From “The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno-Millennial Imagination, 1626-2030” and “The Human Condition Hurts: We’d Be Fools Not to Better It” by James Hughes, the readers are able to gain an educational and factual perspective on a very theoretical topic. The difference in the implementation of the “hook”, the jargon used, and the context in time the supporting research is based on allows for each reader to gain the knowledge required to look at human bio-technology in a more accepting manner. From the stark contrasting methods in which Hughes expressed a similar argument in both works, the malleability of academic arguments is a significant aspect authors exploit to get their point to as many readers as possible. Both works begin
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In “The Human Condition Hurts: We’d Be Fools Not to Better It”, Hughes recalls events in recent history, from the medical revolution to generic expectations of the future. In comparison, in “The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno-Millennial Imagination, 1626-2030”, as the title suggests, the article explores events and movements as far back as the 17th century. This shapes the academic context of this research paper as these events are based on history and provide a unique form of evidence for the conceptual debate on human biotechnology. Intellectual movements discussed in “The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno-Millennial Imagination, 1626-2030”, such as proto-transhumanism, date all the way back to the creation of works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. To make his point of the human enhancement debate not just suddenly springing up as a radical movement in the 21st century, Hughes relies on historical evidence to show how “the intertwined aspirations to transcend human limitations and enter a radically new social order are found in the earliest recorded human cultures” (The Politics of Transhumanism, 759). This indirectly directs his argument towards conservatives who are lamenting over the current “greed” of humanity to ascend what God has granted to society. In “The Human Condition Hurts: We’d Be Fools Not to Better It”, Hughes shapes a very similar argument quite differently: he uses events, but these are events that readers could relate more with -- not just intellectual movements of the distant past, but rather discoveries and inventions that have directly impacted modern humanity. In this way, Hughes caters to his audience by promoting recent inventions such as penicillin and kidney dialysis in order to concretely
In “The Human Condition Hurts: We’d Be Fools Not to Better It”, Hughes recalls events in recent history, from the medical revolution to generic expectations of the future. In comparison, in “The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno-Millennial Imagination, 1626-2030”, as the title suggests, the article explores events and movements as far back as the 17th century. This shapes the academic context of this research paper as these events are based on history and provide a unique form of evidence for the conceptual debate on human biotechnology. Intellectual movements discussed in “The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno-Millennial Imagination, 1626-2030”, such as proto-transhumanism, date all the way back to the creation of works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. To make his point of the human enhancement debate not just suddenly springing up as a radical movement in the 21st century, Hughes relies on historical evidence to show how “the intertwined aspirations to transcend human limitations and enter a radically new social order are found in the earliest recorded human cultures” (The Politics of Transhumanism, 759). This indirectly directs his argument towards conservatives who are lamenting over the current “greed” of humanity to ascend what God has granted to society. In “The Human Condition Hurts: We’d Be Fools Not to Better It”, Hughes shapes a very similar argument quite differently: he uses events, but these are events that readers could relate more with -- not just intellectual movements of the distant past, but rather discoveries and inventions that have directly impacted modern humanity. In this way, Hughes caters to his audience by promoting recent inventions such as penicillin and kidney dialysis in order to concretely