Witherspoon Forum: Transhumanism and Death (Session 3)

TRANSHUMANISM AND DEATH

Led by Dr. Charles Rubin

This event is a part of the Witherspoon Forum, a program which provides a space for high school students who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders. To attend, students should apply here.

A longing for immortality is a widespread human trait, but today’s transhumanists have transformed it into what they claim is a practical program for (at least) radical extension of the human lifespan. How would putting off death into an indefinite future reshape how we live and understand our lives? Would freedom from death be the greatest of liberations, or would it compromise the possibility of human happiness?