Emergence - IEET News for June 20, 2009

1. A Note From Dr. J.
2. IEET News
3. Articles
4. Latest from JET
5. Multimedia
6. Events

A NOTE FROM DR. J.

As I write this I’m listening to reports from Tehran, where pro-democracy demonstrators went into the streets today knowing they would feel the ungloved iron fist of the totalitarian state coming down hard. Like many, I flash back to where I was when the crackdown came on the pro-democracy protesters of Tiananmen Square.

My wife and I were traveling throughout Europe in 1989 spending our honeymoon on a six-week set of meetings with democratic socialist youth activists, culminating in representing the US at the Congress of the Socialist International in Stockholm. We were in Paris when the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square, drinking espresso and weeping over the reports in the International Herald Tribune. Many reports and photos leaked out then, but the Chinese went on to suppress public memory of the events and build the most successful totalitarian state of the 21st century.

Now we can monitor totalitarian repression almost in real-time thanks to the Net, Twitter, sat-phones and all the rest of our connectivity. Does this make it harder to kill demonstrators, arrest dissidents, and suppress dissent? Although the military-clerical junta in Iran has made a determined effort to close down and censor all these streams of information in recognition of their importance, the Iranian dictatorship has revealed no hesitation in their response, even knowing that there will still be damning images and reports of the bloodshed.

The Chinese Communist state is also clearly very concerned about hacktivist subversion, having built The Great Firewall, and now attempting to install spyware and filtering on every Chinese computer. So in 2009 do we still have any faith that the communications revolution, the Twitterverse, the participatory panopticon is supporting more democracy, free speech and openness, or are totalitarian states quickly figuring out how to control and use these tools to reproduce their power?

Doug Rushkoff and Jamais Cascio have both published articles this week on Iran and this question of the Net’s effect on democracy. In “How Iran’s Hackers Killed Big Brother” Doug takes the more optimistic tone, concluding “The net result proves that the age of the totalitarian dictatorship is over.” But Jamais is more skeptical in his “The Dark Side of Twittering a Revolution.” He points out that grassroots communications can be as easily used for genocidal pogroms as for democratic activism, that “as these tools proliferate, they will inevitably be used for far more deadly goals.”

As with every emerging technology, we have to struggle to maintain our technoprogressive stance - technologies create new terrains for democratic struggle, but do not necessarily by themselves make dictatorship or democracy, equality or inequality, any more likely. But democratic organizing and struggle *plus* the game-changing impacts of emerging technologies can move society forward very fast indeed. (I know that Doug heartily agrees since he was one of the founders of the Technorealists, which said many of the same things, but a supposed ‘debate’ amongst friends helps perk up interest.)

IEET Fellow Randy Mayes has started cranking out reports on the genetics-and-policy front, and make sure to read Jamais’ excellent piece on cognitive enhancement in the Atlantic Monthly this month, which frames our intelligence amplification in the context of the catastrophic risks we face.

There is a lot of IEET-related stuff happening in the UK this summer. Nick Bostrom is preparing for a big cognitive enhancement seminar at Oxford June 27-28, Andy Miah has gigs all over the British and Irish isles, and Aubrey de Grey is preparing for the annual SENS conference in Cambridge UK September 4-7.

Those of you who can, please pencil in Friday December 4 in Los Angeles as the next IEET seminar, this time on the Biopolitics of Popular Culture. The seminar will be held in the cutting-edge 3D media facility of EON (eonreality.com), the day before the first big unConference of the re-branded World Transhumanist Association, now known as Humanity+ (same venue, Dec 5-6).

Say hello to our newest intern Kris Notaro, who is studying philosophical psychology and will be working on our Wiki and writing for us on qualia, zombies, panpsychism and other mind-bending stuff.

My trip this week to Washington D.C. went well, and our embedded cadres are busy at work converting DARPA supersoldiers into technoprogressive ninjas. I deny all rumors that I had anything to do with the announcement this week that President Obama gave the boot to Kass, Pellegrino, Fukuyama and the rest of the Bush bioethics council in preparation for appointing a new progressive bioethics advisory body.

Now I’m off to Ohio, Chicago, South Carolina and then a Buddhist meditation retreat in Massachusetts which will probably reduce the frequency of my missives till mid-July. Hope your summer (or winter down under) is going well, and that you keep out of the clutches of your local paramilitary thugs. But Twitter us for more bottles, rags and bail if you need ‘em.

