1. A Note From Dr. J.
2. IEET News
3. Articles
4. Multimedia
5. Events
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A NOTE FROM DR. J.
Mike Treder and I had a good pow-wow at the Bock-Hughes compound two weeks ago (imagine that polygamous compound in Texas, but with fembots in glitter jumpsuits) and we’re cooking on four burners. One product of that meeting was a revision of the IEET Mission/Vision to make more explicit what the technoprogressive agenda has come to encompass. In particular we have tried to convey the connection between the right to safe and accessible enabling technologies and the need for global activism and reform. Let us know what you think.
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/about
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/purpose
If you haven’t visited the IEET recently we received a very nice header from Tristan Hambling, a fan and graphic designer in New Zealand. It is eye-popping, and has inspired a vigorous comment thread. One of the issues folks have addressed about the new header is how much the IEET should aspire to be a staid, respectable thinktank, and how much we should let our freak flag fly and force the world to take us seriously because of the torrent of ideas and activity we generate.
And generate the IEET community does. Doug Rushkoff is a nice example. He’s just published a new book, Life Inc., a wide-ranging critique of the influence of corporations over the last five hundred years, is working on a Frontline series for public television examining our electronic lives, and is hosting a new radio show. Our own King of all Media.
Martine Rothblatt (who recently donated ten thousand dollars to the IEET - thank you!) has got a new blog on mindware, and the Terasem Foundation she founded is promoting its Lifenaut website with a new project to create virtual versions of historical personalities. Two films Martine helped produce, Transbeman and the Singularity is Near, will be unveiled this summer.
I just finished setting up the new Humanity+ website (http://humanityplus.org), and getting some of my kids’ documentaries online. (Check out my son’s award-winning documentary on Fidel Castro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuSa31nRSFs )
George Dvorsky’s Sentient Developments blog has been hosting guest bloggers, including IEET fellows Athena Andreadis and Milan Cirkovic, and garnering major site traffic. Giulio Prisco is moving back to Italy, and will be organizing an Italian Transvision in 2010. Mike Treder recently live-blogged the Two Cultures meeting in New York. Jamais Cascio, Andy Miah and Aubrey de Grey never seem to be able to sleep in the same city two nights in a row with all their speaking engagements.
Mike and I have also recently focused our attention back on the internship program, and are working with our ten interns to fill in the Technoprogressive Wiki which we hope will be an invaluable resource for the terms, ideas and policy directions we are promoting. Our intern Ben Scarlato, who will be attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the fall, continues to produce great analysis of the biopolitics of pop culture such as his recent piece on cryonics in film.
I spent my deep thought quota today on my musings on Sri Lanka and citizenship (see below) so I’ll let it go at that, and a promise to get this newsletter out a little more regularly so it doesn’t take your lunch break just to scan. Live long and prosper.
Alternate timeline Dr. J. out…
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IEET NEWS
Look Up, Look Up! New Header Feedback Requested (May 12, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/nhfr09/
The new header is a gift from IEET friend Tristan Hambling. Tell us what you think.
Poll: What to do about North Korea? (May 8, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/poll20090508/
IEET readers are more likely to want the US and UN to get tougher on North Korea than to ignore them.
Bailey on Transhumanism and the Limits of Democracy (Apr 30, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dvorskyb20090429/
George Dvorsky writes: Reason Online‘s science correspondant Ronald Bailey has published a paper he presented at the Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict Workshop on Transhumanism and the Future of Democracy last week.
Doug Rushkoff’s New Radio Show and NPR TV Series (Apr 21, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoff200904/
IEET Fellow Doug Rushkoff has a new radio show, the Media Squat, and a new series on Frontline, Digital Nation.
Terasem Movement Trying to Create Virtual Historical Personalities (Apr 17, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tmlincoln09/
The Terasem Movement Foundation, creators of the award winning digital immortality website Lifenaut.com, announced the History Lives Project.
