What am I reading in ScholarWorks? December 2025

I tend to wishfully think of reading as a sort of prophylactic, hoping against hope that knowledge and thinking will serve to somehow inoculate me against...my worries. Perhaps in an attempt to brace myself for 2026, for the last What Am I Reading in ScholarWorks of this year, I submit Professor Susan Levin’s, “The Less Visible Side of Transhumanism Is Dangerously Un-Radical.”

The article feels particularly prescient as we confront cascading implications of the so-called age of information in which we have been thrust. Examining the transhumanist quest and project of agelessness gives this article its grounding to discuss intellectual and philosophical flaws of transhumanist ideas.  As Levin writes, transhumanism “hinges on a specific view of us, as in essence “information,” that has a grip on the culture, too.” The inherent poverty of viewing being human as a series of “detachable compartments,” along with the problem of binaries in general are brought forth in this article with precision. I admire the skill at which Levin pulls apart and examines each piece of a given argument or worldview. But I admire more how succinctly she makes the case, in her conclusion, of why it matters to do so.  Enjoy!

View in ScholarWorks: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/phi_facpubs/78/ 

Smith ScholarWorks is Smith’s institutional repository of digital scholarship and research materials created and curated by faculty, students, and staff at Smith College. Browse by collections, disciplines, and authors.