Fellows of the IEET

Athena Andreadis is an Associate Professor of Cell Biology at the Shriver Center for Mental Retardation at University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the author of To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek.  She studies the gene regulatory mechanism known as alternative splicing. Athena writes on science and science fiction for The Harvard Review among other publications, while writing her own SF at the site Starship Reckless which she founded.

William Sims Bainbridge Ph.D. is a prolific and influential sociologist of religion, science and popular culture. Dr. Bainbridge serves as co-director of Human-Centered Computing at the NSF and has recently taught sociology and computational social science at George Mason University. In 1976 he published his first book The Spaceflight Revolution, which examined the push for space exploration in the 1960s. He then went on to publish Satan’s Power, which described several years of infiltration of the Process Church, a religious cult related to Scientology. In the last thirty years, Bainbridge has published more than a dozen more books dealing with space, religion, and psychology. Dr. Bainbridge’s long-standing interest in “personality capture,” using extensive personality surveys to record individual personalities in software, is reflected in works such as Experiments in Psychology (1986) which included cutting-edge psychology experimentation software written by Bainbridge.

Dr. Bainbridge was instrumental in creating the NBIC Converging Technologies program, and in producing its widely read reports:

• Societal Implications of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2001)
• Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science (2003)
• Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations: Converging Technologies In Society (2006)

Dr. Bainbridge’s CV.

Russell Blackford PhD LLB, an attorney, science fiction author and critic, philosopher, and public intellectual, lives in Melbourne, Australia. Russell is currently completing a second Ph.D. (in Philosophy) and teaches in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics at Monash University. He writes frequently on issues related to emerging technology, including the ethics and regulation of cloning, stem cell research, and human enhancement. His work has appeared in many magazines and journals, including Australian Law Review, Cosmos, Foundation, Journal of Law and Medicine, Journal of Popular Culture, Journal of Medical Ethics, Meanjin, Monash Bioethics Review, New York Review of Science Fiction, Quadrant, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Sudies, and Westerly. He has taught English literature at Monash, and worked in labour relations and professional legal practice. With Van Ikin and Sean McMullen, he wrote Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction.

Marshall Brain is the author of The Day You Discard Your Body, Manna and the founder of HowStuffWorks.com.  He is known for his book for teenagers entitled The Teenager’s Guide to the Real World.

Riccardo Campa is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cracow, where he teaches “sociology of science and technology” and “sociology and psychology of terrorism”. He is the author of Epistemological Dimensions of Robert Merton’s Sociology and Il filosofo è nudo. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology at the Nicholas Copernicus University of Torun (Poland), and two Masters degrees, in Political Sciences and Philosophy, at the University of Bologna (Italy). Before starting his academic career, Campa served as Lieutenant of the police corp “Guardia di Finanza”, investigating especially organized crime. Afterwards, he worked as a journalist for newspaper “La Voce di Mantova” and newsmagazine “Il Mondo”. In the academic year 2004-2005 he won a fellowship offered by NATO to research about ethical aspects of scientific and technological development. Presently, he writes regularly for the socialist journal ”MondOperaio”. He is the founder and the president of the Italian Transhumanist Association.  He is also a musician who has recorded more than fifteen albums as a solo artist and with his bands.

Dale Carrico Ph.D. was an IEET fellow from 2004 to 2008. He is a lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California at Berkeley, from which he received his PhD. in 2005, and is also a member of the visiting faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute.  He is currently adapting his dissertation into a book, Pancryptics: Technological Transformations of the Subject of Privacy.  He organized the 13th Annual Boundaries in Question Conference in March 2004, on the topic "New Feminist Perspectives on Biotechnology and Bioethics,” and was conference chair of the IEET conference on “Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights” to be held at Stanford University Law School, May 26-28, 2006.

Jamais Cascio writes about the intersection of emerging technologies and cultural transformation, and specializes in the design and creation of plausible scenarios of the future. His work focuses on the relationships between disparate forces and systems, and the importance of long-term, systemic thinking, particularly regarding the environment and technological development. In 2003, he co-founded WorldChanging.com, the award-winning website dedicated to finding and calling attention to models, tools and ideas for building a “bright green” future. His articles at WorldChanging covered topics including energy and the environment, global development, open source technologies, and catalysts for social change.

