1. Transhumanity The new technological Adam

2. Eugenics  Destruction of old spiritual ideal  many intellectual and political elite began to look for a ‘scientific’ way (i.e. materialistic way as compared to the previous spiritual way)  fulfill man’s aspiration of perfection  Inspiration  Darwin’s theory of evolution  it brought forth the eugenics movement  aims to breed a ‘superior’ human stock  At its peak  includes many scientists and politicians, including biologists Julian Huxley (brother of Aldous Huxley, the one who wrote Brave New World) and president Theodore Roosevelt

3. The abuses of eugenics  Proponents of eugenics  supports enforced sterilization of ‘unfit’ stock  e.g. mentally unstable and criminals  Since 1907  laws enforced in many American states to accomplish the proponents of eugenics  Aim  prevent the problem of ‘inferior’ out- breeding ‘superior’ humans  Nazi Germany  eugenics carried out to its grotesque culmination  6-7 million Jews and other ‘inferior’ beings killed in Holocaust  Aftermath  eugenics lost its respectability  temporarily vanished from the mainstream

4. The new eugenics  However  eugenics did not go away  Past 50 years  advancement in genetics  effective eugenics can be carried out  Spectre of ‘designer’ babies  or at least  selection of human traits for offspring  no longer a part of fiction  Cloning of humans & animals  done and accomplished  Political will  if we possess it  perhaps on the brink of a new eugenics movement

5. Transhumanism  1957  fall of first eugenics movement  Julian Huxley coined term ‘transhumanism’  used to describe an attempt of improving human beings with the help of technology  Ultimate aim of transhumanism  actually reflective of the religious aim of immortality  only difference is that transhumanism adopts a biological and/or cybernetic way  Presently  World Transhumanism Association (WTA, logo above) is alive and well  includes many top scientists (e.g. Hans Moravec and Ray Kurzweil)  Most likely  socio-political choices facing the world in 21 st centruy  involve the future evolution of humanity

6. Having read the transhumanist manifestos, are you a supporter of their ideas? Do you think death can be defeated by technological means?