Transhumanism and the Quest for Technological Immortality: A Conversation with Prof Ben Mitchell

In this episode, Jonathan talks to bioethicist Ben Mitchell about transhumanism. They discuss the origins, philosophy and goals of the transhumanist movement, the movement's desire for a post human future, the impact of technology on the human being, including the possibility of uploading consciousness to a computer, or merging the human brain with technology, and finally what it actually means to be human.

Prof Ben Mitchell recently retired after serving ten years as the Graves Chair of Moral Philosophy at Union University, Jackson, Tennessee. He taught ethics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, where he also served for a time as director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. He has served on the NIH Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Committee, been a consultant with the Center for Genetics & Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University and currently serves as Distinguished Fellow of the Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture.

The Political Animals is hosted by Dr Jonathan Cole, an academic, writer, speaker and translator specialising in political theology: the intersection of religion and politics. Jonathan was a senior terrorism analyst at Australian intelligence agency the Office of National Assessments where he worked on Islamist terrorism and the global jihadist movement. He is the author of Christian Political Theology in an Age of Discontent: Mediating Scripture, Doctrine, and Political Reality. You can follow Jonathan and the show on Twitter and Facebook.