Posthumanism: Creation of 'New Men' Through Technological Innovation

The posthumanist project proposes directing the evolution of human beings by promoting their improvement through technological means to create a variety of entities that will have few or no common characteristics with current humans. Its agenda is extremely broad and this study mostly addresses enhancement of the human organism through genetic modification techniques. An overview of posthumanist values and a brief discussion of its philosophical background provide a framework to understand its ideals. Genetics and ethics are employed to assess some claims of the posthumanist program of creating evolved humans; in particular, the capabilities and limitations of techniques for somatic and germline genome editing. Consequences of the creation of posthumans are discussed in relation to accepted current human beings and values. It is concluded that the posthumanist program rests on a large number of hypotheses without sufficient evidence and with little or no consideration of the consequences of its implementation.