1. A Note From Dr. J.
2. IEET News
3. Articles
4. Latest from JET
5. Multimedia
6. TechEthx News
7. Events
A NOTE FROM DR. J.
Now we’re cooking on all four burners. Mike Treder has come on board and is blogging up a storm (which has put pressure on me to restart the blogging habit). We’re revamping our internship program, and focusing them on reviewing manuscripts for JET, writing for the IEET, and working on the Technoprogressive Policy Wiki. Next we’ll be revising our mission/vision statements, and preparing a 2009-2012 prospectus to start presenting to funders.
One thing that’s been on my mind a lot recently, and hopefully will soon manifest as pixels, is the relationship between the coming structural unemployment I’m pretty sure we will be seeing and the logic of the employment-focused economic stimulus packages.
Take the example of healthcare reform. Many health care policy wonks are aware that the 1500 private health insurers here in the United States impose a huge, unnecessary administrative overhead on our system, driving up costs as much as our for-profit fee-for-service over-testing and over-treatment. One of the multi-billion dollar commitments of the recently passed stimulus package is to automate patient records and billing, and achieve huge efficiency gains. The flip side of that efficiency, however, will be the unemployment of hundreds of thousands of people employed to handle paper records and billing. (Switching to a single health insurance system would have pretty much the same effect.) I suspect that when the dust settles from the global recession that we will see this story repeated in many areas: it will be more cost-effective to invest in information technology and robotics than re-hiring humans.
That means we need to be promoting an economic recovery path *today* that is based on expansion of the “social wage,” our right to a livelihood on the basis of being citizens rather than being employed. The social wage includes universal healthcare severed from employment, college aid, unemployment insurance, longer vacations and child leave, and retraining for the fields where employment is still growing such as the caring professions. Yes, some of this was included in the stimulus packages, but it also means talking about the economic benefits that could be accrued from implementing some form of basic income guarantee, and that’s not been a part of the debate yet.
When the world recovers from this recession we will be left with large national debts and a monstrous debate over reforming the pension system as the Baby Boomers retire. On the one hand the coming Longevity Dividend means there will be less pressure from medical, nursing and disability costs than are currently imagined, and greater opportunities for raising the retirement age. On the other hand, structural unemployment will make forcing redundant 65 year-olds into a shrinking labor market a losing proposition. We need to begin re-negotiating the education-work-retirement contract toward a model of lifelong learning that maximizes social resilience for the changes to come.
Oh, and my garden seeds are growing in the front window. Being a gardening neophyte I jumped the gun, and will be planting three foot corn and tomatoes by the time we pass last frost in May. Maybe I should look into hydroponics now that Obama’s Drug Enforcement Agency is less likely to be serving a warrant to check out my suspicious energy signatures.
J. Hughes
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IEET NEWS
David Brin guestblogging at George’s Sentient Developments (Mar 20, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/sdgb0903/
Science fiction writer, scientist and renowned futurist David Brin will be guest blogging at George Dvorsky’s Sentient Developments next week. Brin is a best-selling author whose future-oriented novels include Earth and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War (a part of the Uplift Series—and yes, he coined the term “uplift”).
Battlestar Galactica poll, essays and finale (Mar 19, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bsgisover/
We’ve been very interested in the biopolitical content of Battlestar Galactica (BSG) which concludes its final season tonight, Friday March 20. Ben Scarlato has written an excellent series of biopolitical reflections on every BSG episode of this last season, and then we did a talk together on the bioethics of the show for the Hartford Ethics Group. In our recently concluded IEET poll you all were very divided about whether the show reflected more bioconservative or transhumanist themes, or whether we would just have to wait for the conclusion to make an assessment.
Nick and Aubrey featured in Time Magazine (Mar 15, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/natime0903/
Time Magazine’s special issue on 10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now promotes some great ideas such as light commuter rail, recycling empty suburban malls into libraries and town centers, and ecological intelligence. Idea Number Five is Amortality, engineering an end to aging.
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ARTICLES
Mike Treder: The Psychology of Climate Change (Mar 19, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090319/
Academics at Britain’s first conference on the psychology of climate change argued that the greatest obstacles to action are not technical, economic or political—they are the denial strategies that we adopt to protect ourselves from unwelcome information.
Jamais Cascio: Geoengineering: New Problems, Old Politics (Mar 19, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090319/
I’ve been writing about geoengineering since 2005, and have even published a short book on the subject (Hacking the Earth), looking primarily at the ethics and politics of the issue. The political aspects are, in my view, the most important, yet they’ve received little attention.
George Dvorsky: Risks posed by political extremism (Mar 19, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dvorsky20090320/
Below is a transcription of the talk I gave last year at the IEET’s symposium on Building a Resilient Civilization. The title of my presentation was: “Democracy in danger: Catastrophic threats and the rise of political extremism.”