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ARTICLES
J. Hughes: Choosing Our Imaginary Communities and Identities (May 18, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20090518/
In June 1983 I arrived in Sri Lanka with a starry-eyed commitment to grassroots Buddhist social change, and a lot of romanticism about national liberation movements and Asian Buddhism. The Sri Lankan civil war that started five days later forced me to confront how dangerous all identities and communities are unless we understand that they are fundamentally imaginary. My two years in Sri Lanka convinced me of the desperate need for a new project of global citizenship.
Athena Andreadis: If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution! (May 17, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/andreadis20090515/
(incorrectly but fittingly ascribed to Emma Goldman, feminist, activist, trouble-maker)
Mike Treder: Widening Divides, or Bridging Them (May 16, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090516/
We are on the brink of technological breakthroughs that could augment our mental powers beyond recognition. It will soon be possible to boost human brainpower with electronic “plug-ins” or even by genetic enhancement. What will this mean for the future of humanity?
Mike Treder: Planet-scale Engineering (May 15, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090515/
Given the accumulating effects of global warming and the increasing potential for disastrous climate change, some form of geoengineering likely will be attempted within the next decade or two. As advanced nanotechnology moves ahead, it could enable—for better or for worse—truly epic planet-scale (re)terraforming projects.
Ben Scarlato: Caprica: Battlestar Galactica Makers Hit It Again—A Transhumanist View (May 15, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scarlato20090515/
Caprica is a new series from the producers of Battlestar Galactica.
Mike Treder: The Mother of All Sci-Fi Wonders (May 14, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090514/
“The convergences of the past, like small streams flowing together to form a great river, have created stronger currents that carry the potential for even faster and more dramatic changes as they converge in the near future. These include information technology, genetic engineering and biotechnology, nanotechnology (the manipulation of matter at the molecular level, which may allow manufacturing without factories as we know them), and cognitive science (how we know and learn).”
Ben Scarlato: Misconceptions of Cryonics in Popular Culture (May 14, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scarlato20090514/
[May contain spoilers for various movies or TV shows.] It is important to understand how issues such as cryonics are presented in the popular media, so as to gauge public perception of them and understand how to correct common misconceptions and appeal to popular values as much as possible. Unfortunately, in the case of cryonics a large portion of the portrayals in television and movies are negative and are rife with those misconceptions.
Mike Treder: American Spectator reviews Catastrophic Risks (May 13, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090513/
“The world will someday end with fire or ice, but we await clarification as to the proximate causes. The menu of looming catastrophes is a long one, growing with our advancing knowledge of the universe and powers of self-immolation.”
Athena Andreadis: Reflections on the New Star Trek (May 13, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/andreadis20090513/
I assume that anyone not in a silently running nuclear submarine has seen Star Trek reboot (henceforth ST||, for parallel timeline) by now, so I won’t be coy about spoilers.
Russell Blackford: Remembering Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (May 12, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20090512/
For a generation of science fiction fans who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) was a book that changed lives: a huge, bizarre, magical, loosely-knit satire of nearly everything. It recounts the adventures of Valentine Michael Smith (or Mike), a young man who is born on Mars and raised by the Martians, before being brought to a wacky near-future Earth. He is befriended by wise old Jubal Harshaw, the novel’s authorial spokesman or ‘Heinlein figure’ (though he is presented as much older than Heinlein actually was at the time). Jubal becomes Mike’s mentor and protector, then eventually something more like a disciple.
Mike Treder: Life Values: Quantity, Quality, and Meaning (May 11, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090511/
The current IEET reader poll asks: If you could be any age you desired, for as long as you chose, would you opt for it? To answer, we may have to consider whether we most value quantity, quality, or meaning in life.
Doug Rushkoff: Life Inc. pt 1: Your Money or Your Life: A Lesson on the Front Stoop (May 11, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoff20090511/
IEET Fellow Doug Rushkoff is posting online most of his book, Life Inc: How the world became a corporation and how to take it back, over the next two weeks. We won’t be able to put it all up here, but we will post links to the full text. Also check out his guest-blogging at Boing Boing, where he also posting these excerpts.
