12.25.08
Posted in Ethics, Evolution / Genetics, Future, Human Enhancement, Nootropics, Technology, Transhumanism at 10:55 am by rheil
Enhancing the species (Anjana Ahuja, Times online, May, 17.)
Our correspondent meets the controversial philosopher John Harris, who argues that we have a moral and ethical duty to improve the human race by biologically enhancing our children
The whiteboard in John Harris’s office declares: “John is cool.” Many hold a different opinion of one of the most controversial philosophers in Britain. Here are some of his views: abortion and euthanasia are both fine, desirable even; parents should be allowed to create designer or cloned babies; there’s nothing wrong with a drug-fuelled Olympics; scientists and medics should strive to make us immortal, even on a crowded planet; our bodies should be routinely plundered after death for organs, even if the dead and bereaved do not wish it; it is morally justified to compel people to participate in scientific trials, just as we compel them to do jury service. […]
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12.21.08
Posted in biotech, Evolution / Genetics, Future, Human Enhancement, Nanotechnology, Neuro, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:45 am by rheil
Call for papers: Transhumanism? (Re-Public)
We invite contributions for our upcoming special issue entitled “Transhumanism?”. Is there a new challenge about to dominate our world? A challenge that appears more pressing than the fight against climate change, as demanding as the one against poverty, more complex than our current questions around bioethics.
Are we in a position to redefine, to drastically transform our very human nature?
This is a question formed in the last 20 years by an international movement, deriving from a scientific current, advocating that if the human is a result of an evolution process of millions of years time, nothing rationally preempts its conclusion. On the contrary, transhumanism proposes that the convergence of nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, information and cognitive sciences provide us with a new opportunity, as well as, the responsibility to collectively participate and assume this evolution: it is, more than ever, possible to “form a better humanity” meaning better health for individuals, longer life expectancy, a more effective control of themselves, through enhanced skills, capacities and capabilities.
The special issue will attempt to investigate the influence of transhumanism and the new questions that its poses. […]
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Posted in AI / Singularity, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Technology at 7:39 am by rheil
Man kann eine Maschine nicht bestrafen – Interview mit Noel Sharkey
Matthias Gräbner 21.12.2008 (Telepolis)
Warum wir eine Roboter-Ethik brauchen
“Die Roboterentwicklung trägt nach langen Jahren endlich Früchte, in denen wir nur über die Zukunft gesprochen haben“: Dies behauptet Noel Sharkey, Professor für künstliche Intelligenz und Robotik an der Universität Sheffield. Die rasante Entwicklung, so Sharkey, verlangt neue Gesetze und eine gesellschaftliche Diskussion über die Ethik des Einsatzes von Robotern. Telepolis sprach mit ihm. […]
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12.19.08
Posted in biotech, Evolution / Genetics, Future, Human Enhancement, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:16 am by rheil
The Future of Man – How Will Evolution Change Humans? By Peter Ward (Scientific American)
Contrary to popular belief, humans continue to evolve. Our bodies and brains are not the same as our ancestors’ were—or as our descendants’ will be
People commonly assume that our species has evolved very little since prehistoric times. Yet new studies using genetic information from populations around the globe suggest that the pace of human evolution increased with the advent of agriculture and cities.
If we are still evolving, what might our species look like in a millennium should we survive whatever environmental and social surprises are in store for us? Speculation ranges from the hopeful to the dystopian. [...]
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12.18.08
Posted in biotech, Critics, Human Enhancement, Neuro, Nootropics, Technology, Transhumanism at 9:38 am by rheil
Better than human – Why is the world’s most prestigious science journal peddling the snake oil of cognition-enhancing drugs? (Michael Cook, Mercator Net)
Publication in the British journal Nature is the acme of academic achievement, a byword for quality and the touchstone of scientific opinion. So when its editor co-authors an article putting the case for a technology which has been called the world’s most dangerous idea, you’ve got to ask: what have these dudes been smoking? […]
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12.17.08
Posted in Critics, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Human Enhancement, Technology, Texts about Transhumanism, Transhumanism at 9:09 am by rheil
Oliver Krüger
Die Vervollkommnung des Menschen
Tod und Unsterblichkeit im Posthumanismus und Transhumanismus
Der Mensch ist unvollkommen. Neben den vielen kleinen körperlichen und geistigen Grenzen und den krankheitsbedingten Leiden haftet ihm vor allem ein Makel an: der Mensch ist sterblich. Seine Tage sind gezählt – herausragenden Exemplaren der Gattung Mensch gelingt es heutzutage immerhin, bis zu 38.000 mal das Werden und Vergehen eines Tages zu erleben, aber dann ist Schluss. Das wusste schon der mythische König Gilgamesh, der sich auf die Suche nach einem zauberhaften Unsterblichkeitskraut machte, und auch aus der Sicht des Soziologen Max Weber offenbarte sich im Faktum des Todes “die Sinnlosigkeit der rein innerweltlichen Selbstvervollkommnung zum Kulturmenschen”, die prägend sein sollte für eine sich säkular verstehende Moderne – denn trotz aller Sublimierungsversuche blieb der Tod. […]
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12.12.08
Posted in Deutschsprachige Seiten, Human Enhancement, Nootropics, Transhumanism at 10:19 am by rheil
Experten fordern Regeln für den Smart-Drugs Menschenpark (Telepolis)
Wie soll verantwortungsvoller Umgang mit den sogenannten “Cognitive Enhancern” aussehen?
