Humanism Vs Transhumanism

Have you ever wondered what comes after homo sapiens? All species at some point will inevitably die out or evolve into something else, and as people are no exception to the theory, the next step for humankind is using technology to exceed the limitations of our bodies and brains. If you agree with this, then, most probably, you are a transhumanist. For people, who are completely unfamiliar with the idea, the name of the movement makes it pretty obvious that “transhumanism” is somehow related to humanism. In contrast, it requires some knowledge or research in order to get the deep understanding of the question. What is humanism itself? According to Corliss Lamont (as cited by Joseph Hansen, 2006), a leading proponent of modern humanism, humanism

For instance, according to Hughes (2010, Contradictions from the Enlightenment Roots of Transhumanism), the atheism of most transhumanists could be inherited from the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment is associated with secularization, as the ideas of that time were intended to encourage skepticism about superstition and get rid of blind faith. Likewise, transhumanists are mostly secular. In 2007, 93% of members of the World Transhumanist Association (Humanity+, 2008), answered “yes” to the question “Do you expect human progress to result from human accomplishment rather than divine intervention, grace, or redemption?”, and 90% did not agree with “clear divinely-set limits on what humans should do,” and pointed out that their “concept of ‘the meaning of life’ derived from human responsibility and opportunity, not than from divine revelation.” Whereas the majority of transhumanists define themselves as atheists, other portion of the transhumanism movement developed forms of transhumanism theologies due to belief in the inevitable progress and control by technology. The similar thing happened with the Enlightenment, as many thinkers of that time believed their religious faiths were consistent with reason. Also, for the Enlightenment thinkers ethics and law were things that should be applied equally to all people. Transhumanists when it comes to the rights of people advocate for moral universalism, too, as they believe that all people should be equally able to control their own bodies and take advantage of technologies. But the as transhumanism is not limited to the “human” beings, they need to consider the humanity’s descendants. If the future “humanity” population will be morally and intellectually superior, then the idea of humanity of today constraining the moral choices of humanity