As a grouchy old sci-fi nerd, can anyone explain why they think transhumanism is bad? Some Googling just leads to people claiming that it’s ‘anthropocentric’ - as if you can’t improve your body AND also care for nature at the same time.
Because it is closely related to the eugenics movement.
I get your concern (this is the first time I’m hearing about it and oof). I would however point out that the core of transhumanism is the idea that we should have the freedom to modify our own bodies however we want. This is how I’ve always heard it used and how I’m going to keep using it.
I do understand where those people are coming from, though. If you have the technology to e.g. eliminate sickle cell anemia and choose not to do it, that’s as much eugenics as choosing to do so. I don’t know how to square that with individual liberty. Having parents decide is…not necessarily a great solution. Having society decide is also not a good solution, but probably the one we’ll have to end up doing.
Where was I to find the info on this? I’d like to go if another is held.
Update: I found the link for it at the bottom of the article. It’s a german event, also.
Donna Haraway is not transhumanist. Her work can be associated more with posthumanism, but she even distanced herself from this term because she finds it too appropriable in a transhumanist direction (in https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0263276406069228).
Thanks for the info! I was vaguely aware that her work went in a different direction. I’ve said it in the post already, but I clearly want to distance myself from transhumanism. I’ve updated the post to reflect that, and clearly distance Donna Haraway’s work from transhumanism as well.
Here it seems to be just an honest mistake, but there are some people online that are really pushy to make it sound like transhumanism and solarpunk are somehow intrinsicly related, while in reality there is at most a minor overlap at the fringes.
I agree. They’re not intrinsically related, there is a tiny overlap due to a schism in transhumanist thought. I consider myself a natural transhumanist. Usual transhumanism is entirely cyberpunk territory.
