De barmhartige cyborg. Meervoudig humanisme

Abstract

The merciful Cyborg. The trans-humanist acclaim of the technological realisation of a successor of the human being mixes two vocabularies: one scientific, presenting the trans-human as the inevitable outcome of technological and evolutionary developments, the other moral, glorifying the superiority of post-human forms of life. In this way, two very different anthropologies are used at the same time. One under the sign of a Darwinian struggle for survival in which technological innovations provide the basis for superior life forms, the other under the sign of ethical and moral considerations concerning the content of a good life and questions of justice connected with the unequal distribution of chances to lead a good life. Within the discourse of trans-humanism, the connection between these two vocabularies remains a mystery. The paper argues that this is not accidental: the merciful cyborg does not figure within the discourse of trans-humanism, because mercy (and all related moral qualities) transcends the domain of technological control, bound as it is to fragile and perishable human bodies.