Cascio speaks about future scenarios around the world at venues such as the FuturShow 3000 in Bologna, Italy, and the TED 2006 conference in Monterey, California. His essays about technology and society have appeared in a variety of publications, including Wired, Salon and Time. Cascio has worked on a number of television and film projects, and designed the science fiction game settings Transhuman Space: Broken Dreams and Transhuman Space: Toxic Memes, exploring explore issues of posthumanity, intellectual property, sapient AI, nanotechnology, and bioengineering. Jamais has degrees in Anthropology, History and Political Science.

Aubrey de Grey Ph.D. is a biogerontologist, creator of the Methuselah Mouse prize, and Chairman and Chief Science Officer of the Methuselah Foundation. He designs interventions to reverse the cellular and molecular changes that accumulate with age and reduce remaining life expectancy. He has coined the term “strategies for engineered negligible senescence” (SENS) to describe these interventions, which he argues are the only feasible way to extend human lifespan by more than a decade.  He has published widely on SENS.  Aubrey is the co-founder and chief scientist of the Methuselah Mouse Prize, a contest designed to accelerate research into effective life extension interventions by awarding prizes to researchers who extend the lifespan of mice to unprecedented lengths. Aubrey serves as editor-in-chief of Rejuvenation Research.

Linda MacDonald Glenn is a bioethicist, healthcare educator, lecturer, consultant and attorney. Her extensive experience and passion for the issues facing the legal, nursing, and healthcare professions make her a compelling and thought-provoking lecturer.

Formerly a fellow with the Institute of Ethics of the American Medical Association, and current Women’s Bioethics Project Scholar, Linda Macdonald Glenn’s research encompasses the legal, ethical, and social impact of emerging technologies and evolving notions of personhood.

Linda currently holds faculty appointments at the University Of Vermont College Of Nursing and Health Sciences, Department of Medical Laboratory and Radiation Sciences, and the University of Sciences in Philadelphia, Department of Biomedical Writing. An active lecturer, Linda has spoken at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Loyola University at Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical School and various law schools. She has also addressed numerous public and professional groups internationally.

Prior to returning to an academic setting, Linda MacDonald Glenn consulted and practiced as a trial attorney with an emphasis in patient advocacy, bioethical and biotechnology issues, end of life decision-making, reproductive rights, genetics, neuroethics, parental/biological issues (aka nature vs. nurture), and animal rights. She was the lead attorney in several precedent-setting bioethics legal cases.

Linda has advised governmental leaders and agencies, and published numerous articles in professional journals. Her most recent articles include “To Sail Beyond the Sunset: Navigating the Uncharted Territory of Converging Technologies” in the Fall 2005 ASBH exchange and “Keeping An Open Mind: What Legal Safeguards are needed?” in the recent American Journal of Bioethics on Neuroethics (March/April 2005).

In addition to her current educational, lecture and consultation work, Linda is writing several articles regarding evolving notions of personhood and maintains an ongoing blog (http://www.womensbioethics.blogspot.com) as a Women’s Bioethics Project Scholar.

Ben Goertzel (goertzel.org) is founder and CEO of two computer science firms Novamente LLC (novamente.net) and Biomind LLC (biomind.com), and of the non-profit Artificial General Intelligence Research Institute (agiri.org). He has served as a university faculty in several departments of mathematics, computer science and cognitive science, in the US, Australia and New Zealand.  He is author of two books focused on the future of technology and society Creating Internet Intelligence (Plenum, 2001) and The Path to Posthumanity (Academica, 2006). He serves as Director of Research for the Singularity Institute for AI. 

