Emergence - IEET News for August 2, 2009
Athena Andreadis
Aug 3, 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.

Recently the question was raised on our IEET staff list of whether it is consistent for us to highlight the economistic Longevity Dividend formula  when our principal arguments for life extension far more principled: that life is a good in itself. Instead of focusing on this moral appeal, the Longevity Dividend argues that the social benefits of biotech-enabled healthy longevity, in reduced senior dependency and medical costs, far outweigh whatever costs developing and deploying the technology may entail. The enormous benefit to all of us from increased health longevity is not explicitly included in the argument. If our critics were to convincingly argue that life extension technology, and the social costs of residual senior dependency, would still be more of a “cost” than a “dividend”, the Longevity Dividend strategy fails.

Clearly we do start our analysis of public policy from primary moral, rights-based arguments regardless of financial cost/benefit. Those are our ethical rules of thumb, whether we start from a rights discourse, Kantian deontology or rule utilitarianism. But then we have to consider the social cost/benefit analysis in order to prioritize our competing moral claims. That is why cost/benefit analysis is the most common moral argument in public policy: how much social utility can we generate with a fixed budget? There may be trade-offs between achieving moral good X and moral good Y, and we need to try to quantify them if we can. But it is excellent if in fact we can argue there is no tradeoff, that achieving one good facilitates achieving other goods in a mutually reinforcing virtuous circle.

We also need to master cost/benefit analysis because we need to find and recruit allies who do not agree with our moral claims but who may agree with our cost/benefit analyses.

For instance:

We advocate for cognitive liberty, and therefore work for liberalized laws on psychoactive drugs. But if the “cost” of more cognitive liberty was a dramatic rise in unemployment, medical bills, and mental illness we would have a harder time making the case. Fortunately I believe the reverse is true, that properly conducted drug law reform would reduce the cost of substance abuse on society, principally because the cost of the War on Drugs is so high. Making that case allows us to recruit conservatives who do not support cognitive liberty, but do care about drug-war-induced crime, disease, prison overcrowding and higher taxes.

Take universal health care in the U.S. Most of the public polling on universal health care assumes that it would add X billions to US taxpayer burden to cover the uninsured. Even so, majorities of Americans would pay more in taxes to cover the uninsured. But one of the arguments for single payer is that we could cover everyone for the same amount of money that we are currently spending or less, by eliminating administrative waste and corporate profit-taking. Single payer would also lift the crippling burden of paying for health care from employers and shift it towards progressive taxation where it belongs. Making that case makes single payer far more persuasive, albeit not persuasive enough yet to sway the Dems who have been bought off by the medical industrial complex’s lobbyists.

With the basic income guarantee (BIG) it is even more important to make a cost/benefit case. Many object that a BIG would reduce incentives to work and create a crippling tax burden. It is essential that we not only argue for BIG as a basic economic “positive right,” but also articulate the many likely social benefits of BIG, such as increased labor mobility and social creativity.

With Longevity Dividend the genius of the argument is that it turns public policy “wisdom” on its head. The usual public policy response to extreme longevity is “It would be great, but we can’t afford it and it would destroy society.” By demonstrating that, in fact, longevity medicine could be the key to social liquidity between now and 2050 it shows that there is no conflict between the moral good of longer healthier life, and the moral goods of social prosperity and opportunities for our kids.

So yes, we should never lose sight of the primary moral arguments. But to be a serious agent of political change we need to be masters of both moral arguments and cost/benefit analysis.

In closing I want to give a big thanks and goodbye to Athena Andreadis. Athena joined the IEET as a Fellow in 2007. She has been a relatively active behind the scenes participant in our ongoing conversation about the technoprogressive project, and has contributed some very provocative essays such as her paean to the virtues of Snachismo. But as a practicing scientist she faces some daunting competing demands and has to step out to pursue the greater calling of Science, an appeal we cannot deny. We wish you much ongoing success Athena.

As a postscript I suppose I need to acknowledge the ongoing blog ping-pong started by Mike’s calling out of Peter Thiel’s execrable political commentary on the allegedly unfortunate granting of female franchise, and the persistence of the welfare state, over at the Cato Unbound site. Mike said this, Michael Anissimov said that, and then Instamoron said something else, and all the Instamoron acolytes came and repeated their catechisms on the IEET site, and then our friends RU and Phil chronicled the cage match.

