Transhumanism – Old Challenges in a New Garb?

Transhumanism, a philosophical, cultural and political movement, holds that human development is still in an early phase to be radically changed by technology. Singularity describes the point in time where man and machine (or artificial intelligence, AI) will merge, giving way to unforeseen possibilities. Transhumanist visions entail the annihilation of any distinction between the biological and the mechanical or between the physical and virtual reality. This paper critically analyses transhumanism and identifies it as a conglomerate of old ideas in technologically-backed dystopian garb, a substitute religion (Ersatzreligion) without the Creator. It discusses the intellectual fallacies of the underlying ideas of this concept, while pinpointing possible repercussions on contemporary society. The discussion will focus on the ideas of enhancement, AI and the body-mind-soul complex from an Islamic perspective, giving relevant answers to the main tenets of transhumanism and the challenges it may pose.