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IEET NEWS

Geoengineering Debate Heats Up (Jun 15, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090615/
In the cover story for a special Wall Street Journal report, IEET Senior Fellow Jamais Cascio admits he has become a reluctant advocate of “cooling the planet.” Our current IEET poll asks whether you agree on the merits of geoengineering. We were planning to change the poll this week, but now that the issue is hitting the mainstream fan, so to speak, we’ll leave it up a bit longer. If you haven’t weighed in yet, make your vote count!

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ARTICLES

Jamais Cascio: The Dark Side of Twittering a Revolution (Jun 20, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090620/
The same technologies that have allowed for a potential democratic revolution in Iran could emerge just as readily in support of something far more sinister.

Russell Blackford: The great accommodationism debate (Jun 20, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20090620/
Over the past few weeks, the blogosphere has been alive with a passionate debate about the extent to which science should accommodate religion, leaving it an area in which it has authority - whether it be in respect of truths about morality or truths about a supernatural realm - while denying it authority over empirical claims.

Doug Rushkoff: How Iran’s Hackers Killed Big Brother (Jun 20, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoff20090620/
Tehran’s streets may be bloody, says Douglas Rushkoff, but the opposition has won the digital war. The battleground: Facebook and Twitter. The weapons: bandwidth and hacking. The prize: the end of totalitarianism.

Randall Mayes: Do We have a Right to DNA Evidence in Trials? (Jun 20, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mayes20090620/
Although the fruits of genomics have yet to materialize for curing diseases, the science community does have a better understanding of how complex diseases and evolution work. In addition, genomics has a useful by-product, a tool used by forensic detectives. Using PCR, a fast and inexpensive technology for making copies of DNA, extremely small samples from blood stains, semen, hair follicles, saliva, and skin are used for DNA evidence.

Jamais Cascio: Get Smarter (Jun 19, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090619/
Pandemics. Global warming. Food shortages. No more fossil fuels. What are humans to do? The same thing the species has done before: evolve to meet the challenge. But this time we don’t have to rely on natural evolution to make us smart enough to survive. We can do it ourselves, right now, by harnessing technology and pharmacology to boost our intelligence. Is Google actually making us smarter?

Randall Mayes: Can Synthetic Biology Cure Bad Air? (It’s not what you think) (Jun 15, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mayes20090615/
Treatments for some of the world’s biggest killers, such as malaria, can’t earn enough profits for pharmaceutical companies to attract research investments. The people they kill are just too poor to be worth the investment. Fortunately scientist-activists are attempting to find ways to support vital research through the non-profit sector.

Mike Treder: Temporal Powers of Ten (Jun 15, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090615b/
Many IEET readers probably are familiar with the famous (and famously brilliant) “Powers of Ten” film created in 1977 by Charles and Ray Eames. What happens if we try a similar mental exercise with time instead of space?

Jamais Cascio: It’s Time to Cool the Planet (Jun 15, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090615/
Cutting greenhouse gases is no longer enough to deal with global warming. We also have to do something more direct—and risky.

Athena Andreadis: “Keeping an Open Mind is a Virtue, but not so Open that Your Brains Fall Out.” (Jun 15, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/andreadis20090615/
– saying attributed to Jim Oberg, space journalist and historian

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THE LATEST FROM THE JOURNAL OF EVOLUTION AND TECHNOLOGY

Call for Papers - Nietzsche and European Posthumanisms

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cfpjet0906/

Issue 20(1) of the Journal of Evolution and Technology contains Stefan Sorgner’s article “Nietzsche, the Overhuman, and Transhumanism”. This argues (contrary to the published views of Nick Bostrom, for example) that there are significant and fundamental similarities between the posthuman and the Nietzschean “overhuman”.

We expect this paper will be of general interest to transhumanists and scholars with an interest in transhumanism, and we are calling for papers that respond to it - either by replying directly to its arguments (with agreement, disagreement or otherwise) or by looking further into the relationship between transhumanism and European thought. Authors might, for example, wish to consider the work of Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Foucault, Lyotard, or Sloterdijk.

