Hughes and Bostrom profiled in German review of H+ History

Christopher Coenen “Utopian Aspects of the Debate on Converging Technologies” (PDF) in: G. Banse, A. Grunwald, I. Hronszky, G. Nelson (eds.): Assessing Societal Implications of Converging Technological Development. Berlin. 2007.

Abstract: The upcoming concept of converging technologies accentuates the coalescence of originally separated branches of science and technology. Tendencies of real technological convergence go along with a convergence of futuristic visions. Several of these visions have been deemed utopian or dystopian. Given this, and the historical importance of utopian thought, the article discusses utopian aspects of posthumanist technofuturism and the use of utopian and anti-utopian references in the ongoing debate on technological convergence. It will be argued that posthumanist visions function as common reference points in this debate and together form an intellectual repository for polemical and other purposes. Moreover, some possible consequences for the assessment of the ethical and societal implications of technological convergence will be addressed.

Coenen’s homepage