Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, Big Alien Theory,

we're asked at the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and add free, plus hours of bonus content,

check out go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

In the future, humanity might settle and create countless new worlds, but will we also create new

types of humans?

Today we are going to be discussing transhumanism and post-humans, and whether this is an inevitable

path for humanity, or something we should actively avoid,

or willingly embrace.

The first point to acknowledge, though, is that transhumanism is not a specific single-agreed-on

path, and indeed is not even agreed on definition.

It tends to be rather big tent, and so can only be loosely defined.

Generally, transhumanism is the notion that the

use of technology to extend human lifespan, intelligence, and physical ability would enhance the

quality of human life and should be actively pursued. In this context, a transhuman would be

someone who has had some of those changes, what we will call augmentations for today's purposes. There's a lot of great thinkers and arguments on the topic

for and against and in-between, from philosopher Nick Bostrom, who is probably one of the most

well-known advocates of transhumanism, to Leon Kass, who believes these technologies will

dehumanize us in a negative way.

We will try to give a balanced view, but I should say from the outset that I tend to

feel cautious usage of augmentation can be a good thing, and strongly favor usage to help

those who are disabled in some fashion, but not limited to that.

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