Overview of Transhumanist Political Philosophy. It is designed to serve as a primer to some basic terms and categories.

1. Our Transhumanist
Futures
The Easy Slide from Therapy to Augmentation and
the Inevitability of Ongoing Human Evolution

2. Three Terms
• Humanism: The celebration and pursuit
of human aptitudes
• Transhumanism: The exploration of
aptitudes beyond baseline human
function
• Posthumanism: Hypothesized state
when human function transcends all
things human.

3. Example 1: Cochlear
Implants
• Restoration of Normal Human Function:
A Humanist Project
• It is relatively uncontroversial to employ
technology to bring disabled humans
back into the range of what we think is
normal human capacities.

4. Example 2: Google Glass
• A Transhumanist Project: Extend
Human Capacities Beyond What Is
Currently Normal Human Function
• Ability to Record, Retrieve or Transmit
Data on the Fly

5. Example 2a: Glass Coupled
with a Drone

6. Example 3: Physical
Enhancement
• The Exoskeleton for military and non-
military deployment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdK2y3
lphmE

7. Example 4: Moral
Enhancement
• Empathy deficits generate low prosocial
behavior. Oxytocin increases empathy,
trust, and prosocial behavior, especially
in violent males.

8. Example 5: Religious
Enhancement
• Modulate prayer and meditation
according to brainwave analysis and
biofeedback.

9. Seen and Unforseen
Consequences
- Costs and questions of social justice
- Hive minds, privacy, and surveillence worries
- Germline manipulations
- Disruptive Technologies
- What would you add to the list?