Really? This is what passes for politics in the little H+/S^ community? He said/he said? How about health care reform, 10% unemployment, Iranian resistance, and our looming climate disaster? What about trying to achieve some of our urgent techno-political projects like drug law reform, funding for life extension research, and global catastrophic risk reduction? If some Ayn Rand wannabes want to go pull an Atlas Shrugged and live on pontoon Playboy Mansions in pirate infested oceans in the fantasy that they will be FREE, DAMN YOU FREE! who the hell cares? Thanks for ruining the world economy and leaving it to the reality-based community to clean up, but otherwise good riddance.

Dr. J. out

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IEET NEWS

Who, us worry? (Aug 1, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/poll20090801/
IEET readers appear to be mostly optimistic about our civilization’s chances for survival by the end of the 21st century. In a recent poll, every multiple choice response that was either positive or neutral was selected more often than any of those that were negative.

Mark Walker and James Hughes on Cognitive Enhancement in Free Inquiry (Jul 29, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/walker200907/
Pick up a copy of Free Inquiry. They have a special issue out on Designer Moods: The Ethics of Neurochemical Enhancement with pieces by IEET ED James Hughes and IEET Board member Mark Walker.
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ARTICLES

Jamais Cascio: Autonomy Without Intelligence? (Aug 1, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090801/
Competition requires speed. Wisdom requires patience. In a hyper-computerized world, which one wins?

Mike Treder: Catching Planet Killers (Jul 31, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090731/
If whatever hit Jupiter last week—and astronomers might never know what it was—had instead struck Earth, it would have caused catastrophic damage to human civilization.

J. Hughes: Social Pressures for Technological Mood Management (Jul 30, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20090729/
The prospect of neurotechnologies for mood manipulation alarms some people who worry about the pernicious effects they might have. In particular there is a concern that individuals will be pressured to make themselves inauthentically happy, and tolerant of things that should make them sad or angry. The most common result of social pressures to adjust mood will likely be far more beneficial both for the individual and society.

Mike Treder: Blurring Lines (Jul 29, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090729/
An article I posted here two days ago apparently gave an impression different from what I intended to convey. To begin with, the title (“Drawing Lines”) was poorly chosen, since it implies that I’m in favor of making sharp distinctions between what technoprogressives should and should not believe. The title was only meant to indicate the subject matter—i.e., whether such lines should be drawn—and not to suggest that they definitely ought to be.

Marcelo Rinesi: The Mediocre Returns of Extraordinary Technologies (Jul 28, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rinesi20090728/
Disruptive technologies change the world, but they don’t necessarily make investors rich.

Mike Treder: Drawing Lines (Jul 27, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090727/
To be a “true” technoprogressive, must one also be an affirmed atheist?

Charlie Stross: Institutional Longevity (Jul 27, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/stross20090727/
Over on Hacker News, GraffitiTim points out something interesting: “The first civilization started in Mesopotamia around 5000 BCE (more or less), which is 7,000 years ago. If you live until age 80, that’s more than 1% of the history of civilization.” So you can expect to live for more than 1% of the life span of human civilization to this date.

Kristi Scott: Cheating Darwin: The Genetic and Ethical Implications of Vanity and Cosmetic Plastic Surgery (Jul 27, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scott20090727/
If mating is partly about choosing half the genome of your children, do your potential partners in parenting have an obligation to disclose that they have had so much “work” done on their face and body that they now look nothing like their original phenotype? Will cosmetics and plastic surgery blunt the selection of more beautiful women via sexual selection?

Marcelo Rinesi: Education and Learning: Still in the Middle Ages (Jul 27, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rinesi20090727/
We invest money, time, and effort in procuring the best possible hardware and software for our projects. In the same manner, we want the people in our teams to have the necessary knowledge and skills. We can be quite vocal in our beliefs that people are the most important asset, and ongoing education a necessity of the modern economy. Except that when it comes to learning, we are really, really bad.

