Transhumanism

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What Does Transhumanism Mean?

Transhumanism is the idea that the capability of the human species can be enhanced using technology. It is the idea that by adding non-biological components to a biological system, the human body, future societies will get quantifiable results in human ability and potential.

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Techopedia Explains Transhumanism

Transhumanism can take many forms. Most commonly, a physical technology is embedded into the human body to enhance one of the five senses, offer information for cognitive use, or in some way assist the natural human body in its vital work. One excellent example is the use of cochlear implants to improve hearing. In individuals with impaired hearing, these implants can bring hearing back to a more regular level. In an average human, a cochlear implant could enhance hearing beyond the “average” range. Other examples of transhumanist technologies include things like cryonics, gene therapy and virtual reality tools that enable different kinds of cognitive development and exploration.

There is also a lot of debate about the history of transhumanism. Some argue that it goes back to ancient Mesopotamian societies, or to the 20th century philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche. In the modern era, transhumanism takes a much more tangible form, as a vanguard of scientists experiments with actually adding cybernetic or digital components to the human body.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.