Democratic transhumanism
Encyclopedia
Democratic transhumanism, a term coined by Dr. James Hughes in 2002, refers to the stance of transhumanists (advocates for the development and use of human enhancement
technologies) who espouse liberal
, social
and/or radical democratic
political views.
According to Hughes, the ideology "stems from the assertion that human beings will generally be happier
when they take rational control
of the natural and social forces that control their lives." The ethical
foundation of democratic transhumanism rests upon rule utilitarianism
and non-anthropocentric
personhood theory.
While raising objections both to right-wing
and left-wing
bioconservatism, and libertarian transhumanism
, Hughes aims to encourage democratic transhumanists and their potential progressive
allies to unite as a new social movement and influence biopolitical public policy
.
An attempt to expand the middle ground between technorealism
and techno-utopianism
, democratic transhumanism can be seen as a radical form of techno-progressivism
.
Appearing several times in Hughes' work, the term "radical" (from Latin rādīx, rādīc-, root) is used as an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the root or going to the root. His central thesis is that emerging technologies
and radical democracy
can help citizens overcome some of the root causes of inequalities of power.
wrote a review of Citizen Cyborg
in his online column for Reason magazine
in which he offered a critique of democratic transhumanism and a defense of libertarian transhumanism
.
Critical theorist Dale Carrico
defended democratic transhumanism from Bailey's criticism. However, he would later criticize democratic transhumanism himself on technoprogressive grounds.
Human enhancement
Human enhancement refers to any attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body through natural or artificial means...
technologies) who espouse liberal
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
, social
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
and/or radical democratic
Radical democracy
Radical democracy as an ideology was articulated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in their book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics, written in 1985. They argue that social movements which attempt to create social and political change need a strategy which...
political views.
According to Hughes, the ideology "stems from the assertion that human beings will generally be happier
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
when they take rational control
Human agency
In philosophy and sociology, agency is the capacity of an agent to act in a world. In philosophy, the agency is considered as belonging to that agent even if that agent represents a fictitious character, or some other non-existent entity...
of the natural and social forces that control their lives." The ethical
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
foundation of democratic transhumanism rests upon rule utilitarianism
Rule Utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism that says actions are moral when they conform to the rules that lead to the greatest good, or that "the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance." For rule utilitarians, the...
and non-anthropocentric
Biocentrism (ethics)
Biocentrism , in a political and ecological sense, is an ethical point of view which extends inherent value to non-human species, ecosystems, and processes in nature - regardless of their sentience...
personhood theory.
While raising objections both to right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
and left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
bioconservatism, and libertarian transhumanism
Libertarian transhumanism
Libertarian transhumanism is a political ideology synthesizing right-libertarianism and transhumanism.Self-identified libertarian transhumanists, such as Ronald Bailey of Reason magazine and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, are advocates of the asserted "right to human enhancement" who argue that the...
, Hughes aims to encourage democratic transhumanists and their potential progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
allies to unite as a new social movement and influence biopolitical public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
.
An attempt to expand the middle ground between technorealism
Technorealism
Technorealism is an attempt to expand the middle ground between Techno-utopianism and Neo-Luddism by assessing the social and political implications of technologies so that people might all have more control over the shape of their future...
and techno-utopianism
Techno-utopianism
Technological utopianism refers to any ideology based on the belief that advances in science and technology will eventually bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal...
, democratic transhumanism can be seen as a radical form of techno-progressivism
Techno-progressivism
Techno-progressivism, technoprogressivism, tech-progressivism or techprogressivism is a stance of active support for the convergence of technological change and social change...
.
Appearing several times in Hughes' work, the term "radical" (from Latin rādīx, rādīc-, root) is used as an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the root or going to the root. His central thesis is that emerging technologies
Emerging technologies
In the history of technology, emerging technologies are contemporary advances and innovation in various fields of technology. Various converging technologies have emerged in the technological convergence of different systems evolving towards similar goals...
and radical democracy
Radical democracy
Radical democracy as an ideology was articulated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in their book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics, written in 1985. They argue that social movements which attempt to create social and political change need a strategy which...
can help citizens overcome some of the root causes of inequalities of power.
Trends
Hughes has identified 15 "left futurist" or "left techno-utopian" trends and projects that could be incorporated into democratic transhumanism:- AfrofuturismAfrofuturismAfrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise,...
- Assistive technologyAssistive technologyAssistive technology or adaptive technology is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them...
-enabled disabled people - BiopunkBiopunkBiopunk is a term used to describe:# A hobbyist who experiments with DNA and other aspects of genetics.# A technoprogressive movement advocating open access to genetic information....
science fiction and movement - Body modificationBody modificationBody modification is the deliberate altering of the human body for any non-medical reason, such as aesthetics, sexual enhancement, a rite of passage, religious reasons, to display group membership or affiliation, to create body art, shock value, or self expression...
culture - Cyborg feminism/cyberfeminismCyberfeminismCyberfeminism is a feminist community, philosophy and set of practices concerned with feminist interactions with and acts in cyberspace. The term was coined in 1991, and feminist individuals, theorists and groups identifying themselves as cyberfeminists were most active in the 1990s...
