Transcending Natural Limitations: The Military–Industrial Complex and the Transhumanist Temptation. Coenen, C. In Cognitive Technologies, pages 97–110. 2021.
Transcending Natural Limitations: The Military–Industrial Complex and the Transhumanist Temptation [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
For the military–industrial complex (MIC), transhumanism represents a temptation in various ways: its expectations for the future of technology imply there is a prospect of overcoming hitherto given barriers to the expansion of military power, particularly in terms of the linkage of humans and machines (and above all computers), while its characteristic concept of liberation, the aim of which is to transcend natural limitations, offers the possibility of weaving hopes for progress in the field of military research into an (at least superficially) emancipatory future narrative. In return, the MIC represents a temptation for transhumanism (as a societal movement) insofar as research and technology development projects that are (still) of little interest for civilian purposes can be driven ahead in a military setting. Ethical and political analyses of the relationships between military research and transhumanism may be enriched by historical and cultural perspectives. This is true for both, the fascinating pre- and early history of transhumanism before 1945 and the post-war history of this techno-visionary worldview. The transhumanism of our current times appears to have emerged from the intersections of military research, the new IT industry (for parts of which it has become an ersatz religion) and the counterculture of the 1970s.
@incollection{Coenen2021,
abstract = {For the military–industrial complex (MIC), transhumanism represents a temptation in various ways: its expectations for the future of technology imply there is a prospect of overcoming hitherto given barriers to the expansion of military power, particularly in terms of the linkage of humans and machines (and above all computers), while its characteristic concept of liberation, the aim of which is to transcend natural limitations, offers the possibility of weaving hopes for progress in the field of military research into an (at least superficially) emancipatory future narrative. In return, the MIC represents a temptation for transhumanism (as a societal movement) insofar as research and technology development projects that are (still) of little interest for civilian purposes can be driven ahead in a military setting. Ethical and political analyses of the relationships between military research and transhumanism may be enriched by historical and cultural perspectives. This is true for both, the fascinating pre- and early history of transhumanism before 1945 and the post-war history of this techno-visionary worldview. The transhumanism of our current times appears to have emerged from the intersections of military research, the new IT industry (for parts of which it has become an ersatz religion) and the counterculture of the 1970s.},
author = {Coenen, Christopher},
booktitle = {Cognitive Technologies},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-56546-6_6},
issn = {21976635},
pages = {97--110},
title = {{Transcending Natural Limitations: The Military–Industrial Complex and the Transhumanist Temptation}},
url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-56546-6_6},
year = {2021}
}

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