1. A Note From Dr. J.
2. Technoprogressive Poetry
3. IEET News
4. Articles
5. Multimedia
6. Events with IEET Speakers
A NOTE FROM DR. J.
We started chatting with IEET Fellows this week about their projects, and immediately things started popping. We have a group working on a federal grant to study personhood, and another group working on an IEET retreat. Hope to have more details soon.
Mike and I are bowing to the wisdom of the crowd and working on a less busy header for the site. Thanks for all your thoughtful comments.
This week was a good one for IEET topics. Geoengineering discussions continue to grow, with lots of folks discovering Jamais’s nuanced and reluctantly supportive work on the subject. Amazon just started selling his book Hacking the Earth, and he has a piece coming out in the Wall Street Journal on the issue. Geoengineering - yeah or nay - is the subject of this week’s IEET poll so click and vote. Last month’s poll was on what to do with a crazy little country called North Korea, and look how timely that is.
Monkeys tweaked to carry a gene for a green fluorescent protein had lots of people talking about the ethics of genetic therapies on humans, specifically gene tweaks that could be inheritable and enhancing. As usual there were lots of commenters saying “whoa, we need to talk about this” when the dialogue has been going on for forty years.
The new Terminator movie and some snarky commentary on Kurzweil and Singularitarians in Newsweek from our friend John Horgan had a lot of people talking about the plausibility, benefits and risks of artificial intelligence. (Make sure to read Ben Scarlato’s piece on the Terminator, and Martine on mindclones.) At the same time the Obama administration has announced a sweeping overhaul of cybersecurity strategy, with a new cyberczar and so on. I wish we could figure out how to get the autonomous-AI-as-potential-risk conversation included in the cybersecurity policy conversation. I think a foot in the door has been the enormous amount of attention to the ethical control of autonomous warbots, between PW Singer’s new Wired for War book, and the Moral Machines book from Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen. Not much of a leap to imagine that we should be preparing for autonomous AIs thrashing about in the Net, whether designed or emergent.
Scientific American ambled into Cyborg Buddha territory when they published “Meditation on Demand” this week, arguing that we will be able to induce meditational states with neurotechnology.
I’m trying to find the time to write a rebuttal to Kevin Kelly’s piece in Wired arguing that open source and wiki-collaboration are the “new socialism.” It is a kind of progress when techno-utopians go from Ron Paul rallies, seasteading and libertarianism to wanting to use the S word, but the article is glaringly ignorant of the history of ideas, and socialism in particular, as if there were never people who argued for egalitarian social reform through voluntary non-state-centered collectivism. Uh, ever heard of Fourier, St. Simon, Owens, Kropotkin, narodniki, the Fabians, the cooperative movement, left anarchism, etc.? Perhaps because their accomplishments were pretty meager next to the enormous disasters of Communist states, and the huge accomplishments of the democratic socialist movement.
I’m trying to process what the 21st century version of Marx and Engel’s critique of utopian socialism in ‘Socialism: Utopian and Scientific’ would be to Kevin Kelly and his ilk. Their enthusiasm for this “new socialism” appears to be driven by the hope that technorati anger at the failures of capitalism can be channeled into hacktivism, and not into collective organizing for political power to provide collective goods, such as universal health care. But I suspect there is a materialist historical argument to be made that new modes of information technology have created new class confrontations, new collective identities and new means of organizing that do herald a new non-utopian socialist paradigm. I think that is the kind of the project that Cory Doctorow, Doug Rushkoff and Jamais Cascio have been fleshing out, albeit without the S word.
Speaking of confronting the entrenched power of big corporations with people power, I’m really annoyed about the kissy-face with insurance companies that the Obama people and Max Baucus, the Democratic Senator leading the healthcare reform effort in Congress, are making. Not only have they pointedly excluded all single payer advocates from the debate, but now they appear to be bargaining away even the prospect of a public insurance option to compete alongside private insurance. If you are American, make sure to express your desire for universal healthcare with a public option to your local spinally-challenged politician. It takes popular wrath to fight corporate cash.
