On the Human Condition is an invigorating and fascinating exploration of where the idea of the human stands today.

These reflections on contemplative life were delivered at Harvard University in 1997 in a lecture series endowed by Harold M. Wit. (Inside front cover).

The human condition is the print or manner in which you and humanity influence those around, the human environment, the entire world, and Life herself. Furthermore, the specific human conditions that you enhance yourself come back to influence you just as well, knowingly or unknowingly. And it is very easy for me to write in these books how wonderful and harmonious you should be in this world while bringing your most favorable contribution to this world, but you always interconnect with this world as best as you can, favorably and unfavorably, just as those around constrain and allow you, only to be able to fulfill your needs. Since as you study history, some people choose to die than to become dreadful conditions in this world, while others never care, and now this is this world. While there are always tyrants throughout the upper layers of society seeking to be the worst conditions possible in this world, only to debilitate this world, rendering it controllable, discriminatory, and therefore exploitable. Since just as you remain aware of all environmental conditions influencing your own fulfillment and condition in life, in society, and in this world, you should remain aware of all conditions that you leave behind through your own life and behavior. Because just as life copes with the environment throughout a continuous toil as science describes, this outside environment is alive itself, it is part of life, it is made of life, and it has you in it just as well, along with your loved ones and your entire condition and contribution to this world. But if you give in and see your environment as a continuously challenging harmful condition since this is what science states, then you engage in win-lose interactions with the environment unnecessarily, while the environment is similar to you, formed of life, people, and the entire human society. And now, if you become a negative condition of this world by engaging in win-lose interactions with this world, knowingly or unknowingly, the entire world has to cope with you, exactly as science states. While as an unfavorable condition in this world, you do not stand a chance, because you are one and they are an entire world, with or against you. Unless you are organized in this world, to have people against people in this world, which is the most dreadful condition in this world. Because life, this world, and the human society are very complex, swinging continuously with and against you, since your environment is filled up with conditions that are good, bad, favorable, unfavorable, natural, and consensual, as it is significant to identify, predict, and control them. Throughout this book, we study the human condition along with all environmental conditions influencing the human existence, as the human condition in life and in this world, the human social condition, and the human higher conditions. We also identify all favorable and unfavorable existential elements along with their consequences, for a better fulfillment.

This book summarizes the work of several decades, culminating in a revolutionary model of recent human evolution. It challenges current consensus views fundamentally, presenting in its support a mass of evidence, much of which has never been assembled before. This evidence derives primarily from archaeology, paleoanthropology, genetics, clinical psychology, neurosciences, linguistics and cognitive sciences. No even remotely similar thesis of recent human origins has ever been published, but some of the key elements of this book have been published by the author in major refereed journals in the last two years. Its implications are far-reaching and profoundly affect the way we perceive ourselves as a species. This book about what it means to be human is heavily referenced, with a bibliography of many hundreds of scientific entries.

Argues that standard forms of bioethics support the technological utopianism of medicine. Puts forth an alternative agenda arguing that the task of bioethics is to explore the moral significance of the body as it is expressed in the discourse and practice of moral and religious traditions.

This book is designed to offer a comprehensive high-level introduction to transhumanism, an international political and cultural movement that aims to produce a “paradigm shift” in our ethical and political understanding of human evolution. Transhumanist thinkers want the human species to take the course of evolution into its own hands, using advanced technologies currently under development – such as robotics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cognitive neurosciences, and nanotechnology – to overcome our present physical and mental limitations, improve our intelligence beyond the current maximum achievable level, acquire skills that are currently the preserve of other species, abolish involuntary aging and death, and ultimately achieve a post-human level of existence. The book covers transhumanism from a historical, philosophical, and scientific viewpoint, tracing its cultural roots, discussing the main philosophical, epistemological, and ethical issues, and reviewing the state of the art in scientific research on the topics of most interest to transhumanists. The writing style is clear and accessible for the general reader, but the book will also appeal to graduate and undergraduate students.