Russell Blackford: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 10, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20090510/
The new Wolverine movie is dividing opinions even as it rakes in tens of millions of dollars day by day, and obviously makes the fans happy. The critical reviews may be bad to mixed, but the word-of-mouth is very different. Go out into the wilds of the blogosphere and you’ll find plenty of over-the-top glorying and raving (much of this from female science fiction fans expressing their admiration for Hugh Jackman’s muscled and much-revealed body).
Mike Treder: Live from New York: Two Cultures, Part Two (May 9, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder200905092/
In 1959 the prominent British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow gave a pivotal lecture before a crowd of his colleagues in Cambridge. The lecture focused on what he saw as a serious divide between the sciences and the humanities. As a researcher and creative writer he had a unique perspective on the problem and its impact on society at large. Now, 50 years after that famous lecture, a wide array of experts are gathered together to discuss whether or not the divide still exists and how it affects contemporary society.
Mike Treder: Live from New York - It’s Two Cultures! (May 9, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder200905091/
From the 40th floor of the 7 World Trade Center building in downtown Manhattan, I’m live-blogging today to cover an important symposium exploring the historic gulf between science and the humanities.
Jamais Cascio: Should Creative Workers Use Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs? (May 8, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090508/
We may face a choice between altering our brain chemistries and falling behind in the global economy.
Michael Anissimov: Nanofactory Regulation Revisited (May 8, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/anissimov20090508/
I noticed that a post of mine was linked via the Wikipedia article on post-scarcity — my post about nanofactory regulation. In it, I proposed a DRM-like system to prevent any old nanofactory from manufacturing things like bombs. Radical and Luddite, I know.
Mike Treder: Getting Past Us vs. Them (May 6, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090506/
A stone age hunter-gatherer, coming upon a conflict where danger was present, didn’t have time to carefully analyze the situation, look for nuances, or seek points of commonality between combatants. Instead, driven by adrenalin, heart pumping, thoughts racing, pupils dilated—within seconds a choice was made: pick a side and join the fray, or turn and run away.
Andy Miah: Make me a superhero: The pleasures and pitfalls of body enhancement (May 5, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090502/
We should welcome with open arms the rich possibilities of technologically enhancing our bodies. Just so long as we don’t all end up looking, and thinking, and acting the same.
Mike Treder: When Numbers and Words Collide (May 5, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090505/
If we had unique words for ten thousand and a hundred thousand, for ten million and a hundred million, it might make understanding of really big numbers more intuitive.
Martine Rothblatt: What Are Mindclones? (May 4, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rothblatt20090502/
A mindclone is a software version of your mind. He or she is all of your thoughts, recollections, feelings, beliefs, attitudes and values, and is experiencing reality from the standpoint of whatever machine their mindware is running on. Mindclones are mindfiles being used and updated by mindware that has been set to be a functionally equivalent replica of one’s mind. A mindclone is your software-based alter ego, doppelganger, or mental twin. If your body died, but you had a mindclone, you would not feel that you personally died, although the body would be missed more sorely than amputees miss their limbs.
Athena Andreadis: Forever Young (May 4, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/andreadis20090502/
Eleven years ago, Random House published my book To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek. With the occasion of the premiere of the Star Trek reboot film and with my mind still bruised from the turgid awfulness of Battlestar Galactica, I decided to post the epilogue of my book, very lightly updated — as an antidote to blasé pseudo-sophistication and a reminder that Prometheus is humanity’s best embodiment. My major hope for the new film is that Uhura does more than answer phones.
Mike Treder: The Two Cultures in the 21st Century (May 4, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090504/
We live in a time when more scientists are being trained than ever before, yet scientists find themselves frustrated by inaccurate media coverage, poor science education, public science illiteracy, a resurgence of anti-evolutionism, and challenges to scientific expertise on issues like climate change. On May 9, 2009, visionaries, scientists, authors, and the media will join together in New York to explore the persistence of the “two cultures” gap—a serious divide between science and the humanities—and how it can be overcome.
Marcelo Rinesi: Pirates (Digital and Otherwise) (May 2, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rinesi20090502/
There are useful, if unexpected, lessons to be learned from pirates: progressive management from the pirates of the sea, and how to run a media business from the ‘pirates’ of the net.
