The Transhumanist Reader

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Featuring articles and essays by Max More, Ray Kurzweil, Nick Bostrom, Marvin Minsky, Hans Moravec, and many more, The Transhumanist Reader addresses key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns.

The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. In their new edited book,The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future, Natasha Vita-More and Max More explore issues surrounding transhumanism.

Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns.

Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature.

Table of Contents

Part I Roots and Core Themes

1 The Philosophy of Transhumanism, Max More
2 Aesthetics: Bringing the Arts & Design into the Discussion of Transhumanism, Natasha Vita-More
3 Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up, Nick Bostrom
4 Transhumanist Declaration (2012), Various
5 Morphological Freedom – Why We Not Just Want It, but Need It, Anders Sandberg

Part II Human Enhancement: The Somatic Sphere

6 Welcome to the Future of Medicine, Robert A. Freitas Jr.
7 Life Expansion Media, Natasha Vita-More
8 The Hybronaut Affair: A Ménage of Art, Technology, and Science, Laura Beloff
9 Transavatars, William Sims Bainbridge
10 Alternative Biologies, Rachel Armstrong

Part III Human Enhancement: The Cognitive Sphere

11 Re-Inventing Ourselves: The Plasticity of Embodiment, Sensing, and Mind, Andy Clark
12 Artificial General Intelligence and the Future of Humanity, Ben Goertzel
13 Intelligent Information Filters and Enhanced Reality, Alexander “Sasha” Chislenko
14 Uploading to Substrate-Independent Minds, Randal A. Koene
15 Uploading, Ralph C. Merkle

Part IV Core Technologies

16 Why Freud Was the First Good AI Theorist, Marvin Minsky
17 Pigs in Cyberspace, Hans Moravec
18 Nanocomputers, J. Storrs Hall
19 Immortalist Fictions and Strategies, Michael R. Rose
20 Dialogue between Ray Kurzweil and Eric Drexler

Part V Engines of Life: Identity and Beyond Death

21 The Curate’s Egg of Anti-Anti-Aging Bioethics, Aubrey de Grey
22 Medical Time Travel, Brian Wowk
23 Transhumanism and Personal Identity, James Hughes
24 Transcendent Engineering, Giulio Prisco

Part VI Enhanced Decision-Making

25 Idea Futures: Encouraging an Honest Consensus, Robin Hanson
26 The Proactionary Principle: Optimizing Technological Outcomes, Max More
27 The Open Society and Its Media, Mark S. Miller, with E. Dean Tribble, Ravi Pandya, and Marc Stiegler

Part VII Biopolitics and Policy

28 Performance Enhancement and Legal Theory: An Interview with Professor Michael H. Shapiro
29 Justifying Human Enhancement: The Accumulation of Biocultural Capital, Andy Miah
30 The Battle for the Future, Gregory Stock
31 Mind is Deeper Than Matter: Transgenderism, Transhumanism, and the Freedom of Form, Martine Rothblatt
32 For Enhancing People, Ronald Bailey
33 Is Enhancement Worthy of Being a Right?, Patrick D. Hopkins
34 Freedom by Design: Transhumanist Values and Cognitive Liberty, Wrye Sententia

Part VIII Future Trajectories: Singularity

35 Technological Singularity, Vernor Vinge
36 An Overview of Models of Technological Singularity, Anders Sandberg
37 A Critical Discussion of Vinge’s Singularity Concept, David Brin, Damien Broderick, Nick Bostrom, Alexander “Sasha” Chislenko, Robin Hanson, Max More, Michael Nielsen, and Anders Sandberg

Part IX The World’s Most Dangerous Idea

38 The Great Transition: Ideas and Anxieties, Russell Blackford
39 Trans and Post, Damien Broderick
40 Back to Nature II: Art and Technology in the Twenty-First Century, Roy Ascott
41 A Letter to Mother Nature, Max More
42 Progress and Relinquishment, Ray Kurzweil


Natasha Vita-More is a transhumanist, media artist and designer, with a fine arts background, known for designing Primo Posthuman. This future human prototype incorporates biotechnology, robotics, information technology, nanotechnology, cognitive and neuroscience for human enhancement and extreme life extension.

Vita-More is a university lecturer and the Creative Director of H+ Lab for scientific and artistic design collaborations. Vita-More is currently a Visiting Scholar at Twenty-First Century Medicine, Advisor to the Singularity University, Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Humanity+. She is a PhD candidate at the Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth. Her thesis concerns human enhancement and extreme life extension. She holds a B.F.A., University of Memphis; filmmaker-in-residence, University of Colorado; M.Sc., University of Houston; M.Phil., University of Plymouth.

Max More is a philosopher and futurist who writes, speaks, and consults on advanced decision-making about emerging technologies.

Born in Bristol, England, More has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from St Anne's College, Oxford University (1987). His 1995 University of Southern California doctoral dissertation "The Diachronic Self: Identity, Continuity, and Transformation" examined several issues that concern transhumanists, including the nature of death, and what it is about each individual that continues despite great change over time.

Founder of the Extropy Institute, Max More has written many articles espousing the philosophy of transhumanism and the transhumanist philosophy of extropy, most importantly his Principles of Extropy (currently version 3.11). In a 1990 essay "Transhumanism: Toward a Futurist Philosophy", he introduced the term "transhumanism" in its contemporaty sense.

More is also noted for his writings about the impact of new and emerging technologies on businesses and other organizations. His "Proactionary Principle" is intended as a balanced guide to the risks and benefits of technological innovation.

At the start of 2011, Max More became president and CEO of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation — the largest provider of cryopreservation services in the world — an organization he first joined in 1986.

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