Zack Olander - Anti-Transhumanism in That Hideous Strength

 In That Hideous Strength, the main villains are the scientific organization known as N.I.C.E. who turn out to be in contact with the devil. Their goal is to "perfect" humans with science and technology, and Lewis warns us against this in the form of a dystopian situation. While Lewis's religious beliefs seem to be the main motivating force to make the villains of the story transhumanists and making the theme that this sort of "perfecting" humans by changing them with technology is going against God's creation, it's one of the most interesting takes on transhumanism I've come across. I'm also reminded of Tolkien's warning against industrialization in Lord of the Rings, with the orcs using technology to dominate and alter the world at their whim. These two Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, both obviously have things to say about how over-reliance and fetishization of technology has the potential to do a lot of harm not only to the world, but to human beings themselves.

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