Perfecting Human Futures: Transhuman Visions and Technological Imaginations

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Introduction: Technology, Utopianism and Eschatology -- Imagined Technological Futures -- Transitional and Transhumanist Visions -- Part I: Technological Imaginations -- Part II: Ethics and Politics of Envisioned Futures -- Part III: Trans/posthumanism in Context -- Conclusion -- References -- Part I Technological Imaginations -- 1 What Does the Debate on (Post)human Futures Tell Us? Methodology of Hermeneutical Analysis and Vision Assessment -- 1 Introduction and Overview -- 2 The Debate on (Post)human Futures in the Light of the TA Experience -- 2.1 The Need for Orientation in the Field of Human Enhancement -- 2.2 Impact orientation of technology assessment -- 2.3 The Debate on (Post)human Futures-beyond the Scope of TA -- 3 Visionary Futures as Social Constructs -- 4 Toward Hermeneutical Futures Analysis -- 5 What Does the Debate on Posthuman Futures Tell Us? -- References -- 2 Manifestations of the Posthuman in the Postsecular Imagination -- Have We Ever Been Human? -- The Posthuman Condition, or Being Human Has Never Come Naturally -- Have We Ever Been Modern? -- The Crossed-Out God: The Paradoxes of Postsecular Society -- Have We Ever Been Secular? -- Posthumanism, Transcendence, and the Sacred -- Postsecular Posthumanisms -- Conclusion: Human, Nonhuman, and More-Than-Human -- References -- 3 Perfecting the Human: Posthuman Imaginaries and Technologies of Reason -- Imaginaries of High-Modernism -- Fractures in the Frame of Development -- Theorizing Posthumanism -- Postmodern Posthumanism -- References -- 4 Heidegger on Techno-Posthumanism Revolt against Finitude, or Doing What Comes "Naturally"? -- Transcendent Man, a Film -- Heidegger on Techno-Posthumanism -- Preparing the Humans Needed to Take Command of the Planet.

Humans have always imagined better futures. From the desire to overcome death to the aspiration to dominion over the world, imaginations of the technological future reveal the commitments, values, and norms of those who construct them. Today, the human future is thrown into question by emerging technologies that promise radical control over human life and elicit corollary imaginations of human perfectibility. This interdisciplinary volume assembles scholars of science and technology studies, sociology, philosophy, theology, ethics, and history to examine imaginations of technological progress that promises to transcend the constraints of human body and being. Attending in particular to transhumanist and posthumanist visions, the volume breaks new ground by exploring their utopian and eschatological dimensions and situating them within a broader context of ideas, institutions, and practices of innovation. The volume invites specialists and general readers to explore the stakes of contemporary imaginations of technological innovation as a source of progress, a force of social and historical transformation, and as the defining essence of human life. Contents Technological Imaginations.- Ethics and Politics of Envisioned Futures.- The Transhumanist Imagination in Context. Target Groups Scholars and students in science and technology studies, philosophy, utopian studies, science and religion The Editors Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism and Director of the Center of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. J. Benjamin Hurlbut is Assistant Professor of Bioscience Ethics in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University