{"id":4050,"date":"2025-01-21T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T09:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=4050"},"modified":"2024-12-06T11:07:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T10:07:54","slug":"disability-digital-technologies-and-the-ambivalent-allure-of-posthumanist-transhumanist-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2025\/01\/21\/disability-digital-technologies-and-the-ambivalent-allure-of-posthumanist-transhumanist-futures\/","title":{"rendered":"Disability, Digital Technologies and the Ambivalent Allure of Posthumanist \/ Transhumanist Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Article Summary by Margrit Shildrick<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Technologies have always played a major role in the lives of people with a range of disabilities that are assumed to impede personal autonomy. Whether mechanical aides, organic \u2013 and often internal \u2013 supplements, or digital enhancements, the widely accepted claim is that such technologies have a clear therapeutic value. It conjures the illusion of a sequence of ever more complex technologies leading to increased function and a more secure sense of self. By offsetting their physical and cognitive differences, disabled people are assured that they will no longer be devalued.<\/p>\n<p>My less conventional perspective leaves behind the desire for individual autonomy and explores the question of the transhuman and the posthuman. I ask: what happens when human embodiment becomes intricately entangled with digital coding? Functional usage is likely to dominate in the short term, but further on we might wonder about the extent to which the category of the <em>human <\/em>can remain as the anchor of continuing life. In exploring the practical, philosophical and bioethical implications of emerging digital technologies, I distinguish between transhumanism, which focuses on self-perfectibility, and a posthumanism that in radically decentring the very notion of human privilege and hierarchical distinctions offers an optimistic view of disability futures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Read the full article on <a href=\"https:\/\/mh.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2024\/11\/13\/medhum-2024-013020\"><strong>the <em>Medical Humanities <\/em>journal website<\/strong><\/a>.<\/h3>\n<p><!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article Summary by Margrit Shildrick Technologies have always played a major role in the lives of people with a range of disabilities that are assumed to impede personal autonomy. Whether mechanical aides, organic \u2013 and often internal \u2013 supplements, or digital enhancements, the widely accepted claim is that such technologies have a clear therapeutic value. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2025\/01\/21\/disability-digital-technologies-and-the-ambivalent-allure-of-posthumanist-transhumanist-futures\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15028,15047],"tags":[15044],"class_list":["post-4050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal-announcements","category-special-issues","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Disability, Digital Technologies and the Ambivalent Allure of Posthumanist \/ Transhumanist Futures - Medical Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What happens when human embodiment becomes intricately entangled with digital coding? Margrit Shildrick explores trans\/posthumanism and its relation to assistive technologies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=4050\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disability, Digital Technologies and the Ambivalent Allure of Posthumanist \/ Transhumanist Futures - Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What happens when human embodiment becomes intricately entangled with digital coding? Margrit Shildrick explores trans\/posthumanism and its relation to assistive technologies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=4050\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-21T09:00:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Pak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Pak\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4050#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4050\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Pak\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0e11c1a9a0f1f9f2aa898a719652c44c\"},\"headline\":\"Disability, Digital Technologies and the Ambivalent Allure of Posthumanist \\\/ Transhumanist Futures\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-21T09:00:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4050\"},\"wordCount\":227,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Journal Announcements\",\"Special Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4050#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4050\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=4050\",\"name\":\"Disability, Digital Technologies and the Ambivalent Allure of Posthumanist \\\/ Transhumanist Futures - Medical Humanities\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-21T09:00:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"What happens when human embodiment becomes intricately entangled with digital coding? 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