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In this talk with Accelerating Future’s Michael Anissimov, IEET Intern and WTA Board member Anne Corwin spoke on futurism, neurodiversity, life extension, transhumanism and self-modification. [Transcript] [Audio]
Since I ended my technoprogressive manifesto with a dire warning about “barbarians within our midst”, I’ve been asked by a few of my readers to more clearly identify the threat to democracy I am so concerned about. Two words: Christian fascism.
Dartmouth ethics professor Ron Green argues in Babies by Design that parents will inevitably have choices about the genetic endowments of their children, and that this will be for the best. He argues that universal access to safe genetic therapies and enhancements can make society more equal. (MP3)
The folks visiting the IEET appear to be a little more liberal on the topic of reproductive cloning than the average homo sapien, since nine out of ten of you voted to make it a legal reproductive choice once it is safe.
The smart environment era is just about upon us, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when our previously “dumb” surroundings become embedded with Internet-connected intelligence.
Tunerooms.com is a new website offering free (and DRM-free) tools for music collaboration, band and fan management, music distribution, and social networking. Dr. J. talks with Matthew Falkowski about how Tunerooms was conceived, the niche it seeks to fill, and the challenges it faces.
The second part of George’s recent interview with KMO at C-Realm. In this episode George primarily addresses the sociological impacts of radical life extension.
Andres Lomena recently conducted an interview for the Spanish magazine Cronopis with the Chair of the IEET’s Board of directors Nick Bostrom, as well as with IEET friend David Pearce, about their co-founding of the World Transhumanist Association and related topics. They have kindly allowed us to reprint the interview here.
Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon, the co-hosts of Fastforward Radio, visited live with IEET Executive Director Dr. James Hughes. They spoke with Dr. Hughes about his association with the World Transhumanist Association and his book Citizen Cyborg. Phil wanted to know about how “sexy” became a tag line for James Hughes own radio show, Change Surfer Radio. They talked some about the disagreement that Hughes has had with Eliezer Yudkowsky. Hughes is less enthusiastic about friendly AI than he is about human enhancement. (MP3)
This June 2007 update to the original viral video hit “Shift Happens” from Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, includes new and updated statistics, thought-provoking questions and a fresh design. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com—Content by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod.
Professor Julian Savulescu of Oxford argues we should not only fight disease, but enhance improving IQ, behaviour, mood, character and morality. He argues enhancement has immense benefits, not only for individuals, but for society as a whole. A lecture from the Sydney Ideas series at the University of Sydney from 19th August 2007. MP3Show Transcript.
Waaaaaay back in the dark days of early 2006, I gave a little talk at the TED conference on the idea of an “Earth Witness” program, with sensing devices built into mobile phones to allow for collaborative environmental science.
The World Transhumanist Association (WTA) - with which many IEET fellows and staff are associated - has launched a $50,000 fundraising drive with matching grants from two philanthropists.
The following was taken from a cave wall painting in southern Tunisia more than 300,000 years ago. Fossil evidence suggests that the author was of the species Homo erectus.
Mike Magee is author of eight books, including Health Politics: Power, Populism and Health. He directs healthcommentary.org, and serves as a member of the National Commission for Quality Long Term Care. We discuss his latest book, Home-Centered Health Care, which argues that the quality of health care can be dramatically improved, and costs contained, by re-building health management around electronic patient records and home-based electronic medical monitoring.
Space Collective's Great Enhancement Debate Project
Nina Anissimov, sister of IEET contributor Michael Anissimov, contributes three video reflections on enhancement to the Space Collective’s Great Enhancement Debate Project.
Final Speech of “The Great Dictator”
(also known as “Look Up, Hannah” )
by Charlie Chaplin
Schulz: Speak - it is our only hope.
The Jewish Barber (Charlie Chaplin’s character): Hope… I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor - that’s not my business - I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.
We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful.
But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish…
Soldiers - don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate - only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.
In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people.
You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.
Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting - the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.
The soul of man has been given wings - and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope - into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.”
Stanford Humanities Lab’s second Metaverse Meetup presents Jamais Cascio, one the authors of the Metaverse Roadmap (the report in PDF). Jamais outlined some possible scenarios for our future online life that both contained optismism as well as some somber warnings of what might happen in a not too distant future.
The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, under the direction of Mike Treder and Jamais Cascio, worked with two dozen technology futurists to develop eight scenarios imagining the future of nanotechnology.
IEET Fellow Mike Treder directs the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology which - with the assistance of IEET Fellow Jamais Cascio, who also serves as CRN’s Director of Impacts Analysis - has released eight scenarios for the future development of nanotechnology reflecting a collective scenario process of two dozen people.
This drama illustrates the contribution of free enterprise, technology, and Westinghouse products to the American way of life. The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair pits an anti-capitalist bohemian artist boyfriend against an all-American electrical engineer who believes in improving society by working through corporations. The Middletons experience Westinghouse’s technological marvels at the Fair and win back their daughter from her leftist boyfriend.
Memorable moments: the dishwashing contest between Mrs. Modern and Mrs. Drudge; Electro, the smoking robot; and the Westinghouse time capsule.
In this new three-part series, leading theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond. He argues that humankind is at a turning point in history. In this century, we are going to make the historic transition from the ‘Age of Discovery’ to the ‘Age of Mastery’, a period in which we will move from being passive observers of nature to its active choreographers. This will give us not only unparalleled possibilities but also great responsibilities.
1. THE INTELLIGENCE REVOLUTION
In the opening instalment, Kaku explains how artificial intelligence will revolutionise homes, workplaces and lifestyles, and how virtual worlds will become so realistic that they will rival the physical world. Robots with human-level intelligence may finally become a reality, and in the ultimate stage of mastery, we’ll even be able to merge our minds with machine intelligence. For the first time on television, see how a severely depressed patient can be turned into a happy person at the push of a button - all thanks to the cross-pollination of neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
Joseph Jackson is a philosopher and social entrepreneur who promotes open source and peer-to-peer approaches to biotechnology. He now leads the Network for Open Scientific Innovation, a nonprofit organization and distributed think tank with partners in Brazil and Australia.
Next May, several hundred neurologists and philosophers will gather in the resort of Varadero, Cuba, for the fifth International Symposium on the Definition of Death. At first sight, defining death might not seem like something that requires much scientific or philosophical attention. Look more closely, though, and the line between life and death is rapidly becoming increasingly fuzzy.
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