BCSSS member, Michele Battle-Fisher, was one of seven finalists to pitch a science and technology book idea at the first annual MIT Press Pitchfest, called the “Shark Tank” of book publishing. She competed for the chance to workshop her Transhuman book which is based on the in- production documentary, Transhuman: Biohackers and Immortalists that she is co-producing in the U.S. The competition took place at the Boston Book Festival, Copley Square, Boston on Saturday October 13.

Her pitched book project intends to explore the emerging complexity of how human as we know it is changing. Humanness is in flux as human bodies are being hacked and altered in their quest for super wellness, super intelligence and super longevity. Ms. Battle-Fisher proposed that it is the time to discuss how best to think about dealing with bodies that have been hacked to exceed natural physical limits or more technically, species typical functioning. Presently medicine is in the business of health spanning – attempting to cheat death while ideally providing the best quality of life until inevitable death. Transhumanism is based on the premise of blasting away the limitations of the present state of our bodies. According to ideological transhumanists, early adopting biohackers and risk-tolerant cyborgs, the very nature of human evolution must be usurped. In dealing with the uncertainty and risk of the human condition, people seek to “control” that uncertainty. Enter the advent of transhumanism. According to transhumanists, death is unnecessary and medical conventions undermine the possibility to radically evolve. To biohackers, there is no need to wait to explore the risks that conventional medicine dares not.

Michele plans on continuing to flesh out the book and find a venue in which to produce the book.

Michele Battle-Fisher