Randall Mayes: In Defense of Patenting DNA: A Pragmatic Libertarian Perspective (Jul 26, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mayes20090726/
Although biotechnology patents existed prior to the 1980s as the biotechnology era officially began, they soon became a divisive public policy issue. Perhaps a culture war issue is more appropriate as the free market approach of using DNA patents in biomedical research is under fire from strange bedfellows, a bioconservative-technoprogressive axis. The bioconservative criticisms are on moral grounds and the technoprogressive criticisms for economic reasons based on values.

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THE LATEST FROM THE JOURNAL OF EVOLUTION AND TECHNOLOGY

http://jetpress.org/

Kristi Scott
Cheating Darwin: The Genetic and Ethical Implications of Vanity and Cosmetic Plastic Surgery JET 20(2)  July 2009 1-8

Abstract: Evolution continually selects the best genes to proliferate the species. Emerging cosmetic plastic surgeries allow us to bypass our genetic code and cheat our naturally predetermined appearances by altering the perceived external flaws and ignoring the intact internal code where the “flaws” remain. Without these self-identified unwanted physical attributes, people who otherwise might not have been perceived as desirable mates for procreation allow themselves to be perceived as desirable enough to pass on their genes. TV shows are allowing us to witness the advantages over evolution that can be gained with the right amount of time and money. What we see on the outside is not necessarily what we are going to get on the inside, genetically speaking. With more and more people flocking to cosmetic procedures at younger ages, doctors and consumers need to understand and discuss the importance of this dramatic misrepresentation to the opposite sex. While there is a right to undergo the procedures, those who do so prior to having children, and even those who do not, are faced with important affective choices within a number of different relationships that need to be considered for both now and the future.

John Hickman
Mapping a Small Moral Universe
JET 20(2)  July 2009 9-18

Abstract: Content analysis of the texts offered by the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (CBHD), a think tank affiliated with Christian Trinity International University, reveals an ethical partiality or parochialism in conflict with the articulation of a universal bioethics. That narrow focus is consistent with the engagement of the Christian Right on moral issues involving human reproduction, sexuality and death because of their utility in mobilizing voters for the Republican Party. The leadership of the Christian Right understands the legitimating power of authoritative statements made by academics or by individuals associated with academic organizations. The ethical partiality or parochialism evident in the texts offered by the CBHD ignores important bioethical issues. 

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MULTIMEDIA

Cascio’s Laws of Robotics (Aug 2, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascios20090802/
Last March, Jamais gave a talk in Menlo Park entitled “Cascio’s Laws of Robotics.” We’ve already posted a link to the slides he used, and to essays and interviews covering related topics. Now the video of the talk is available.

The ‘Public Option’, Rising Unemployment, Longer Lives (Aug 2, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090801/
Why the single payer is a far better bet than a public option. Why the jobs may not come back. Why a 35 hour 4 day week is even better than a 40 hour 4 day week. Why seniors need to be biotechnologically enabled and encouraged to work longer.

Converging Emerging Technology Ethics (Jul 31, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cete09/
Nanoethics. Neuroethics. Synbioethics. How many bioethics subfields do we really need to grapple with the issues at the cutting edge of contemporary science? Maybe just one, suggest the authors of a recent report from the Hastings Center and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars: an ethics of emerging technologies.  Gregory Kaebnick and Andrew Light talk with Managing Editor Andrew Pratt About the Ethics of Emerging Technologies. Read the article here. Listen to the interview here.

Robot Attack Insurance (Jul 31, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/insursux/
Saturday Night Live sends up a Fox News/GOP scare story about military robots designed to use human bodies as fuel. And a compilation of real GOP scare tactics around alleged mandatory advance care planning in the health care reform proposals.

Google on the Brain (Jul 30, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090730/
Jamais discusses Google on the Lovell Dyett show. (MP3)

Audio Awesomeness on Death (Jul 30, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rl200907/
Radio Lab is one of the most awesome podcasts/radio programs in the audiosphere. Here Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich work their magic again, this time on the topic of death.

Planetary Praxis (Jul 26, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/novak20090726/
Dan Novak teaches about The Sixties, philosophy and futurism at the University of Rhode Island. A veteran of the spiritual counterculture and the political Left, Dan talks with Dr. J. about globalization, spirituality, the Marxist writer Ernst Bloch, and the concept of a “planetary praxis,” uniting personal spiritual growth with global social change. (MP3)

Proclaiming Four Environmental ‘Heresies’ (Jul 25, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/brand20090725/
Stewart Brand, who helped usher in the environmental movement in the 1960s and ‘70s, has been rethinking his positions on cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geoengineering. This talk at the US State Department, a foretaste of his major new book, is sure to provoke widespread debate.

