Dans la dernière série de Netflix, l’allongement de la durée de vie est présenté comme la principale source des maux de la société. Cette vision tient-elle la route ?

I was interviewed by phone before this SynBioBeta conference referenced in the Buzzfeed article, but they didn’t use what I said. I made it crystal clear I thought biohacking humans could be quite dangerous. I told them I stopped communicating technical information to unqualified people several years ago because I realized it encouraged people to do things they weren’t qualified to be involved with. I used some examples with the journalist.

S’il est un film qui représente les questions éthiques contemporaines relatives au génie génétique, c’est sans doute Gattaca (Bienvenue à Gattaca en français) d’Andrew Niccol. Sorti en 1997, un an après la naissance de la brebis clonée Dolly, il réapparaît encore régulièrement dans les débats pour sa mise en scène, comme souvent en science-fiction, d’une société techniquement avancée, mais dystopique et inégalitaire. Vingt ans et plusieurs avancées technologiques et scientifiques plus tard, que nous dit Gattaca en...

Cet article fait partie d’un projet de livre sur le transhumanisme. Pour en savoir plus, cliquez ici.

Given all the chaos and pessimism lately and in light of the fact that with the inauguration of Trump we will be walking into very dangerous times, it’s perhaps a good moment for a little bit of hope, though the progressive rallies over the last few days certainly make me feel hopeful.

Like many others, I am still absorbing the shock of Trump’s victory in the presidential election. For the last month I had been on a holding pattern on the blog in the remote chance the pundits and pollsters had gotten this election terribly wrong. They have. Rather than having elected Hillary Clinton who would have preserved the status quo with all its flaws, but also its protections, a large portion of the electorate has chosen to blow up the system and take a dangerous, potentially dystopian turn.

The world’s most famous human ancestor, an extinct hominid named Lucy, died after falling from a tall tree, according to scientists. It’s a revelation that points to tree-dwelling behavior in recent evolutionary history, but some scientists aren’t convinced.

An apropos moment for a SF’nal posting, as I report to you all from the World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City, MO. Many fascinating people saying an doing interesting things. Lots of discussion of “da future.” And congratulations to the winners of the 2016 Hugo Award! But that will wait a bit. For now…

Billionaire douchebag Peter Thiel has plenty of crazy ideas, but his commitment to radical life extension isn’t one of them.

“Big Data” is more of an opportunity than it is a benefit in and of itself. This might hold even more true for data gleaned from the human body itself as it does from the information streams from stock markets and eCommerce.