Transhuman
168183
222765741
2008-07-01T00:26:09Z
Loremaster
58926
{{otheruses4|an evolutionary concept|the ideology and movement|transhumanism}}
'''Transhuman''' is a term that refers to an [[human evolution|evolutionary]] transition from the [[human]] to the [[posthuman]].<ref name="FM-2030 1989">{{cite book | author=[[FM-2030]] | title=Are You a Transhuman?: Monitoring and Stimulating Your Personal Rate of Growth in a Rapidly Changing World | publisher=Viking Adult | year=1989 | isbn=0-446-38806-8}}</ref>
==History==
Questioning the parameters of being human and the relationship with [[nature]] have been of [[philosophical]] interest before and since [[Socrates]]. Questioning the [[future]] of the human brings to light [[moral]], [[religious]] and philosophical belief systems and, especially, [[ethical]] concerns regarding tampering with [[nature]] and what is considered by many, especially in [[western culture]], to be [[natural]].<ref name="More 1999">{{cite paper | authorlink=Max More | last=More | first=Max | title=Letter to Mother Nature | date=1999 | url=http://www.maxmore.com/mother.htm | accessdate=2007-02-16}}</ref>
The etymology of the term "transhuman" goes back to [[future studies|futurist]] [[FM-2030]] (born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary) who, while teaching new concepts of the human at [[The New School]] university in 1966, introduced it as shorthand for "transitory human". Calling transhumans the "[[Participant evolution|earliest manifestation of new evolutionary beings]]," FM argued that signs of transhumans included physical and mental augmentations including [[prosthesis|prostheses]], [[reconstructive surgery]], intensive use of [[telecommunications]], a [[Multicultural|cosmopolitan]] outlook and a [[jet set|globetrotting]] lifestyle, [[androgyny]], [[reproductive technology|mediated reproduction]] (such as [[in vitro fertilisation]]), [[Eupraxsophy|absence of religious beliefs]], and a rejection of traditional [[family values]].<ref name="FM-2030 1989"/>
The concept of transhuman, as an evolutionary transition, was first expressed by FM-2030 outside the confines of academia in his contributing final chapter to the 1972 anthology ''Woman, Year 2000''.<ref name="Vita-More 2000">{{cite paper| authorlink=Natasha Vita-More | last=Vita-More | first=Natasha | title=FM-2030 One of the Spearheading Transhumanists | date=2000 | url=http://www.transhuman.org/fm-2030story.htm | accessdate=2007-02-16}}</ref> In the same year, [[Robert Ettinger]] contributed to conceptualization of "transhumanity" in his book ''Man into Superman''.<ref name="Ettinger 1972">{{cite book| last=Ettinger | first=Robert | title=Man into Superman | year=1974 | url=http://www.cryonics.org/book2.html | publisher=Avon | isbn=0-380-00047-4}}</ref> In 1982, [[Natasha Vita-More]] authored the ''Transhuman Manifesto 1982: Transhumanist Arts Statement'' and outlined what she perceived as an emerging transhuman culture.<ref name="Vita-More 1982">{{cite paper | authorlink=Natasha Vita-More | last=Vita-More | first=Natasha | title=Tranhumanist Arts Statement | date=1982; revised 2003 | url=http://www.transhumanist.biz/transhumanistartsmanifesto.htm | accessdate=2006-02-16}}</ref>
Many thinkers today do not consider FM-2030's characteristics to be essential attributes of a transhuman. However, analyzing the possible transitional nature of the human species has been and continues to be of primary interest to [[anthropologist]]s and philosophers within and outside the intellectual movement of [[transhumanism]].<ref name="World Transhumanist Association 2002-2005">{{cite paper | first=Nick | last=Bostrom | authorlink=Nick Bostrom | publisher=[[World Transhumanist Association]]| title=The Transhumanist FAQ | date=2002-2005 | url=http://www.transhumanism.org/resources/FAQv21.pdf | format=[[Portable Document Format|PDF]] | accessdate=2006-08-27}}</ref>
In March 2007, [[Gregory Cochran]] of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a study, alongside other recent research on which it builds, which amounts to a radical reappraisal of traditional views, which tended to assume that humans have reached an evolutionary endpoint. Jeffrey McKee of Ohio State University said the new findings of accelerated evolution bear out predictions he made in a 2000 book ''The Riddled Chain''. Based on computer models, he argued that evolution should speed up as a population grows because population growth creates more opportunities for new [[mutation]]s; and the expanded population occupies new environmental niches, which would drive evolution in new directions. Whatever the implications of the recent findings, McKee concludes that they highlight a ubiquitous point about evolution: “every species is a transitional species.”<ref name="World Science">{{cite paper | publisher=World Science | title=Human evolution, radically reappraised | date=[[2007-03-27]] | url=http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/070326_evolution.htm | accessdate=2007-04-03}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{cite paper | url=http://www.maxmore.com/becoming.htm | title=On Becoming Posthuman | date=2004 | first=Max | last=More | authorlink=Max More | accessdate=2007-09-04}}
*[http://www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/values%20_files/image001.gif Space of Possible Modes of Being]
*[http://www.transhuman.org/ Transhuman World Culture Informark]
**[http://www.transhuman.org/transhistory.htm Transhuman History]
*[http://www.transhumanism.org/ World Transhumanist Association]
*[http://www.transhumanists.org/ Transhumanist Social Network]
[[Category:Humans]]
[[Category:Human evolution]]
[[Category:Transhumanism]]