The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to transhumanism:

Transhumanism

Transhumanism

Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...

– international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition

Human condition

The human condition encompasses the experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context. It can be described as the irreducible part of humanity that is inherent and not connected to gender, race, class, etc. — a search for purpose, sense of curiosity, the inevitability of...

 by developing and making widely available technologies

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

 to eliminate aging

Life extension

Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...

 and to greatly enhance human

Human enhancement

Human enhancement refers to any attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body through natural or artificial means...

 intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies

Emerging technologies

In the history of technology, emerging technologies are contemporary advances and innovation in various fields of technology. Various converging technologies have emerged in the technological convergence of different systems evolving towards similar goals...

 that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as study the ethical matters

Technoethics

Technoethics is an interdisciplinary research area concerned with all moral and ethical aspects of technology in society. It draws on theories and methods from multiple knowledge domains to provide insights on ethical dimensions of technological systems and practices for advancing a technological...

 involved in developing and using such technologies. They predict that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman

Posthuman

Posthuman may refer to:*Posthuman, a hypothetical future being whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer human by our current standards...

". Transhumanism is often abbreviated as H+ or h+ ("humanism plus").

Transhumanist currents

• Abolitionism
  Abolitionism (bioethics)
  Abolitionism is a bioethical school and movement which proposes the use of biotechnology to maximize happiness and minimize suffering while working towards the abolition of involuntary suffering...
  
   – ethical ideology based upon a perceived obligation to use technology to eliminate involuntary suffering
  Suffering
  Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and...
  
   in all sentient life.
• Democratic transhumanism
  Democratic transhumanism
  Democratic transhumanism, a term coined by Dr. James Hughes in 2002, refers to the stance of transhumanists who espouse liberal, social and/or radical democratic political views....
  
   – political ideology synthesizing liberal democracy
  Liberal democracy
  Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
  
  , social democracy
  Social democracy
  Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
  
  , radical democracy
  Radical democracy
  Radical democracy as an ideology was articulated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in their book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics, written in 1985. They argue that social movements which attempt to create social and political change need a strategy which...
  
   and transhumanism.
• Extropianism
  Extropianism
  Extropianism, also referred to as the philosophy of "Extropy", is an evolving framework of values and standards for continuously improving the human condition....
  
   – early school of transhumanist thought characterized by a set of principles advocating a proactive approach
  Proactionary principle
  An ethical and decision-making principle, the proactionary principle is formulated by the extropian philosopher Max More as follows:People’s freedom to innovate technologically is highly valuable, even critical, to humanity. This implies several imperatives when restrictive measures are proposed:...
  
   to human evolution.
• Immortalism – moral ideology based upon the belief that technological immortality is possible and desirable, and advocating research and development to ensure its realization.
• Libertarian transhumanism
  Libertarian transhumanism
  Libertarian transhumanism is a political ideology synthesizing right-libertarianism and transhumanism.Self-identified libertarian transhumanists, such as Ronald Bailey of Reason magazine and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, are advocates of the asserted "right to human enhancement" who argue that the...
  
   – political ideology synthesizing libertarianism
  Libertarianism
  Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
  
   and transhumanism.
• Postgenderism
  Postgenderism
  Postgenderism is a diverse social, political and cultural movement whose adherents affirm the voluntary elimination of gender in the human species through the application of advanced biotechnology and assistive reproductive technologies....
  
   – social philosophy which seeks the voluntary elimination of gender
  Gender
  Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
  
   in the human species through the application of advanced biotechnology and assisted reproductive technologies
  Reproductive technology
  Reproductive technology encompasses all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including assisted reproductive technology, contraception and others.-Assisted reproductive technology:...
  
  .
• Singularitarianism
  Singularitarianism
  Singularitarianism is a technocentric ideology and social movement defined by the belief that a technological singularity—the creation of a superintelligence—will likely happen in the medium future, and that deliberate action ought to be taken to ensure that the Singularity benefits...
  
   – moral ideology based upon the belief that a technological singularity
  Technological singularity
  Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...
  
   is possible, and advocating deliberate action to effect it and ensure its safety.
• Technogaianism
  Technogaianism
  Technogaianism is a bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies to help restore Earth's environment...
  
