Human 2.0: some determinants of personal affinity towards transhumanist practices

Pristupivši transhumanizmu kao jednoj mogućoj artikulaciji budućnosti, u ovom je radu napravljeno istraživanje njegove prihvaćenosti. Sociološka je perspektiva pokušala ukazati na vezu između transhumanizma i postmodernog stanja za koje se pretpostavlja da potiče razvoj pokreta. Empirijsko istraživanje kvantitativnog tipa provedeno je na uzorku studentica i studenata Sveučilišta u Zagrebu (N=163). Dva definirana cilja bila su testirati karakteristike konstruiranih skala transhumanizma s obzirom na valjanost i pouzdanost te provjeriti korelacije tih skala s varijablama koje označene kao teorijski relevantne. Konstruirane su tri skale: skala općih postavki transhumanizma, skala sklonosti transhumanističkim ishodima, skala sklonosti transhumanističkim praksama. Od te tri skale zadnja se pokazala kao najbolji alat za istraživanje sklonosti transhumanizmu. Što se tiče nezavisnih varijabli, poseban je fokus stavljen na religioznost kao prediktor afiniteta prema transhumanizmu. Potvrđeno je da postoji statistički značajna negativna povezanost između religioznosti i sklonosti transhumanističkim praksama. Uzorak studentica i studenata pokazao je generalnu sklonost slaganju s općim postavkama transhumanizma te sklonost transhumanističkim ishodima. Isto, doduše, ne vrijedi u slučaju sklonosti transhumanističkim praksama gdje je studentice i studente eksplicitan spomen potencijalnih tehnologija odbio pa su stoga prema njima generalno iskazali laganu averziju.By approaching transhumanism as one possible articulation of future, research concerning its acceptance was conducted in this thesis. A sociological perspective tried to shed light on transhumanism's connection with the postmodern condition, which is hypothesized to aid the movement's growth. A quantitative empirical study was conducted on the sample of students of University of Zagreb (N=163). Two defined goals were to test the characteristics of constructed scales of transhumanism in regard to validity and reliability, and to test for correlation of these scales with variables deemed theoretically relevant. Three scales were constructed: scale of key points of transhumanism, scale of affinity towards transhumanist outcomes and scale of affinity towards transhumanist practices – out of which the last one was shown to be best tool for measuring affinity towards transhumanism. Regarding independent variables, special focus was placed on religiosity as a predictor of affinity towards transhumanism. It was confirmed that the correlation between religiosity and affinity towards transhumanist practices is statistically significant and negative. The student sample showed an inclination towards agreeing with the key points of transhumanism and affinity towards transhumanist outcomes. The same was not true, however, in the case of affinity towards transhumanist practices, as the students were pushed back by explicit mentioning of potential technologies and thus generally exhibited a slight aversion towards them