The Emergence of Posthumanism

Posthumanism, by contrast, questions the centrality and supremacy of the human. It critiques the anthropocentric view of the world, arguing that humans are not the apex of evolution but one node in a larger, interdependent web that includes animals, machines, and ecosystems. Where transhumanism extends the human project, posthumanism kind of dissolves it. Thinkers like Ray Kurzweil have popularized such ideas through the concept of Singularity which is a hypothetical moment when human and machine intelligence merge irreversibly.

Philosophers such as Donna Haraway have been at the forefront of posthuman thought. Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto (1985) argued that humans are already hybrid entities—part biology and part machine. Authors speaks of the “posthuman convergence,” in which the human subject is decentered in favor of a more networked, ecological and technologically integrated understanding of agency and being. In the age of AI, posthumanism finds new urgency. Language models that mimic creativity; robots with simulated empathy and autonomous systems that outperform humans in narrow domains challenge the uniqueness of human traits.

What is intelligence if not merely human?

What is agency if not merely biological?

The Collapse of Human Exceptionalism

AI systems illustrate a trend. Machines are rapidly learning to perform tasks once thought uniquely human like writing, diagnosing, translating, composing music and playing complex board games like Go. These capabilities chip away at the notion of human exceptionalism and the belief that humans alone possess intelligence, morality and creativity. AI raises profound ontological questions.

 If a machine can write a sonnet indistinguishable from Shakespeare or produce scientific insights faster than any human researcher, what then remains uniquely human? The boundaries that once separated us from “mere machines” are no longer clear. Some argue we are building mirrors in machines that reflect an image of our capabilities. Others believe we are building rivals or entities that may one day exceed our cognitive capacities altogether. 

Promise and Peril

Transhumanism embraces AI not just as a partner but as an extension of the self. The future envisioned by transhumanists is one in which AI and neurotechnology converge: mind-uploading, synthetic consciousness and perhaps even digital immortality. This is both exhilarating and deeply problematic. 

Who will have access to these technologies?

Will enhancement become the new inequality? 

Will the human body become obsolete? 

Philosopher Nick Bostrom warns of a “posthuman dignity gap” where an unenhanced humans will be seen as inferior or subhuman. Moreover, the dream of perfect rationality or superintelligence ignores the messy, emotional, social and irrational parts of human life. Intelligence without consciousness is power without empathy. A posthuman society shaped by algorithmic goals rather than human values could veer into dystopia.

Posthumanism does not merely ask what we can do with technology. It asks who “we” are. In the posthuman framework, identity is no longer centered on the autonomous, rational individual but on entangled systems: ecosystems, social networks, AI agents, and cybernetic loops.

Consider how AI reshapes agency. Recommender systems influence our choices. Surveillance AI predicts our actions. Generative models craft our stories. The notion of free will becomes entangled with code. The human subject is no longer sovereign—it is shaped, nudged, optimized.

Ethically, posthumanism calls for interspecies solidarity, ecological awareness, and a de-anthropocentrized AI ethics. Rather than asking how to align AI with human values, posthumanism urges us to consider planetary values like long-term sustainability, collective intelligence, and distributed agency.

What role does AI play in this evolution from human to posthuman? It can be seen in three ways:

• Mirror: AI reflects our biases, aspirations, and contradictions. Trained on human data, it mimics human thought but also exposes our prejudices and blind spots.
• Midwife: AI assists in the birth of the posthuman. It enables new forms of thought, embodiment, and society. Through co-evolution, we may develop novel forms of hybrid intelligence.
• Monster: AI, untethered from human control, may become an existential threat. From autonomous weapons to misaligned superintelligence, many warn that posthuman futures may not include humans at all.

The monster metaphor, drawn from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, reminds us that creating intelligence without responsibility is a form of hubris. The danger is not that machines become too intelligent, but that we remain too careless.

Cultural and Global Dimensions

Transhuman and posthuman futures are often envisioned from a Western and technooptimistic lens. But AI’s impacts are global and uneven. In the Global South, debates around posthumanism may seem detached from immediate concerns of access, infrastructure, labor displacement.

Moreover, indigenous philosophies from Ubuntu in Africa to Advaita in India offer alternative views of the self that align surprisingly well with posthumanism’s de-centered subject. These traditions emphasize relationality, interdependence and the illusion of separateness—values that could guide an ethical AI future.

Thus, a meaningful posthuman vision must be plural, not universal. It must listen to diverse voices and respect different ways of being.

Toward a New Social Contract

In light of AI’s rapid evolution, what kind of society do we wish to build?

Do we enhance ourselves to keep pace, or do we redefine value in non-cognitive terms like compassion, creativity and coexistence?

A posthuman future may require a new social contract:

• One that redefines rights not by species or intelligence but by sentience and interdependence.
• One that redistributes power not only between classes but between biological and synthetic agents.
• One that cultivates humility and by knowing that to “play god” is not to dominate, but to nurture responsibly.

The ultimate question is not whether we can become posthuman or transhuman, but whether we should and on what terms.