhumanism are very real, and the questions they raise have no easy answers. If these enhancements-especially major ones like the indefinite extension of healthy human life-become widely available, they would arguably have a more radical impact on humankind than any other development in history.

This book comprises essays that explore transhumanism and the issues that surround it, addressing numerous fascinating questions posed by scholars of religion from various traditions. How will immortality or extreme longevity change our religious beliefs and practices? How might pharmaceuticals enhance spiritual experiences? Will post-human technologies be available to all persons, or will a superior post-human race arise to dominate the human species? The discussions are as intriguing as the future they suggest.

Introduces some of the hardest and most pressing issues that will determine the future of the human race

Examines current scholarly questions and thoughts about transhumanism

Asks new questions relative to the intersection of human enhancement and religion

Explores what it means to be human in a technologically changing world