Andy Miah is Reader in New Media & Bioethics at the University of the West of Scotland, UK. His research is informed by an interest in applied philosophy, technology, and culture and he has recently published in The Lancet, the Journal of Medical Ethics, and the Journal of International Biotechnology Law. Andy has also written for leading newspapers, including The Observer and the Times Higher Education Supplement. His major publications include Genetically Modified Athletes (2004) and The Medicalization of Cyberspace (2008). He is currently preparing a book title CyberSport:  Digital Games, Ethics & Cultures (The MIT Press, 2007). He is author of posthumanism.org.uk, serves on the editorial board member for Genomics, Society & Policy, Health Care Analysis and is Associate Editor for New Media and Communications Technologies for Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology. He is also an expert member of the European Union programme NanoBio-RAISE.

Ramez Naam is the author of More than Human: How Technology Will Transform Us and Why We Should Embrace It, which offers a tour of new technologies and makes a case for embracing human enhancement, showing readers how new technologies are powerful new tools in humanity’s quest to improve ourselves, our offspring and our world.  Naam is a professional technologist who helped create two of the most widely used pieces of software in the world: Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook. He is currently the CEO of Apex Nanotechnologies, which develops software for nanotechnology researchers. He also serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Accelerating Change, is a Senior Associate of the Foresight Institute and is a member of the World Future Society. He is the recipient of the 2005 H. G. Wells Award for Contributions to Transhumanism.

An Ravelingien Ph.D. is an assistant researcher in bioethics at the Department of Philosophy, Ghent University. An has focused on various strategies meant to counter the organ shortage, such as transgenic xenograft organ transplants from pigs.. An is currently working on on ethical and social implications of cognitive enhancement.

Douglas Rushkoff is author of, among his ten books, Playing the Future,  Open Source Democracy and Get Back in the Box:  Innovation from the Inside Out. Rushkoff also wrote the acclaimed novels Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy, the graphic novel, Club Zero-G and the comic book series Testament. He has written and hosted two award-winning Frontline documentaries - "The Merchants of Cool," which looked at the influence of corporations on youth culture, and "The Persuaders," about the cluttered landscape of marketing, and new efforts to overcome consumer resistance. Rushkoff’s commentaries air on CBS Sunday Morning and NPR’s All Things Considered, and have appeared in publications from The New York Times to Time magazine.  His column on cyberculture is distributed globally through the New York Times Syndicate. He is Advisor to the United Nations Commission on World Culture, on the Board of Directors of the Media Ecology Association, The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and was a founding member of Technorealism. He has been awarded Senior Fellowships by the Markle Foundation and the Center for Global Communications Fellow of the International University of Japan. He regularly appears on TV shows from NBC Nightly News to Larry King and Bill Maher. He developed the Electronic Oracle software series for HarperCollins Interactive. 

Wrye Sententia is director of the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE), a nonprofit research, policy, and public education center working to advance and protect freedom of thought into the 21st century.  Dr.  Sententia has guided the CCLE in sponsoring the National Science Foundation’s initiatives aimed at “Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance.” In 2002, Sententia provided comments to the appointed President’s Council on Bioethics in Washington D.C., on the topic of cognitive enhancement technologies and in October 2004 debated members of the Council on the democratic values of the US Declaration of Independence in relation to emergent enhancement biotechnologies and human freedom.

Wrye is a Postdoctoral Lecturer, at the University of California, Davis and serves on the technology ethics advisory board for the Nanoethics Group.  In addition to her nonprofit work on the policy and ethics of freedom of thought in an age of neurotechnology, she currently teaches both for the UC Davis Technocultural Studies Program and the University Writing Program. With Lexington Press, she will publish an academic book that considers cyberpunk science fiction and the impact of novel media, medicine, and technology on freedom of thought.

Mike Treder is the Executive Director of the non-profit Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, an organization working to raise awareness of the issues presented by advanced nanotechnology. Mr. Treder is a professional writer, speaker, and activist with a background in technology and communications company management. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle, majoring in Biology. As an accomplished presenter on the societal implications of emerging technologies, Mike has addressed conferences and groups around the world, including in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand and Brazil. Mike lives in New York City.  His other affiliations include:

• Scientific Advisory Board, Lifeboat Foundation
• Advisory Board, Global Risks Council
• Consultant, Future Technologies Advisory Group
• Honorary Member, Federation of American Scientists
• Editorial Advisory Board, Nanotech Briefs
• Consultant, AC/UNU Millennium Project