Transhumanism

Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the <a href="/facts/Human_enhancement/2b0Kpvdd">enhancement of the human condition</a> by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cognition, and well-being.
Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of <a href="/facts/Emerging_technologies/9Aoq6j9S">emerging technologies</a> that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the <a href="/facts/Technoethics/1gyWrC7W">ethics</a> of using such technologies. Some transhumanists speculate that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings of such vastly greater abilities as to merit the label of <a href="/facts/Posthuman/53wKV62z">posthuman</a> beings.
Another topic of transhumanist research is how to protect humanity against <a href="/facts/Existential_risk/P74aJr4H">existential risks</a> from <a href="/facts/Existential_risk_from_artificial_general_intelligence/j7oxWDYY">artificial general intelligence</a>, asteroid impact, <a href="/facts/Gray_goo/Yfwq0ff2">gray goo</a>, high-energy particle collision experiments, natural or synthetic pandemic, and nuclear warfare.
The biologist <a href="/facts/Julian_Huxley/pIST2QoX">Julian Huxley</a> popularised the term "transhumanism" in a 1957 essay. The contemporary meaning of the term was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of <a href="/facts/Futures_studies/h59ennpW">futurology</a>, a man who changed his name to <a href="/facts/FM-2030/kUrebsgd">FM-2030</a>. In the 1960s, he taught "new concepts of the human" at <a href="/facts/The_New_School/5X1Xqzbv">The New School</a> when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles, and worldviews "transitional" to posthumanity as "<a href="/facts/Transhuman/Ye6teHqQ">transhuman</a>". The assertion laid the intellectual groundwork for the British philosopher <a href="/facts/Max_More/20RDq0I9">Max More</a> to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a <a href="/facts/Futurist/DYr4WnmJ">futurist</a> philosophy in 1990, organizing in California a school of thought that has since grown into the worldwide transhumanist movement.
Influenced by seminal works of <a href="/facts/Science_fiction/d9hE2Lwt">science fiction</a>, the transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives, including philosophy and religion.
In 2017, <a href="/facts/Penn_State_University_Press/7oHSx7n4">Penn State University Press</a>, in cooperation with philosopher <a href="/facts/Stefan_Lorenz_Sorgner/5XpHXIuT">Stefan Lorenz Sorgner</a> and sociologist <a href="/facts/James_Hughes_(sociologist)/DT0tIypX">James Hughes</a>, established the <a href="/facts/Journal_of_Posthuman_Studies/AkG8yUC6">Journal of Posthuman Studies</a> as the first academic journal explicitly dedicated to the posthuman, with the goal of clarifying the notions of <a href="/facts/Posthumanism/xylaD2tQ">posthumanism</a> and transhumanism, as well as comparing and contrasting both.

Transhumanism open-in-new

Transhumanism