Abstract
Theurgy was a system of magical practices in the late Roman Empire. It was applied Neoplatonism. The theurgists aimed to enable human bodies to assume divine attributes, that is, to become deities. I aim to show that much of the structure of theurgical Neoplatonism appears in transhumanism. Theurgists and transhumanists share a core Platonic-Pythagorean metaphysics. They share goals and methods. The theurgists practiced astrology, the reading of entrails, the consultation of oracles, channeling deities, magic, and the animation of statues. The transhumanist counterparts of those practices are genetics, self-tracking with biosensors, artificial intellects like Google and Siri, brain-computer interfaces, programming, and robotics. Transhumanist techno-theurgy shows how Neoplatonism can be a modern philosophical way of life.
Highlights
Theurgy refers to a system of practices based on Neoplatonic philosophy, on the Chaldean Oracles (Lewy, 1978), and on the Greek magical papyri (Betz, 1986)
Theurgical souls stand to theurgical gods much as transhumanist souls stand to transhumanist gods
The metaphysics of transhumanism resembles that of theurgy
Summary
Theurgy refers to a system of practices based on Neoplatonic philosophy, on the Chaldean Oracles (Lewy, 1978), and on the Greek magical papyri (Betz, 1986). Theurgical souls stand to theurgical gods much as transhumanist souls stand to transhumanist gods To make this mapping more precise, I will show that theurgists and transhumanists share many metaphysical ideas. Many theurgical practices have counterparts in transhumanist practices According to this mapping, transhumanism contains a theurgical image. Despite the differences between ancient and current thought, it is fair to say that theurgical ideas have been technologically projected into transhumanism. 357) says transhumanism “may even mean a return to polytheism if heaven is filled with human beings become gods” These gods will be natural and computational
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