We’re all busy busy here at the IEET, between attending and organizing conferences, writing blogs and papers, producing podcasts, and working on books. Here’s an update on some of the books we’re working on.
Technoprogressive Policy Handbook In December of 2008 we plan to publish a free PDF book with two dozen short chapters on key public policy questions that we determine to be part of the technoprogressive/IEET agenda. The book will hopefully be at a level of abstraction that would make it applicable in any country, but the publication will be targeted at the new US Congress and Presidency taking office in January 2009. All the major thinktanks in Washington D.C. publish these kinds of handbooks for congressional and executive staffers looking for ideas for their bosses. Each essay will summarize a policy question, recommended a policy direction, and include an annotated bibliography for further resources on the policy.
Cyborg Life: The Reality of Living With Artificial Parts Peter Houghton and James Hughes – Peter is an artificial heart device recipient and the founder of several charities in the UK working on the technologies and needs of people with artificial organs. He has been collecting narratives of people with heart assist devices, insulin pumps and similar devices, and in this book we intend to describe the current experiences of people with implanted medical devices, and the public policy agenda to ensure universal access to safe, life enhancing devices in the future.
Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights co-edited by Dale Carrico and J. Hughes - The conference volume of essays generated by the IEET’s May 2006 HETHR conference. We are editing them for publication.
Cyborg Buddha: Using Neurotechnologies to Make Us Better People J. Hughes. This book will address the use of neurotechnologies to enhance compassion, moral behavior and the virtues. I’m at the beginning stages of writing and hope to have it done by the end of the year.
William Bainbridge’s has just published Nanoconvergence: The Unity of Nanoscience, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science.
Douglas Rushkoff reports “Finally settled in with a new publisher on a new book. The working title of the book is “Corporatism: How we surrendered values for value, meaning for markets, and citizenship for customer service.” But that’s really a placeholder for a more precise and, hopefully, provocative/evocative title. I’m hoping to develop something more useful than a leftist/Marxist response to a market-driven culture, and instead look at the co-evolution of the notions of the ‘self’ and the corporation - how these two constructions feed off one another.”
Giulio Prisco is working on a book tentatively titled Engineering Transcendence, exploring a transhumanist approach to religious goals.
George Dvorsky is also working on a book proposal, details to come.
Russell Blackford recently published Kong Reborn
Riccardo Campa will soon publish a two volume intellectual history of transhumanism in Italian, and a one volume summary in English.
Dale Carrico is working on a book treatment of his doctoral dissertation Pancryptics: Technological Transformations of the Subject of Privacy.
Wrye Sententia is also working on a book out of her doctoral dissertation Cyberpunk Visions: Coping with Converging Technologies and Transformations of Human Freedom.
More details on these books and those of the other fellows to come…