“I think the motivation behind [transhumanism], the broader worldview behind it, which is essentially a religious worldview – that’s what’s most important to communicate,” says Allen, whose book “Dark Aeon: Transhumanism and the War Against Humanity” just dropped this past August.

“Many transhumanists, post-humanists, futurist technologists – they would like to see it as some sort of scientific worldview, and it is, but ultimately it’s a religious worldview that takes scientific fact and plays forward the historical progression of technology into something like religious prophecy,” he tells James.

“What is [transhumanism], and how do we know it when we see it?” James asks.

“Transhumanism is simply the desire to attain magical power, really, by way of technology,” explains Allen. “It’s the dreams of all the wizards and occultists of old and priests, coming into reality by way of technology.”

[It puts me in mind of a passage from The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis: “If once we can produce our perfect work — the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls ‘Forces’ while denying the existence of ‘spirits’—then the end of the war will be in sight.” Transhumanism is the effort to produce a materialist magician and the worship of that process. — Ed]