Tricycle | Awake in the World

In our Summer 2010 issue, there is an interview with transhumanist, bioethicist, and former Buddhist monk James Hughes. In Cyborg Buddha, Hughes takes on the relationship between Buddhism and transhumanism.  Like other transhumanists, he makes the claim that science and technology may eventually enhance the human mind and body so that existential inevitabilities such as suffering, sickness, and death may become a thing of the past, whether through cybernetic implants, physical alterations, genetic manipulation, or advanced pharmacology.  Because Buddhism is rooted in core teachings about the inherent nature of suffering and the inevitability of sickness and death, the assertions of the transhumanist movement present an interesting question: could transhumanism make Buddhism obsolete? More »