Editing Transhumanism (section)

==History==
===Precursors of transhumanism===
According to [[Nick Bostrom]], [[Self-transcendence|transcendentalist]] impulses have been expressed at least as far back as the quest for [[immortality]] in the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', as well as in historical quests for the [[Fountain of Youth]], the [[Elixir of Life]], and other efforts to stave off aging and death.<ref name="Bostrom 2005"/>

Transhumanists draw upon and claim continuity from intellectual and cultural traditions such as the ancient philosophy of [[Aristotle]] or the scientific tradition of [[Roger Bacon]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=Allen |title=Bioethics and Transhumanism |url=https://academic.oup.com/jmp/article/42/3/237/3817401 |journal=The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine |access-date=30 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207175306/https://academic.oup.com/jmp/article/42/3/237/3817401 |archive-date=2017-12-07 |pages=237{{ndash}}260 |language=en |doi=10.1093/jmp/jhx001 |date=1 June 2017 |url-status=live |volume=42 |number=3|pmid=28499043 |doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In his ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] coined the word ''trasumanar'' meaning "to transcend human nature, to pass beyond human nature" in the first [[canto]] of [[Paradiso (Dante)|Paradiso]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Life Expansion|first1=Natasha|last1=Vita-More|author-link=Natasha Vita-More|publisher=University of Plymouth|date=2012|pages=74–75}} See also {{Cite journal|last1=Harrison|first1=Peter|last2=Wolyniak|first2=Joseph|title=The History of 'Transhumanism'|url=https://www.academia.edu/13997038|journal=Notes and Queries|year=2015|volume=62|issue=3|pages=465–467|doi=10.1093/notesj/gjv080|issn=0029-3970|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Trasumanar (neologism)|url=http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/par0101.html|access-date=2021-08-24|website=danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Paradiso 1 – Digital Dante|url=https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/paradiso/paradiso-1/|access-date=2021-08-24|website=digitaldante.columbia.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=BioEdge: Was Dante a transhumanist?|url=https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/was_dante_a_transhumanist/9468|access-date=2021-08-24|website=BioEdge|archive-date=August 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210824074524/https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/was_dante_a_transhumanist/9468}}</ref>

The interweaving of transhumanist aspirations with the scientific imagination can be seen in the works of some precursors of [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] such as [[Francis Bacon]].<ref name="Bainbridge 2011 p. 582">{{cite book | last=Bainbridge | first=W.S. | title=Leadership in Science and Technology: A Reference Handbook | publisher=SAGE Publications | year=2011 | isbn=978-1-4522-6652-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAFzAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA582 | access-date=2023-05-03 | page=582}}</ref><ref name="Manzocco 2019 p. 2">{{cite book | last=Manzocco | first=R. | title=Transhumanism - Engineering the Human Condition: History, Philosophy and Current Status | publisher=Springer International Publishing | series=Springer Praxis Books | year=2019 | isbn=978-3-030-04958-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=16qMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 | access-date=2023-05-03 | page=2}}</ref> One of the early precursors to transhumanist ideas is [[René Descartes]]'s ''[[Discourse on Method]]'' (1637), in which Descartes envisions a new kind of medicine that can grant both physical immortality and stronger minds.<ref>Renée Mirkes. Transhumanist Medicine: Can We Direct Its Power to the Service of Human Dignity? The Linacre Quarterly, March 29, 2019</ref>

In his first edition of ''[[Enquiry Concerning Political Justice|Political Justice]]'' (1793), [[William Godwin]] included arguments favoring the possibility of "earthly [[immortality]]" (what would now be called [[physical immortality]]). Godwin explored the themes of [[life extension]] and immortality in his [[Gothic fiction|gothic novel]] [[St. Leon (novel)|''St.&nbsp;Leon'']], which became popular (and notorious) at the time of its publication in 1799, but is now mostly forgotten. ''St.&nbsp;Leon'' may have inspired his daughter [[Mary Shelley]]'s novel ''[[Frankenstein]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Godwin, William (1756–1836) – Introduction |work=Gothic Literature |publisher=enotes.com |year=2008 |url=http://www.enotes.com/gothic-literature/godwin-william |access-date=9 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828113812/http://www.enotes.com/gothic-literature/godwin-william |archive-date=28 August 2008 }}</ref>

