The Machine in the Ghost: Transhumanism and the Ontology of Information

Burdett, Michael; Leung, King Ho

Abstract

An ontology of information belies our common intuitions about reality today and animates and governs both explicit scholarly study in philosophy and the sciences as well as the ideologies that are growing out of them. Transhumanism is one such technoscientific ideology that holds to a very specific ontology of information which need not be the only one on offer. This article argues that the transhumanist ontology of information exhibits gnostic and docetic religious overtones in it and that it devalues physical existence. At the same time, despite claiming a rejection of supernature, hypothetical transhumanist practices (such as mind-uploading) posit the infosphere as a kind of supernatural realm that is often set in opposition to the natural world. This article presents a critique of transhumanist conceptions of information and offers an alternative ontology of information that more adequately accounts for the distinction between the natural and supernatural as well as the integrity of the physical world.

Citation

Burdett, M., & Leung, K. H. (2023). The Machine in the Ghost: Transhumanism and the Ontology of Information. Zygon, 58(3), 714-731. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12886

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 26, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 22, 2023
• Publication Date: Mar 22, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 23, 2025
• Journal: Zygon
• Print ISSN: 0591-2385
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9744
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 58
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 714-731
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12886
• Keywords: information; ontology; transhumanism; Luciano Floridi; mind-uploading; extended mind; Thomas Aquinas; supernatural; naturalism
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/17937814
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zygo.12886
• Additional Information: Published: 2023-03-22