Medicine and medical ethics traditionally have focused primarily on healing humans and relieving suffering. Recent biotechnological developments have raised the possibility of going beyond healing to making humans better than well: to improving human nature.
Early examples include the use of growth hormone for short children and pharmaceuticals for cognitive enhancement. Whether through genetic technology to fix genes, or drugs to make people act better, the idea of human enhancement is seen as technically plausible and maybe even ethically required. If medical science can make us better, why not let it make us better than well?
Posthumanism is a developing philosophy which promotes the use of technology to improve human nature. In my talk, I will critically examine posthumanism and its underlying view of human nature. Posthumanism assumes that human nature is completely malleable and that human wisdom can guide human evolution. While claiming to be a secular philosophy, the seminar will show where it takes on the characteristics of a religious worldview. It offers a technological solution to death and a physical heaven on this earth.
I will contrast this with the claims of Christianity, and also those of science fiction. The evolution of enhanced humans is a frequent topic in science fiction. Yet rather than the bliss of a posthuman future, these scenarios usually lead to conflict and destruction. Science fiction reflects a more realistic understanding of human nature than posthumanism. And that understanding is more in keeping with Christian teaching about what it means to be human.
Dr. O’Mathúna’s seminar ‘Third Millennial Humanity: Can human nature be improved through applied science?’ took place on Monday, 11th October 2016 at Union Theological College, Belfast. You can read more about the subject on his own blog here.