   – ecological ideology based upon the belief that emerging technologies can help restore Earth's environment, and that developing safe, clean
  Clean technology
  Clean technology includes recycling, renewable energy , information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, Greywater, and many other appliances that are now more energy efficient. It is a means to create electricity and fuels, with a smaller environmental...
  
  , alternative technology
  Alternative technology
  Alternative technology is a term used to refer to technologies that are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice....
  
   should therefore be an important goal of environmentalist
  Environmentalist
  An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
  
  s.

Transhumanist technologies

Transhumanists believe that humans can and should use technologies to become more than human

Posthuman

Posthuman may refer to:*Posthuman, a hypothetical future being whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer human by our current standards...

. Examples of the types of technologies and potential technologies that have become the focus of transhumanism include:

• Anti-aging – another term for "life extension".
• Artificial intelligence – intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents", where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy
  John McCarthy (computer scientist)
  John McCarthy was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He coined the term "artificial intelligence" , invented the Lisp programming language and was highly influential in the early development of AI.McCarthy also influenced other areas of computing such as time sharing systems...
  
  , who coined the term in 1956, defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines."
  • Friendly artificial intelligence
    Friendly artificial intelligence
    A Friendly Artificial Intelligence or FAI is an artificial intelligence that has a positive rather than negative effect on humanity. Friendly AI also refers to the field of knowledge required to build such an AI...
    
     – artificial intelligence (AI) that has a positive rather than negative effect on humanity. Friendly AI also refers to the field of knowledge required to build such an AI. AIs may be harmful to humans if steps are not taken to specifically design them to be benevolent. Doing so effectively is the primary goal of Friendly AI.
• Augmented reality
  Augmented reality
  Augmented reality is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is...
  
   – live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one.
• Biomedical engineering
  Biomedical engineering
  Biomedical Engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology. This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine: It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve...
  
   – application of engineering principles and design concepts to biology and medicine, to improve healthcare diagnosis, monitoring and therapy. Applications include the development of biocompatible prostheses, clinical equipment, micro-implants, imaging equipment such as MRIs and EEGs, regenerative tissue growth, pharmaceutical drugs and therapeutic biologicals.
  • Neural engineering
    Neural engineering
    Neural engineering is a discipline within biomedical engineering that uses engineering techniques to understand, repair, replace, enhance, or otherwise exploit the properties of neural systems...
    
     – discipline that uses engineering techniques to understand, repair, replace, enhance, or otherwise exploit the properties of neural systems. Neural engineers are uniquely qualified to solve design problems at the interface of living neural tissue and non-living constructs. Also known as "neuroengineering".
    • Neurohacking
      Neurohacking
      Neurohacking is the colloquial term for neuroengineering. It is a form of biohacking focusing on the brain and CNS. Strictly speaking it is any method of manipulating or interfering with the structure and/or function of neurons for improvement or repair.- Mental health :The main goal of...
      
       – colloquial term encompassing all methods of manipulating or interfering with the structure and/or function of neurons for improvement or repair.
• Biotechnology – field of applied biology that uses living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine, and manufacturing, among other fields. It encompasses a wide range of procedures for modifying living organisms for human purposes. Early examples of biotechnology include domestication of animals, cultivation of plants, and breeding through artificial selection and hybridization.
  • Bionics
    Bionics
    Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.The word bionic was coined by Jack E...
    
     – in medicine, this refers to the replacement or enhancement of organs or other body parts by mechanical versions. Bionic implants differ from mere prostheses by mimicking the original function very closely, or even surpassing it.
    • Cyborg
      Cyborg
      A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
      
       – being with both biological and artificial (e.g. electronic, mechanical or robotic) parts.
  • Brain-computer interface
    Brain-computer interface
    A brain–computer interface , sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface , is a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device...
    
     – direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device. BCIs are under development to assist, augment, or repair human cognitive and sensory-motor functions. Sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface (BMI).
  • Cloning
    Cloning
    Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
    
     – in biotechnology, this refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments (molecular cloning), cells (cell cloning), or organisms.
    • Human cloning
      Human cloning
      Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
      
       – creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning; human clones in the form of identical twins are commonplace, with their cloning occurring during the natural process of reproduction.
    • Therapeutic cloning –
• Cognitive science
  Cognitive science
  Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
  
   – interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed (in faculties such as perception, language, memory, reasoning, and emotion), represented, and transformed in behaviour, (human or other animal) nervous system or machine (e.g., computer). It includes research on artificial intelligence.
• Computer-mediated reality – ability to add to, subtract information from, or otherwise manipulate one's perception of reality through the use of a wearable computer
  Wearable computer
  Wearable computers are miniature electronic devices that are worn by the bearer under, with or on top of clothing. This class of wearable technology has been developed for general or special purpose information technologies and media development...
  
   or hand-held device such as a smart phone.
• Converging technologies –
• Cryonics
  Cryonics
  Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
  
   – low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology.
• Cyberware
  Cyberware
  For other uses; see Cyberware Cyberware is a relatively new and unknown field...
  
   – hardware or machine parts implanted in the human body and acting as an interface between the central nervous system and the computers or machinery connected to it. Research in this area is a protoscience.
• Designer baby
  Designer baby
  The colloquial term "designer baby" refers to a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilisation to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics. The term is derived by comparison with "designer clothing"...
  
   – baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilisation to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics.
• Emerging technologies
  Emerging technologies
  In the history of technology, emerging technologies are contemporary advances and innovation in various fields of technology. Various converging technologies have emerged in the technological convergence of different systems evolving towards similar goals...
  
   – contemporary advances and innovation in various fields of technology, prior to or early in their diffusion
  Diffusion of innovations
  Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of rural sociology, popularized the theory in his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations...
  
  . They are typically in the form of progressive developments intended to achieve a competitive advantage.
• Human enhancement technologies (HET) – techniques used to treat illness or disability, or to enhance human characteristics and capacities.
• Human genetic engineering
  Human genetic engineering
  Human genetic engineering is the alteration of an individual's genotype with the aim of choosing the phenotype of a newborn or changing the existing phenotype of a child or adult....
  
   – alteration of an individual's genotype with the aim of choosing the phenotype of a newborn or changing the existing phenotype of a child or adult.
• Human-machine interface
  Human-machine interface
  Human-machine interface is the part of the machine that handles the Human-machine interaction- Overview :In complex systems, the human-machine interface is typically computerized. The term Human-computer interface refers to this kind of systems....
  
   – the part of a machine that handles its human-machine interaction.
• Information technology – acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.
• Head-mounted display
  Head-mounted display
  A head-mounted display or helmet mounted display, both abbreviated HMD, is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet, that has a small display optic in front of one or each eye .- Overview :...
  
   (HMD) – display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet, that has a small display optic in front of one (monocular HMD) or each eye (binocular HMD).
• Life extension – study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan. Some researchers in this area, and persons who wish to achieve longer lives for themselves (called "life extensionists" or "longevists"), expect that future breakthroughs in tissue rejuvenation with stem cells, molecular repair, and organ replacement (such as with artificial organs or xenotransplantations) will eventually enable humans to live indefinitely (agerasia) through complete rejuvenation to a healthy youthful condition. Also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology.
• Mind uploading – hypothetical process of transferring or copying a conscious mind from a brain to a non-biological substrate by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system or another computational device. The computer would have to run a simulation model so faithful to the original that it would behave in essentially the same way as the original brain, or for all practical purposes, indistinguishably.
• Nanotechnology
  Outline of nanotechnology
  The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to nanotechnology:Nanotechnology – study of physical phenomena on the nanoscale, dealing with things measured in nanometres, billionths of a meter.- Branches of nanotechnology :...
  
   – study of physical phenomena on the nanoscale, dealing with things measured in nanometres, billionths of a meter. The development of microscopic or molecular machines.
  • Molecular nanotechnology
    Molecular nanotechnology
    Molecular nanotechnology is a technology based on the ability to build structures to complex, atomic specifications by means of mechanosynthesis. This is distinct from nanoscale materials...
    