[[Ether Day]], marking a significant milestone in human history, celebrated its 175th anniversary on October 16, 2021. It was on this day that dentist [[William T. G. Morton]] achieved a groundbreaking feat by administering the first public [[ether]] [[anesthesia]] in Boston. This breakthrough not only allowed for the alleviation of pain with a reasonable level of risk but also helped protect people from [[psychological trauma]] by inducing [[wiktionary:inconscience|unconsciousness]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lewandowski |first1=K. |last2=Kretschmer |first2=B. |last3=Schmidt |first3=K. W. |date=2021 |title=175 Jahre Anästhesie und Narkose – Auf dem Weg zu einem "Menschenrecht auf Ohnmacht" |journal=Der Anaesthesist |volume=70 |issue=10 |pages=811–831 |doi=10.1007/s00101-021-01043-1 |issn=0003-2417 |pmc=8444521 |pmid=34529093}}</ref>

There is debate about whether the [[philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche]] can be considered an influence on transhumanism, despite its exaltation of the ''[[Übermensch]]'' (overhuman), due to its emphasis on [[self-actualization]] rather than technological transformation.<ref name="Bostrom 2005"/><ref name="Sorgner 2009"/><ref name="Blackford 2010"/><ref name="Sorgner 2012"/> The transhumanist philosophies of More and Sorgner have been influenced strongly by Nietzschean thinking.<ref name="Sorgner 2009"/> By contrast, ''The Transhumanist Declaration'' "advocates the well-being of all sentience (whether in artificial intellects, humans, posthumans, or non-human animals)".<ref name="Declaration">{{Cite web |title=The Transhumanist Declaration |url= https://itp.uni-frankfurt.de/~gros/Mind2010/transhumanDeclaration.pdf |access-date=24 May 2023}}</ref>

The late 19th- to early 20th-century movement known as [[Russian cosmism]], by Russian philosopher [[Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov|N. F. Fyodorov]], is noted for anticipating transhumanist ideas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sovieteramuseum.com/?product=art-works-by-russian-cosmism-painter-xx-xxi-ct-catalogue-of-exhibition-2013|title=Art works by Russian cosmism painter XX – XXI ct. Catalogue of exhibition 2013 {{!}} Soviet Era Museum|website=sovieteramuseum.com|date=February 18, 2016 |language=en-US|access-date=2018-06-24}}</ref> In 1966, [[FM-2030]] (formerly F. M. Esfandiary), a [[futurist]] who taught "new concepts of the human" at [[The New School]], in [[New York City]], began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and worldviews transitional to [[posthumanity]] as "[[transhuman]]".<ref name="FM-2030 1989"/>

===Early transhumanist thinking===
[[File:Hux-Oxon-72.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Julian Huxley]], the biologist who popularised the term ''transhumanism'' in an influential 1957 essay<ref name="Huxley 1957"/>|left]]

Fundamental ideas of transhumanism were first advanced in 1923 by the British geneticist [[J. B. S. Haldane]] in his essay ''[[Daedalus; or, Science and the Future|Daedalus: Science and the Future]]'', which predicted that great benefits would come from the application of advanced sciences to human biology—and that every such advance would first appear to someone as blasphemy or perversion, "indecent and unnatural".<ref name="Haldane 1923" /> In particular, he was interested in the development of the science of [[eugenics]], [[ectogenesis]] (creating and sustaining life in an artificial environment), and the application of genetics to improve human characteristics such as health and intelligence.

His article inspired academic and popular interest. [[John Desmond Bernal|J. D. Bernal]], a crystallographer at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], wrote ''The World, the Flesh and the Devil'' in 1929, in which he speculated on the prospects of [[space colonization]] and radical changes to human bodies and intelligence through [[bionics|bionic implants]] and [[cognitive enhancement]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=Arthur C.|title=Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds|publisher=St Martin's Griffin, New York|year=2000}}</ref> These ideas have been common transhumanist themes ever since.<ref name="Bostrom 2005" />

The biologist Julian Huxley is generally regarded as the founder of transhumanism after using the term for the title of an influential 1957 article.<ref name="Huxley 1957"/> But the term derives from a 1940 paper by the Canadian philosopher [[William Douw Lighthall|W. D. Lighthall]].<ref name="Harrison and Wolyniak 2015"/> Huxley describes transhumanism in these terms:

{{Blockquote|Up till now human life has generally been, as [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]] described it, "nasty, brutish and short"; the great majority of human beings (if they have not already died young) have been afflicted with misery… we can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted… The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself—not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity.<ref name="Huxley 1957"/>}}

