Transhumanism and the Question of Human Nature

Transhumanism is the idea that we are at the brink of witnessing exponential changes in the way we understand the human species. Transhumanists believe that technology will make it possible, in the near future, to propel humanity to the next evolutionary stage, one in which defective human bodies will be replaced with more resilient hardware. The assumption is that humans are essentially information and that information can be uploaded, perhaps indefinitely, into machines. Not all transhumanists think alike, but my paper identifies several common tenets of transhumanism and presents a critique of the movement. I argue that transhumanism crosses an ethical line when it seeks to remake human nature. Indeed, it functions with a defective understanding of human nature because it wrongly assumes that the essence of a human can be reduced to information. Furthermore, I contend that if the goals of transhumanism are achieved, it will have a negative impact on humanity.