The Posthuman Studies Research Group (PSRG) is a research group in the field of Posthuman Studies. PSRG is part of the Center for Applied Philosophy (CAPH), a research center in the field of philosophy affiliated with the Department of Philosophy within the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Address: 1 Mihail Kogălniceanu Street, 1st floor, room 131 (LACPC), RO-400084, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Responsible: Lecturer Dr. Aura-Elena Schussler, Department of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Email: aura.schussler@ubbcluj.ro

Web page: http://hiphi.ubbcluj.ro/CFA/

1. Short presentation

The overall purpose of the Posthuman Studies Research Group (PSRG) is the exploration, research, and analysis of the ‘posthuman’ and posthuman condition by bringing together transhumanist, posthumanist, and metahumanist philosophies and schools of thought in order to foster an open, constructive, critical, and creative dialogue. One objective is to investigate the present and future paradigm shifts occurring at the level of the human condition. The evolution of science and technology leads to the erosion of the boundaries between physical, biological, and digital. The implications of these developments need to be reflected upon from the perspective of transhumanist reflections (euro-transhumanism, technological singularity, extropianism, etc.). Another objective focuses on the interrogation and deconstruction of the humanistic notion of “human” (as a fixed and closed notion grounded over time in a series of asymmetrical and reductionist power relationships) that needs to be dealt with critically to generate new ways of thinking about what we are about to “become”, from the perspective of critical, cultural, or philosophical posthumanism.

The research group is an inter-/multidisciplinary one, made up of experts in the field of philosophy in general, and in the field of posthuman philosophy in particular—namely transhumanists, posthumanists, and metahumanists—together with researchers in bioethics, roboetics, artificial intelligence, the ethics of emerging technologies, art, bio-art, posthuman art and aesthetics, sociology, cultural studies, gender studies, etc.

2. Staff list

Members:

• Lecturer Dr. Aura-Elena Schussler, Department of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• Prof. Dr. Dan-Eugen Rațiu, Department of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• Conf. Dr. Ștefan-Sebastian Maftei, Department of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• Conf. Dr. Mihaela-Cornelia Frunză, Department of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

PhD students:

• PhD. Student, Alexandra Steți, Doctoral School of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• PhD. Student, Diana Miheș, Doctoral School of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• PhD. Student, Radu-Cristian Andreescu, Doctoral School of Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Associate members / external collaborators:

• Prof. Dr. Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy
• Prof. Dr. Natasha Vita-More, Ret. Graduate Studies Chair and Prof. Innovation, Ethics, Tech-Com, University of Advancing Technology, Tempe, Arizona; Founder, Center for Transhumanist Studies; Executive Director, Humanity Plus, Inc.
• Prof. Dr. James Hughes, Honors College, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA. Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Willington CT.
• Prof. Dr. Maurizio Balistreri, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
• Prof. Dr. Yunus Tuncel, New School University, New York, NY, USA
• Dr. Leo Igwe, Director, Critical Thinking Social Empowerment Foundation, Nigeria. Director, Advocacy for Alleged Witches, Nigeria
• Dr. David Roden, Independent researcher
• Prof. Dr. Evi D. Sampanikou, University of the Aegean, Mytilini – Lesvos, Greece
• Prof. Dr. Mariano Luis Rodríguez González, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
• Prof. Dr. Russell Blackford, Conjoint Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Newcastle, Australia

3. Fields and research topic

The Posthuman Studies Research Group (PSRG) supports open, creative, inclusive, innovative, and reflective collaboration and discussions between researchers, transhumanists, posthumanists, metahumanists, and humanists from Romania and abroad to promote the field of posthuman studies academically. In order to encourage multiple perspectives of thinking, PSRG is considering organizing conferences, seminars, workshops, or student circles with the aim of establishing collaborative links and stimulating the exchange of ideas in order to generate constructive discussions on various topics of interest.

Research topics

1. Possible influences of Nietzsche’s philosophy on transhumanist thought: possible structural analogies between Nietzsche’s thinking and transhumanism—the concept of the Übermensch and the posthuman; longevity and the “Last Man”; human enhancement—through traditional education and/or genetic enhancement; perspectivism and the will-to-power ontology.
2. Human enhancements: bioethical analysis of the advantages, uncertainties, and risks associated with current and future emerging technologies—gene editing techniques (CRISPR), nanotechnology, nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, artificial intelligence, etc.
3. Radical life extension: a paradigm shift from human to transhuman, towards the posthuman, in the paradigm of technological singularity and extropianism—hybrid and virtual bodies, mind uploading/digital immortality (cyberconsciousness), cryonics.
4. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and machine learning: AGI as a human emulator; challenges and limitations in current AGI and machine learning efforts; ethical implications of AGI.
5. Transhumanist ethics: morphological freedom as a human right in the Anglo-American utilitarian paradigm; Proactionary Principle vs. Precautionary Principle; community-based social structures and policies vs. liberal ethics of autonomy.
6. The posthuman subject and the posthuman condition in the paradigm of critical posthumanism: what is the human?—a philosophical, historical, and geopolitical cartography of the human; the deconstruction of the humanist notion of “human” (as a fixed and closed notion, generating asymmetric power relations); the posthuman subject and the ethics of becoming - as open and relational interconnections between human and non-human agents, environment, technology, AI, etc.; anthropocentrism, post-anthropocentrism, and animal rights bioethics; posthuman bioethics; advanced capitalism, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the Sixth Extinction.
7. Posthuman art and aesthetics: about the philosophy of posthuman art, bio-art, crypto-art and the dissolution of the boundaries between the biological, physical, and digital in art; robots/AI vs. humans in artistic creation; bioethical approaches at the border between art, aesthetics, and genetic engineering.
8. Robots, cyborgs, and the ontology of the person: cyborg ethics—the deconstruction of the cyborg within the reductionist limits of alterity.
9. African humanism, transhumanism, and posthumanism: approaching transhumanism and posthumanism from the perspective of African philosophy; Afro-communitarian ethics, personhood, and human enhancements.
10. The philosophical, moral, and political issues of space travel.

4. Research infrastructure

The research infrastructure consists of computers, overhead projectors, sound systems, and books on the topic of the posthuman.