     – technology based on the ability to build structures to complex, atomic specifications by means of mechanosynthesis.
    • Molecular assembler
      Molecular assembler
      A molecular assembler, as defined by K. Eric Drexler, is a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision". Some biological molecules such as ribosomes fit this definition. This is because they receive instructions from messenger RNA and...
      
      s – as defined by K. Eric Drexler, is a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision". Some biological molecules such as ribosomes fit this definition, because they receive instructions from messenger RNA and then assemble specific sequences of amino acids to construct protein molecules. However, the term "molecular assembler" usually refers to theoretical human-made devices.
• Nootropic
  Nootropic
  Nootropics , also referred to as smart drugs, brain steroids, memory enhancers, cognitive enhancers, and intelligence enhancers, are drugs, supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional foods that improve mental functions such as cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention, and concentration...
  
  s – drugs, supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional foods that improve mental functions such as cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention, and concentration. Also referred to as "smart drugs", "brain steroids", "memory enhancers", "cognitive enhancers", "brain boosters", and "intelligence enhancers".
• Organ transplant
  Organ transplant
  Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
  
  s – moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be re-grown from the patient's own cells (stem cells, or cells extracted from the failing organs).
  • Autograft – organs and/or tissues that are transplanted within the same person's body.
  • Allograft – transplants that are performed between two subjects of the same species.
  • Xenograft – living cells, tissues or organs transplanted from one species to another.
• Personal communicator
  Personal Communicator
  The term personal communicator has been used with several meanings. Around 1990 the next generation digital mobile phones were called digital personal communicators...
  
  s – Around 1990 the next generation digital mobile phones were called digital personal communicators. Another definition, coined in 1991, is for a category of handheld devices that provide personal information manager functions and packet switched wireless data communications capabilities over wireless wide area networks such as cellular networks. These devices are now commonly referred to as smartphones or wireless PDA's.
• Personal development
  Personal development
  Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitates employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations...
  
   – includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitates employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. The concept is not limited to self-help] but includes formal and informal activities for developing others, in roles such as teacher, guide, counselor, manager, coach, or mentor. Finally, as personal development takes place in the context of institutions, it refers to the methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems that support human development at the individual level in organizations.
• Powered exoskeleton
  Powered exoskeleton
  A powered exoskeleton, also known as powered armor, or exoframe, is a powered mobile machine consisting primarily of an exoskeleton-like framework worn by a person and a power supply that supplies at least part of the activation-energy for limb movement.Powered exoskeletons are designed to assist...
  
   – owered mobile machine consisting primarily of an exoskeleton-like framework worn by a person and a power supply that supplies at least part of the activation-energy for limb movement. Also known as "powered armor", or "exoframe".
• Prosthetics – artificial device extensions that replace missing body parts.
• Rejuvenation
  Rejuvenation (aging)
  Rejuvenation is the hypothetical reversal of the aging process.Rejuvenation is distinct from life extension. Life extension strategies often study the causes of aging and try to oppose those causes in order to slow aging...
  
   – reversal of aging, which entails the repair of the damage associated with aging, or replacement of damaged tissue with new tissue. Rejuvenation can be a means of life extension, but most life extension strategies do not involve rejuvenation.
• Robotics
  Outline of robotics
  The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to robotics:Robotics – branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots. Robotics is related to the sciences of electronics, ...
  
   – design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots. It draws heavily upon electronics, engineering, mechanics mechatronics, and software engineering.
  • Self-replicating machine
    Self-replicating machine
    A self-replicating machine is an artificial construct that is theoretically capable of autonomously manufacturing a copy of itself using raw materials taken from its environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way analogous to that found in nature. The concept of self-replicating machines...
    
     – artificial construct that is theoretically capable of autonomously manufacturing a copy of itself using raw materials taken from its environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way analogous to that found in nature.
• Reprogenetics
  Reprogenetics
  Reprogenetics is a term referring to the merging of reproductive and genetic technologies expected to happen in the near future as techniques like germinal choice technology become more available and more powerful. The term was coined by Lee M...
  
   – merging of reproductive and genetic technologies expected to happen in the near future as techniques like germinal choice technology become more available and more powerful.
• Simulated reality
  Simulated reality
  Simulated reality is the proposition that reality could be simulated—perhaps by computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation....
  
