Not surprisingly, at least not for me anyway, Aubrey de Grey‘s “Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence” (SENS) survived a Technology Review challenge which sought to determine whether or not the theory was worthy of “learned debate.”
Here’s a nice summation of the judge’s conclusion:
We need to remember that all hypotheses go through a stage where one or a small number of investigators believe something and others raise doubts. The conventional wisdom is usually correct. But while most radical ideas are in fact wrong, it is a hallmark of the scientific process that it is fair about considering new propositions; every now and then, radical ideas turn out to be true. Indeed, these exceptions are often the most momentous discoveries in science.
SENS has many unsupported claims and is certainly not scientifically proven. I personally would be surprised if de Grey is correct in the majority of his claims. However, I don’t think Estep et al. have proved that SENS is false; that would require more research. In some cases, SENS makes claims that run parallel to existing research (while being more sensational). Future investigation into those areas will almost certainly illuminate the controversy. Until that time, people like Estep et al. are free to doubt SENS. I share many of those doubts, but it would be overstating the case to assert that Estep et al. have proved their point.
Here’s TR editor-in-chief Jason Pontin’s account of the judge’s findings.
Here’s the Estep et al. dissention to the decision.
Read more about it in ImmInst and Betterhumans.
And here’s my rant from a few weeks back.
The Unspoken Word
by
Jamais Cascio
“But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?”
—Wm. Shakespeare, Hamlet
The idea that tomorrow is a destination, an “undiscovered country,” is the lifeblood of classic futurism. We wish to see where we are headed; we want to know what hidden shoals to avoid, and which strong currents to follow. It’s this idea of the future as a place just over the horizon that allows us to imagine the “end of history,” to fear getting to the future as a race to be lost, to see tomorrow as a land we have yet to conquer.
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Focusing on Energy and the Participatory Panopticon
by
Jamais Cascio
I had the somewhat surreal experience last night of participating in a focus group on the California energy industry. My experience was odd because, about a quarter of the way through, the moderator was called out by the faceless folks behind the mirror, and when he returned, he asked that I, in essence, keep my mouth shut. I literally knew too much about the world of energy production, distribution and efficiency to make a good focus group participant. I was told that they’d love to hear what I had to say at the end, if there was enough time. I did manage to sneak a couple of comments in here and there, but I ended up being more an observer than anything else.
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The Near Future of the Metaverse
by
Giulio Prisco
An interesting recent article of the Times Online ( Welcome to a revolution with no end in sight) says: Virtual reality used to be a popular notion a decade or so ago, but now the phrase sounds so dated that the concept has become unfashionable long before it exists. Yet a version of the concept is taking off as people want to lose themselves in the complex virtual worlds of multiplayer computer games - and it heralds a revolution in media consumption that is unfolding at blistering speed.
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What Our Bodies Say After Humanism
by
Dale Carrico
I have long thought that when Aristotle defined “man” [sic] as the “political animal,” this formulation constituted a fledgling kind of cyborg manifesto written many centuries before Donna Haraway’s own. Aristotle’s definition amounts to the claim that human animals become different in their “essential natures” when they live together in cities.
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Rethinking Democracy Among the Experts
by
Dale Carrico
Back in September, 2005, I tossed off a quick response to something I had read on the technoliberation list, and then I revised it into a short essaylet for Amor Mundi. Since I posted the original here, “Democracy Among the Experts” has exerted a weird fascination on me, for some reason. Every few weeks or so I find myself drawn back into it, and I start tinkering, editing, generally fussing around with it again. I realize now that the essay has grown quite different from the original, and although I cannot promise that it has reached a more final form, it did occur to me that it was sufficiently different at this point to merit consideration on its own terms. I am starting to suspect that the rather throwaway comment at the beginning of the piece—about deliberative and sustainable development being the two parallel planks in my own technoprogressive vision—probably tells me where this essay will eventually go next… Showing how deliberative and sustainable development are not only both necessary to a properly technoprogressive politics, but interdependent as well.
