CNA explains: What is transhumanism?

 

Rome, Italy, Sep 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Many influential figures hope that developments in brain-computer interfaces, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and genetic engineering will usher in a new transhumanist era. But what exactly is transhumanism and how does the Church approach it?

The Transhumanist FAQ 3.0 describes transhumanism as “the intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.”

Although the number of members in official transhumanist organizations remains small, the movement’s mindset is widespread among prominent tech developers and influences key decisions about beginning-of-life and end-of-life decisions made daily.

Media sensation and technology investor Bryan Johnson embodies transhumanist ideals through his strict lifestyle regimen aimed at reversing his aging and buying him and his followers more time to avoid death through eventual scientific breakthroughs.

After optimizing his sleep, diet, and exercise routines, Johnson has turned to over 100 health supplement pills, light exposure therapies, and other experimental enhancements. For example, he uses rapamycin (an immunosuppressant drug given to organ transplant patients), receives blood transfusions from his fit college-aged son, and has traveled to the Caribbean island Roatán for follistatin (a muscle-building protein used to treat degenerative conditions like muscle dystrophy) gene therapy injections not approved by the FDA.

The fallen-away Mormon has started his “Don’t Die” movement, which he is not afraid to call a new religion.

Without claiming to start a new religion, other major tech figures are committed to technological solutions to aging and death. For instance, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has invested billions in Altos Labs to investigate slowing and reversing aging, and Google co-founder Larry Page started the radical life extension project Calico Labs.

Supporting human dignity

While it does not promote a biological solution to death, the Church is dedicated to using technological innovations to help patients live healthier and longer lives through its extensive health care system. The Church supports the adoption of promising CRISPR gene therapies for beta-thalassemia, sickle cell anemia, and personalized treatments for rare metabolic conditions.

However, in her commitment to intrinsic human dignity, the Church refuses to support techno-pronatalist projects that use IVF to create embryos and then screen them for desirable traits. Many in the transhumanism movement are especially eager to select for intelligence so that children will be equipped to innovate and correctly guide AI developments to avoid existential risks and foster a more prosperous society.

These projects are presented as “responsible parenthood,” giving children genetic advantages for their future pursuits. However, behind this benign rhetoric, dark shadows of neo-eugenics lurk.

Numerous embryos created through IVF are deemed unworthy of life due to their genetic profile and are discarded or kept in perpetual suspension. These transhumanist projects tragically aim to create a superior future humanity at the expense of present humans.

Moreover, while planning for future generations is a moral responsibility, focusing too much on long-term projects like space colonization can distract from urgent short-term efforts to address present societal injustices, such as poor access to basic health care and unchecked environmental damage.

Along with genetically engineering the next generation, many transhumanist thinkers are interested in bodily modifications that enhance capabilities through brain-computer interfaces. Elon Musk’s Neuralink company’s mission of restoring autonomy in patients who have suffered spinal cord injury or ALS is admirable. Hearing Noland Arbaugh talk about how easily he can connect with loved ones and study neuroscience using a thought-controlled computer is heartening.

Yet the effort to boost mental capacity with millions of healthy implant users raises serious concerns about mental privacy, manipulating thoughts, and the mental health impacts of such rapid connectivity.

The boldest transhumanist projects aim for a posthuman, post-biological existence maintained through digital immortality.

Ray Kurzweil, a longtime director of engineering at Google, predicts a singularity event marked by rapid technological growth, self-improving AI systems, and a merging of humans and machines that will bring unimaginable enhancements to human existence. Some hope that advances in AI will enable the preservation and transfer of human consciousness.

However, these efforts can, at best, provide a copy of data about the deceased. They fail to preserve the embodied human person. Moreover, the misguided hope for digital immortality can discourage individuals from gracefully embracing their earthly finitude while setting their ultimate hope in the resurrection of the body.

Efforts to abandon the fragile, vulnerable body can also negatively affect how people facing illness or disability are treated. Furthermore, if one becomes convinced that the value of life mainly depends on physical and psychological fitness, the temptation to end life through assisted suicide and euthanasia during times of decline and distress becomes more tempting.

Caring for bodily well-being is a Christian duty, but true dignity is not based on physical strength or mental sharpness. The vulnerable body is not just a problem to tolerate but is the reality through which virtues like care, patience, service, empathy, and courage are exercised. Safe and effective improvements in cognition, physical health, and emotional well-being through pharmaceuticals, genetics, or other biotechnologies can contribute to a good life if used wisely, but they cannot ensure moral or spiritual growth.

‘Catholic transhumanism’

Catholics should dialogue with transhumanists who genuinely seek to improve the human condition via technological tools. Non-Christian authors recognize that the Catholic Church was once the Silicon Valley of its day. It was a well-networked, well-funded hub of innovation in astronomy, architecture, agriculture, engineering, health care, social welfare, and many other fields. Catholic clergy spearheaded Big Bang cosmology, genetics, geology, and internet hyperlinks. Together, they can work to improve health care while guiding biotechnological interventions in ways that uphold the fundamental human dignity of vulnerable patients.

Religious expressions of transhumanism include the Mormon Transhumanist Association and the Christian Transhumanist Association. These groups see emerging technologies as crucial tools for achieving traditional Christian goals of spiritual transformation. Nonetheless, many leading transhumanists consider their movement as a rational and scientific alternative to, and an improvement on, traditional religions.

For instance, Extropy Institute (a forerunner of the World Transhumanist Association) co-founder Max More claims that “apart from the sheer falsity and irrationality of religion it has had the unfortunate consequence (identified by Ludwig Feuerbach) of debasing humanity.” He proposes transhumanism as a liberating force for human ingenuity and ongoing progress. Yet the largely secular contemporary transhumanist movement has surprising Catholic roots.

Centuries before secular authors like Julian Huxley wrote about transhumanism as the human-driven technological evolution of the human species, Dante insisted that the transhumanizing experience of heavenly transfiguration is so sublime that even his poetic genius cannot capture it fully in words. In “Paradiso” Canto I, 70-71, he writes: “Trasumanar significar per verba, non si poria” (“Passing beyond the human cannot be expressed in words”).

Catholic transhumanism is rooted in the gift of grace and free collaboration with God. Transhumanizing theosis is concerned chiefly with growth in virtue and docility to the Holy Spirit. Catholic divinization is an elevation open to all people of all conditions and circumstances, not only the most physically fit and cognitively acute.