Es überrascht, dass ausgerechnet das angesehene Wissenschaftsmagazin Nature der Diskussion um die sogenannten “cognitive Enhancer” so viel Raum gibt. Schon vor einem Jahr stellte man dort in die Frage Would you boost your brainpower?, eine nicht repräsentative Umfrage unter den Lesern wies auf eine gewisse Affinität der akademischen Elite zu Medikamenten hin, die das geistige Leistungspotential auf die eine oder andere Seite steigern sollen (siehe: Ritalin für Alle!). [...]
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Posted in Human Enhancement, Neuro, Nootropics, Transhumanism at 10:15 am by rheil
New Ways to Boost Memory – Enhancing neuron gene expression may improve memory.
By Emily Singer (Technology Review)
Scientists are developing new ways to selectively boost gene expression in the brain, in the hope of treating psychiatric and neurological disease. A growing pool of evidence shows that compounds that target this mechanism can improve learning and memory in rodents. But existing drugs, which were not developed for this purpose, are relatively weak and unselective, and their long-term safety is not yet clear. […]
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12.09.08
Posted in Deutschsprachige Seiten, Ethics, Human Enhancement, Neuro, Nootropics, Politic, Technology, Transhumanism at 8:21 am by rheil
Ritalin für alle!
Laurin Rötzer 08.12.2008 (TP)
Medikamente können unsere geistige Leistungsfähigkeit steigern. Ist das Einnehmen dieser „kognitiven Enhancer“ ethisch korrekt, sollte es jeder tun können?
Diese Fragen stellen sich die Autoren eines in Nature vorab online veröffentlichten Essays: [extern] Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy Es gibt einige Medikamente, die die geistige Leistungsfähigkeit steigern können. Das bekannteste dürfte Methylphenidat (Ritalin) sein, welches vor allem für Kinder mit dem Aufmerksamkeitsdefizitsyndrom (ADHS) verschrieben wird. Andere sind Amphetamine und Modafinil. Sie haben gemeinsam, dass sie die Konzentration von bestimmten Neurotransmittern im Gehirn variieren und so längere und intensivere Aufmerksamkeitsspannen ermöglichen. […]
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Posted in Ethics, Human Enhancement, Neuro, Nootropics, Politic, Technology, Transhumanism at 8:17 am by rheil
Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy
Henry Greely, Barbara Sahakian, John Harris, Ronald C. Kessler, Michael Gazzaniga, Philip Campbell & Martha J. Farah
Society must respond to the growing demand for cognitive enhancement. That response must start by rejecting the idea that ‘enhancement’ is a dirty word, argue Henry Greely and colleagues.
Today, on university campuses around the world, students are striking deals to buy and sell prescription drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin — not to get high, but to get higher grades, to provide an edge over their fellow students or to increase in some measurable way their capacity for learning. These transactions are crimes in the United States, punishable by prison. […]
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12.07.08
Posted in Anti-Aging, biotech, Human Enhancement, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:46 am by rheil
Never Say Die -Step aside, quacks. The search for longer life is a real science now.
By Anne Underwood | NEWSWEEK, Published Dec 6, 2008, From the magazine issue dated Dec 15, 2008
By the time it reaches the age of 18 days, the average roundworm is old, flabby, sluggish and wrinkled. By 20 days, the creature will likely be dead—unless, that is, it’s one of Cynthia Kenyon’s worms. Kenyon, director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at the University of California, San Francisco, has tinkered with two genes that turn simple worms into mini-Methuselahs, with life spans of up to 144 days. “You can beat them up in ways that would kill a normal worm—exposing them to high heat, radiation and infectious microbes—and still they don’t die,” she says. “Instead, they’re moving and looking like young worms. It’s like a miracle—except it’s science.” [...]
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12.06.08
Posted in Nanotechnology, Technology, Transhumanism, Transhumanists at 12:18 pm by rheil
Metamodern.com (Eric Drexler)
In this blog, I’ll discuss current progress in science and technology, often with a specific perspective in mind: how current progress can contribute to the development of advanced nanosystems. This system-building perspective often highlights research opportunities and rewards that might otherwise be missed. As the topics come up, I’ll be suggesting research objectives that seem practical, valuable, and ready for serious pursuit.
However, like Engines of Creation, this blog isn’t intended to be “about nanotechnology”, but about broader issues involving technologies that will bring global change. Social software and the computational infrastructure of society are high on the list.
I hope that you will find enough of value here to repay your ongoing attention. [...]
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12.05.08
Posted in Human Enhancement at 12:44 pm by rheil
Raising the World’s I.Q.
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, Published: December 4, 2008, RAWALPINDI, Pakistan
Travelers to Africa and Asia all have their favorite forms of foreign aid to “make a difference.” One of mine is a miracle substance that is cheap and actually makes people smarter.
Unfortunately, it has one appalling side effect. No, it doesn’t make you sterile, but it is just about the least sexy substance in the world. Indeed, because it’s so numbingly boring, few people pay attention to it or invest in it. (Or dare write about it!)
It’s iodized salt. […]
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