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Hope for human nature
by
Mike Treder
It has been demonstrated time after tragic time—in colonial North America, 1940’s Germany, Cambodia, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Darfur… Large, even mainstream groups of people can be induced to slaughter other groups of people by the millions, just for political or economic convenience.
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Audio of IEET Programs talk in SL online
Dutch transhumanist George Overmeire made a recording of the June 30 2006 presentations by James Hughes (aka James Sleeper in Second Life) (the slides can be downloaded here)and Giulio Prisco (aka Giulio Perhaps in Second Life). He also has put up an outline of Hughes’ presentation on his website on transhumanism.
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Superman’s return to a post 9/11 world
by
George Dvorsky
I have a real soft spot for the 1978 version of Superman, so it was with some anticipation that I went to see Superman Returns yesterday with my eldest son – who is practically the same age now as I was back in ’78. After sitting (and often squirming) through the 2½ hour updated version, let’s just say that Superman Returns didn’t have nearly the same impact as its predecessor. It was actually quite mediocre, but it’s given me some fodder for a rant.
Like most of my reviews, this one is spoiler ridden, so stop reading now if this poses a problem for you.
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Dale Carrico on Technoprogressive Politics
by
Dale Carrico
MT Is there a substantial distinction between a technoprogressive and a transhumanist?
DC “Technoprogressive” is just a shorthand way of saying “technology-focused progressive.” My impression from the transhumanist-identified people I know is that most of them see themselves as part of a cultural movement with a unique shared identity and a coherent political program of the kind I would tend to associate with organized parties or membership organizations.
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Building Technoprogress through the Multiverse
Giulio Prisco:
The first IEET presentation in Second Life, dedicated to outlining the work and programs of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, took place on June 30, 2006.
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Philanthrocapitalism or philanthrobabble?
by
George Dvorsky
My libertarian socialist sensibilities were both tickled and agitated this week when I learned that Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest man, donated virtually his entire $31 billion fortune to the Gates Foundation. Buffett is known for his philosophical opposition to dynastic wealth, but the donation was also emblematic of his support for what is coming to be regarded as “philanthrocapitalism” – the increasing trend toward entrepreneurial approaches to philanthropy.
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Extreme Futures
Changesurfer Radio
Canton is chairman and CEO of the Institute for Global Futures at http://futureguru.com
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Participatory Panopticon
LibSyn.Com
Jamais Cascio spoke at the Accelerating Change 2005 converence on the “Participatory Panopticon”
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Ambivalence of the Posthuman Condition
Changesurfer Radio
Erik Davis spoke at Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights, May 26-28, 2006 at the Stanford University Law School, Stanford, California.
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Meme Therapy interviews Nick Bostrom
MA number of people hold the opinion that technological change is slowing down as opposed to accelerating. Do you disagree with that assessment and if so how what
counterargument would you put to such people?
NB It depends on how you measure “technological change”. If we use long-term
trends in economic productivity growth as a general proxy for overall technological change, then it has long been accelerating (productivity is growing exponentially). But if by technological change we mean something more phenomenological - say, how much psychological adjustment the average person needs to make in a year due to changing technology - then I don’t know whether the rate of change is faster, slower, or about the same as it was a hundred years ago.
Link
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Change Human Nature for Our Descendents
by
Russell Blackford
LeRoy Walters and Julie Gage Palmer’s The Ethics of Human Gene Therapy (1997) includes one of the best discussions of the prospect of genetic enhancement that I’ve encountered to date. I’ve been rereading this over the past few days, and found this passage which really says it all, and highlights the difference between people who broadly favour changing human nature, and human capacities, and those who “don’t get it”.