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IEET SPEAKER EVENTS

Blackford @ Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon
Montreal, Canada
August 6-10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20090806/

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

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

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

Andy Miah @ Bionic Health
London, UK
October 1
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miahbh09/

Aubrey de Grey, Ben Goertzel @ Singularity Summit New York, NY, USA
October 3-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/singularitysummit09/

Natasha on Cognitive Enhancement @ Inside Art and Science
Lisbon, Portugal
October 10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore200910101/

Natasha Vita-More on Human Enhancement at Ciencia Viva
Lisbon, Portugal
October 10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20091010/

Treder on “Humanism and Transhumanism”
Philadelphia, PA
October 25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder2009071/

Aubrey de Grey, Ben Goertzel @ BIL:PIL 2009 Healthcare Innovation Conference
San Diego, CA USA
October 30-31
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bilpil09/

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

Nick Bostrom on “The State of the Enhancement Debate”
Philadelphia, PA USA
December 2
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostrom20091202/


ALL EVENTS

Science in Society
Cambridge University, United Kingdom
August 5-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scisoc09/

Blackford @ Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon
Montreal, Canada
August 6-10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20090806/

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

Emotions and Machines
University of Geneva, Switzerland
August 21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/emnomach09/

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

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

Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies
Seattle, WA USA
September 8-11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/s_net09/

Foundations for a Common Morality
The United Nations, New York City, NY USA
September 11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fcm09/

Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
September 14-17
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mmmmee09/

Workshop on Biopolitics
Beijing, China
September 15-20
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/biopol09/

Politics of the Life Sciences in an ‘Age of Biological Control’
London, UK
September 16-18
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/lse2009/

Aging and Healthy Lifespan Conference
Harvard Medical School, Cambridge MA USA
September 23-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ahls09/

Technology, Democracy, and Citizenship
Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
September 24-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tdc09/

New Directions in Neuroethics
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
September 24-26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ndne091/

Andy Miah @ Bionic Health
London, UK
October 1
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miahbh09/

Arse Elektronika 2009
San Francisco, CA USA
October 1-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ae09/

Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy
Tokyo, Japan
October 1-2
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/apcp09/

Aubrey de Grey, Ben Goertzel @ Singularity Summit
New York, NY, USA
October 3-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/singularitysummit09/

The Perfect Body: Between Normativity and Consumerism
Scandic Linköping Väst, Sweden
October 9-13
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pbbnc09/

Gaylaxicon 2009
Minneapolis, MN, USA
October 9-11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/gaylaxicon_2009/

Natasha on Cognitive Enhancement @ Inside Art and Science
Lisbon, Portugal
October 10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore200910101/

Natasha Vita-More on Human Enhancement at Ciencia Viva
Lisbon, Portugal
October 10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20091010/

Human Enhancement: What should be permitted?
Geneva, Switzerland
October 20-21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hesymposium/

Treder on “Humanism and Transhumanism”
Philadelphia, PA
October 25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder2009071/

Aubrey de Grey, Ben Goertzel @ BIL:PIL 2009 Healthcare Innovation Conference
San Diego, CA USA
October 30-31
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bilpil09/

12th Annual Accessing Higher Ground
Colorado, US
November 9-14
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/200911ahg/

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

Nick Bostrom on “The State of the Enhancement Debate”
Philadelphia, PA USA
December 2
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostrom20091202/

Science Fiction and Popular Culture
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
February 10-13, 2010
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/swtx2010/

Ethical Guidance for Research and Application of Pervasive and Autonomous Information Technology
March 3-4, 2010
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/egrapait10/

Gender, Bodies and Technology
Blacksburg, VA USA
April 22-24, 2010
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/gbt2010/

Neuroethics Society
Washington D.C.
May 10-11, 2010
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ns09/

Neural Interfaces Conference
Long Beach Convention Center, CA, USA
June 21-23, 2010
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/nic10/

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