Cyborg Buddha Blog
How recursively self-improving organic robots will modify their own source code and bootstrap our way to full-spectrum superintelligence.
Apr 27, 2012
George Dvorksy offers Online Seminar on Transhumanism
IEET Director and Board Member George Dvorsky is offering an online four-week seminar on transhumanism at The Center for Free Inquiry, teaching alongside John Shook, CFI director of education and AHA education coordinator. The course will run from May 1 to May 31.
Apr 11, 2012
Stelarc Ear-on-Arm Suspension (warning: not for the squeamish!)
Fine Eye ProductionsConfronting, fascinating, transcendent, profound, horrifying, self-flagellating, decadent, courageous, empathetic, which of the above accurately describes Stelarc’s 26th Suspension performance at the Scott Livesey Gallery in Melbourne? With 16 shark hooks piercing his back, elbows, and legs, the transhumanist artist Stelarc was supported by wire cables and cranked high above an oversize marquette of his own arm with embedded third ear). Is it body art/sculpture? Or something more or less? Any expression of the excessive physical pain he was experiencing may have unleashed the near palpable anxiety among the audience of 40 present.
DOWNLOAD/LISTEN/VIEWApr 1, 2012
(Enhancing) The Moral Brain: Day Three (J.‘s Notes)
by J. HughesAfter two days of serious neuroscience (Day One, Day Two morning, Day Two afternoon) I confess that my note-taking and summary abilities flagged a bit on the third day.
Mar 31, 2012
The Moral Brain: Day Two Afternoon (J.‘s Notes)
by J. HughesDay Two of the Moral Brain conference at New York University, co-sponsored by the IEET, is largely devoted to a review of the last ten years of research on the neuroscience of moral sentiments and decision-making, with talks by Jonathan Haidt among others.
Mar 31, 2012
The Moral Brain: Day Two Morning (J.‘s Notes)
by J. HughesDay Two of the Moral Brain conference at New York University, co-sponsored by the IEET, is largely devoted to a review of the last ten years of research on the neuroscience of moral sentiments and decision-making, with talks by Paul Bloom among others.
Mar 30, 2012
The Moral Brain: Day One (J.‘s Notes)
by J. HughesThe IEET is a co-organizer of the Moral Brain conference that started today at New York University. IEET Executive Director J. Hughes, IEET Fellow Wendell Wallach and IEET Affiliate Scholar Patrick Hopkins are speaking on Sunday in the moral enhancement part of the conference, and IEET Managing Director Hank Pellissier and IEET Affiliate Scholar Kyle Munkittrick are blogging. The Friday and Saturday sessions are a review of the last ten years of research on the neuroscience of moral sentiments and decision-making, and were organized by the NYU Center for Bioethics and, Duke Kenan Institute for Ethics. The IEET and Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics organized the moral enhancement panels for Saturday and Sunday, adding the praxis to the science.
Mar 23, 2012
IEET Readers Endorse Wide Availability of Morality Pills
Two weeks ago we asked how pills that safely “make people nicer by increasing their patience and empathy” should be regulated. Of the more than 250 people who voted, two thirds endorsed wide access to such drugs. (We will be sponsoring a conference at NYU in two weeks to discuss the topic of moral enhancement.)
Mar 23, 2012
Apprenticeship
by David BrinOne of the most vexing questions for technoprogressives and transhumanists is how to maintain the hard-won gains toward political equality among citizens as we become more diverse in our bodies and abilities. Francis Fukuyama pointed to the challenge in Our Posthuman Future, and Nicholas Agar addressed the issue in Humanity’s End. Technoprogressives believe that an expanded transhuman solidarity is possible if enhancement is made widely and equitably available, and if we we fight for a society committed to the rights of all persons. But it won’t be easy. In this story David Brin reflects on political and even theological challenges of the advent of a society with radical enhancement.
Mar 21, 2012
Can A Pill Make Us More Moral?
Colin McEnroe ShowIEET Executive Director J. Hughes, IEET Fellow Wendell Wallach and bioethicist Fabrice Jotterand join Connecticut public radio talk show host Colin McEnroe to discuss the exploding topic of “moral enhancement.”
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