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Hey, deep ecologists: the planet is not your nature preserve!
by
George Dvorsky
In the absence of a Creator a number of people have taken to worshipping the next best thing, creation itself. This phenomenon has been exemplified by the rise of Gainism and the Gaianists. Given the poor state of the environment today this sentiment has mutated into the kind of reverential desperatism and misanthropism that is now the all too familiar opium promoted by the deep ecologists. God may be dead, but religious sensibilities that showcase the unworthiness of man have been retained by these radical environmentalists, resulting in a worldview that perpetuates defeatism, shamefulness and self-loathing.
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Update on the Spanish Apes legislation
The struggle to base rights on personhood instead of irrelevant biological markers such as race is moving ahead in Spain. where the Spanish Socialist party is proceeding to a vote to extend human rights protection to great apes.
According to the Daily Telegraph
Spain could soon become the first country in the world to give chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and other great apes some of the fundamental rights granted to human beings under a law being proposed by members of the ruling Socialist coalition.
The law would eliminate the concept of “ownership” for great apes, instead placing them under the “moral guardianship” of the state, much as is the case for children in care, the severely handicapped and those in comas, said the MP behind the project, Francisco Garrido.
Great apes held in Spanish zoos would be moved to state-built sanctuaries, unless there was a risk that moving them would harm their emotional welfare, he said.
The law would also make it a criminal offence to mistreat or kill a great ape, except in cases of self-defence or medical euthanasia.
As a first step, Mr Garrido, a Green MP for Seville who sits with the Socialists, will propose a resolution on the rights of great apes before the parliament’s environment committee at the end of this month. He said he expects the committee to approve the resolution which already has received the public support of ministers.
Mr Garrido said he was confident that either the government, or the ruling Socialist majority, would introduce a Great Apes Law after the summer recess.
The legislation is opposed by the Catholic Church.
The proposed resolution along with more information about the practical effects of this legislation can be found on the Great Ape Project website. You can post comments on the law at the Spanish site by selecting “libro de visitas” or by sending a letter to:
Proyecto Gran Simio,
Guadalest 5, 2A,
03005 Alicante, Spain
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Twelve Things Journalists Need To Know to be Good Futurist/Foresight Reporters
by
Jamais Cascio
J. Bradford DeLong is a professor of economics at UC Berkeley, and was an economic advisor to President Clinton; Susan Rasky is a senior lecturer in journalism at UC Berkeley, and was an award-winning reporter for the New York Times. Together, they have compiled for the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard lists of what economists need to know about journalists, and what journalists need to know about economists, in order to result in useful and accurate economic reporting. The lists are straightforward, and if followed would make a world of difference.
This is a remarkably good idea, one with direct application in a number of disciplines that are important for society but prone to obfuscation and confusion in the press: environmental science; bioscience; computer science (pretty much all sciences, in fact); developments on the Internet; and, of particular focus here, futurism and foresight. It’s too easy for poorly-informed journalists to skim off unrepresentative (but sound-byte-friendly) examples and concepts, and help to further public confusion instead of help to clear it up.
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Aubrey on Bloomberg Encounters
Bloomberg Encounters
Aubrey promotes SENS with Janet Street Porter from Bloomberg Encounters in the UK.
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Problems That Lie Ahead
by
Mike Treder
We are approaching a period of perilous geopolitical instability:
- when weapons of mass destruction will be more varied, more deadly, more available, cheaper to obtain, and easier to hide;
- when the strength (and the ambitions) of regional powers will increase rapidly while the stabilizing might of the U.S. could be in decline;
- when new technologies such as genetic engineering, robotics, nanotechnology, and possibly artificial intelligence could enable radical shifts in the balance of power;
- and when global climatic conditions —including increased frequency and severity of killer storms, droughts, infrastructure damage, crop failures, and even whole ecosystem collapses—will contribute to growing tensions.
The global situation is becoming a vortex, a maelstrom in which multiple risk factors will swirl and combine to create sudden new crises for which we may not have time to prepare. The act of reaching into the vortex to grab hold of and deal with one problem could send others spinning in new, ever more dangerous directions.
