Contribution to the critique of transhumanist practices from a materialist socio-anthropological perspective

Abstract

This article reflects on the possible corollaries of transhumanist interventions from a socio-anthropological approach with a materialist imprint. This is an initial analysis that seeks the objective of speculating about a possible scenario of transhumanist practices taking into account, on the one hand, the particular social alterity that it would generate, and, on the other, the general context: what involves the current and hegemonic socio-productive organization, specifically around social classes and their abysmal material differences, as the specific context: the area in which inventions are carried out, the private companies. In this direction, the question to answer is: What effects would transhumanist applications have under the aforementioned contexts? In response, the following working hypothesis is formulated: transhumanist practices would produce a symbiosis between the elements of social class and species. Broadly speaking, the hegemonic classes and their adjacent layers would provide the individuals who would “jump” to the transhuman condition. While the members of the subaltern classes would continue in the current circumstances, choosing between the human condition and subhumanization. The text is structured around four sections: a) Brief characterization of transhumanism; b) Socio-anthropological question. The human as qualitative otherness; c) Capitalism, social classes and species; and d) Elysium as prognosis. The originality and contribution of this work lies in three issues/dimensions: the areas of social knowledge from which the inquiry is carried out and the theoretical guidelines that guide it; the relationship established between transhumanism and capitalism -particularly between species and social class-; and the addition of the narrative of a film.