Report on Hughes’ April 13 talk in Albany

John Rodat’s “More Human than Human” review of my April 13 talk in Albany New York, published in the Metroland magazine, is far less skeptical than the run of the mill reception:

The author of Citizen Cyborg was on hand to discuss the controversial and wide-ranging topic of transhumanism in democratic society, and in light of recent events such as the Terri Schiavo case, it’s understandable that Hughes would be ready for objections to a philosophy that seeks to ‘deconstruct’ the notion of what it is to be human. Nevertheless, giving the lie to his comprehensive PowerPoint presentation, Hughes claimed with easy assurance that he is confident about the prospects for a transhumanist future: ‘I sometimes feel that I’m arguing for the plow.’

Hughes made the point that the transhumanist agenda to mitigate or eliminate the effects of aging, and to enhance human intellectual, physical and psychological capacities through emerging technologies such as psychopharmacology, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology, is already being enacted. Still, extrapolation from such everyday modifications as the contact lens or specialized medical devices like computer-assisted prostheses to the downloading of an entire human conciousness into a non-organic host, such as a computer, pulls on the very last nerve of the ‘bioLuddites,’ as Hughes characterized opponents of transhumanism.”