organisations ::: ressources ::: texts ::: critics and …
Once bitten ... (guardian.co.uk)
The science of nanotechnology is already revolutionising the worlds of medicine and construction. Soon it could be doing the same for our food – but after the backlash against GM foods, says Steve Boggan, will the consumers swallow it? [...]
Alfred Nordmann
(„Die Menschen von morgen, die Herausforderungen von heute (Technology Review 21.12.2007)
Neue Technologien und Technik im Allgemeinen beherrschen mehr denn je den Diskurs über die Zukunft: Einerseits werden sie als unerlässliche Voraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Standortpolitik im globalen Wettbewerb propagiert, andererseits als Grundlage einer möglichen Dystopie von umfassender Kontrolle und Manipulation kritisiert. Gleichzeitig wird Technik meist als etwas Gegebenes, Sekundäres hingenommen, werden ihre Grundlagen und Entwicklungsspielräume selten ausreichend reflektiert. Diese wird Technology Review nun in einer neuen Essay-Reihe beleuchten. Den Anfang macht Alfred Nordmann, Wissenschaftsphilosoph an der TU Darmstadt und Leiter des Nanobüros. Er untersucht den transhumanistischen Diskurs vom technischen optimierten Individuum der Zukunft. Dieser, so Nordmanns These, baut nicht nur auf fragwürdigen Annahmen auf – er ist vor allem altmodisch und verstellt uns den Blick auf wirklich bedeutende Veränderungen. [...]“)
Facing the Challenges of Transhumanism: Philosophical, Religious, and Ethical Considerations
By Hava Tirosh-Samuelson
(»Introduction1
What is Transhumanism?
The term ‘transhumanism’ denotes a relatively young and still changing ideology that posits a new vision of humanity as a result of the confluence of advancements in the life sciences, neurosciences, genomics, robotics, informatics, and nanotechnology. These developments include new kinds of cognitive tools that combine artificial intelligence with interface technology, molecular nanotechnology, extension of human life span, genetic enhancing of human mental and physical capacities, combating diseases and slowing down the process of aging, and exercising control over desires, moods, and mental states. Those who enthusiastically promote these developments in biotechnology and bioengineering maintain that the accelerating pace of technological development and scientific understanding will usher in a new age in the history of the human species during which people will live longer, will possess new physical and cognitive abilities and will be liberated from suffering and pain due to aging and disease. In the transhuman age, humans will no longer be controlled by nature; instead they will be the controllers of nature. [...]«)
The Scientific Conquest of Death
Essays on Infinite Lifespans (2004) Edited by Immortality Institute
ISBN: 9875611352
Book Content
Introduction
Overview
Chapter I: SCIENCE: Biomedicine, Nanotechnology and other strategies
- Biological Immortality – Rose
- The War on Aging – Grey
- The Dream of Elixir Vitae – Magalhes
- Therapeutic Cloning – West
- Nanomedicine – Freitas
- Human Body Version 2.0 – Kurzweil
- Progress Toward Cyberimmortality – Bainbridge
- Will Robots Inherit the Earth? – Minsky
- Medical Time Travel: A Question of Science – Wowk
Chapter II: PERSPECTIVES: Ethics, Sociology and Philosophy
- Some Ethical and Theological Considerations – Mellon
- Superlongevity without Overpopulation – More
- Upsetting the Natural Order – Treder
- The Self-Defeating Fantasy – Rabkin
- Time Consciousness in Very Long Life – Clynes
- Confessions of a Proselytizing Immortalist – Vyff
- Some Problems with Immortalism – Best
- An Introduction to Immortalist Morality – Geddes
- Should We Fear Death? – Blackford
- Who Wants To Live Forever? – Bostrom
Chapter III: Resources
Bibliography
Publishers Note
Thanks
Chris Chatham: 10 Important Differences Between Brains and Computers
(»”A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.” – G.C. Lichtenberg
Although the brain-computer metaphor has served cognitive psychology well, research in cognitive neuroscience has revealed many important differences between brains and computers. Appreciating these differences may be crucial to understanding the mechanisms of neural information processing, and ultimately for the creation of artificial intelligence. Below, I review the most important of these differences (and the consequences to cognitive psychology of failing to recognize them): similar ground is covered in this excellent (though lengthy) lecture. [...]«)
Be More Than You Can Be (Wired 15.03)
Heat-resistant. Cold-proof. Tireless. Tomorrow’s soldiers are just like today’s — only better. Inside the Pentagon’s human enhancement project.
