Main description:

This is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary, inter-religious, and critical engagement with transhumanism as a cultural phenomenon, an ideology, and a philosophy. Situating transhumanism in its proper historical context, the essays reflect on transhumanism from the perspectives of several world religions, ponder the feasibility of regulating human enhancement, tease out the philosophical implications of transhumanism, explore the interplay between technology and culture, and expose the scientific limits of transhumanism. Written by scholars of religious studies, philosophy, history, psychology, neuroscience, immunology, engineering, science/technology studies, and law, the volume encourages readers to examine transhumanism seriously and critically because of its ramifications for the future of humanity.

Contents:

Contents: Michael M. Crow: Science, Technology, and Democracy - Quentin Wheeler: Recombinant Innovation Creative Hybrid Zones in the Adaptive University - Hava Tirosh-Samuelson/Kenneth L. Mossman: New Perspectives on Transhumanism - Hava Tirosh-Samuelson: Science and the Betterment of Humanity: Three British Prophets of Transhumanism - Linell E. Cady: Religion and the Technowonderland of Transhumanism - Norbert Samuelson/Hava Tirosh-Samuelson: Jewish Perspectives on Transhumanism - Farzad Mahootian: Ideals of Human Perfection: A Comparison of Sufism and Transhumanism - Eugene Clay: Transhumanism and the Orthodox Christian Tradition - Steven M. Wasserstrom: "The True Dreams of Mankind". Mircea Eliade's Transhumanist Fiction and the History of Religions - Brian Gratton: What is Race? Transhumanism and the Evolutionary Sciences - Kenneth L. Mossman: In Sickness and in Health: The (Fuzzy) Boundary between "Therapy" and "Enhancement" - Gary E. Marchant/Alexandra Lopez: The (In)Feasibility of Regulating Enhancement - Steven A. Hoffman: Transhumanist Materialism: A Critique from Immunoneuropsychology - Craig T. Nagoshi/Julie L. Nagoshi: Being Human versus Being Transhuman: The Mind-Body Problem and Lived Experience - Michael J. White: Prenatal Human Enhancement and Issues of Responsibility - Walter Glannon: Neuroscience's Threat to Free Will - Barry G. Ritchie: The (Un)Likelihood of a High-Tech Path to Immortality - Daniel Barben: Converging Technologies, Transhumanism, and Future Society - Joan L. McGregor: Transhumanism and Obligations to Future Generations - Jerry Coursen: Against Species Extinction Transhumanism and Contemporary Technological Culture - Braden Allenby: Technology and Transhumanism: Unpredictability, Radical Contingency, and Accelerating Change - William J. Grassie: Is Transhumanism Scientifically Plausible? Posthuman Predictions and the Human Predicament.