Addressing a key issue related to human nature, this book argues that the first-person experience of pure consciousness may soon be under threat from posthuman biotechnology. In exploiting the mind's capacity for instrumental behavior, posthumanists seek to extend human experience by physically projecting the mind outward through the continuity of thought and the material world, as through telepresence and other forms of prosthetic enhancements.

Posthumanism envisions a biology/machine symbiosis that will promote this extension, arguably at the expense of the natural tendency of the mind to move toward pure consciousness. As each chapter of this book contends, by forcibly overextending and thus jeopardizing the neurophysiology of consciousness, the posthuman condition could in the long term undermine human nature, defined as the effortless capacity for transcending the mind’s conceptual content.

Presented here for the first time, the essential argument of this book is more than a warning; it gives a direction: far better to practice patience and develop pure consciousness and evolve into a higher human being than to fall prey to the Faustian temptations of biotechnological power. As argued throughout the book, each person must choose for him or herself between the technological extension of physical experience through mind, body and world on the one hand, and the natural powers of human consciousness on the other as a means to realize their ultimate vision.

本书讨论了与人性有关的一个关键问题，认为纯粹意识的第一人称体验可能很快就会受到后人类生物技术的威胁。在利用心灵的工具性行为能力方面，后人类主义者试图通过思想和物质世界的连续性将心灵向外投射，如通过远程呈现和其他形式的假肢强化，来扩展人类的经验。

后人类主义设想了一种生物/机器共生关系，这将促进这种扩展，可以说是以牺牲心灵走向纯粹意识的自然趋势为代价。正如本书的每一章所争论的那样，通过强行过度延伸并因此危及意识的神经生理学，后人类的状况从长远来看可能会破坏人性，即被定义为毫不费力地超越心灵’的概念内容的能力。

本书的基本论点首次在此提出，它不仅仅是一个警告；它还给出了一个方向：练习耐心，发展纯粹的意识，进化成更高的人类，远比沦为生物技术力量的浮士德式诱惑要好。正如全书所论证的那样，每个人都必须在通过心灵、身体和世界对物理经验的技术扩展与人类意识的自然力量之间做出自己的选择，作为实现其最终愿景的一种手段。