Posthumanism: Fundamentals and Applications

By Fouad Sabry

What Is Posthumanism

The concept of posthumanism, also spelled post-humanism, is a response to the anthropocentrism that is prevalent in 21st-century thought. It can be found in continental philosophy and critical theory. It incorporates a wide range of subfields, including the following:Antihumanism is a school of thought that takes a scathing stance against traditional humanism and the established canon of thought concerning the human condition, life, and agency.Cultural posthumanism is a subfield of cultural theory that is critical of the foundational assumptions of humanism and the legacy that it has left behind. It investigates and questions the historical notions of "human" and "human nature," frequently challenging typical notions of human subjectivity and embodiment, and it seeks to move beyond archaic concepts of "human nature" in order to develop ones that are constantly adapting to contemporary technological and scientific knowledge.Philosophical posthumanism is a philosophical path that draws on cultural posthumanism. The philosophical strand investigates the ethical consequences of broadening the circle of moral concern and extending subjectivities beyond the human species. Philosophical posthumanism is a philosophical direction that draws on cultural posthumanism.The deconstruction of the human condition as carried out by critical thinkers is referred to as the posthuman condition.Posthuman transhumanism is an ideology and movement that aspires to develop and make available technology that permit immortality and vastly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities in order to attain a "posthuman future." This ideology and movement draws from posthumanist philosophy.AI takeover refers to a sub-genre of transhumanism in which the goal is not to augment humans but rather to eventually replace them with artificial intelligences. As a result of a technological singularity, some philosophers and theorists, including Nick Land, advocate for the position that human beings ought to welcome and be at peace with their own impending extinction as a natural consequence of the phenomenon. This is connected to the philosophy known as "cosmism," which advocates for the development of powerful artificial intelligence even if it would result in the extinction of humanity. This is because, in their opinion, "it would be a cosmic tragedy if humanity freezes evolution at the puny human level," which describes the current state of human evolution.Voluntary Human Extinction is an ideology that advocates for a "posthuman future," which in this context refers to a future devoid of human beings.

How You Will Benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Posthumanism

Chapter 2: Transhumanism

Chapter 3: A Cyborg Manifesto

Chapter 4: Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

Chapter 5: Posthuman

Chapter 6: Cyborg anthropology

Chapter 7: Directed evolution (transhumanism)

Chapter 8: Transhumanist politics

Chapter 9: Posthumanization

Chapter 10: Antihumanism

(II) Answering the public top questions about posthumanism.

(III) Real world examples for the usage of posthumanism in many fields.

(IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technologies in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of posthumanism' technologies.

Who This Book Is For

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of posthumanism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jul 2, 2023

Book preview

Chapter 1: Posthumanism

Posthumanism, often spelled post-humanism, is a philosophical and critical theory concept that emerged in response to the persistence of anthropocentrism in 21st century ideas. It includes several different subfields, like ::

To criticize humanism and conventional wisdom regarding the human condition, life, and agency is to be an antihumanist.

Cultural posthumanism: a theoretical subfield that challenges some of humanism's most fundamental tenets and results

A philosophical path toward posthumanism

The posthuman condition: critical theory's deconstruction of humanity.

To attain a posthuman future, proponents of posthuman transhumanism—a transhuman ideology and movement—strive to create and disseminate technology that guarantee human immortality and significantly improve their cognitive, emotional, and social abilities.

In this version of transhumanism, artificial intelligences will ultimately replace humans rather than just augment them. Nick Land, among other philosophers and theorists, advocates the idea that humans should welcome and accept their own extinction as a result of technological singularity.

Pursuing a posthuman future, or a world without people, by deliberate human extinction.

Theodore Schatzki, a philosopher, proposes that there are two distinct types of philosophical posthumanism:

Humanism may be coming to an end as humanism changes itself into what one must hopelessly label posthumanism," said Ihab Hassan, a literary scholar. Posthumanism, inspired by the Enlightenment's examination of humanism's limits, opposes the many assumptions of human dogmas (anthropological, political, scientific), and goes on to try to alter the very nature of human cognition itself. To do so, it's necessary to first decenter the human in various discourses (evolutionary, ecological, and technical), and then to analyze those discourses in order to identify humanistic, anthropocentric, normative concepts of humanness and the concept of the human that are embedded within them.

Posthumanists want to encourage discussions on what it means to be human and to challenge the very idea of the human in the light of changing cultural and historical circumstances.

Despite posthumanism's complexity, the ideas it entails are timely and important. It's an effort to rethink societal structures in terms of social and psychological systems where awareness and communication might exist as separate, non-embodied entities, rather than as products of human nature or biology. There follow new worries about language, symbolism, subjectivity, phenomenology, ethics, justice, and creativity, as well as questions about the present and future role of technology in moulding human life.

According to sociologist James Hughes, there is a lot of misunderstanding between the two concepts.

Some have claimed that transhumanism and other types of posthumanism have more in common than its advocates recognize. That the human as a category of being is allowed to run down the drain of history is the primary political dilemma, as Paul James argues unites these many views:

In terms of ontology, this is essential.

Unlike the naming of ‘postmodernism’ where the ‘post’ does not infer the end of what it previously meant to be human (just the passing of the dominance of the modern) the posthumanists are playing a serious game where the human, all the nuances of its ontological diversity, vanishes to save something vague about us as a collection of random people and places.

However, according to performance philosopher Shannon Bell, some posthumanists in the humanities and the arts are critical of transhumanism (the brunt of Paul James' criticism)