We are looking for (1) short responses (under 2000 words), which will not be peer-reviewed but selected by the editors on the basis of merit, and (2) full-length articles which will be peer-reviewed in the normal way. Please make clear how you wish any submission to be treated.

The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2009. Submission guidelines can be found here.

The Journal of Evolution and Technology is a peer-reviewed online journal, published by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

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MULTIMEDIA

The Case Against Gene Patents (Jun 20, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/koepsell20090620/
In this interview with D.J. Grothe, David Koepsell discusses the implications of corporations patenting parts of the human genome, and how current patent practices negatively impact basic scientific research in genetics. He reviews the history of the practice of patenting genes and contrasts private ownership of gene sequences found in nature with that of the public ownership of the work of the Human Genome Project. He contrasts discovery with invention, and argues that patents should apply only to the latter. He details the relationship of human genes being patented with the practices of big agribusiness owning engineered crops, such as Monsanto’s “terminator corn.” He discusses the ACLU’s recent lawsuit against Myriad Genetics on behalf of scientists and cancer patients, and how it may lead to one of the most important legal battles in the history of biotechnology. He talks about “upstream” and “downstream” patents, and how this impacts genetic research. And he discusses various solutions currently proposed for the problems resulting from private ownership of naturally occurring gene sequences.

Markets Love Selfish People (Jun 20, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoff20090619/
For all the ability of genes and even memes to battle for survival against one another, human beings are just as likely to share and cooperate as they are to cheat and compete. But the ascendance of market rhetoric in America and Britain was accompanied by the assertion of some decidedly antiromantic science. University anthropologists seemed determined to correct the hopeful impressions that so many still clung to of peaceful, vegetarian gorillas enjoying one another’s company in the jungle. Like stories of supposedly peaceful aboriginal tribes as yet untainted by corrupt Western civilization, such visions—according to the new social Darwinists—were pure fantasy.

Message to Our Descendants (Jun 17, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090617/
A “video time capsule” containing messages to future humans, artificial intelligences, and posthuman from IEET Managing Director Mike Treder.

What is Geoengineering? (Jun 13, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascoge200907/
Jamais was interviewed on geoengineering by the Dutch group FreedomLab.

Brains - Military, Disgusted, Forgetful (Jun 13, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csrnof20090613/
Jonathan Moreno on The use of neuroscience by the US military, Douglas Rushkoff on the need to train citizens in digital combat arts, the relationship of disgust sensitivity to conservatism, and Greg Beato’s defense of memory deletion in the participatory panopticon.

Online Learning and the Future of Higher Education (Jun 13, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090627/
Dr. J chats with Ed Klonoski, the president of Charter Oak State College, a leading distance learning innovator. They discuss the way students use online learning, the changing and emerging technologies, and the challenge of open sourcing education.

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IEET SPEAKER EVENTS

Andy on “Bioart as Bioethics”
Belfast, Northern Ireland
June 22-24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090622/

Aubrey @ FutureFest 2009
Cambridge, UK
June 23-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090623/

Vita-More on FastFoward Radio 7:30 PST / 10:30 EST
Everywhere
June 23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20090620/

Jamais on “What if we really COULD change the future for the better?”
Sydney, Australia
June 24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090528/

Hughes on “Science & Technology for Liberation” @ Think Galacticon
Chicago, Illinois USA
June 26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20090627/

Andy @ Social Media
Leicester, UK
June 26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090626/

Cognitive Enhancement Workshop and Symposium
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
June 27-28
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fhice09/

Bostrom @ Converging Tech and Philosophy
Enschede, The Netherlands
July 8-10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ctcs09/

Vita-More, de Grey on “Cosmos, Nature, Culture”
Phoenix, AZ
July 18-21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20090718/

Andy on Climate Change and Nanotechology
Daejeon, South Korea
August 20-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090820/

Andy @ International Symposium of Electronic Art
Ulster, Northern Ireland
August 26-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090826/

Aubrey @ SENS4
Cambridge, UK
September 4-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubreysens4/

Vita-More on “Transformative Human: radically enhancing/extending life”
Melbourne, Australia
November 26-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20091126/

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Contact:
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies http://ieet.org/ Executive Director, Dr. James J. Hughes Williams 229B, Trinity College 300 Summit St.
Hartford CT 06106 USA
Email: director @ ieet.org
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.