We Have Always Been Cyborgs: Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism

226 Pages·2021·11.326 MB·English

by  Stefan Lorenz Sorgner

“With an encyclopaedic knowledge of transhumanism and a deep philosophical
grounding, especially in Nietzschean thought, Stefan Sorgner tackles some of the
most challenging ethical issues currently discussed, including gene editing, digital
data collection, and life extension, with uncommon good sense and incisive
conclusions. This study is one of the most detailed and comprehensive analyses
available today. Highly recommended for anyone interested in transhumanist/
posthumanist ideas and in these issues generally.”
N. Katherine Hayles, University of California, Los Angeles
“An eye-opening, wide-ranging and all-inclusive study of transhumanism.
Sorgner’s account avoids both the utopian trap and the bogeyman spectre. He
makes a compelling case for placing ourselves on the transhuman spectrum.
How we continue to use technologies is in our hands. Sorgner’s book is both a
comprehensive introduction to transhumanist thought and a clear-sighted vision
for its future realisation.”
Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford

WE HAVE ALWAYS
BEEN CYBORGS
Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an
Ethics of Transhumanism
Stefan Lorenz Sorgner
First published in Great Britain in 2022 by
Bristol University Press
University of Bristol
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Chapter 2.1 Transhumanism without Mind Uploading and Immortality: this chapter appears in Analyzing
Future Applications of AI, Sensors, and Robotics in Society (pp. 284– 291) edited by Musiolik, T.H., &
Cheok, A.D. © 2021, IGI Global, www.igi- global.com. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Chapter 2.2.11 Glocalization and the War for Digital Data: this section appears in Journal of Posthuman
Studies 4(2), (2020), ‘Editor’s Note’, Stefan Lorenz Sorgner © 2020, The Pennsylvania State
University Press. This article is used by permission of The Pennsylvania State University Press.
All other content © Bristol University Press 2022
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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ISBN 978-1 -5 292- 1920- 3 hardcover
ISBN 978-1 -5 292- 1922- 7 ePub
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Contents

List of Abbreviations vi
Acknowledgements vii
1 Transhumanism: In a Nutshell 1
2 On a Silicon- based Transhumanism 22
3 On a Carbon- based Transhumanism 61
4 A Fictive Ethics 109
5 The End as a New Beginning 185
Notes 188
References 198
Index 209
v
List of Abbreviations

AI Artificial intelligence

IEET Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

IVF In vitro fertilization

KSA Nietzsche, F. (1967ff) Sämtliche Werke. Kritische

Studienausgabe in 15 Bänden. Edited by G. Colli and

M. Montinari. München/ New York: Deutscher

Taschenbuch Verlag.
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PA Procreative autonomy

PB Procreative beneficence

PGD Preimplantation genetic diagnosis

PGS Preimplantation genetic screening

RFID Radio- frequency identification

WP Nietzsche, F. (1968) The Will to Power. Trans. Walter

Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, London.
WTA World Transhumanist Association
vi
newgenprepdf
Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my Research Assistants of John Cabot University (JCU)
Rome for their support for getting this manuscript ready for
publication: Selma Coleman, Moya Seneb, Moustafa Tlass, Megan
Dhlamini, Benedetta Grilli, and Francesca Dalmazzo. I particularly wish
to highlight the efforts for the polishing of this manuscript of my JCU
Research Assistants Ihsan Baris Gedizlioglu, Daniela Movileanu, and
Chryssi Soteriades. Furthermore, I am grateful for the exchanges I have
had, and comments I received, from Dr Markus Peuckert, Dr Pascal Henke,
and Prof Thomas Govero.
vii

1

Transhumanism: In a Nutshell1

This book on ‘We Have Always Been Cyborgs’ is structured as follows.
Chapter 1 will be a general introduction to transhumanism. I will critically
analyse the wide range of digital developments relevant for transhumanism
in Chapter 2, ‘Silicon-b ased Transhumanism’; for example, mind uploading
and cyborgization. In Chapter 3, ‘On a Carbon-b ased Transhumanism’, my
focus will be on the wide range of gene technologies which are central for
transhumanism, that is, (1) Nietzsche and recent debates on transhumanism
and eugenics; (2) critical reflections on moral bioenhancement; (3) gene
modification; (4) gene selection after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and
preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). In Chapter 4 the main ethical
discussions concerning transhumanism will be summarized and I will present
my own fictive ethical stance, that is, (1) virtue ethics; (2) the question of the
good life; (3) personhood and what is morally right; (4) transhumanism and
utopia; (5) transhumanism, immortality and the meaning of life. By this means
my key thought that we have always been cyborgs in the continual process
of self-o vercoming, will unfold itself in various dimensions. To begin with,
however, an informed understanding of transhumanism needs to be presented.
Transhumanism is the ‘world’s most dangerous idea’. This is at least Francis
Fukuyama’s judgement concerning this cultural and philosophical movement,
which he stated in the magazine Foreign Policy (Fukuyama 2004, 42– 43).
Transhumanism is a cultural movement which affirms the use of techniques
to increase the likelihood that human beings manage to transcend the
boundaries of their current existence. It is in our interest to take evolution
into our own hands. Thereby, we will increase the likelihood of our living
a good life as well as that of not becoming extinct.
Transhumanism has slowly increased in significance since 1951, when the
term was first coined by Julian Huxley in his article ‘Knowledge, Morality,
and Destiny’. Then, he described transhumanism as follows: ‘Such a broad
philosophy might perhaps best be called, not Humanism, because that has
1