This book on ‘We Have Always Been Cyborgs’ is structured as follows. Chapter 1 will be a general introduction to transhumanism. I will critically analyse the wide range of digital developments relevant for transhumanism in Chapter 2, ‘Silicon-based Transhumanism’; for example, mind uploading and cyborgization. In Chapter 3, ‘On a Carbon-based Transhumanism’, my focus will be on the wide range of gene technologies which are central for transhumanism, that is, (1) Nietzsche and recent debates on transhumanism and eugenics; (2) critical reflections on moral bioenhancement; (3) gene modification; (4) gene selection after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). In Chapter 4 the main ethical discussions concerning transhumanism will be summarized and I will present my own fictive ethical stance, that is, (1) virtue ethics; (2) the question of the good life; (3) personhood and what is morally right; (4) transhumanism and utopia; (5) transhumanism, immortality and the meaning of life. By this means my key thought that we have always been cyborgs in the continual process of self-overcoming, will unfold itself in various dimensions. To begin with, however, an informed understanding of transhumanism needs to be presented.

Transhumanism is the ‘world's most dangerous idea’. This is at least Francis Fukuyama's judgement concerning this cultural and philosophical movement, which he stated in the magazine Foreign Policy (Fukuyama 2004, 42– 43). Transhumanism is a cultural movement which affirms the use of techniques to increase the likelihood that human beings manage to transcend the boundaries of their current existence. It is in our interest to take evolution into our own hands. Thereby, we will increase the likelihood of our living a good life as well as that of not becoming extinct.

Transhumanism has slowly increased in significance since 1951, when the term was first coined by Julian Huxley in his article ‘Knowledge, Morality, and Destiny’. Then, he described transhumanism as follows: ‘Such a broad philosophy might perhaps best be called, not Humanism, because that has certain unsatisfactory connotations, but Transhumanism. It is the idea of humanity attempting to overcome its limitations and to arrive at fuller fruition; it is the realization that both individual and social developments are processes of self-transformation’ (Huxley 1951, 139). I regard this formulation still as the best possible definition of transhumanism.