TRANSHUMANISM
Affluent developed nations would have an increased foothold over developing nations due to such technologies. Cognitively enhanced humans would pose a major issue, since in a heavily knowledge-based economy, having workers who are able to think and learn faster may translate into faster economic growth for the countries.
TALOS, an advanced combat suit to be developed for the US Military (Berg, 2013) may be the future of military combat using Transhumanist technology.
Geopolitical
Considering the applications for Transhumanism in the military, social and economical spheres, countries may compete with one another to improve on their transhuman technologies, to secure military and global dominance, with the Nuclear Arms Race and the Space Race in the Cold War as a clear example.
The need to quickly develop such technologies, especially for military uses may neglect ethical issues such as human gene manipulation or tampering with parts of the human body.
However, the Space Race was also ongoing during the Cold War, which had the Soviet Union and the USA compete with one another to send satellites and cosmonauts into orbit. Eventually the US became the first to have a man walk on the Moon.
While a Technological Race may be harmful such as the Arms Race, when put to the aim of benefiting humanity, such as in the Space Race during the Cold War, it can lead to tremendous leaps for mankind. Similarly a Transhumanism Race may lead to great benefits and improvements for humanity as a whole.
TALOS: Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, commissioned to be developed for the US Military, has an onboard computer to provide instantaneous responses and situational awareness. TALOS also provides superhuman abilities and liquid armour that can protect the wearer against bullets (Berg, 2013). Reproduced from DailyTech (2013)
First Soviet Air-dropped Hydrogen Bomb Reproduced from Conflict (n.d.)
Nuclear Arms Race during the Cold War Reproduced from Desire2Learn (n.d.)
The Space Race, which culminated in the US being the first to send a man to walk on the moon on 20 July 1969. Reproduced from Time Magazine (1968).