Bostrom, "Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up," 13 Conclusion

by Corry Shores
[Search Blog Here. Index-tags are found on the bottom of the left column.]

[Central Entry Directory]
[Posthumanism, Entry Directory]
[Bostrom's "Why I Want to be a Posthuman", Entry Directory]

We are humans. Can we conclude that posthumans are human too?

Nick Bostrom

"Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up"

XIII. Conclusion

Bostrom discussed three separate human capacities: healthspan, cognition, and emotion. But these capacities may be combined also. For example, a longer life would be more valuable if we may continue to grow intellectually and emotionally.

We are not now posthumans. We are humans. But maybe posthumans are just humans anyway. Perhaps we need only expand our view of what it means to be human, "in which case 'posthuman' is to be understood as denoting a certain possible type of human mode of being – if I am right, an exceedingly worthwhile type" (24).

[Directory of other entries in this series.]

Nick Bostrom. "Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up." Forthcoming in Medical Enhancement and Posthumanity, eds. Bert Gordijn and Ruth Chadwick (Springer), 2007.

PDF available at:

http://www.nickbostrom.com/posthuman.pdf