What Does the Politics of the Transhuman Do to Increase/Decrease Western Anxieties About Machines/Artificial Intelligence (AI) and What Does It Do to Further Trouble the Stable Liberal Subject of Western Political Theory?

The reasoning behind tackling the politics of the Transhuman in relation to the liberal self in this piece is quite simple; there is a significant gap in the literature when it comes to analyzing transhumanism in relation to canonical western ideas. The Transhuman today is an image gaining some traction within western society; academic or otherwise. It has inspired lengthy philosophical works such has Ben Goertzel’s (2010) A Cosmists Manifesto as well as the springing up of official political parties across Europe and The USA (Transhumanist UK Party n.d.; Transhumanist Party n.d.). Transhumanism has been/can be situated within several interconnected histories such as the history of Western Political Philosophy, the history of western scientific development and the history of machines in western popular culture. As we will see the politics of the Transhuman creates sites of both continuity and change within these histories. The core argument that this piece will draw out of its analysis is that the politics of the Transhuman has a Janus-like relationship with the liberal subject. Works of conscious transhumanist philosophy tend (with the occasional exception of Goertzel (2010: 49-52, 59-68, 257-259)) to reinforce liberal ideas about the self-whereas, through the creation of anxiety, the contact between transhumanist imagery and western pop-culture presents a strong challenge to liberal assumptions about the self. This juxtaposition, it will be suggested, stems from the simple fact that the politics of the Transhuman is definitionally trying to transform the self through the use of technology but has been born from conditions of western liberal capitalism which traps it to a certain degree within the norms of the liberal self.