- Feminist science fictionFeminist science fictionFeminist science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction which tends to deal with women's roles in society. Feminist science fiction poses questions about social issues such as how society constructs gender roles, the role reproduction plays in defining gender and the unequal political and...
- Lesbian science fiction, Gay science fictionGay science fictionLGBT themes in speculative fiction refer to the incorporation of homosexual themes into science fiction, fantasy, horror fiction and related genres, which together constitute speculative fiction...
, Bisexual science fiction, and TransgenderTransgenderTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
science fiction - NanosocialismNanosocialismNanosocialism refers generally to a set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the research, development and use of nanotechnology.- Politics :...
- Free software movementFree software movementThe free software movement is a social and political movement with the goal of ensuring software users' four basic freedoms: the freedom to run their software, to study and change their software, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. The alternative terms "software libre", "open...
- Post-DarwinianSociobiologySociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology,...
leftismLeft-wing politicsIn politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society... - Postcyberpunk science fiction
- Post-work/guaranteed minimum incomeGuaranteed minimum incomeGuaranteed minimum income is a system of social welfare provision that guarantees that all citizens or families have an income sufficient to live on, provided they meet certain conditions. Eligibility is typically determined by citizenship, a means test and either availability for the labour...
movement - TechnogaianismTechnogaianismTechnogaianism is a bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies to help restore Earth's environment...
- Up-wing politics
- Viridian design movement
List of democratic transhumanists
This section contains an alphabetically ordered list of notable individuals who have identified themselves or been identified by Hughes as advocates of democratic transhumanism:- Ben Hyink
- Charles StrossCharles StrossCharles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
- Jamais CascioJamais CascioJamais Cascio is a San Francisco Bay Area-based writer and ethical futurist specializing in design strategies and possible outcomes for future scenarios...
- George DvorskyGeorge DvorskyGeorge P. Dvorsky is a transhumanist futurist, and author of the Sentient Developments blog. Dvorsky is a co-founder and president of the Toronto Transhumanist Association, and currently serves on the board of directors for Humanity+ and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies...
- Giulio PriscoGiulio PriscoGiulio Prisco, born in Napoli in 1957, is an Italian information technology virtual reality consultant; as well as a writer, futurist, and transhumanist. He is an advocate of cryonics and contributes to the science and technology online magazine Tendencias21...
- Justice De ThézierJustice De ThézierVladimir De Thézier is a Québécois cultural creative.-Biography:De Thézier was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of two Haitian immigrants. Under his Haitian nickname “Justice”, he was a transhumanist writer and activist in the 2000s, before turning into a progressive critic of transhumanism.In...
- Ken MacLeodKen MacLeodKen MacLeod , is a Scottish science fiction writer.MacLeod was born in Stornoway. He graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics....
- Mark Alan WalkerMark Alan WalkerMark Alan Walker, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at New Mexico State University, where he occupies the Richard L. Hedden Endowed Chair in Advanced Philosophical Studies. Prior to his professorship at NMSU Prof. Walker taught at McMaster University in the department of philosophy and...
- Martine RothblattMartine RothblattMartine Aliana Rothblatt Ph.D, MBA, J.D. is an American lawyer, author, and entrepreneur. Rothblatt graduated from UCLA with a combined law and MBA degree in 1981, then began work in Washington, D.C., first in the field of communication satellite law, and eventually in life sciences projects like...
- Pablo Stafforini
- Philip Shropshire
- Ramez NaamRamez NaamRamez Naam is a professional technologist. He was involved in the development of widely-used software products such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook....
- Riccardo CampaRiccardo CampaRiccardo Campa is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cracow. He possesses two Master of Arts degrees, in Political Science and Philosophy, from the University of Bologna and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Nicholas Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland...
- Robin Green
Criticism
Science journalist Ronald BaileyRonald Bailey
Ronald Bailey is the science editor for Reason magazine. He was born in San Antonio, Texas and raised in Washington County, Virginia, and attended the University of Virginia, where he earned a B.A...
wrote a review of Citizen Cyborg
Citizen Cyborg
Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future is a 2004 non-fiction book by bioethicist and sociologist James Hughes, which articulates democratic transhumanism as a socio-political ideology and program....
in his online column for Reason magazine
Reason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
in which he offered a critique of democratic transhumanism and a defense of libertarian transhumanism
Libertarian transhumanism
Libertarian transhumanism is a political ideology synthesizing right-libertarianism and transhumanism.Self-identified libertarian transhumanists, such as Ronald Bailey of Reason magazine and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, are advocates of the asserted "right to human enhancement" who argue that the...
.
Critical theorist Dale Carrico
Dale Carrico
Dale Carrico is an American critical theorist and rhetorician. He is best known for proposing techno-progressivism as a more rational and sophisticated alternative to both transhumanism and bioconservatism....
defended democratic transhumanism from Bailey's criticism. However, he would later criticize democratic transhumanism himself on technoprogressive grounds.