   –
• Space colonization
  Space colonization
  Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...
  
   – concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony. It is a long-term goal of some national space programs. Also called "space settlement", "space humanization", and "space habitation".
• Suspended animation
  Suspended animation
  Suspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. Extreme cold can be used to precipitate the slowing of an individual's functions; use...
  
   –
• Virtual retinal display
  Virtual retinal display
  A virtual retinal display , also known as a retinal scan display or retinal projector , is a display technology that draws a raster display directly onto the retina of the eye. The user sees what appears to be a conventional display floating in space in front of them...
  
   –

History of transhumanism

• Renaissance humanism
  Renaissance humanism
  Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
  
   – cultural and educational reform during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, as a response to the challenge of Mediæval scholastic education, emphasizing practical, pre-professional and -scientific studies. Rather than train professionals in jargon and strict practice, humanists sought to create a citizenry (sometimes including women) able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity.
• Age of Enlightenment
  Age of Enlightenment
  The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
  
   – elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state.

Transhumanist concepts

• Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance
  Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance
  Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance is a 2002 report commissioned by the U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Commerce...
  
   –
• Differential technological development
  Differential technological development
  Differential technological development is a strategy proposed by transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom in which societies would seek to influence the sequence in which emerging technologies developed...
  
   –
• Extropy –
• Futures studies –
• Futurology
  Futurology
  Futures studies is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science. In general, it can be considered as a branch under the more general scope of the field of...
  
   –
• GNR – denotes the technologies of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics.
• Human condition
  Human condition
  The human condition encompasses the experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context. It can be described as the irreducible part of humanity that is inherent and not connected to gender, race, class, etc. — a search for purpose, sense of curiosity, the inevitability of...
  
   –
• Human enhancement
  Human enhancement
  Human enhancement refers to any attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body through natural or artificial means...
  
   –
• Survival
  Survival
  Survival is the struggle to remain alive and living. The term may refer to:- Companies and organisations :* Survival International, a non-governmental human rights organization working for tribal peoples- Literature :...
  
   –
  • Existential risk
    Existential risk
    Existential risks are dangers that have the potential to destroy, or drastically restrict, human civilization. They are distinguished from other forms of risk both by their scope, affecting all of humanity, and severity; destroying or irreversibly crippling the target.Natural disasters, such as...
    
    s – dangers that have the potential to destroy, or drastically restrict, human civilization. They are distinguished from other forms of risk both by their scope, affecting all of humanity, and severity; destroying or irreversibly crippling the target.
  • Human extinction
    Human extinction
    Human extinction is the end of the human species. Various scenarios have been discussed in science, popular culture, and religion . The scope of this article is existential risks. Humans are very widespread on the Earth, and live in communities which are capable of some kind of basic survival in...
    
     –
    • Human extinction scenarios –
  • Immortality
    Immortality
    Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
    
     –
  • Longevity
    Longevity
    The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography or known as "long life", especially when it concerns someone or something lasting longer than expected ....
    
     –
  • Technological evolution
    Technological evolution
    Technological evolution is the name of a science and technology studies theory describing technology development, developed by Czech philosopher Radovan Richta.-Theory of technological evolution:...
    
     –
    • Procreative beneficence
      Procreative beneficence
      Procreative beneficence is the moral obligation of parents to have the healthiest children through all natural and artificial means available.The term was coined by Julian Savulescu, a professor of applied ethics at St Cross College in Oxford.-See also:...
      
       –
    • Procreative liberty –
• Megatrajectory
  Megatrajectory
  Megatrajectory is a theoretical concept in evolutionary biology that describes paradigmatic developmental stages and potential directionality in the evolution of life.Posited by A. H. Knoll and R. K...
  
   –
• Mind children –
• Morphological freedom
  Morphological freedom
  Morphological freedom refers to a proposed civil right of a person to either maintain or modify his or her own body, on his or her own terms, through informed, consensual recourse to, or refusal of, available therapeutic or enabling medical technology....
  
