At the Dawn of a Great Transition

Russell Blackford

doi:10.24894/978-3-7965-4214-5

Summary

Radical enhancement would employ technology to extend human capacities far beyond anything yet seen or experienced. Imagine, for example, easily outrunning any Olympic athlete while being dramatically smarter than Albert Einstein. Or imagine living for hundreds or thousands of years, making today’s super-centenarians seem like mayflies. Soon – perhaps some time this century – we may have the technology for this. But if we had it, should we use it? Radical enhancement might seem like a gift, but could it become, as its critics warn, a poisoned chalice for individuals and a curse for human societies? In this fascinating book, Russell Blackford examines the pros and cons, bringing good humour, philosophical insight, and historical perspective to this most modern of modern debates.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2021
ISBN-Print: 978-3-7965-4189-6
ISBN-Online: 978-3-7965-4214-5
Publisher: Schwabe, Basel / Berlin
Language: English
Pages: 205
Product type: Book Titles

Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis No access Pages 1 - 10
Acknowledgements No access Pages 11 - 14
1. 1. Into the unknowable No access
2. 2. Some terminology and clarifications No access
3. 3. A roadmap No access
4. 4. The future is not set No access
1. 1. Beings in time No access
2. 2. Modernity and the human future No access
3. 3. A technological future No access
4. 4. Science meets the shadow of mortality No access
5. 5. Condorcet's vision of human destiny No access
6. 6. Human enhancement and its enemies No access
7. 7. A radically enhanced future? No access
1. 1. Two little words – “threatens” and “deserve” No access
2. 2. Humanity and human nature No access
3. 3. A first look at Agar on radical life extension No access
4. 4. Scheffler and Kolodny on immortality and a “human” life No access
5. 5. Species relativism No access
6. 6. I don't want to be a Cyberman No access
1. 1. Transformations No access
2. 2. The problem of transformative choice No access
3. 3. Transformative choice, radical enhancement, and the fear of death No access
4. 4. The jungle or the ship? No access
5. 5. Human enhancement and status quo bias No access
6. 6. Death, life extension, and the fear of death No access
7. 7. A coda: On values and transformation No access
1. 1. Two arguments No access
2. 2. Agar on enhancement in sport No access
3. 3. Sport and radical enhancement No access
4. 4. Is radical cognitive enhancement a threat to science? No access
5. 5. The meaning and continuity of science No access
6. 6. Enhancements versus tools No access
7. 7. Looking ahead No access
1. 1. Preliminaries No access
2. 2. Senescence, death, and life extension No access
3. 3. Mortal and immortal, the shape of lives No access
4. 4. Danger, mortality, and human values No access
5. 5. The great yawn of immortality No access
6. 6. Fear itself No access
7. 7. Reasons (not) to be fearful No access
1. 1. False consolation No access
2. 2. Nussbaum's scenarios for extended life No access
3. 3. The shadow of Malthus No access
4. 4. Life extension for the ten percent? No access
5. 5. The world of if No access
6. 6. But what about the children? No access
1. 1. Leaving yourself behind No access
2. 2. Personal identity and radical life extension No access
3. 3. A magical and scary scenario No access
4. 4. Enhancement, memory, and transformative choice No access
5. 5. Adulthood, transformation, and individuality No access
6. 6. Social transformative choices No access
7. 7. Romance, social change, and the future No access
1. 1. Moral enhancement of human beings No access
2. 2. Post-persons and moral status No access
3. 3. Can there be post-persons? No access
4. 4. Problems for the classic theory No access
5. 5. Would posthumans think they are post-persons? No access
6. 6. Tying the loose ends No access
1. 1. Some pessimism No access
2. 2. Some optimism and some realism No access
3. 3. Cyborg citizenship No access
4. 4. Synchronic and diachronic messiness No access
5. 5. Making our peace with the future No access
6. 6. How to build a cathedral No access
7. 7. The human in the posthuman No access
Bibliography No access Pages 195 - 198
Index of Names No access Pages 199 - 200
Index of Subjects No access Pages 201 - 205