Understanding Transhumanism With Help From Tolkien, Lewis, and Ancient Literature

About this episode

The episode explores transhumanism through the lens of ancient literature and thinkers like Tolkien and Lewis.

Sam Altman talks about uploading his brain to the cloud. Elon Musks says humans should merge biological intelligence with digital intelligence. Peter Thiel isn’t sure if the human race should continue without that kind of human-tech merger. What do these tech leaders have in common? Transhumanism—the idea that humans should be able to change, or even eradicate, their physical bodies by merging with technology. This may sound sci-fi, but the core tenets of transhumanism aren’t actually new. In fact, humans have been moving toward this idea for a long time. Some even predicted it. In this episode, Liberty discusses how ancient and classic literature and thinkers of the past, including J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, can help us understand transhumanism and the “brave new world” we find ourselves in. More Resources: Do You Want to Live Forever? A Tolkienian Critique of Transhumanism by Julie Miller https://press.ratiochristi.org/product/do-you-want-to-live-forever/ The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis https://www.amazon.com/Abolition-Man-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652942 Christians Reading Classics by Nadya Williams https://zondervanacademic.com/products/christians-reading-classics Inside…

People in this episode

Host: Liberty

Topics covered

• transhumanism
• technology
• ancient literature
• Tolkien
• C.S. Lewis
• human enhancement

Keywords

• transhumanism
• technology merger
• Tolkien
• C.S. Lewis
• ancient literature
• human enhancement
• digital intelligence

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Do You Want to Live Forever? A Tolkienian Critique of Transhumanism, The Abolition of Man, Christians Reading Classics

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