Transhumanity: A Moral Vision of the Twenty-First Century
Transhumanity: A Moral Vision of the Twenty-First Century
This chapter takes seriously the idea that in the future there will be no more human beings but that this is not one of the things that should concern us unless the creatures that replace us are worse than humans. I emphasize the continuity in evolution which shows us that not only are present‐day humans interspecies creatures, but also that objections to human–animal combinations, “humanimals” as I call them, are misconceived on any grounds other than those of safety. If the creatures that replace us are no longer human, then so long as they are better the loss of humanity will be well worth paying. One consequence will be that we should take the “human” out of human rights and possibly also the “dignity” out of human dignity. If we do this we will be true to Jonathan Glover's insight that what matters is that in the future there will be people and not at all what sort of people they will be so long as they are an improvement on what has gone before.
Keywords: humanity, humanimals, interspecies creatures, hybrids, Chimeras
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
