Some more: “The Gentle Seduction” by Mark Steigler is definitely pro-tranhumanism. It avoids one of the hard questions (portraying one transhuman is hard enough, portraying a transhuman society is much harder) by making the main character pretty much solitary.
“No Woman Born” by C.L. Moore is marginal—a woman who’s been badly burned has a whole body replacement (I’m not sure whether her brain is replaced), and I take the end of the story to be “she’s not human any more, but it might be worth it”.
The latter is an edge case in another way, too—does the transhumanist start from an average or better human baseline, or is the improvement start with a desire to make up for a deficiency?
Non-choice transhumanism: Brain Wave by Poul Anderson. The human race had been in a region of the galaxy which suppressed certain electro-magnetic effects. Species normally evolve to average IQs of 100-- that’s good enough. As a result of the earth moving out of the suppressor field, people and animals quickly become four or five times as smart. This is presented as a good thing.
Some more: “The Gentle Seduction” by Mark Steigler is definitely pro-tranhumanism. It avoids one of the hard questions (portraying one transhuman is hard enough, portraying a transhuman society is much harder) by making the main character pretty much solitary.
“No Woman Born” by C.L. Moore is marginal—a woman who’s been badly burned has a whole body replacement (I’m not sure whether her brain is replaced), and I take the end of the story to be “she’s not human any more, but it might be worth it”.
The latter is an edge case in another way, too—does the transhumanist start from an average or better human baseline, or is the improvement start with a desire to make up for a deficiency?
Non-choice transhumanism: Brain Wave by Poul Anderson. The human race had been in a region of the galaxy which suppressed certain electro-magnetic effects. Species normally evolve to average IQs of 100-- that’s good enough. As a result of the earth moving out of the suppressor field, people and animals quickly become four or five times as smart. This is presented as a good thing.