IEET
NEWS
William Sims
Bainbridge accepts appointment as first IEET Senior Fellow Dec
3, 2006
J. Hughes: The very first sociology essay I ever read,
back as a college freshmen in 1979, hooked me. It was an analysis by
William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark of the steps used by Mormon
missionaries to reel in converts. I saw in that essay that the sciences of
human behavior would be the passionate and fascinating pursuit that they
in fact turned out to be.
When I got a chance to meet Bill Bainbridge in the 21st century I
discovered to my delight that he was the co-mastermind of the very cool NBIC
initiative, had written major studies of science fiction, was
interested in the project of uploading human personalities into silicon
(albeit through the process of endless personality surveys, which sounds
even more painful than having your head microtomed off into a laser
scanner), was doing research in and on virtual worlds, and had written
much more fascinating studies of the religious life. Bill gave keynote
addresses at both the 2003 Transvision conference I organized at Yale
University, and at the August 2006 Transvision conference in Helsinki
Finland.
Bill has now accepted our invitation to be the IEET’s first Senior
Fellow, and we are very excited to help make more people aware of his
work, and weave his insights into the tapestry of technoprogressive
thought and policy. More...
LATEST FROM IEET FELLOWS AND STAFF
Russell
Blackford |
On
cyborg citzenship - where I have a problem
My friend James Hughes has a great narrative to tell about the
expanding circle of recognition of rights to all persons,
irrespective of sex, race, culture, and even species and physical
substrate. According to this narrative, we will ultimately accord
citizenship - and the legal rights that go with it - to non-human
persons and then to non-biological persons such as advanced,
fully-conscious artificial intelligences. We will realise that it is
Lockean personhood, rather than species membership, that accords
full moral considerability.
I wish I could go along with this without qualification, because
it’s a wonderful story to tell, and much simpler than the complex,
ambiguous, difficult reality that I see. But I do have a problem
here.
|
12/03 |
Martine
Rothblatt |
Macro-Bushido:
A Geoethical Consciousness for an Info-Cultural Age
Macro-Bushido is a set of ethical guidelines for the modern
Info-Cultural Age based on Bushido, the unwritten code of ethics
that guided Japan’s samurai until about one hundred years ago. The
seven principles of Bushido are: Rectitude, Courage, Benevolence,
Politeness, Veracity, Honor and Loyalty. Rothblatt dissects each
principle and explains how it could be applied to the modern world
and in particular, to emerging cyberconsciousness. Rothblatt argues
that upholding Macro-Bushido in today’s world will result in many
benefits, among them that humans may be saved from the consequences
of shortsightedness by refocusing their attention on loyalty to a
higher goal. In addition, a class of modern samurai may emerge to
help keep humanity loyal to the objectives of diversity, unity and
immortality. These ideals are invaluable as we arrive at personal
cyberconsciousness within humanity’s quest for survival. Download
the PDF
here.
|
12/03 |
Russell
Blackford |
The
Humean argument against objectivism
In Sentimental Rules (2004), Shaun Nichols does a good
job of explicating the central Humean argument against moral
objectivism. As he summarises it, the argument broadly involves two
steps: 1. Rational creatures who lack certain emotions would not
make the moral judgments that we do. 2. There is no externally
principled basis for maintaining that all rational creatures
should have the emotions on which our moral judgments
depend.
|
11/30 |
Anne
Corwin |
Longevity
Science - A Brief Snapshot of Progress
It can sometimes be difficult to detect change and progress as it
is occurring—when following and studying a given subject or
scientific endeavor, it is not always immediately apparent which
data points and events are significant amidst the noise and buzz of
journalism, discussion, and argument. But it seems quite
certain that things are indeed happening in the realm of longevity
science and related research.
|
11/29 |
Jamais
Cascio |
Terraforming
the Earth Under the Spotlight
Geoengineering—aka planetary engineering, aka (re-)terraforming
the Earth—has once again popped up into the public limelight.
The latest issue of Wired has an article
about Nobel-prize-winner Paul Crutzen’s proposal to spray sulfur
particles into the high atmosphere over the arctic, reflecting
sunlight and cooling the region, allowing icepack to reform.
Coincidentally, the November 16 issue of Rolling Stone (of
all places) has a profile
of Dr. Lowell Wood, former nuclear weapons designer at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Wood has proposed a
sulfur-seeding plan essentially identical to that of Dr. Crutzen.
The idea that we may have to engineer the planet to avoid climate
change disaster is taking off.
|
11/27 |
UPCOMING EVENTS
|
2006/12/14-14 |
Lagos,
Nigeria |
Human
Enhancement and Law Conf |
2006/12/18-18 |
Second
Life |
Anders
Sandberg rages against aging in Second Life |
2007/01/23-23 |
Duluth
MN USA |
Hughes
@ St. Scholastica on Enhancement |
2007/02/11-14 |
Eilat,
Israel |
Bioethics
& Future Generations |
2007/03/05-05 |
Marshall
TX USA |
Hughes
on Enhancement @ ET Baptist University |
2007/04/11-15 |
Jerusalem,
Israel |
Advanced
Tech in Medicine Conf |
2007/04/19-21 |
Sydney,
Australia |
Somatechnics
Conference |
2007/04/24-24 |
Tempe
AZ USA |
Enhancement
& Underrepresented Populations |
2007/05/24-26 |
Nanaimo,
Canada |
Conf
on Repro & Genetic Tech |
2007/09/15-18 |
Cardiff,
UK |
Ethics,
philosophy and public health |
2007/11/15-17 |
U
of Calgary, Canada |
Genetics,
Human Rights and the Next Phase of Human Evolution |
2008/05/01-05 |
Havana,
Cuba |
Definition
of Death Network |
|