Mike Treder: Technoprogressives Should Favor Progressive Gains (May 2, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder200905021/
Many in the United States see evidence of a tectonic shift in public opinion over major issues that have gone nowhere for years.
George Dvorsky: A World Without Suffering? (May 2, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dvorsky20090502/
“If it was possible to become free of negative emotions by a riskless implementation of an electrode—without impairing intelligence and the critical mind—I would be the first patient.” - The Dalai Lama
Mike Treder: Who Wants to Live Forever? (Apr 29, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090429/
Do you want to live forever?
George Dvorsky: What is a Person? (Apr 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dvorsky20090429/
A number of Sentient Developments readers have asked what I mean when I refer to non-human persons and the personhood spectrum. It’s a fair question, and to be honest, I have yet to see a satisfying personhood taxonomy with an attendant list of traits that fully circumscribe the personhood continuum. I consider this an incredibly important issue as we move into a ‘transhuman condition’ and as we work to give non-human animals greater moral consideration. If I ever go back to school I think this will be a likely topic for a thesis.
Russell Blackford: Should Scientists Accomodate Religious Sensibilities? (Apr 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20090428/
At his Why Evolution is True site, Jerry Coyne has been posting about the accommodation of religious sensibilities in materials and statements by American science organisations such as the National Academy of Sciences, National Center for Science Education, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. In all cases, these (valuable) organisations have considered it necessary to calm the fears of American religionists that science, particularly evolutionary biology, undermines religion.
Mike Treder: The Ethics of Valuing Human Lives (Apr 27, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder200904027/
When—if ever—is it right to choose a policy that will consign certain numbers of a population to a likely death, while presumably giving far greater numbers the opportunity to live a better life?
Mike Treder: Screw the small steps and simple things: here are ten Earth Day goals that matter (Apr 23, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090423/
Traditionally, April 22—Earth Day—is a day devoted to making green accessible to all. It’s a day when each of us is invited to take small, individual steps toward reducing our carbon footprints, limiting our waste, or restoring the environment. See how easy it is—and how fun—to do your part to save the planet? Whether Earth Day does any good, however, is a subject of some real debate.
Mike Treder: Conflicted Over Majestic Architecture (Apr 22, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090422/
As a lover of majestic architecture, I am acutely conflicted, because many of the most amazing building projects on the planet are taking place in Dubai, a location where conditions for workers are uncomfortably close to those of ancient Egypt. Is it possible to foresee a time when a progressive egalitarian society might produce brilliant, stately, inspiring structures?
Doug Rushkoff: In Defense of the Dark Ages (Apr 21, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoff20090421/
When I was in the process of editing my new book Life Inc., my copyeditor pulled a paragraph out, in which I had explained that the so-called “Dark Ages” didn’t exist - that the ten centuries between the fall of Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance had many good ones among them. And that, in fact, the Late Medieval Era - the 10th through 13th Centuries - were a great age of prosperity and economic development.
Jamais Cascio: The Next Big Thing: Resilience (Apr 21, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090421/
If the financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that brittle systems can fail catastrophically. With increasing fervor since the 1980s, sustainability has been the watchword of scientists, environmental activists, and indeed all those concerned about the complex, fragile systems on the sphere we inhabit. It has shaped debates about business, design, and our lifestyles.
Doug Rushkoff: Stimulus, Ass-Backwards (Apr 20, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoff20090420/
I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why President Obama’s approach to the economic crisis upsets me so much, so regularly, and I think I figured it out. His impulse—perhaps as someone with more faith in the power of centralized, top-down decision-making than I have—is to fix our economic problems by supporting existing institutions.
Jamais Cascio: Social Networking and the Brain: Continuous Partial Empathy? (Apr 18, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090417/
Human beings are social animals; we devote a significant portion of our brain just to dealing with interactions with other humans. It should come as no surprise, then, that social Web technologies have a complex relationship with brain function. When these platforms work in concert with our social brains, they can enable persistent relationships or provide emotional/social augmentation. When social web technologies clash with brain function, however, the results can be surprising.
