Christopher COENEN

Is a political scientist and expert in technology assessment. Since 2003, he has been a researcher at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where he leads the research group “Life, Innovation, Health, and Technology.” He has carried out over 25 projects for political institutions including the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry of Research and the German and European parliaments.
In his work, Coenen often analyses the topics of human enhancement and transhumanism and also criticizes the anti-democratic attack of tech-oligarchs. Already in a book from 2010, “Der Diskurs über Human Enhancement” (The Discourse about Human Enhancement), he situated transhumanist visions within their ideological and historical contexts. He also often highlights how discourse on human enhancement devalues disabled people and pathologises human diversity, and analyses transhumanism as a symptom of a profoundly flawed “Western” relationship with technology and the human body.