# Call for papers - Transhumanism?

Online journal Re-public invites contributions for its upcoming special issue entitled "Transhumanism?". Is there a new challenge about to dominate our world? A challenge that appears more pressing than the fight against climate change, as demanding as the one against "terrorism" or poverty, more complex than our current questions around bioethics. Are we in a position to redefine, to drastically transform our very human nature? This is a question formed in the last 20 years by an international movement, deriving from a scientific current, advocating that if the human is a result of an evolution process of millions of years time, nothing rationally preempts its conclusion. On the contrary, transhumanism proposes that the convergence of nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, information and cognitive sciences provide us with a new opportunity, as well as, the responsibility to collectively participate and assume this evolution: it is, more than ever, possible to "form a better humanity" meaning better health for individuals, longer life expectancy, a more effective control of themselves, through enhanced skills, capacities and capabilities. The special issue will attempt to investigate the influence of transhumanism and the new questions that its poses. Possible essay themes include: Where does H+ stand today in theoretical and political terms? What kind of humanity do we wish for? Can we move beyond the dillema between a uniformed or a diverse humanity? Where are the new limits between prevention and personal freedom (eg. to own or dispose our body)? Which are the formal or informal political practices that can guide the enhancement of human capacities? What is the relationship between H+ et bio-politics? Where do we meet these practices, today, how are they being formed? What can we learn from them? These are some of the questions that touch upon the most sensible aspects of our identity, values, beliefs, questions that can not be abandoned to the decisions of the scientific community, but that they should form the terrain for a public debate on a global scale. Essays should be approximately 1,500 words long. Please submit contributions in any electronic format to: marcroux AT yahoo.com Guest editor: Marc Roux Deadline for submission: 15 February 2008