Literature Review: Transhumanism and Posthumanism

Figure 1: Ghost in the Shell Poster

Transhumanism has been defined as "the intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by using technology to eliminate aging and greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities" (Bostrom, 1999). A posthuman would no longer be a human being, having been so significantly altered as to no longer represent the human species. Underlying this worldview is a core belief that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development, but rather its beginning (Bostrom, 1999). 

An example can be apply in this movie, human had been transformed to a posthuman which means that human and technologies merge together. Major is a true blending of a human brain with a completely mechanical body. She is a new construct of a replaceable part robotic soldier with no memories and no physical feelings. Her partner Batou is also counted as a transhuman because his eyes injured in an explosion and he change his eyes to a pair of lens. This action is showing that, human can use technologies to change their body part if they want or their body get severely damaged or injured.

An example in real life, cochlear implants which serve to restore hearing to the deaf. This is fascinating to consider for a person who was born deaf. Cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing (Cochlear, 2017). This surgical procedure is counted as transform a human to a transhuman. This is mean that human and technology merge together in this surgery. 

In my point of view, one day, our world will become the world that is showing in this movie that everyone is a transhuman or a posthuman. Human's daily life is totally connected with technologies. We cannot live without technology anymore.

Reference:
Bostrom, N 1999, What is Tranhumanism, viewed 20 April 2017,
<http://www.nickbostrom.com/old/transhumanism.html>.

Cochlear, 2017, Cochlear implants & cochlear implant technology, viewed 20 April 2017,
<http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/au/home/understand/hearing-and-hl/hl-treatments/cochlear-implant>.

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