Transhumanism and the Myth of Morphological Freedom

This chapter turns to three secondary characters—Julius Deane; Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool; Dixie Flatline—in an exploration of the posthuman as envisioned by transhumanism, an articulation of the posthuman that differs from critical posthumanism. After establishing this foundation and analyzing the characters, I turn to our current condition where transhumanist visions of the posthuman are gaining increased critical and popular traction. In so doing, I conclude Gibson shows via these characters that the morphological freedom espoused by the transhumanist posthuman is a problem-laden fantasy. Thus, Gibson’s Neuromancer provides decidedly unambiguous warnings about the perils that emerge from the promises of morphological freedom and the transhumanist posthuman.