<!-- [[File:2001 NAL.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Cover of [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', published in 1968, which deals with the transhumanist agenda.]]
 -->Huxley's definition differs, albeit not substantially, from the one commonly in use since the 1980s. The ideas raised by these thinkers were explored in the [[science fiction]] of the 1960s, notably in [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', in which an alien artifact grants transcendent power to its wielder.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/163072-googles-glass-castle-the-rise-and-fear-of-a-transhuman-future/|title=Google's Glass Castle: The Rise and Fear of a Transhuman Future|first=Christopher|last=Hutton|magazine=PopMatters}}</ref>

Japanese [[Metabolist]] architects produced a manifesto in 1960 which outlined goals to "encourage active metabolic development of our society"<ref>Lin (2010), p. 24</ref> through design and technology. In the [[Metabolism (architecture)#Material and Man|Material and Man]] section of the manifesto, Noboru Kawazoe suggests that:<blockquote>After several decades, with the rapid progress of communication technology, every one will have a "brain wave receiver" in his ear, which conveys directly and exactly what other people think about him and vice versa. What I think will be known by all the people. There is no more individual consciousness, only the will of mankind as a whole.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan|last = Lin|first = Zhongjie|publisher = Routledge|year = 2010|isbn = 978-1-135-28198-4|pages = 35–36}}</ref></blockquote>

===Artificial intelligence and the technological singularity===
The concept of the [[technological singularity]], or the ultra-rapid advent of superhuman intelligence, was first proposed by the British [[cryptologist]] [[I. J. Good]] in 1965:
{{Blockquote|Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an "intelligence explosion," and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.<ref>I.J. Good, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090420061605/http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/Authors/Computing/Good-IJ/SCtFUM.html "Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine"] ([http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/pages/ultraintelligentmachine.html HTML] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128085512/http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Good-Speculations-Concerning-the-First-Ultraintelligent-Machine.pdf |date=November 28, 2011 }}), ''Advances in Computers'', vol. 6, 1965.</ref>}}

[[Computer scientist]] [[Marvin Minsky]] wrote on relationships between human and [[artificial intelligence]] beginning in the 1960s.<ref name="Minsky 1960"/> Over the succeeding decades, this field continued to generate influential thinkers, such as [[Hans Moravec]] and [[Ray Kurzweil]], who oscillated between the technical arena and futuristic speculations in the transhumanist vein.<ref name="Moravec 1998"/><ref name="Kurzweil 1999"/> The coalescence of an identifiable transhumanist movement began in the last decades of the 20th century. In 1972, [[Robert Ettinger]], whose 1964 ''Prospect of Immortality'' founded the [[cryonics movement]],<ref name=dilemma>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/18/the-cryonics-dilemma-will-deep-frozen-bodies-be-fit-for-new-life|title=The cryonics dilemma: will deep-frozen bodies be fit for new life?|website=[[The Guardian]]|last=Devlin|first=Hannah|date=18 November 2016|access-date=22 September 2018}}</ref> contributed to the conceptualization of "transhumanity" with his 1972 ''Man into Superman.''<ref name="Ettinger 1972" /> FM-2030 published the ''Upwingers Manifesto'' in 1973.<ref name="FM-2030 1973" />

===Growth of transhumanism===
See also: [[List of transhumanists]]

The first self-described transhumanists met formally in the early 1980s at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]], which became the main center of transhumanist thought. Here, [[FM-2030]] lectured on his "[[Third Way (centrism)|Third Way]]" futurist ideology.<ref name="FM-2030: Are You Transhuman" /> At the [[EZTV (media company)|EZTV]] Media venue, frequented by transhumanists and other futurists, [[Natasha Vita-More]] presented ''Breaking Away'', her 1980 experimental film with the theme of humans breaking away from their biological limitations and the Earth's gravity as they head into space.<ref name="EZTV Media"/><ref name="Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over the Edge"/> FM-2030 and Vita-More soon began holding gatherings for transhumanists in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], which included students from FM-2030's courses and audiences from Vita-More's artistic productions. In 1982, Vita-More authored the ''Transhumanist Arts Statement''<ref name="Vita-More 1982"/> and in 1988 she produced the cable TV show ''TransCentury Update ''on transhumanity, a program that reached over 100,000 viewers.

