Have we always been cyborgs? A critique of Stefan Lorenz Sorgner’s latest transhumanistic work

Nashwa Abdelkader Elyamany

Abstract


Sorgner, Stephan Lorenzo. 2022. We Have Always Been Cyborgs. Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism. Bristol Univ

Streaming beyond humanism, transhumanism (an abbreviation for transitional humanism) is among the most prominent manifestations of how (emerging) techno-scientific advancements have questioned predominant doctrines concerning humanity and its very condition (Belk 2021a, 2021b; Hall 2017; Sorgner 2016, 2021, 2022; Wolyniak and Harrison 2015). It emerged in the mid-20th century and has become increasingly popular particularly in the United States and Western Europe (See the works of Fuller 2017, 2019; Hansell and Grassie 2010; Huxley 1968; Kurzweil 2005; Lilly 2008; More 2009; Moravec 1988). In essence, it is an intellectual historically changing movement that aims at emancipating humans from not only their psychic and corporeal constraints (through benevolent bio/nano technological enhancement, augmentation, and intensification) but the destructive impacts of the current humanist paradigm as well, via summits of Artificial Intelligence, bringing about life forms with significantly different characteristics other than human (For more detailed accounts, see the vignettes of its prominent forerunners, namely Kurzweil, More, Hughes, Vita-More, Minsky, Drexler, Moravec, and Bostrom).


Keywords


Stefan Lorenz Sorgner

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21622/ilcc.2022.02.2.142

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Insights into Language, Culture and Communication
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