Final Assignment

Question 1 (1300-1500 words)
As we have seen from Armstrong, MacGregor and Buss**, traditional religions, beliefs and rituals about death and dying usually have three main functions: to ensure admission to the afterlife (however that is understood), to control the behaviour of the living and to keep the lines of communication open between the living and the dead.
* Consider the ways in which the beliefs, hopes and practices of trans humanism change all of this, drawing on everything we have done on the topic to do so *- including the two podcasts we have looked at, the representations of immortality and trans humanism we explored in the three Black Mirror episodes we discussed in class, and the services actually on offer at the moment via companies like Alcore, Replika and Eternime.
The links you can use for information are below, you are also free to get information from where it is relevant*
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001dpb
https://srbpodcast.org/2020/03/27/immortalism-and-transhumanism-in-russia/

(The Netflix episodes from Black mirror episodes are San Junipero and be right back, I have also added a powerpoint to the files so you can use it for information that can be important)

* Once you have done this, reflect briefly on whether YOU believe trans humanism has the potential to transform the way human beings in the 21st century and beyond think about death and dying.
*
** There is no need to summarise and comment on everything Armstrong, MacGregor and Buss say. What you need to do is use only those parts of their work that are relevant to the rituals and beliefs surrounding dying, death and the afterlife in traditional religions.
*NB: The term “drawing upon” does not mean that you need to summarise and comment on everything in the podcasts, BM episodes, class notes and company websites. It means you need to critically consider what material in these sources could be useful to you in this essay, and it means you need to successfully incorporate this material in a way that is relevant to your arguments and to the essay title.