   –
• Noosphere
  Noosphere
  Noosphere , according to the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, denotes the "sphere of human thought". The word is derived from the Greek νοῦς + σφαῖρα , in lexical analogy to "atmosphere" and "biosphere". Introduced by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1922 in his Cosmogenesis"...
  
   –
• Omega Point
  Omega point
  Omega Point is a term coined by the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe a maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which he believed the universe was evolving....
  
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• Participant evolution
  Participant evolution
  Participant evolution is a process of deliberately redesigning the human body and brain using technological means, rather than through the natural processes of mutation and natural selection, with the goal of removing "biological limitations." The idea of participant evolution was first put...
  
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• Posthumanism
  Posthumanism
  Posthumanism or post-humanism is a term with five definitions:#Antihumanism: a term applied to a number of thinkers opposed to the project of philosophical anthropology....
  
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  • Posthuman
    Posthuman
    Posthuman may refer to:*Posthuman, a hypothetical future being whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer human by our current standards...
    
     –
    • Parahuman
      Parahuman
      A parahuman or para-human is a term used to describe a human-animal hybrid or chimera. Scientists have done extensive research into the mixing of genes or cells from different species, e.g...
      
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    • Superhuman
      Superhuman
      Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the near or distant future...
      
       –
    • Posthuman God –
• Post scarcity
  Post scarcity
  Post scarcity is a hypothetical form of economy or society, in which things such as goods, services and information are free, or practically free...
  
   – hypothetical form of economy or society, in which things such as goods, services and information are free, or practically free. This would be due to an abundance of fundamental resources (matter, energy and intelligence), in conjunction with sophisticated automated systems capable of converting raw materials into finished goods, allowing manufacturing to be as easy as duplicating software.
• Proactionary Principle
  Proactionary principle
  An ethical and decision-making principle, the proactionary principle is formulated by the extropian philosopher Max More as follows:People’s freedom to innovate technologically is highly valuable, even critical, to humanity. This implies several imperatives when restrictive measures are proposed:...
  
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• Singularitarianism
  Singularitarianism
  Singularitarianism is a technocentric ideology and social movement defined by the belief that a technological singularity—the creation of a superintelligence—will likely happen in the medium future, and that deliberate action ought to be taken to ensure that the Singularity benefits...
  
   – technocentric ideology and social movement defined by the belief that a technological singularity—the creation of a superintelligence—will likely happen in the medium future, and that deliberate action ought to be taken to ensure that the Singularity benefits humans.
• Technogaianism
  Technogaianism
  Technogaianism is a bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies to help restore Earth's environment...
  
   – bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies
  Emerging technologies
  In the history of technology, emerging technologies are contemporary advances and innovation in various fields of technology. Various converging technologies have emerged in the technological convergence of different systems evolving towards similar goals...
  
   to help restore Earth
  Earth
  Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
  
  's environment
  Natural environment
  The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
  
  . Technogaians argue that developing safe, clean
  Clean technology
  Clean technology includes recycling, renewable energy , information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, Greywater, and many other appliances that are now more energy efficient. It is a means to create electricity and fuels, with a smaller environmental...
  
  , alternative technology
  Alternative technology
  Alternative technology is a term used to refer to technologies that are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice....
  
   should be an important goal of environmentalist
  Environmentalist
  An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
  
  s.
• Technological convergence
  Technological convergence
  Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice , data , and video that now share resources and interact with each other synergistically.The rise of...
  
   – tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications), and video that now share resources and interact with each other synergistically.
• Technological singularity
  Technological singularity
  Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...
  
   – hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as an intellectual event horizon, beyond which the future becomes difficult to understand or predict. Nevertheless, proponents of the singularity typically anticipate such an event to precede an "intelligence explosion", wherein superintelligences design successive generations of increasingly powerful minds.
• Technophilia
  Technophilia
  Technophilia refers generally to a strong enthusiasm for technology, especially new technologies such as personal computers, the Internet, mobile phones and home cinema...
  
   – strong enthusiasm for technology, especially new technologies such as personal computers, the Internet, mobile phones and home cinema. The term is used in sociology when examining the interaction of individuals with their society, especially contrasted with technophobia.
• Techno-utopianism
  Techno-utopianism
  Technological utopianism refers to any ideology based on the belief that advances in science and technology will eventually bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal...
  
