History Main / Transhuman

* In ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'', Golden Age humanity was this thanks to the Traveler's technology, with enhanced bodies that did not suffer from disease and possessing triple the normal human lifespan. They even developed sentient humanlike machines called Exos, which are theorized by the current human society to have been an effort at true immortality via BrainUploading.

** Like in the original show, all the various Elan body doubles are Enhanced Humans, modified to be more resistant to the negative effects of piloting gundams (though not immune). While it was only implied in the show, Norea du Noc and Sophie Pulone are here also stated to be the same.

* Military science fiction ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' has Azania, a technologically advanced LadyLand which seeks to overcome the limits of human biology and sex roles through science, abolishing the male sex entirely and creating an entirely new species and system of social organization. By the time of the story, they remain human biologically, but effectively a OneGenderRace of androgynous Amazons through [[UterineReplicator assisted reproduction technologies]] that eliminate the need for conception and pregnancy.

* Others worry about human alteration being a tool for the authoritarian regimes, similarly to [[TheSocialDarwinist Eugenics]], and thus the destiny of humankind could potentially end up being directed by an EvilutionaryBiologist with [[AGodAmI a superiority complex]].

Transhumanism as a movement and a philosophy implies that people can, and should, become transhuman ''en masse'' rather than be restricted to a select few who came across such abilities through extraordinary circumstances. By implying that scientific progress may grant superhuman powers to anyone with appropriate knowledge and resources, and without any regard for [[TheChosenOne predestination]], [[SuperpowerLottery luck]] or [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower hard work]], transhumanism is notoriously opposed to narrative exceptionalism. A positive portrayal of transhumanism generally places a work on the Enlightenment side of the RomanticismVersusEnlightenment spectrum while a negative portrayal or [[NoTranshumanismAllowed conspicuous absence]] of it does the opposite.

* Improving the nature of mankind is an inevitable extension of the scientific progress. Earth has already been altered greatly by civilization, and we're more likely to fail if we try to halt progress in its tracks rather than explore all of its possibilities.

* Humans have been altering themselves with whatever technology provided since the earliest days of civilization. Tools, clothing, armor, and weapons are all ways that mankind has altered itself to be better suited to its environment. Just because our tools now allow us to modify the most fundamental part of our being permanently does not make these tools any less useful or any less ethical.
* Transhumanism can provide very useful tools for improving the human condition across the board, and it already has. Increasingly advanced prosthetics have provided enormous quality-of-life improvements to many people; technologies already exist that allow couples who either can't or would have an extremely hard time conceiving children now have a much better chance. Organ transplants, pacemakers, birth control, all of these and more are tools/technologies that transcend what is naturally possible with humanity while saving and greatly improving lives. In essence, transhumanism is already here to stay, and has been for quite some time. We're just getting better at it and developing new ways to do it.

* Others worry about human alteration being a tool for the authoritarian regimes, similarly to [[TheSocialDarwinist Eugenics]], and thus the destiny of mankind could potentially end up being directed by an EvilutionaryBiologist with [[AGodAmI a superiority complex]].

* The philosophy of SEELE in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' believes that all human individuals are inherently weak and fragile, which is why they want to alter mankind to a higher existence of life using the power of the [[EldritchAbomination Angels]].

* In Nietzsche's ''Literature/ThusSpakeZarathustra'', Zarathustra preaches that mankind's future lies into the {{Ubermensch}}, a form of spiritual/mental transcendence into an existence that does not need God.

** This is the ultimate goal of Jacob Hargreave. He has been working for [[spoiler:[[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld more than a century]]]] to prepare mankind for war with the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Ceph]], using [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum their own stolen technology]] to enhance human technology, and it culminates in the Nanosuits, which are hyper-advanced PoweredArmor designed to turn their wearers into "post-human warriors". They go so far as to [[spoiler:literally replace entire organs, co-opt brain functions, and generally turn their wearers into full-on nanotech cyborg supersoldiers]], and are capable of [[spoiler: sustaining a person even after death]], and on top of that, they contain internal machinery and advanced computers that can sample, analyze, and adapt to Ceph environmental weapons.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses,'' special powers called Crests exist on the continent of Fódlan. They are the result of the human heroes of the distant past, the 10 Elites and Four Saints, being magically infused with the blood of Sothis, the goddess of the Church of Seiros, though [[spoiler:the Four Saints are non-human [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Nabateans]], dragons who were [[TheMaker created by the goddess]] and received her blood voluntarily, while the human 10 Elites [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade took it forcibly]] after their leader Nemesis killed her.]] The original bearers of these Crests passed down their Crests to their descendants. Humans who inherit Crests [[spoiler:or have Crests forcibly implanted into them]] gain special abilities those without don’t have that have a chance of activating in combat, from life draining enemies, to dealing extra damage with attacks, to increasing healing done with healing spells, to negating an enemy’s counterattack. Like the Holy Blood of Jugdral, Crests come in both major and minor variants; major Crests activate more often than minor.

* ''Zero'' from Archangel Entertainment is a late '90s game that's set thousands of years after a cyberpunk dystopia. What's believed to be left of "humanity" are the 500,000 "biomechs" of the HiveMind belonging to [[Monster Lord Queen Zero]]. What a biomech is a vat-grown human with psionic power and is surgically reconstructed with caste dependent bionics over the course of its infancy until its emergence from its birthing chamber.

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* CloneAngst: [[ClonesArePeopleToo Are Clones People]]? Or just [[ExpendableClone expendable]]? With LegoGenetics, they may end up being more than we could ever imagine.

* ''Very'' deeply explored in ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'', to the point that baselines (regular non-modified humans) are something of an endangered species by 10600 AT. It's also not limited to humans; several xenosophont species have also embraced self-enhancement, and animals both terragen and alien have been [[UpliftedAnimal provolved to sophonce]].