Le conte transhumaniste de Nick Bostrom: du débat idéologique de la communication argumentative à la communication narrative

Abstract

This paper examines transhumanist communication through the analysis of The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant by Nick Bostrom. Philosopher of the posthuman, the author uses the literary text to illustrate the ideological debate which opposes on the one hand a strong enthusiasm for technoscientific progress, and on the other hand the fear linked, at the same time, to the loss of control of human on its creations and the disappearance of conventional ethical benchmarks. Partly taking up the model of utopian construction, the author polarizes and reduces the advent of the posthuman to the virtuous. The analysis proposed here is that of the narrative of the transhumanist rhetoric developed by Bostrom and the idealization of his intellectual project. The reading of the main scenes of The Fable highlights the levers of the author’s narrative strategy as well as the moral and social issues of a potential evacuation of part of the human condition: aging, mortality.