Nick Bostrom's Ethics of Human Improvement

Abstract

The research aims to study Bostrom's views in the field of applied ethics and his fundamental themes on human enhancement by applying technical and technological means to humans. The goal is to create or engineer a post-human being, one that possesses at least one of the capabilities that transhumanism seeks to distribute fairly among all members of society. Bostrom believes that humanity’s pursuit of enhancements in health, longevity, intelligence, and resistance to aging is as old as human civilization itself, tracing it back to the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia. However, he sets a condition for achieving this goal: the existence of an open society that accepts the application of such enhancements, whether on embryos or adult humans. These endeavors have not been free from criticism, as there has been opposition to some of Bostrom’s ideas as a transhumanist philosopher, arguing that such views would turn human nature into a commercial commodity subject to market supply and demand.