Transhumanist synonyms and closely related terms

What term do you prefer?

The term transhumanist and transhumanism are frequently disparaged for a number of reasons, often discouraging people from wanting to associate with the movement as a whole as a consequence. It is however defended by many including Zoltan Istvan.

Within a futurist context there are a number of closely related terms that can be used either in conjunction with, or as an alternative to transhumanism:

Favoured terms

• Posthumanist - Often having a focus on far future events, it can be simply a synonym for transhumanism. Additionally, philosophical posthumanism can be considered a successor to mainstream Humanism. As similar such term is Humanism 2.0.
• Humanity+ - The name of the international organisation itself is considered a synonym for transhumanism
• H+ (and variants) - The abbreviation and symbol of Humanity+ has spawned a number of semi-synonymous symbols to allow different streams of transhumanist thought to more distinctly identify themselves
• Life extensionist or Longevist - A more mid-future focused term for someone who's focus is primarily traditional life extension
• Techno... - Many positive terms with the prefix 'techno' exist, including technolibertarian, technoprogressive and techno-optimist
• Biohacker - to strengthen connections with the hacker subcuture of creativity around biotechnology
• Radical futurist - the term may be preferred to express interested in transhumanism as a subset of futurism

Contextual terms

• Futurist - A futurist is someone who studies or otherwise has an interest in futurism.
• Cyborgist - A more specific term with the focus on cybernetic human augmentation, but can also describe the technologically interconnected world we live in as described in Cyborg Anthropology
• Singularitarian - A less popular term, more often adopted by those with the focus on the technological singularity and the radical impact on technology on society as a whole rather than the individual
• Immortalist - A further future focused life extensionist, with more techno-utopian overtones
• Techno-utopian - utopian can be used in both a supportive and disparaging context
• Technophile - sometimes implies an uncritical appreciation of technology developments

Disfavoured terms

• Rapture of the Nerds - we prefer geeks
• Robot Cult
• Borganist - a term coined by libertarian Mike Lorrey to criticise collectivist inevitablism

See also

• Criticism of transhumanism
• Comparison of futurist related ideas and positions
• Transhumanism definitions

External links

• "Is the Transhumanist-Technoprogressive Distinction Meaningful in Political Debate?"