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[[Ihab Hassan]], [[critic]], [[scholar]], and [[theorist]] in the academic study of [[literature]], once stated that "humanism may be coming to an end as humanism transforms itself into something one must helplessly call posthumanism" <ref name="Badmington 2000">{{cite book| author = Badmington, Neil| title = Posthumanism (Readers in Cultural Criticism)| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan| year = 2000| id = ISBN 0333765389}}</ref>. This view predates the currents of posthumanism which hashave developed over the past twenty years in entirelysomewhat differentdiverse, but complimentary, domains of thought and practice. For example, [[Ihab Hassan]] is a scholar of literature and a known [[postmodernist]] whose theoretical writings expressly address [[postmodernism]] in [[society]]. In an entirely different field, that of [[engineering]] and computer technology, [[Norbert Weiner]], [[mathematician]] who 1964, won the US National Medal of Sciences, is most noted for developing the field of [[cybernetics]], and which he wrote about in his book of the same title in 1948. The book ''Cybernetics'' inspired scientists in the late 1940s through today in considering [[computer]] [[technology]] as a means for extending [[human]] capabilities. The field that is most influential in realizing posthumanism as a philosophical outlook is that of cybernetics. Albeit, the currents of posthumanism are due in large part to the stories of the authors of [[science fiction]], including [[cyberpunk]] fiction. Among these authors are [[Philip K. Dick]], [[William Gibson]], [[Bruce Sterling]], and [[Damian Broderick]], among others.
Theorists who both compliment and contrast [[Ihab Hassan]] include [[Michel Foucault]], [[Judith Butler]], [[Anne Balsamo]], [[N. Katherine Hayles]], and [[Douglas Kellner]]. Among the theorists are philosophers who have written about a ''posthuman condition'' which is often substituted for the word posthumanism.
Philosophers of the late 20th century and early 21st Century have developed thecurrents currentsof posthumanism, however varied, of posthumanism. Philosopher [[Max More]] addresses [[identity]] of the [[posthuman]] and what it means to become posthuman in the seminal essay "On Becoming Posthuman" <ref name="More 1994">{{cite paper| author = More, Max| title = On Becoming Posthuman| date = 1994 | url = http://www.maxmore.com/becoming.htm| accessdate=2007-06-29}}</ref> and further in "Beyond the Machine", which looks at technology and posthuman [[freedom]]. <ref name="More 1997">{{cite paper| author = More, Max| title = Beyond the Machine| date = 1997 | url = http://www.maxmore.com/machine.htm| accessdate=2007-06-29}}</ref> Some philosophers, such as [[Shannon Bell]], argue that posthumanism attempts to develop new understandings of the [[self (philosophy)|self]] and [[other]], [[essence]], [[consciousness]], [[intelligence]], [[reason]], [[Agency (philosophy)|agency]], [[intimacy]], [[life]], [[embodiment]], [[identity (philosophy)|identity]] and the [[body]]. <ref name="Zaretsky 2005">{{cite paper| author = Zaretsky, Adam| title = Bioart in Question| date = 2005 | url = http://www.ciac.ca/magazine/archives/no_23/en/entrevue.htm| accessdate=2007-01-28}}</ref>
==See also==
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