The cult of singularity : how the religion of technoscience arose

The idea of "technological singularity" - that is, of a dramatic and irreversible change in the human condition due to the vertiginous growth of new technologies - is one of the theoretical cornerstones of transhumanist futurology. The article shows how this idea fits perfectly into a particular historical and cultural path of the Western World; one aimed at overcoming traditional religions and replacing them with a new cult. Attempts to found a new universal religion, compatible with the developments of science and technology, have followed one another since the times of the scientific revolution and have intensified after the beginning of the industrial revolution. In the most recent attempts, the focus is on the mystical or salvific character of human evolution, which would have technological singularity as its last stage. Singularity is framed by its theoreticians within different scientific paradigms, here qualified as "biological", "cybernetic", "informatic", "robotic", and "hybrid".