Dr. J.
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TECHNOPROGRESSIVE POETRY
Dirge without Music
Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.
Crowned With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew, A formula, a phrase remains,—- but the best is lost.
The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, They are gone.
They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled Is the blossom.
Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
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IEET NEWS
Poll: Life Extension Choices (May 29, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/poll20090529/
By a wide margin, IEET readers say they would like to stay youthful indefinitely.
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ARTICLES
Jamais Cascio: The Transparency Dilemma (May 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090528/
Last week’s and this week’s “Open Future” columns for Fast Company make up a two-part examination of the dilemmas surrounding transparency.
Ben Scarlato: Terminator: Salvation and the Sarah Connor Chronicles (May 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scarlato20090528/
[Contains spoilers.] Overall, although Terminator: Salvation was a well produced and enjoyable movie, it wasn’t particularly deep. I was at least hoping for a more interesting exploration of Marcus Wright’s identity and the meaning he found in his existence after discovering he was the first genuine cross between a human and a machine, but even that was handled predictably. The movie evaded any of the complexity that the recently canceled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles television series had been beginning to develop.
Silke Fauve: Gay Marriage: Waking the American Conscience (May 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fauve20090528/
Despite the recent outcome on Proposition 8 in California, I believe that the American conscience has awakened concerning the right of gay people to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in this country. Yes, there remain groups of people who would deny gays their human rights out of fear, blind adherence to religious dogma, or a simple hatred of what they don’t understand, but those groups are shrinking.
Mike Treder: How to stop global warming. Or not. (May 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090526/
A few weeks ago I described a continuum sliding from global warming to climate chaos to geoengineering and ultimately to planet-scale engineering. Now we’ll look into what some of those geoengineering proposals might be, why they might or might not work, and what the potentially catastrophic results could be—whether or not we try to solve global warming.
Athena Andreadis: Equalizer or Terminator? (May 27, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/andreadis20090527/
Athena Andreadis is guest-blogging at Sentient Developments this month. Years ago, I saw a short in an animation festival. It showed earth inhabited by men who happily bopped each other and propagated by laying eggs. A starship crash interrupted the idyll. Presaging Battlestar Galactica, the newcomers proved miraculously interfertile with the men who handed them the job of propagation along with all other disagreeable chores. Things went swimmingly, at least for the men, until a rescue ship arrived. After the women left, the men were once again free to pursue manly things – until they realized they had forgotten how to lay eggs.
Mike Treder: Face-to-Face Still Beats Byte-to-Byte (May 24, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090524/
We can hold conference calls with colleagues from all over, and do it basically for free. Tiny videocams built into laptop computers—that are themselves millions of times more powerful than the computers used to fly men to the moon in the 1960s—allow real-time visual meetups, saving time and money, making business run better and progress move faster. Still, no matter how far we have come, in-person meetings are better than data-mediated connections.
Mike Treder: Participatory Panopticon Trial One: FAIL (May 23, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090523/
It is 2007 on the steamy tropical streets of Rangoon, Burma, where journalism is against the law, and where no outside reporters are allowed. Fed up with living under the oppression of a heavy-handed military dictatorship, a few courageous citizens dare to speak out. They are quickly silenced and carried off by police and plain-clothes thugs—but a small band of video journalists is able to capture the events and begin leaking the news to the outside world.
Russell Blackford: Killer robots in war (May 22, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20090522/
This thought experiment is not as far-fetched as it may seem at first glance. Many experts believe that we will be able, not too many decades down the track, to build a device with the capacities that I’ll be describing. My Generation Y philosophy/international studies students may still be young enough to be involved in real-world decisions when this sort of technology is available. Even I may still be alive, to vote on it, if it’s an election issue in 30 or 40 years time. Though it may be at an early stage, the necessary research is going on, even now, in such places as the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Mike Treder: (Unrelated?) Huge News Stories (May 21, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090522/
They may not dominate the headlines or lead the evening newscasts like any kidnapping of a young blond girl usually does, but two seemingly unrelated recent news stories grabbed my attention.
