Ayn Rand and the Posthuman

Ayn Rand and the Posthuman is a study of the American novelists relationship with twenty-first-century ideas about technology. Rand wrote science fiction that has inspired Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, politicians, and economists. Ben Murnane demonstrates Rands connection to, and impact on, those with a posthuman vision, in which human and machine merge. The text examines the philosophical intersections between Rands philosophy of Objectivism and posthumanism, and Rands influence on transhumanism, a major branch of posthumanist thought. The book further investigates Rands presence and portrayal in various examples of posthumanist science fiction, including Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda, popular videogame BioShock, and Zoltan Istvans novel The Transhumanist Wager. Considering Rands influence from a cultural, political, technological, and economic perspective, this study throws light on an under-documented but highly significant aspect of Rands legacy.