By Noah Shachtman
(»The lab is climate-controlled to 104 degrees Fahrenheit and 66 percent humidity. Sitting inside the cramped room, even for a few minutes, is an unpleasantly moist experience. I’ve spent the last 40 minutes on a treadmill angled at a 9 percent grade. My face is chili-red, my shirt soaked with sweat. My breath is coming in short, unsatisfactory gasps. The sushi and sake I had last night are in full revolt. The tiny speakers on the shelf blasting “Living on a Prayer” are definitely not helping. [...]«)
Dale Carrico: Technoprogressivism Beyond Technophilia and Technophobia
(»Technocentrism, Technophilia, and Technophobia
A technophile is a person to whom we attribute a naïve or uncritical enthusiasm for technology, while a technophobe is a person to whom we attribute a no less uncritical dread of or hostility to technology. But what does it tell us that there is no comparably familiar word simply to describe a person who is focused on the impact of technology in a critical way that is attentive both to its promises and its dangers?
Why is it that any technocentric perspective on cultural, historical, political, and social questions is always imagined to be either uncritically technophilic or technophobic? Is it really so impossible to conceive of a critical technocentrism equally alive to real promises and alert to real dangers? [...]«)
James Hughes: Democratic Transhumanism 2.0
Abstract
(»Biopolitics is emerging as an axis of modern politics alongside economic politics and cultural politics. Transhumanists, people who embrace technologies that extend and enhance regardless of their effect on “natural” life spans, limitations or social institutions, are the progressive end of the new biopolitical continuum. BioLuddites, who call for bans on technologies that threaten the “natural,” are conservative end of the new biopolitics.
But biopolitics only complicates the preexisting political landscape, they doesn’t supplant it. There are Christian fundamentalists, centrists and socialist-feminists forming alliances to to oppose human genetic engineering and nanotechnology. But the transhumanists are, so far, much less diverse, mostly adhering to one or another flavor of libertarianism. Democratic transhumanists, pro-scitech social democrats or Left technoutopians are conspicuously absent from their theoretical niche in this new political landscape. This essay is an attempt to identify democratic transhumanists and urge their coalescence.
Dale Carrico:The Trouble with “Transhumanism”: Part One
The term “transhumanist” may give people an identity at the cost of achieving their goals
By Dale Carrico (Betterhumans 12/17/2004)
(»I’m not a transhumanist, but I play one on Google.
It’s been happening more and more lately. A student or colleague or friend who does an online search for my name or stumbles upon some of my online writing asks, in a somewhat perplexed tone, “Are you one of these ‘transhumanists?’” And, “What is this whole ‘transhumanist’ thing about?” The more I think about these questions, the harder it is to answer them. And this is making me incredibly nervous. [....]«)
The Trouble with “Transhumanism”: Part Two (Betterhumans 12/22/2004)
To make real progress in discussions of radical technology, the first thing we need is new language
(»As I discussed in the first part of this series, I think that some supporters of radical technological outcomes overapply the term “transhumanist” to their strategic allies in ways that might needlessly alienate them, render them more vulnerable to rhetorical attack and, in so doing, frustrate the achievement of shared strategic ends. [...]«)
Top Ten Cybernetic Upgrades Everyone Will Want (»Science fiction, computer games, anime… cyborgs are everywhere. Transhumanists are philosophers who believe that one day, cybernetic upgrades will be so powerful, elegant, and inexpensive that everyone will want them. This page lists ten major upgrades that I think will be adopted by 2050.«)
LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION SPECIAL REPORT
ENERGY 2020: A VISION OF THE FUTURE —
A REPORT RETRIEVED FROM THE YEAR 2020
VIA A WORMHOLE
By Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Board member José Luis Cordeiro
(»In 2020, world population has grown to 7.5 billion people, the global economy is approaching $80 trillion, and the wireless Internet 4.0 is now connecting almost half of humanity. Synergies among nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (commonly known as NBIC technologies) have dramatically improved the human condition by increasing the availability of energy, food, and water and by connecting people and information anywhere, anytime. The positive effects are to increase collective intelligence and to create value and efficiency while lowering costs. [...]«)
(“WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY?
