The Posthuman Condition

If biotechnology can be used to "upgrade" humans physically and mentally, should it be done? And if so, to what extent? How will biotechnology affect societal cohesion, and can the development be controlled? Or is this a Pandora's box that should remain closed? These are just a few of the many questions that arise as a result of the increasing ability of technology to change biology and, eventually, transform human living conditions. This development has created a new horizon of a posthuman future that will influence contemporary life and politics in a number of ways. The book gathers researchers within the fields of biotechnology, medicine, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. Among the contributors are Francis Fukuyama, Julian Savulescu, Maxwell Mehlman, Lone Frank and Chris Hables Gray.

Kasper Lippert- Rasmussen (born 1964), DPhil (Oxford), MA (Essex), Cand. Scient. Pol. & Exam. Art. (Aarhus), is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He works primarily in ethics, political philosophy and informal logic. His articles on these matters have appeared in journals such as Journal of Political Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy & Public Affairs, The Journal of Ethics, Philosophical Studies, Politics, Economics & Philosophy, and Philosophical Books. Jacob Wamberg is Professor of Art at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. He works on evolutionistic theories of the history of the visual arts, especially in relation to nature and technology, focussing periodically in the Renaissance and 20 and 21 centuries.