The Transhumanist “Death” of Marxism?

Abstract

In this article a number of concepts according to which the progress of science and technology (as the development of productive forces) makes communist society desirable and achievable are criticized. It is shown that the idea of communism badly correlates with realities of modern society moving in its development towards posthumanity. This justifies the impossibility of synthesizing Marxism and the philosophy of transhumanism. The contradictory nature of the attempts at such synthesis is revealed. Despite the fact that Marxism and transhumanism have much in common, it is revealed that transhumanism comes to a conclusion from similar theoretical positions that “man is obsolete” and his “death” (“devaluation”) is inevitable. The article proves that transhumanism leads humanity to a state in which, for various reasons, creative self-realization is extremely difficult, and labor, basically, does not make a sense for people (and therefore the alleged communism turns out to be a society of “surplus humans”). It is suggested
that the future society will put before each person the intractable problem of determining the meaning of life. At the same time, it is not clear yet, whether superproductive posthumans (cyborgs, genetically modified people etc.) will succeed in solving this problem. This inspires hope that the imperfection of man
will prove to be a weighty advantage.