As an activity, as a state of mind, science is fundamentally optimistic. Science figures out how things work and thus can make them work better. Much of the news is either good news or news that can be made good, thanks to ever deepening knowledge and ever more efficient and powerful tools and techniques. Science, on its frontiers, poses more and ever better questions, ever better put.
What are you optimistic about? Why? Surprise us!”)
Our Technological Future: (“About upcoming technologies such as nanotechnology/molecular manufacturing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology. All of these are accelerating exponentially. The implications are vast.”)
Cryonics Institute: Cryonic Suspension Services (” “Your Last Best Chance For Life–and Your Family’s.” The Cryonics Institute offers cryonic suspension services and information. As soon as possible after legal death, a member patient is prepared and cooled to a temperature where physical decay essentially stops, and is then maintained indefinitely in cryostasis. When and if future medical technology allows, our member patients hope to be healed and revived, and awaken to extended life in youthful good health.
Cryonics: Alcor Life Extension Foundation (“The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is the world leader in cryonics, cryonics research, and cryonics technology. Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve human life with the intent of restoring good health when technology becomes available to do so. Alcor is a non-profit organization located in Scottsdale, Arizona, founded in 1972.”)
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (“Why Can’t We All Be Better Than Well? The IEET’s mission is to become a center for voices arguing for a responsible, constructive approach to emerging human enhancement technologies. We believe that technological progress can be a catalyst for positive human development so long as we ensure that technologies are safe and equitably distributed.”)
Mac Tonnies Visual Industries Transhumanism. (“The MTVI transhumanism site is an attempt to pin down the trends and technologies most likely to upgrade the human species. Evolution is a performance art.”)
KurzweilAI.net (“KurzweilAI.net features the big thoughts of today’s big thinkers examining the confluence of accelerating revolutions that are shaping our future world, and the inside story on new technological and social realities from the pioneers actively working in these arenas. We are witnessing intersecting revolutions in a plethora of fields: biotechnology, nanotechnology, molecular electronics, computation, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, virtual reality, human brain reverse engineering, brain augmentation, robotics, and many others. The leading visionaries represented on this site examine these transforming trends and their profound impact on economics, the arts, politics, government, warfare, medicine, health, education, disabilities, social mores, and sexuality.”)
Paradise-engineering : The Hedonistic Imperative (“This manifesto outlines a strategy to eradicate suffering in all sentient life. The abolitionist project is ambitious, implausible, but technically feasible. It is defended here on ethical utilitarian grounds. Genetic engineering and nanotechnology allow Homo sapiens to discard the legacy-wetware of our evolutionary past. Our post-human successors will rewrite the vertebrate genome, redesign the global ecosystem, and abolish suffering throughout the living world.”)
Society for Neural Interfacing (“The objective of the Society for Neural Interfacing (SNI) is to actively promote research on Neural Interfacing. SNI promotes the excitement of research on Neural Interfacing at the intersection of various fields of research. SNI promotes the diffusion and exchange of information among people dedicated to research on Neural Interfacing. SNI furthers the quest for wisdom and scientific truth by means of neural interfacing.”)
Robert A. Freitas Jr.: What Price Freedom? [KurzweilAI.net] (“Is a tyrannized humanity worth preserving, even at the expense of its freedom, in order to maintain the very existence of the human species, recognizing that global tyranny is a logical end-state of the unchecked spread of nanotechnology-enabled dictatorships that are capable of employing perfect mind control?”)
Robert A. Freitas Jr.: Economic Impact of the Personal Nanofactory [KurzweilAI.net] (“Deflationary forces resulting from mass availability of desktop personal nanofactories can be opposed by inflationary forces competently initiated by governmental monetary authorities.”)
Michael Buerger: From The Enlightenment to N-Lightenment [KurzweilAI.net] (“The criminal potentials inherent in molecular manufacturing include powerful new illegal drugs, mass murder via compromised assembly codes, and a “killer virus” crossing out of cyberspace into the physical realm. A criminal-justice futurist examines the possibilities.”)
Tom Craver: Safer Molecular Manufacturing through Nanoblocks [KurzweilAI.net] (“Lego-style “nanoblocks” could prevent a molecular-assembly fabber from building an atom-precise nanofactory or devices that could help in any attempt to “bootstrap” production of an atom-precise nanofactory, reducing the risk of proliferation of atom-precise MM to “rogue nations” or terrorists.”)
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