Transhumanist Resources
Topic-Overviews- Places for Transhumanists to Pursue Graduate Studies in Bioethics
Occasionally transhumanist students ask us what professors, departments or programs are interested in or conducive to research on transhumanism.
Since transhumanism is quite interdisciplinary, the answer is that many people in academe are interested in or sympathetic to one aspect or another of the transhumanist agenda, if not to “transhumanism.”
For instance, departments of computer science are very tolerant of investigations of artificial intelligence and neuroprosthetics, while many departments of biological sciences would be congenial for research on aging mechanisms or cognitive function. Although scientists are often anxious not to be perceived as “kooky” or as advocating pseudoscience, there is probably much less resistance or hostility to someone having transhumanist views in the natural sciences than in the social sciences and humanities.
Even the transhumanist pursuing a graduate degree in engineering or the information or biological sciences, however, will eventually want to engage with their school’s bioethicists, philosophers and health policy scholars. There, the reception to “transhumanism,” or even discussion of “human enhancement,” can often be dismissive.
Here are some of our initial thoughts about where to find scholars and programs in bioethics and philosophy that are supportive of transhumanist enquiries, even if they aren’t explicitly transhumanist. Of course, transhumanists can also learn a lot in programs that are hostile to transhumanism, so long as the scholars are talking about the issues and willing to support student work in the topic. There is no school or department I know of in which transhumanists are the majority. You might as well find the rare scholar(s) with some sympathies for transhumanism to work with since you will be able to find bioconservative critics without much effort.
- James J. Hughes Ph.D., Secretary, WTA
- WTA leaflet
- Transhumanism (Introduction)
- Transhumanist Study Group Sillabi
- Transhumanist Readings: Overviews
- Introductions to Transhumanism
- Transhumanist Values - Nick Bostrom
- Wikipedia Entry on Transhumanism
Wikipedia is a participant-edited encyclopedia. Please feel free to create a user account in order to update the article on transhumanism.
- Anders Sandberg’s Transhumanist Resources
A somewhat dated, but very comprehensive, set of links to transhumanist resources on the web.
- Betterhumans
An independent transhumanist webzine.
- Syllabus: The Ethics and Policy of New Technologies
Fall, 2002 - Yale University
Taught by: Dr. Bonnie Kaplan (Yale School of Medicine’s Center for Medical Informatics, Department of Anesthesiology)
Dr. Nick Bostrom (Department of Philosophy)BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Using readings, films, and discussions, this course provides an
interdisciplinary examination of the ethical and policy questions
surrounding new or anticipated future technologies, including
nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, cyborg
technologies, surveillance, robotics, and psychopharmacology.< - WTA General Leaflet (Summer 2004)
- “Transhumanism” by Julian Huxley (1957)
In New Bottles for New Wine, London: Chatto & Windus, 1957, pp. 13-17
Reprinted with permission of PFD, the rights-holder.
- “The New Biology” by Winston L. Duke. August 1972. REASON magazine. (pp. 4-11)
Winston L. Duke received his M.B.A. from Harvard University, and also has a B.S. in Physics and an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1972 he was employed by Commonwealth Edison Company, Chicago.
This essay anticipates many of the arguments of transhumanism: “A clear definition of humanity in terms of mental acuity, rather than physical appearance, should be encouraged....Countless practical benefits will accrue to mankind if genetic engineering is allowed to proliferate, but none so dramatic and meaningful as the promise of perpetual life...Fortunately for us neither dictatorship nor death is inevitable. While it is true that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been the scourge of days gone by, that conquest, famine, war and death rode rampant then and have stubbornly reappeared in recent years, they must not be considered perpetual parts of man’s destiny. Rationality, when allowed to flourish, can stymie these equestrians.”