J. Hughes: Five Major Changes to American Life By 2020 (May 21, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20090521/
My response to a journalist’s inquiry about what I thought the five biggest changes would be in American life and society between now and 2020.
Martine Rothblatt: Why Worry About This Sci-Fi Stuff Now? (May 21, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rothblatt20090521/
The term “mindclone” evokes a wide range of sci-fi images from the “Cylons” of Battlestar Galactica to the “Mr. Smiths” of The Matrix. While it is indisputable that we are creating large mindfiles, as described in Question 1, and surely there are geeks working hard on mindware, as reviewed in Question 2, how close could we be to an actual mindclone when computers can’t converse on their own much better than a two-year old kid?
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.
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MULTIMEDIA
AI and the Future of Human Morality (May 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/omohundro20090528/
Steve Omohundro, Ph.D. is president of Self-Aware Systems a Silicon Valley think tank aimed at bringing human values to emerging technologies. This talk in March 2008 to the Silicon Valley Transhumanist group examines the origins of human morality and its future development to cope with advances in artificial intelligence. It begins with a discussion of the dangers of philosophies which put ideas ahead of people. It presents Kohlberg’s 6 stages of human moral development, evidence for recent advances in human morality, the theory underlying co-operation, recent advances in understanding the sexual and social origins of altruism, and the 5 human moral emotions and their relationship to political systems. It then considers the likely behavior of advanced AI systems, showing that they will want to understand and improve themselves, will have drives toward self-preservation and resource acquisition, and will be vigilant in avoiding corruption and addiction. We end with a description of the 3 primary challenges that humanity faces in guiding future technology toward human-positive ends.
The Future of Subjectivity (May 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miller20090528/
A recent talk by IEET intern Ed Miller. Ed’s description: “This is a systems perspective on the future of our civilization. I hope that by understanding how resilience allows systems to survive, and how those systems influence our subjectivity, we can build a better future.”
Video Stream from the Future of Humanity Institute (May 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fhivideos/
The Future of Humanity Institute, directed by IEET Chair Nick Bostrom, has begun posting its videos to Vimeo. Subscribe to the FHI video feed. The site currently features five of Nick’s talks:
- Extraterrestrial Life
- The Fable of The Dragon Tyrant
- The Future and You
- Nature Podcast
- Mission of The Future of Humanity Institute Also, all the talks from the FHI’s 2008 Global Catastrophic Risks conference at Oxford University have been posted there, including talks by IEET’s J. Hughes, Mike Treder, Nick Bostrom and Milan Cirkovic.
The Ethical Issues of Enhancement (May 19, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/buchanan0905/
Philosophy Bites looks at ethical questions raised by enhancement with Allen Buchanan of Duke University, co-author of From Chance to Choice.
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. This video is one of a dozen that will be hosted shortly on the new Humanity+ website. If its too slow to stream you can download various versions from Archive.org.
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IEET SPEAKER EVENTS
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/
Andy Miah on “Nanotechnology and Postmodern Culture”
Sheffield, UK
2009 Jun 9
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090609/
Andy Miah on Human Evolution
London, UK
2009 Jun 10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090610/
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
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/iwmc09/
Aubrey @ IdeaCity
Toronto, Canada
2009 Jun 17-19
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090717/
Andy on “Bioart as Bioethics”
Belfast, Northern Ireland
2009 Jun 22-24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090622/
Aubrey @ FutureFest 2009
Cambridge, UK
2009 Jun 23-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090623/
Jamais on “What if we really COULD change the future for the better?”
Sydney, Australia
2009 Jun 24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090528/
Andy @ Social Media
Leicester, UK
2009 Jun 26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090626/
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/
Andy on Climate Change and Nanotechology Daejeon, South Korea
2009 Aug 20-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090820/
Andy @ International Symposium of Electronic Art Ulster, Northern Ireland
2009 Aug 26-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090826/
Aubrey @ SENS4
Cambridge, UK
2009 Sep 4-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubreysens4/
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