Introduction to the Transhumanity Debate

Abstract

In 2006 the Edge Foundation invited over one hundred distinguished scholars to respond to this prompt suggested by Steven Pinker: “The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea?” (Edge 2006) The responses at www.edge.org are fascinating but let us consider for the moment that there are dangerous ideas and expand the set to include any ideas, not just from science, that break out and threaten established ways of thought and social norms.