Digital Salvation as a Gift: A Catholic Understanding of Digital Salvation in Contrast to Kurzweilian Transhumanism

This article proposes three distinct categories of how Christian theologians over the centuries have viewed the transhumanistic endeavor of (self-?) salvation: (a) reversing the effects of the Fall, (b) transformation of creation, and (c) salvation as a gift. These categories are juxtaposed with Ray Kurzweil’s transhumanist attempts at achieving digital salvation (technological salvation in a digital age), outlining three main attempts: human enhancement, the quest for immortality, and salvation from sin. This article argues that despite the human effort, salvation remains a gift. Hence rather than shunning death, the Christian is claimed to be called to embrace it as the “sister death” and thus, as the gateway to theosis.