Designer Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto

The debate about the ethics of human biotechnology or genetic engineering is one of the most important cultural issues of our time. ‘Transhumanism’ is the philosophy that most of all supports genetic science and biotechnology, yet the public knows little about this emerging philosophy. Transhumanism declares unequivocal support for the attempt to eliminate disease, defeat death, and enhance the body and mind beyond the limitations of the age-old human condition. In Designer Evolution , Simon Young presents a polemical espousal of transhumanist philosophy and a trenchant attack on its critics, the ‘Bio-Luddites’. The author calls for a rejection of premodern superstition and post-modern nihilism in favour of a renewed belief in human progress through scientific rationality. In an age when cynicism, fatalism, and nihilism are rife, Designer Evolution will rekindle a feeling of optimism about the future of our species. This is a concise, reader-friendly introduction to a vitally important philosophy that will become difficult to ignore as advances in biotechnology increasingly claim the headlines in the coming decades.