Religion and Posthuman Life: A Note on Teilhard de Chardin's Vision

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be discussed in the literature as either a promise or threat to the human person; yet the use and development of AI continues unabated. Two philosophical trends are discussed here with regard to AI: transhumanism and posthumanism. Whereas transhumanism follows the enlightenment project of human betterment, posthumanism arises out of critical feminism and focuses on expanded embodiment. This article builds on posthumanism by discussing the emerging techno-human as an AI life system, a tertium quid between biology and machine, functioning according to a new logic of triadic relationships. The intermediate complex of the AI-human is a new lens for human becoming. The insights of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on the noosphere and ultrahumanism elucidate AI emergent personhood on a new level of complexified consciousness, indicating a fundamental role for religion in technoevolution.