   – any ideology based on the belief that advances in science and technology will eventually bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal. A techno-utopia is therefore a hypothetical ideal society, in which laws, government, and social conditions are solely operating for the benefit and well-being of all its citizens, set in the near- or far-future, when advanced science and technology will allow these ideal living standards to exist; for example, post scarcity, transformations in human nature, the abolition of suffering and even the end of death.

Transhumanist organizations

• Applied Foresight Network
  Applied Foresight Network
  The Applied Foresight Network is a global web of university-based centres connected by a network of forums for professors, students, teachers, and concerned citizens. The AFN supports informed discussion and social action on issues of critical importance to the future of humanity...
  
   – global web of university-based centres connected by a network of forums for professors, students, teachers, and concerned citizens. The AFN supports informed discussion and social action on issues of critical importance to the future of humanity.
• Alcor Life Extension Foundation
  Alcor Life Extension Foundation
  The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is a Scottsdale, Arizona, USA-based nonprofit company that researches, advocates for and performs cryonics, the preservation of humans in liquid nitrogen after legal death, with hopes of restoring them to full health when new...
  
   – nonprofit company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA that researches, advocates for and performs cryonics, the preservation of humans in liquid nitrogen after legal death, in the hope of restoring them to full health when new technology is developed in the future.
• Foresight Institute
  Foresight Institute
  The Foresight Institute is a Palo Alto, California-based nonprofit organization for promoting transformative technologies. They sponsor conferences on molecular nanotechnology, publish reports, and produce a newsletter....
  
   – nonprofit organization based in Palo Alto, California that promotes transformative technologies. They sponsor conferences on molecular nanotechnology, publish reports, produce a newsletter, and offer several running prizes, including the annual Feynman Prizes
  Foresight Nanotech Institute Feynman Prize
  The Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology is an award given by Foresight Nanotech Institute every year for significant advancements in nanotechnology. It is named in honor of physicist Richard Feynman, whose 1959 talk There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom is considered to have inspired the beginning of...
  
   given in experimental and theory categories, and the $250,000 Feynman Grand Prize for demonstrating two molecular machines capable of nanoscale positional accuracy and computation.
• Humanity+ – international non-governmental organization which advocates the ethical use of emerging technologies to enhance human capacities. It was formerly named the "World Transhumanist Association".
• Immortality Institute – nonprofit organisation whose mission is "to conquer the blight of involuntary death". It maintains an online forum for information exchange, has published a book, produced a film, has organized three international conferences, and also sponsors small-scale scientific initiatives.
• Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence – non-profit organization
  Non-profit organization
  Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
  
   founded in 2000 to develop safe artificial intelligence
  Artificial intelligence
  Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
  
   software, and to raise awareness of both the dangers and potential benefits it believes AI presents. In their view, the potential benefits and risks of a technological singularity necessitate the search for solutions to problems involving AI goal systems to ensure powerful AIs are not dangerous when they are created.

Leaders and scholars in transhumanism

Some people who have made a major impact on the advancement of transhumanism:

• Nick Bostrom
  Nick Bostrom
  Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk and the anthropic principle. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics...
  
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• George Dvorsky
  George Dvorsky
  George P. Dvorsky is a transhumanist futurist, and author of the Sentient Developments blog. Dvorsky is a co-founder and president of the Toronto Transhumanist Association, and currently serves on the board of directors for Humanity+ and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies...
  
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• Robert Ettinger
  Robert Ettinger
  Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger was an American academic, known as "the father of cryonics" because of the impact of his 1962 book The Prospect of Immortality...
  
   –* K. Eric Drexler
  K. Eric Drexler
  Dr. Kim Eric Drexler is an American engineer best known for popularizing the potential of molecular nanotechnology , from the 1970s and 1980s.His 1991 doctoral thesis at MIT was revised and published as...
  
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• FM-2030
  FM-2030
  FM-2030 was an author, teacher, transhumanist philosopher, futurist and consultant. FM-2030 was born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary ....
  