George Dvorsky: Welcome to the Machine, Part 4: Kurzweil’s nano neural nets (Apr 17, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dvorsky20090416/
As previously noted in this series, our entire world may be simulated. For all we know we’re sitting on a powerful supercomputer somewhere, the mere playthings of posthuman intelligences. But this is not the only possibility. There’s another way that this kind of fully immersive ‘reality’ could be realized—one that doesn’t require the simulation of an entire world. Indeed, it’s quite possible that your life is not what it seems—that what you think of as reality is actually an illusion of the senses. You could be experiencing a completely immersive and totally convincing virtual reality right now and you don’t even know it.
Mike Treder: A Black-Swan-Robust World (Apr 17, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090417/
While the United States and the world struggle through the worst economic times since the 1930s, advice is coming in from all sides on how to prevent a repeat of the current debacle. Neoliberal Chicago school economic ideas championed for decades by Milton Friedman and his followers—and brought to full bloom under George W. Bush—are now in well-deserved disrepute, but where do we go from here?
J. Hughes: Embodiment, Compassion and Secular Ethics (Apr 16, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20090416/
Does championing Enlightenment values require complete rejection of collaboration and dialogue with the religious? Could technoprogressives even learn something from Easter about how to design moral machines?
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MULTIMEDIA
Technology, Humanity and the Future (May 18, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughesv2008/
IEET Executive Director J. Hughes answered some questions about technology and its impact on humanity at Convergence 08, November 15, 2008 in Mountain View California.
The Case for Perfection (May 17, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/heg20090514/
Miller Brown (Philosophy, Trinity College) debunks arguments against human enhancement, specifically in sports, before the Hartford Ethics Group, May 14, 2009. (Apologies about the loud air conditioner in the background.)
Designer Apocalypse (May 16, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090523/
When the apocalypse comes who ya gonna call? Not the rich, hiding in their bunkers. And which apocalypse? Designer babies? Asteroids? Skynet?
Economic Rights (May 16, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090516/
Economic rights are fundamental human rights. European social democracies are the best at providing for basic economic security. Some of the evidence for Euro-socialist superiority comes from comparative studies of happiness. We can start providing more economic security here by expanding public options and universal access to healthcare.
Life Inc.: The Movie (May 11, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/lifeincmovie/
This depression didn’t just happen. In Life Inc., award-winning writer, documentary filmmaker, and scholar Douglas Rushkoff traces how corporations went from a convenient legal fiction to the dominant fact of contemporary life. Indeed as Rushkoff shows, most Americans have so willingly adopted the values of corporations that they’re no longer even aware of it.
Transhumanism: Does Enhancement Kill “You”? (May 10, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/schneider20090510/
Dr. Susan Schneider, IEET fellow and assistant professor of philosophy and an affiliated faculty member with Penns Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, speaks at a UPenn Media Seminar on Neuroscience and Society on philosophical controversies surrounding cognitive enhancement.
Debate on AGI: Utopia or Apocalypse? (May 10, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/agidebate09/
A debate between J. Storrs Hall and Hugo de Garis. J. Storrs Hall, president of the Foresight Institute, takes the position in this debate that the rise of artificial intelligence levels will create a utopia for humanity. Hugo de Garis, Wuhan University, China, takes the opposite position, namely that the rise of godlike massively intelligent machines will be catastrophic for humanity, leading to the worst, most passionate war humanity has ever known, using late 21st century weapons, killing billions of people. This debate between J. Storrs Hall and Hugo de Garis took place at the 2nd AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) conference, 2009
Sustainable Mobility (May 9, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090509/
The video of the talk Jamais Cascio gave at the Art Center Summit on Sustainable Mobility a couple of months ago is now available. It runs about 40 minutes.
Transcendent Man (May 8, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/transcendent_man/
Transcendent Man introduces the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, the renowned futurist who journeys the world offering his vision of a future in which we will merge with our machines, can live forever, and are billions of times more intelligent ... all within the next thirty years.
Mind Control Fad Ready to Sweep College Campuses (Apr 30, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder200904030/
The Washington Post’s Joel Garreau, a friend of the IEET, takes a look at an upcoming Star Wars-themed toy that uses new technology to allow the user to levitate an object…with their mind!
Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better (Apr 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/wmes09/
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, academic epidemiologists at Nottingham and York universities respectively, are authors of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. They explain why relatively unequal societies such as Britain and the United States are more likely to suffer from a range of problems, including low life expectancy, illiteracy, stress, and a high crime rate. Even climate change is less of a challenge for a society with a narrow gap between rich and poor.
Saviour Siblings Film (Apr 27, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ssf09/
“My Sister’s Keeper” is the story of two sisters, Kate, who suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia, and her sister Anna, who was genetically engineered and conceived to be a genetic match for Kate. In general, the few savior siblings that have been born around the world only provide one or a few bone marrow transplants for their sick older sibling, and they are not genetically engineered, only selected for from among a number of fertilized embryoes. In this film Anna is genetically modified and apparently provides multiple tissues, including cord blood, blood, bone marrow. When her sister needs a kidney she sues her parents for rights to her body. Starring Cameron Diaz as Mom, the amazing Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) as the reluctant donor, and Sofia Vassilieva as the sick sister. An adaptation from a novel by Jodi Picoult, “My Sister’s Keeper” gets released to US theaters on 26 June 2009.
Metaphysics of Suffering and Ethics of Torture (Apr 26, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mset09/
The torture memo set to music. From Rock Cookie Bottom.
Esalen’s Tantric Transhumanism parts 1&2 (Apr 25, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090425/
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090502/
Dr. J. chats with Jeffrey Kripal, author of Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion, a history of the Big Sur retreat center that helped create the human potential movement. Part 2 of 2.
Happy Earth Day (Apr 22, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/andosan/
An English-subtitled version of Takashi Taniguchi’s delightfully absurd “Mr. Ando of the Woods” has made its way online.
Rushkoff chats with Steven Johnson (Apr 21, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoffj200904/
Doug Rushkoff talks with guests Steven Johnson and Bob White. The Media Squat is freeform, bottom-up, open source radio looking towards similarly open source, bottom-up solutions to some of the problems engendered by our relentlessly top-down society. Each show will initiate a series of discussions, which will themselves comprise part of an expanding wiki of resources, support material, and community-generated content. This isn’t pure ‘60s or Whole Earth radicalism and self-sufficiency (though it’s certainly related) but a 21st Century, cyberpunk reclamation of all technologies and social contracts as essentially open source, up for discussion, and open to modification. It’s an application of the hacker ethic and net collectivism to everything, done in the spirit of fun and adventure. (MP3)
Transition to a Resilient Civilization (Apr 18, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090418/
Dr. J. chats with Shaun Chamberlin about his new book The Transition Timeline For a Local, Resilient Future. Chamberlin is the founder of the Dark Optimism site.
Jon Kabat Zinn’s Science of Mindfulness (Apr 17, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/jkzsom09/
Krista Tippett interviews secular meditation teacher and clinical researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn.
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IEET SPEAKER EVENTS
Bostrom on “Transhumanism: A Critical Look”
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 May 18
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostrom20090518/
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/
Cognitive Enhancement Workshop and Symposium`
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 Jun 27-28
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fhice09/
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
Bostrom on “Transhumanism: A Critical Look”
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 May 18
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostrom20090518/
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/
Humanitarian Technology Challenge Conference
Washington D.C.
2009 Jun 1-2
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/htc09/
Jamais @ Mobile Monday
Amsterdam Netherlands
2009 Jun 1-1
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 @ 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/
Cognitive Enhancement Workshop and Symposium`
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 Jun 27-28
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fhice09/
The Paradox of Neurotechnology II
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 Jul 1-31
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tpon2/
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/
Foundations for a Common Morality
The United Nations, New York City, NY USA
2009 Sep 11-11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fcm09/
Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 Sep 14-17
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mmmmee09/
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/ndne091/
The Perfect Body: Between Normativity and Consumerism
Scandic Linköping Väst, Sweden
2009 Oct 9-13
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pbbnc09/
Neuroethics Society
Washington D.C.
2010 May 10-11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ns09/
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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Phone: 860-428-1837
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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.