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Everyone is Talking About our Post-Human Future. It’s a Fairytale.
The idea that new technologies can liberate us from the human condition is a fantasy. In reality, the 21st-century will be all too human.
Are you ready for our post-human future?
Across the last few years, a once niche idea has been pushed into the mainstream by a diverse group of futurists, technology thinkers and Big Tech corporations. Humanity, we’re told, is about to upgrade itself. Proponents of this idea say that in the 21st-century people will use emerging technologies — think A.I, gene editing and brain implants among others — to enhance human capabilities to the point where we become definitely something else.
Goodbye human beings; hello post-human superbeings. Human history will end, and some new and as yet unknown historical process will begin.
It’s a seductive idea. But the post-human future is a myth. What’s more, it’s one that serves the interests — and egos — of the powerful rising techno-elite centred around Silicon Valley. New technologies will usher in profound changes during the coming century. If we are to see those changes with clarity, and ensure they are compatible with a world worth living in, then the post-human 21st-century is a myth we…
