Human Desire and Transhumanism

Human desire is for a fullness. Confronted with any earthly good, it can always be indifferent, it can always want more, and will never be satisfied. Hence, the plausibility of transhumanism, which moves along with our desire for the infinite, seeking, however, not an eschatological but an earthly fulfillment. Transhumanism seeks to alter the very conditions under which life is given to us, possibly turning ourselves into a new species: more intelligent, stronger, longer-lived, perhaps even morally superior through the use of technology. But it is important to perform a hermeneutic of our desire, to interpret our desire well. This is what the present article proposes to set out to do in three particular fields: the desire for better children, the desire for higher performance, and the desire for an extended life-span. It will be argued that our desires need direction, criteria, and limits in order to be legitimate and so to lead us to the true infinite good that is ultimately what we desire in every finite good. As a condition to reach that which we truly want, it is indispensable for us to embrace our finitude. Here our desire receives a measure, direction, criteria, quite beyond the rather fallacious principle according to which more is always better.