Editing Transhumanism (section)

===Early transhumanist thinking===
[[File:Hux-Oxon-72.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Julian Huxley]], the biologist who popularised the term ''transhumanism'' in an influential 1957 essay<ref name="Huxley 1957"/>|left]]

Fundamental ideas of transhumanism were first advanced in 1923 by the British geneticist [[J. B. S. Haldane]] in his essay ''[[Daedalus; or, Science and the Future|Daedalus: Science and the Future]]'', which predicted that great benefits would come from the application of advanced sciences to human biology—and that every such advance would first appear to someone as blasphemy or perversion, "indecent and unnatural".<ref name="Haldane 1923" /> In particular, he was interested in the development of the science of [[eugenics]], [[ectogenesis]] (creating and sustaining life in an artificial environment), and the application of genetics to improve human characteristics such as health and intelligence.

His article inspired academic and popular interest. [[John Desmond Bernal|J. D. Bernal]], a crystallographer at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], wrote ''The World, the Flesh and the Devil'' in 1929, in which he speculated on the prospects of [[space colonization]] and radical changes to human bodies and intelligence through [[bionics|bionic implants]] and [[cognitive enhancement]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=Arthur C.|title=Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds|publisher=St Martin's Griffin, New York|year=2000}}</ref> These ideas have been common transhumanist themes ever since.<ref name="Bostrom 2005" />

The biologist Julian Huxley is generally regarded as the founder of transhumanism after using the term for the title of an influential 1957 article.<ref name="Huxley 1957"/> But the term derives from a 1940 paper by the Canadian philosopher [[William Douw Lighthall|W. D. Lighthall]].<ref name="Harrison and Wolyniak 2015"/> Huxley describes transhumanism in these terms:

{{Blockquote|Up till now human life has generally been, as [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]] described it, "nasty, brutish and short"; the great majority of human beings (if they have not already died young) have been afflicted with misery… we can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted… The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself—not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity.<ref name="Huxley 1957"/>}}

<!-- [[File:2001 NAL.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Cover of [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', published in 1968, which deals with the transhumanist agenda.]]
 -->Huxley's definition differs, albeit not substantially, from the one commonly in use since the 1980s. The ideas raised by these thinkers were explored in the [[science fiction]] of the 1960s, notably in [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', in which an alien artifact grants transcendent power to its wielder.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/163072-googles-glass-castle-the-rise-and-fear-of-a-transhuman-future/|title=Google's Glass Castle: The Rise and Fear of a Transhuman Future|first=Christopher|last=Hutton|magazine=PopMatters}}</ref>

Japanese [[Metabolist]] architects produced a manifesto in 1960 which outlined goals to "encourage active metabolic development of our society"<ref>Lin (2010), p. 24</ref> through design and technology. In the [[Metabolism (architecture)#Material and Man|Material and Man]] section of the manifesto, Noboru Kawazoe suggests that:<blockquote>After several decades, with the rapid progress of communication technology, every one will have a "brain wave receiver" in his ear, which conveys directly and exactly what other people think about him and vice versa. What I think will be known by all the people. There is no more individual consciousness, only the will of mankind as a whole.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan|last = Lin|first = Zhongjie|publisher = Routledge|year = 2010|isbn = 978-1-135-28198-4|pages = 35–36}}</ref></blockquote>