Posthumanism and Digital Religion

Abstract In recent years, ideas of posthumanism and transhumanism have been popularized by novels, TV series, and Hollywood movies. According to this radical perspective, humankind and all biological life have become obsolete. Traditional forms of life are inefficient at processing information and inept at crossing the high frontier: outer space. While humankind can expect to be replaced by their own artificial progeny, posthumanists assume that they will become an immortal part of a transcendent superintelligence that will be realized by the so-called singularity. In contrast to the main focus of digital religion studies, the analysis of posthumanism aims not to examine the actual use of media in a specific religious context but the interpretations of media that posthumanists expect to come. By considering the history and the larger cultural context of posthumanism, the close entanglement between religion, technology, and science from the 19th to the 21st centuries can be illuminated.