Marshall Brain: How Medical Marijuana Works (Mar 19, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/brain20090320/
At this exact moment in American history, we find ourselves at a very interesting juncture. Near the center of that juncture is marijuana.
Andy Miah: Prosthetic Surveillance: The medical governance of healthy bodies in cyberspace (Mar 19, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090320/
Abstract: This paper examines how ‘surveillance medicine’ (Armstrong 1995) has expanded the realm of the medical gaze via its infiltration of cyberspace, where specific features of healthism are now present. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of biopower, we examine how digital health resources offer new ways through which to discipline individuals and regulate populations. The emergence of health regulation within and through cyberspace takes place in a context wherein the relationship between the body and technology is rendered more complex. Departing from early literature on cyberspace, which claimed that the body was absent in virtual worlds, we articulate a medicalized cyberspace within which the virtual and corporeal are enmeshed.
Linda MacDonald Glenn: Nanotechnology and Human Performance (Mar 18, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/glenn20081203/
(With Jeanann Boyce) Legal institutions must try to avoid getting blinded by the hype and inappropriately sweeping in—and perhaps over-regulating—of both the novel and the mundane applications of this still relatively young technology. As nanotechnology progresses, and both humans and nonhumans receive therapeutic benefits and enhancements, it will be up to the policy makers, courts, and legal profession to delineate societal guidelines for regulation and privacy, as well as to determine individual culpability and responsibility.
Mike Treder: As Oil is to Water, so Religion is to Reason (Mar 18, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090318/
“One cannot be coherently religious and scientific at the same time. That alleged synthesis requires that with one part of your brain you accept only those things that are tested and supported by agreed-upon evidence, logic, and reason, while with the other part of your brain you accept things that are unsupportable or even falsified. In other words, the price of philosophical harmony is cognitive dissonance.”
George Dvorsky: Futurist thinking at the Pentagon (Mar 18, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dvorsky20090315/
Wondering how the U.S. military is planning for the future? A list of recent research articles by an internal Pentagon think tank shows where their collective head is at these days:
Jamais Cascio: Geoengineering’s Drawbacks (Mar 16, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090316/
Because I’m not reflexively opposed to geoengineering research, and because I increasingly suspect that some level of albedo-management geoengineering will be necessary simply due to climate disruption happening faster than previously expected, some people tend to assume that I’m a geoengineering advocate. I’m not—but as I’ve noted before, I do believe that it would be less disastrous than climate-driven depopulation. Nonetheless, geoengineering is all-but-certain to have undesirable consequences, both politically (see next post) and environmentally.
Mike Treder: Participatory Panopticon’s Bumpy Road (Mar 16, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090316/
Imagine living in a world where what you see, what you hear, and what you experience will be recorded wherever you go. Your day to day life is archived and saved, in perpetuity.
Ben Scarlato: Daybreak, Part 1 (Mar 15, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scarlato20090314/
[Warning: contains spoilers for the Battlestar Galactica episode Daybreak, Part 1] When forced to choose between who should live and who should die, how should one take into account the ages and potentials of the people involved?
Mike Treder: Not Just a Desire but an Urgent Need (Mar 15, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090315/
Renewable, sustainable, affordable energy—a goal humankind has sought for centuries—is no longer just a desire but an urgent need.
Mike Treder: Fiction Author Speaks Truth (Mar 13, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090313/
How much can we learn from science fiction authors? From their novels and short stories, sometimes a lot and sometimes a little, depending mostly on how deeply they think and how well they write. But what about from their non-fiction works?
Mike Treder: Adapt or Collapse (Mar 12, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090312/
Apocalyptic thinking is frequently found in certain future scenarios, especially when those scenarios are created by people concerned with military conflict, climate change, artificial intelligence, disease outbreaks, or other scary possibilities.
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THE LATEST FROM THE JOURNAL OF EVOLUTION AND TECHNOLOGY
http://jetpress.org/
The Journal of Evolution and Technology has published new articles by Stefan Lorenz Sorgner and Austin Corbett.
In ”Nietzsche, the Overhuman, and Transhumanism”, Sorgner argues that there are significant similarities between transhumanism’s concept of the posthuman and the Nietzschean concept of the overhuman. He compares these two concepts, focusing more on their similarities than their differences (by contrast to an earlier discussion by Nick Bostrom). At the same time, he seeks to identify a dimension of Nietzsche’s though that is lacking in transhumanism.
