Emergence 2006-12-04

Dec 4, 2006

IEET News for week ending Dec 4, 2006
Emergence
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
News for the week ending December 04, 2006


Editor: Dr. James J. Hughes

IEET NEWS | WRITINGS | MULTIMEDIA | EVENTS | IN THE NEWS

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


MULTIMEDIA
 
12/03 - The Day The Sky Exploded (1958)
12/01 - EIW Audio 6: Centenarians, Theory of Mind
11/30 - In Its Image (video)
11/30 - Technology Review’s MiniDocumentaries
11/27 - Legal Rights of Concious Computers (video)


ETHICS & TECH IN THE NEWS
Disability declining dramatically among US Seniors Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 12/03
Mona Charen channels Fukuyama on Longevity National Review 12/01
Hawking: Colonize space to ensure human survival International Herald Tribune - AP 11/30
A Brain Chip to Control Paralyzed Limbs Technology Review 11/30
Online world as important to Internet users as real world? Physorg.com 11/30
The Economist looks ahead to life extension with the transhumanists The Economist 11/30
Commitment to innovation vs. resignation to catastrophe New York Times 11/29
Willingness To Take Risks And Trust Others Are Inherited University of Bonn 11/29
Gaia scientist Lovelock predicts planetary wipeout Reuters 11/28
WHO: World health in 2030, good, bad and ugly New Scientist 11/28
Annalee Newitz on holiday gifts of the future Alternet 11/28
AGEING: CAN WE STOP THE CLOCK? Wellcome Trust 11/28
In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning New York Times 11/26
Peter Singer acknowledges that some animal testing is ethical The Observer 11/26


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