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Aubrey on N. Carolina radio
N. Carolina radio
Aubrey spoke about anti-aging research on WNRN Sunday Morning Wakeup Call.
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SENS scrutinized
by
George Dvorsky
A couple of weeks ago I was walking with Aubrey de Grey in picturesque Palo Alto when I asked him what the latest word was on Technology Review’s SENS challenge. He looked at me quite seriously and said, “The first three submissions will be presented in just two days.” I asked him if he was worried, and he responded by noting that he was pleased with the selection of judges – a panel that includes Rodney Brooks and Craig Venter, among others.
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Nick Bostrom on Existential Risks at Singularity Summit
Singularity Summit
Nick Bostrom spoke at the Singularity Summit at Stanford University on May 13, 2006. “We will probably one day have to take the gamble of superintelligence no matter what. But once in existence, a superintelligence could help us reduce or eliminate other existential risks, such as the risk that advanced nanotechnology will be used by humans in warfare or terrorism, a serious threat to the long-term survival of intelligent life on earth. If we get to superintelligence first, we may avoid this risk from nanotechnology and many others. If, on the other hand, we get nanotechnology first, we will have to face both the risks from nanotechnology and, if these risks are survived, also the risks from superintelligence. The overall risk seems to be minimized by implementing superintelligence, with great care, as soon as possible.”
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HETHR Reviews
George Dvorsky writes: In addition to my own, here are some reviews (both positive and negative) of the recent Human Enhancement Technologies Human Rights conference:
Brian Alexander of MSNBC: Is there a human right to be superhuman? Special powers aren’t just for comic-book characters, some ethicists argue
Ronald Bailey of Reason: The Right to Human Enhancement: And also uplifting animals and the rapture of the nerds
William Saletan of Slate: Among the Transhumanists: Cyborgs, self-mutilators, and the future of our race
Dale Carrico’s retort to Saletan: With Enemies Like Saletan Who Needs Friends?
Anders Sandberg: On the Enhancement Rights Track
Wesley Smith: Transhumanism Conference
And last but not least, Nydra’s detailed account of the conference:
Introduction, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, & Part V.
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Thanks for Back-Handed Compliments
By Dale Carrico, Amor Mundi June 6, 2006
William Saletan has just published a curious review of the “Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights” Conference (usually described by its acronym HETHR) that took place last weekend at Stanford University. I was a participant in the Conference myself, and even helped out a bit in organizing it, though the real heavy lifting was undertaken by my friend and collegue James Hughes, the Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) where I am currently a Fellow, and Richard Glen Boire and Wrye Sententia, Directors of the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics where I have been a Summer Fellow in the recent past.
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Constructing the case for enhancement at Stanford
by
George Dvorsky
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend and speak at the Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights (HETHR) conference at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. The conference, which was sponsored by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE), and the Stanford Law School (SLC), brought together a diverse array of thinkers who spent the weekend ruminating over the challenging issues surrounding human enhancement.
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Sustainable Cities
by
Jamais Cascio
Sustainlane‘s Warren Karlenzig is now blogging for the organization, and the opening of his site coincides with the release of Sustainlane’s 2006 US Cities Ranking. The top cities include Portland (#1, up from #2 last year), San Francisco (#2, down from #1), Seattle (#3), Philadelphia (#4) and Chicago (#5); New York hits #7, Austin #14, and #50 is Columbus, Ohio.
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Review: Doctor, Can You Fix My Broken Heart?
by
Andy Miah
This article began after watching the wonderful film ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ directed by Michel Gondry. It was not the first time I have thought about the way film can convey ethical issues related to medical technologies. One of the other films that sticks in my mind is Extreme Measures. There are many more and this review essay is now being developed into a more substantive article for an edited volume by Sandra Shapsay entitled ‘Bioethics through Film’, which will be published with Johns Hopkins University Press.
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ETHICAL TECHNOLOGY
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