In 1986, [[K. Eric Drexler|Eric Drexler]] published ''[[Engines of Creation]]: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology,''<ref name="Drexler 1986"/> which discussed the prospects for [[nanotechnology]] and [[molecular assembler]]s, and founded the [[Foresight Institute]]. As the first nonprofit organization to research, advocate for, and perform [[cryonics]], the Southern California offices of the [[Alcor Life Extension Foundation]] became a center for futurists. In 1988, the first issue of ''Extropy Magazine'' was published by [[Max More]] and Tom Morrow. In 1990, More, a strategic philosopher, created his own particular transhumanist doctrine, which took the form of the ''Principles of Extropy,'' and laid the foundation of modern transhumanism by giving it a new definition:<ref name="More 1990"/>

{{Blockquote|Transhumanism is a class of philosophies that seek to guide us towards a posthuman condition. Transhumanism shares many elements of humanism, including a respect for reason and science, a commitment to progress, and a valuing of human (or transhuman) existence in this life. [...] Transhumanism differs from humanism in recognizing and anticipating the radical alterations in the nature and possibilities of our lives resulting from various sciences and technologies [...]}}

In 1992, More and Morrow founded the [[Extropy Institute]], a catalyst for networking futurists and brainstorming new [[memeplex]]es by organizing a series of conferences and, more importantly, providing a mailing list, which exposed many to transhumanist views for the first time during the rise of [[cyberculture]] and the [[cyberdelic]] counterculture. In 1998, philosophers [[Nick Bostrom]] and [[David Pearce (philosopher)|David Pearce]] founded the [[World Transhumanist Association]] (WTA), an international non-governmental organization working toward the recognition of transhumanism as a legitimate subject of [[scientific inquiry]] and [[Policy|public policy]].<ref name="Hughes 2005"/> In 2002, the WTA modified and adopted ''The Transhumanist Declaration.''<ref name="Declaration" /><ref name="World Transhumanist Association 2002"/><ref name="wsj.com">{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/looking-forward-to-the-end-of-humanity-11592625661|title = Looking Forward to the End of Humanity|newspaper = The Wall Street Journal|date = June 20, 2020|last1 = Kirsch|first1 = Adam}}</ref> ''The Transhumanist FAQ'', prepared by the WTA (later [[Humanity+]]), gave two formal definitions for transhumanism:<ref name="What is Transhumanism"/>

{{Blockquote|
# The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.
# The study of the ramifications, promises, and potential dangers of technologies that will enable us to overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies.}}

In possible contrast with other transhumanist organizations, WTA officials considered that social forces could undermine their futurist visions and needed to be addressed.<ref name = "Hughes 2004"/> A particular concern is equal access to [[human enhancement]] technologies across classes and borders.<ref name="Utne"/> In 2006, a [[transhumanist politics|political struggle]] within the transhumanist movement between the [[Right-libertarianism|libertarian right]] and the [[Social liberalism|liberal left]] resulted in a more [[centre-left]]ward positioning of the WTA under its former executive director [[James Hughes (sociologist)|James Hughes]].<ref name="Utne" /><ref name="Among the Transhumanists" /> In 2006, the board of directors of the Extropy Institute ceased operations of the organization, saying that its mission was "essentially completed".<ref name="Extropy Institute 2006" /> This left the World Transhumanist Association as the leading international transhumanist organization. In 2008, as part of a rebranding effort, the WTA changed its name to "[[Humanity+]]".<ref name="Newitz 2008" /> In 2012, the transhumanist [[transhumanist politics|Longevity Party]] had been initiated as an international union of people who promote the development of scientific and technological means to significant life extension that now has more than 30 national organisations throughout the world.<ref>{{cite web |last=Stambler |first=Ilia |title=The Longevity Party – Who Needs it? Who Wants it? |url=http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/stambler20120823 |work=IEET |access-date=August 23, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2012/07/a-single-issue-political-party-for-longevity-science.php|title=A Single-Issue Political Party for Longevity Science|work=Fight Aging!|date=July 27, 2012}}</ref>

The [[Mormonism|Mormon]] Transhumanist Association was founded in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |title=About |url=http://transfigurism.org/pages/about/ |work=Mormon Transhumanist Association |access-date=June 4, 2016 |archive-date=January 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111175720/https://transfigurism.org/pages/about/ }}</ref> By 2012, it had hundreds of members.<ref>{{cite web |title=Member Survey Results |url=http://transfigurism.org/pages/about/member-survey-results/ |work=Mormon Transhumanist Association |access-date=June 4, 2016 |archive-date=November 6, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106221218/https://transfigurism.org/pages/about/member-survey-results/ }}</ref>

The first transhumanist elected member of a parliament was [[Giuseppe Vatinno]], in Italy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/italy-elects-first-transhumanist-mp |title=Italy elects first transhumanist MP |publisher=Kurzweilai.net |access-date=April 25, 2013}}</ref>