”Beyond Ghost in the (Human) Shell” , by Austin Corbett deals with the image of the cyborg, drawing on the work of Donna Haraway. In the light of this, Corbett examines the discourses of humanity, modernity, Japan, and technology. He traces the early history of the cyborg through to modern conceptions in Haraway’s work and elsewhere, then examines the idea in the Ghost in the Shell mythos, particularly Kenji Kamiyama’s 2002-2003 TV series Kōkaku Kidōtai Sutando Arōn Konpurekkusu (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex).
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MULTIMEDIA
You’ve Been Slimed! (Mar 18, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/slime2009_03_18/
Hollywood horror flicks have captivated us with alien blobs, but the slime slithering on our own planet is as beguiling. From microscopic machines to life on ocean floors, new research reveals how essential slime is to life on Earth, and possibly other worlds. Plus, will nano-built slime—aka Gray Goo—threaten us in the future?
How my legs give me super powers (Mar 17, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mullins0903/
Athlete, actor and activist Aimee Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs—she’s got a dozen amazing pairs—and the super-powers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra 6 inches of height ... Quite simply, she redefines what the body can be. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.
SENS Progress Worldwide (Mar 15, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/degrey20090315/
Though some areas of Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), such as stem cells and amyloid immunotherapy, are sufficiently mainstream not to need Methuselah Foundation funding, most are still relative backwaters that rely on the MF to progress. IEET fellow gives an overview of the research projects that the MF is now funding, their significance to SENS, and their potential to lead to accelerated progress towards the defeat of aging in 2009 and beyond.
On the benefits of giant gene-tweaked crabs (Mar 13, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/onion20090310/
The folks at the Onion do to naive techno-boosterism what Jon Stewart has been doing to naive market fluffers this week, in this “news” segment on the benefits to the economy of an industrial army of giant crabs.
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ETHICS & TECH IN THE NEWS
FROM IEET-NEWS LIST
http://ieet.org/mailman/listinfo/ieet-news
Expanding healthcare would expand access to medical devices, execs say http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-news-12780818.html
Global tipping points and the 2008 UN State of the Future Report http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-news-12762709.html
Globalizing genetic regulation
http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-news-12739706.html
US slipping on comprehensive measures of human welfare http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-news-12733074.html
Geoeningeering with aerosols would reduce solar power http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-news-12733073.html
Stop the Tired Overpopulation Hysteria
http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-news-12680015.html
Economists Say Copyright and Patent Laws Are Killing Innovation; Hurting Economy http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-news-12645244.html
FROM CATASTROPHIC RISKS LIST
http://ieet.org/mailman/listinfo/existential
Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe http://www.mailbucket.org/existential-12773498.html
Mooney: When Will Geoengineering “Tip”? (It already has for DARPA) http://www.mailbucket.org/existential-12762644.html
World Pop Devastated if Globe Warms 9degF as Predicted http://www.mailbucket.org/existential-12733078.html
FROM LONGEVITY DIVIDEND LIST
http://ieet.org/mailman/listinfo/ieet-life
Politico: Obama’s health principles, translated http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-life-12762667.html
Search for immortality may be within reach http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-life-12733067.html
GHR - The Longevity Dividend
http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-life-12674642.html
FROM BIOCULTURE LIST
http://ieet.org/mailman/listinfo/ieet-images
Dystopian post-apocalyptic reality
http://www.mailbucket.org/ieet-images-12739643.html
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IEET SPEAKER EVENTS
Cascio on “Building Intelligence in an Uncertain World”
Menlo Park, CA
2009 Mar 22
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090322/
Hughes, Glenn @ Human Enhancement & Nanotechnology Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
2009 Mar 27-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hen0903/
Treder @ Monmouth Junior Science Symposium Monmouth University, New Jersey, USA
2009 Apr 1-2
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tredermjss20090311/
Natasha @ American Philosophical Association Vancouver, Canada
2009 Apr 11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/nvm20090411/
Bostrom on “Uncertainty, Lags, and Nonlinearity: Challenges to Governance in a Turbulent World”
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 May 7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostrom20090507/
Jamais @ Futuresonic
Manchester UK
2009 May 13-16
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090513/
Jamais @ Mobile Monday
Amsterdam Netherlands
2009 Jun 1
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090601/
Aubrey @ HealthQuake summit
Detroit, Michigan, USA
2009 Jun 8-9
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090608/
Goertzel @ Workshop on Machine Consciousness Hong Kong, China
2009 Jun 15
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/iwmc09/
Aubrey @ IdeaCity
Toronto, Canada
2009 Jun 17-19
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090717/
Aubrey @ FutureFest 2009
Cambridge, UK
2009 Jun 23-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090623/
Bostrom @ Converging Tech and Philosophy Enschede, The Netherlands
2009 Jul 8-10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ctcs09/
Aubrey @ SENS4
