ArticleTheoretical medicine and bioethics2023
Weak transhumanism: moderate enhancement as a non-radical path to radical enhancement.
Article in Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolutionary Trajectories of Consciousness: From Biological Foundations to Technological Horizons.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- The irrationality of human confidence that an ageless existence would be better.Theoretical medicine and bioethics · 2024Article
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Abstract
Transhumanism aims to bring about radical human enhancement. In 'Truly Human Enhancement' Agar (2014) provides a strong argument against producing radically enhancing effects in agents. This leaves the transhumanist in a quandary-how to achieve radical enhancement whilst avoiding the problem of radically enhancing effects? This paper aims to show that transhumanism can overcome the worries of radically enhancing effects by instead pursuing radical human enhancement via incremental moderate human enhancements (Weak Transhumanism). In this sense, weak transhumanism is much like traditional transhumanism in its aims, but starkly different in its execution. This version of transhumanism is weaker given the limitations brought about by having to avoid radically enhancing effects. I consider numerous objections to weak transhumanism and conclude that the account survives each one. This paper's proposal of 'weak transhumanism' has the upshot of providing a way out of the 'problem of radically enhancing effects' for the transhumanist, but this comes at a cost-the restrictive process involved in applying multiple moderate enhancements in order to achieve radical enhancement will most likely be dissatisfying for the transhumanist, however, it is, I contend, the best option available.
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