Dystopia Now5 Jun 2025

Transhumanism and Capitalism with Dr. Alexander Thomas

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This week we chatted with Dr. Alexander Thomas, author of The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism: Techno-Human Evolution and Advanced Capitalism. Dr Alexander Thomas is a multi-award-winning film director and screenwriter. His academic research questions what it means to be human when cultural, cybernetic and biotechnological developments undermine the notion of the human as a cogent and eternal category.

This episode is a great pairing to last week's episode with Quinn Slobodian.

We mentioned a lot of texts and authors in this episode that we've included below. Inclusion does not mean agreement in all instances.

Critical Analyses of Transhumanism & Longtermism
University of East London: A Critical Look at the Rise and Risks of Transhumanism
Emile Torres in The Guardian: Pro-Extinctionists and the Longtermist Threat
Torres in Aeon: Why Longtermism Is the World's Most Dangerous Secular Credo
Boston Review: The New Moral Mathematics
New Statesman: The Longtermist Threat to Humanity
Slate: Existential Risk vs Human Apathy
Economics Papers: Is Longtermism Dangerous?
Tyler Austin Harper thread on X: Post

Books & Research on Transhumanism
Posthuman Bliss? by Susan B. Levin: Oxford University Press
The Proactionary Imperative by Steve Fuller: Palgrave Macmillan
Citizen Cyborg by James Hughes: Westview Press
James Hughes lecture: What Is Transhumanism? (PDF)
Nietzschean Meditations by Stefan Lorenz Sorgner: Amazon
Future Superhuman by Elise Bohan: Amazon
Mind Children by Hans Moravec: CUNY Commentary
Research paper: Transhumanism: A Progressive Vision or Capitalism's Last Ideological Resort?
Transhumanism: The Future of Humanity (book): Hudson Booksellers
IAI Essay: The Irrationality of Transhumanists
Literal Magazine: Transhumanism: Bostrom and Pearce Interview

Futurism, Accelerationism & Up-Wingers
Wired (1994): The Extropians
The Breakthrough Institute: Rise of the Up-Wingers
AEI: Up-Wing America
Slate: Reframing Environmental Policy
Aeon: Up vs Down Politics
F. M. Esfandiary's Manifesto: Up-Wingers (Book)
The Guardian: Accelerationism Explained

Philosophy, Politics & Theory
Achille Mbembe: Necropolitics (PDF)
MIT Press: Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener
Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism: Book
New Statesman: On K-Punk and Fisher
Dan Paul Zimmer website: Main | Research

Billionaires
NYT: Elon Musk, Trump, Drugs, and Children
Sam Altman: Moore's Law for Everything

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