Cambridge, UK
2009 Sep 4-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubreysens4/
ALL EVENTS
Cascio on “Building Intelligence in an Uncertain World”
Menlo Park, CA
2009 Mar 22
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090322/
StemCONN 09
New Haven, Connecticut, USA
2009 Mar 23-24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/stemconn_09/
Hughes, Glenn @ Human Enhancement & Nanotechnology Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
2009 Mar 27-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hen0903/
Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness Portland, Oregon
2009 Apr 1-5
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/anthcon09/
Treder @ Monmouth Junior Science Symposium Monmouth University, New Jersey, USA
2009 Apr 1-2
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tredermjss20090311/
Natasha @ American Philosophical Association Vancouver, Canada
2009 Apr 11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/nvm20090411/
Somatechnics: The Technologisation of Bodies and Selves New South Wales, Australia
2009 Apr 16-18
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/stbs09/
Physical and Cognitive Mutations in Humans and Machines Laval, France
2009 Apr 24-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pcmhm09/
Transcendent Man, a documentary on Ray Kurzweil Tribeca Film Festival, New York City, NY USA
2009 Apr 25-1
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tmadrk09/
Bostrom on “Uncertainty, Lags, and Nonlinearity: Challenges to Governance in a Turbulent World”
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 May 7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostrom20090507/
The Two Cultures in the 21st Century
New York, New York
2009 May 9
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/2culture/
Jamais @ Futuresonic
Manchester UK
2009 May 13-16
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090513/
Philosophical Inquiry into Pregnancy, Childbirth and Mothering University of Oregon
2009 May 14-16
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/motherphil09/
Food, Famine and Future Technologies: Ethical Dilemmas in a Hungry World New York City, NY USA
2009 May 22-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ffft09edhw/
Jamais @ Mobile Monday
Amsterdam Netherlands
2009 Jun 1
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090601/
Aubrey @ HealthQuake summit
Detroit, Michigan, USA
2009 Jun 8-9
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090608/
Toward a Science of Consciousness 2009
Hong Kong, China
2009 Jun 11-14
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tsc09/
Goertzel @ Workshop on Machine Consciousness Hong Kong, China
2009 Jun 15-15
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/iwmc09/
Aubrey @ IdeaCity
Toronto, Canada
2009 Jun 17-19
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090717/
First World Congress on Positive Psychology Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2009 Jun 18-21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pospsycon2009/
CyberTherapy and CyberPsychology Conference (CT14) Lago Maggiore, Verbania-Intra, Italy
2009 Jun 21-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ct14/
Aubrey @ FutureFest 2009
Cambridge, UK
2009 Jun 23-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090623/
Ethics for the 21st Century
Edinburgh, Scotland
2009 Jul 2-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ef21c09/
Technological Singularity and Acceleration Studies Barcelona, Spain
2009 Jul 2-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tsas09/
7th European Conference on Computing And Philosophy Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
2009 Jul 2-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/singeccp/
Metaphysics of Science
Melbourne, Australia
2009 Jul 3-5
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mos09/
Visions of Humanity in Cyberculture, Cyberspace and Science Fiction Oxford, UK
2009 Jul 6-8
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vhccsf09/
Bostrom @ Converging Tech and Philosophy Enschede, The Netherlands
2009 Jul 8-10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ctcs09/
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
Veronda, VR. Italy
2009 Jul 18-22
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aimed09/
Science in Society
Cambridge University, United Kingdom
2009 Aug 5-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scisoc09/
Emotions and Machines
University of Geneva, Switzerland
2009 Aug 21-21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/emnomach09/
Aubrey @ SENS4
Cambridge, UK
2009 Sep 4-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubreysens4/
Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies Seattle, WA USA
2009 Sep 8-11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/s_net09/
Workshop on Biopolitics
Beijing, China
2009 Sep 15-20
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/biopol09/
Politics of the Life Sciences in an ‘Age of Biological Control’
London, UK
2009 Sep 16-18
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/lse2009/
New Directions in Neuroethics
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2009 Sep 24-26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ndne09/
The Perfect Body: Between Normativity and Consumerism Scandic Linköping Väst, Sweden
2009 Oct 9-13
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pbbnc09/
Neural Interfaces Conference
Long Beach Convention Center, CA, USA
2010 Jun 21-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/nic10/
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Contact:
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies http://ieet.org/ Executive Director, Dr. James J. Hughes Williams 229B, Trinity College 300 Summit St.
Hartford CT 06106 USA
Email: director @ ieet.org
Phone: 860-297-2376
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Emergence encourages submissions for publication. Please send submissions to: director@ieet.org. Submissions will be reviewed by the IEET staff, and final determinations regarding publication are at the sole discretion of the IEET.
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