The main claim of posthumanism is:
Technological changes raise questions about what it is to be human.
Posthumanism distinguishes itself from other critiques of the modern subject and humanism by concentrating on the effects of technology and that there is a real possibility of the radical transformation of our biology and essence. The interrelated concepts of “human”, “humanity” and “humanism” is interrogated through the effects and engagement of technology. Evolution, development or change (and eventual demise) of the human being come about through the intervention of technological change (AI, computers, genetic engineering, plastic surgery, biological manipulation, robotics and so on) raises questions about “agency” and “subjectivity”, but does so because of empirical changes in our existence (and not due to theoretical commitments).
Posthumanism has quite a few varieties (see table below) and is often contrasted or identified with transhumanism (both transcendent as in posthumanism and transitional as in change). The definition of transhumanism is ambiguous. On the one hand,
Transhumanism is a cultural movement that affirms the desirability of improving the human condition through science technology and reason. Humanists believed education was cultivation — transhumanists believe we have the potential to use technology.
And, on the other,
Transhumanism is a discipline that studies the promises, dangers and consequences of these technologies.
Table 1 Positions of trans and posthumanism
| Position | Example of Thinker | Aim | Ethical foundation | Normative claim | Problem |
| Humanist | Pico della Mirandola, Kant, Mill et cetera. | Self-determination | Various | Human being is central value of all ethical systems | The subject is an ideologically corrupt construction (=CC) |
| Religious bioLudditism | Kass | Prohibition of reproductive technologies | Religious edicts, Natural Law, Conventional attitudes | Human modifying technology (HMT) must be prohibited | What can we do? Based on an exclusive set of values which are contentious in a pluralist liberal democracy CC |
| Conservative bioLudditism | Fukuyama, Habermas | Prohibition of reproductive technologies | Kantian liberal commitment to autonomy | HMT is permitted so long as it does not reduce humans to “means merely” | The Kantian subject suffers from the critiques of the schools of suspicion unless formal, but if formal has no universal appeal outside liberal democracies CC |
| Anti-humanist posthumanism | Wolfe, Hayles Braidotti | To give a voice to the others excluded from humanist discourse | Post-structuralism and ideological critique, systems theory/deconstruction | The human being and subject are ideologically corrupt construction which oppress minorities and silence difference | Absolute difference is unintelligible and ultimately a matter of faith. Overdetermination of the human of humanism as liberal humanism. |
| Technological utopianism | Kurzweil, Bostrom | Overcome human limitations (transcendence) Achieve immortality (uploading), | Darwinist Naturalism | Ride the wave baby! Accelerate because it’s coming anyway! | Emergence of a new species (AI) and not sure to whom our obligations are: us or them? Entrenched privilege and oppression |
| Liberal transhumanist | Bostrom, Hughes | To improve welfare measured along the metrics of longevity, health and cognitive, emotional and moral faculties; upscaling other species | Welfarist with liberal values | Access to HMT needs to be regulated by a socially democratic distribution plan | Having one’s cake and eating it in two ways: (i) using a basically welfarist ethical foundation with ad hoc additions of liberal values; (ii) assuming that the advent of the posthuman will beyond human imagination yet will be desirable because it incorporates and enhances all liberal values (so must be quite easily within our imagination!) or, cannot justify why we would it would have value for us. CC |
| Libertarian transhumanism | Max Moore, Kurzweil | Acceleration and change — to go beyond singularity and create new ways of valuable living | Darwinism or Nietzschean overcoming of ideologically corrupt system of values. | Free access to technologies based on personal preferences with no state regulation. | Emergence of entrenched privilege. Rejection of egalitarianism |