   (October 15, 1930, – July 8, 2000) – author, teacher, transhumanist philosopher, futurist, and consultant. His given name was Fereidoun M. Esfandiary. He became notable as a transhumanist with the book Are You a Transhuman?: Monitoring and Stimulating Your Personal Rate of Growth in a Rapidly Changing World, published in 1989.
• Aubrey de Grey
  Aubrey de Grey
  Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey is an English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research, author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging and co-author...
  
   – English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation. He is perhaps best known for his view that human beings could, in theory, live to lifespans far in excess of that which any authenticated cases have lived to today.
• James Hughes –
• Julian Huxley
  Julian Huxley
  Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
  
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• Raymond Kurzweil
  Raymond Kurzweil
  Raymond "Ray" Kurzweil is an American author, inventor and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition , text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments...
  
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• Max More
  Max More
  Max More is a philosopher and futurist who writes, speaks, and consults on advanced decision-making about emerging technologies....
  
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• David Pearce
  David Pearce (philosopher)
  David Pearce is a British utilitarian thinker. He believes and promotes the idea that there exists a strong ethical imperative for humans to work towards the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. His book-length internet manifesto The Hedonistic Imperative details how he believes the...
  
   – Utilitarian thinker and author of The Hedonistic Imperative, in which he explores the possibility of how technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, pharmacology, and neurosurgery could potentially converge to eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience in human life and produce a posthuman civilization.
• Giulio Prisco
  Giulio Prisco
  Giulio Prisco, born in Napoli in 1957, is an Italian information technology virtual reality consultant; as well as a writer, futurist, and transhumanist. He is an advocate of cryonics and contributes to the science and technology online magazine Tendencias21...
  
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• Anders Sandberg
  Anders Sandberg
  Anders Sandberg is a researcher, science debater, futurist, transhumanist, and author. He was born in Solna, Sweden. He holds a Ph.D...
  
   – researcher, science debater, futurist, transhumanist, and author born in Solna, Sweden, whose recent contributions include work on cognitive enhancement (methods, impacts, and policy analysis); a technical roadmap on whole brain emulation; on neuroethics; and on global catastrophic risks, particularly on the question of how to take into account the subjective uncertainty in risk estimates of low-likelihood, high-consequence risk..
• Frank J. Tipler
  Frank J. Tipler
  Frank Jennings Tipler is a mathematical physicist and cosmologist, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics at Tulane University. Tipler has authored books and papers on the Omega Point, which he claims is a mechanism for the resurrection of the dead. It has been...
  
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• Natasha Vita-More
  Natasha Vita-More
  Natasha Vita-More is a transhumanist, media artist and designer, with a science background, known for designing "Primo Posthuman." This future human prototype incorporates biotechnology, robotics, information technology, nanotechnology, cognitive and neuroscience for human enhancement and extreme...
  
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See also

• Bioethics
  Bioethics
  Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....
  
  
• Future Shock
  Future Shock
  Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of...
  
  
• Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
  Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
  The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies was founded in 2004 by philosopher Nick Bostrom and bioethicist James Hughes. Incorporated in the United States as a non-profit 501 organization, the IEET is a self-described "technoprogressive think tank" that seeks to contribute to understanding...
  
  
• List of future studies topics
• List of life extension-related topics
• Meaning of life
  Meaning of life
  The meaning of life constitutes a philosophical question concerning the purpose and significance of life or existence in general. This concept can be expressed through a variety of related questions, such as "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", and "What is the meaning of it all?" It has...
  
  
• Transhuman Space
  Transhuman Space
  Transhuman Space is a role-playing game published by Steve Jackson Games as parts of the "Powered by GURPS" line. Set in the year 2100, humanity has begun to colonize the Solar System...
  
  
• Transhumanist art
  Transhumanist Art
  Transhumanist art is an art movement which focuses on the concept of transhumanity, a transitional stage in a perceived progression from human to transhuman to posthuman...
  
  
• Transhumanism in fiction
  Transhumanism in fiction
  Many of the tropes of science fiction can be viewed as similar to the goals of transhumanism. Science fiction literature contains many positive depictions of technologically enhanced human life, occasionally set in utopian societies...
  
  

External links

• Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University