Beyond our 'ape-brained meat sacks': can transhumanism save our species?

Babies born outside of the womb. The future of humanity could be virtually unrecognisable by the end of the 21st century, according to Elise Bohan – and that's if we get the transition right. If we get it wrong, well. In ten years time it's all going to look pretty different, and in another ten years that's a total event horizon for me … I think it's eminently plausible at that point that the game has changed in some very fundamental way, whether for good or bad." Bohan, 31, is speaking from a sunny Mosman apartment, where she is house-sitting and looking after the plants. It's a distance away from the Hawkesbury river on the outskirts of Sydney where she grew up; a place with pretty spots but where it was tough to be a smart kid. And it is a half world away from Oxford University where she forms part of the Future of Humanity Institute. "I believe that," she says. "We are in the century that defines the future of humanity like no other." Transhumanism is a movement that aims to address – or end – what Bohan calls the "tragedies of reality": ageing, sickness and involuntary death. It is, she writes, "a philosophy and a project that aims to make us more than human". Whether we recognise or understand it, that project has already begun, she says, and it will transform our world – and minds and bodies – within our lifetimes. Not only is it happening, she says, but this transition is necessary if humanity is to survive in perpetuity. For Bohan, it is no great to leap to imagine that a baby born in 2030 may have its entire genome mapped at birth, that data uploaded to a central health record and cross-referenced at any medical appointment throughout its life. It is no great stretch to think that AI will become the most powerful intellectual force of the century. That human consciousness might be transferred from our "meat sacks" (bodies) into a technological sphere. That the rise of AI and automation might render great swathes of human labour redundant, and that maybe – if we get it right – that could leave more time for leisure, big thinking, meditation, connection. Experiments are already underway in the realm of artificial wombs, and Bohan is sure – when viable – women will be "clamouring" to be freed from the shackles of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. The book, she writes, is a "love letter to humanity", but hers is a "tough love". A love which sees a future for humanity, but not necessarily for human beings as we know it. When Bohan first encountered transhumanism, at around the age of 21, her first reaction was, "It's crazy.