L’immortalité et ses impatients

Abstract

The end of mortality due to biological aging is announced, and with it, great upheavals of the human condition, traditionally characterized by its finitude. Transhumanism, either as a futuristic fantasy or a concrete endeavor, is identified as the banner under which biologists, philosophers, gerontologists or entrepreneurs forge this revolution. This article considers transhumanism primarily as a movement of ideas, in which its activists promote the future of humanity, transformed by technology. Then it shows that the epistemology thus mobilized by transhumanists in their promotion of immortality is guided by an avid curiosity. It is also founded on a cumulative knowledge, which remains inherently patchy. Finally, it proposes to consider transhumanism, not as a fantasy of human omnipotence, but as a fragile trust in latecomers technical objects, traces of a recalcitrant future.

Keywords

• Transhumanism
• Immortality
• Emerging Technologies
• NBIC
• Public Sciences
• Confidence