This document summarizes a debate between transhumanists and bioconservatives on the ethics of human enhancement technologies. Transhumanists believe technologies should be available to improve human capacities and extend lifespans, which could result in posthumans. Bioconservatives worry this could undermine human dignity or result in a degraded posthuman state. The document distinguishes two common fears about posthumans - that the posthuman state itself could be degrading, and that posthumans may pose a threat to natural humans. It argues these fears are unfounded and that banning technologies is not the best response to legitimate social concerns about inequity that could arise.
Vulnerable Cyborgs: Learning to Live with our Dragons
de Mark Coeckelbergh Department of Philosophy University of Twente
Journal of Evolution and Technology - Vol. 22 Issue 1 – November 2011 - pgs 1-9
Abstract
Transhumanist visions appear to aim at invulnerability. We are invited to fight the dragon of death and disease, to shed our old, human bodies, and to live on as invulnerable minds or cyborgs. This paper argues that even if we managed to enhance humans in one of these ways, we would remain highly vulnerable entities given the fundamentally relational and dependent nature of posthuman existence. After discussing the need for minds to be embodied, the issue of disease and death in the infosphere, and problems of psychological, social and axiological vulnerability, I conclude that transhumanist human enhancement would not erase our current vulnerabilities, but instead transform them. Although the struggle against vulnerability is typically human and would probably continue to mark posthumans, we had better recognize that we can never win that fight and that the many dragons that threaten us are part of us. As vulnerable humans and posthumans, we are at once the hero and the dragon.
Vulnerable Cyborgs: Learning to Live with our Dragons
de Mark Coeckelbergh Department of Philosophy University of Twente
Journal of Evolution and Technology - Vol. 22 Issue 1 – November 2011 - pgs 1-9
Abstract
Transhumanist visions appear to aim at invulnerability. We are invited to fight the dragon of death and disease, to shed our old, human bodies, and to live on as invulnerable minds or cyborgs. This paper argues that even if we managed to enhance humans in one of these ways, we would remain highly vulnerable entities given the fundamentally relational and dependent nature of posthuman existence. After discussing the need for minds to be embodied, the issue of disease and death in the infosphere, and problems of psychological, social and axiological vulnerability, I conclude that transhumanist human enhancement would not erase our current vulnerabilities, but instead transform them. Although the struggle against vulnerability is typically human and would probably continue to mark posthumans, we had better recognize that we can never win that fight and that the many dragons that threaten us are part of us. As vulnerable humans and posthumans, we are at once the hero and the dragon.
My night with philosophers presentation - London June 8David Roden
Humanism, Transhumanism and Posthumanism
The Humanist and the transhumanist propose different methods for cultivating human capacities. The transhumanists claims that traditional techniques favoured by the humanist run up against the limits of our biology. She believes that prospective technologies could further the humanist cause by improving our nature. However, the transhumanist faces a difficulty. Her policies could produce posthumans. Evaluating posthuman lives might be impossible for us. But discounting them is not an option because she will share responsibility for their creation. I argue that one way through this impasse is for the transhumanist to produce posthumans or to become posthuman.
This article aims to present the great revolution represented by the human singularity that may occur in the future. What is Singularity? It is the characteristic of what is unique: infrequent, out of the ordinary or extraordinary. Singularity is a term that refers to something or someone who has a unique characteristic. The idea of uniqueness can be used to present physical characteristics and behaviors of human beings that are distinguished from what is considered standard. Human singularity refers to the use of science and technology to create a new category of more evolved human beings. Human uniqueness means making human beings defy the limits imposed by nature. This is the idea of transhumanism, a theory that believes that the use of science and technology can help to create a new category of evolved human beings even with the conquest of immortality. In the same way that technological singularity can arise with artificial superintelligence, so can human singularity with the formation of supermen.
My night with philosophers presentation - London June 8David Roden
Humanism, Transhumanism and Posthumanism
The Humanist and the transhumanist propose different methods for cultivating human capacities. The transhumanists claims that traditional techniques favoured by the humanist run up against the limits of our biology. She believes that prospective technologies could further the humanist cause by improving our nature. However, the transhumanist faces a difficulty. Her policies could produce posthumans. Evaluating posthuman lives might be impossible for us. But discounting them is not an option because she will share responsibility for their creation. I argue that one way through this impasse is for the transhumanist to produce posthumans or to become posthuman.
This article aims to present the great revolution represented by the human singularity that may occur in the future. What is Singularity? It is the characteristic of what is unique: infrequent, out of the ordinary or extraordinary. Singularity is a term that refers to something or someone who has a unique characteristic. The idea of uniqueness can be used to present physical characteristics and behaviors of human beings that are distinguished from what is considered standard. Human singularity refers to the use of science and technology to create a new category of more evolved human beings. Human uniqueness means making human beings defy the limits imposed by nature. This is the idea of transhumanism, a theory that believes that the use of science and technology can help to create a new category of evolved human beings even with the conquest of immortality. In the same way that technological singularity can arise with artificial superintelligence, so can human singularity with the formation of supermen.
Dr. Christie Mayo - Vesicular Stomatitis Virus UpdateJohn Blue
Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Update - Dr. Christie Mayo, DVM, Colorado State University, from the 2015 NIAA Annual Conference titled 'Water and the Future of Animal Agriculture', March 23 - March 26, 2015, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
More presentations at http://www.trufflemedia.com/agmedia/conference/2015_niaa_water_future_animal_ag
Transhumanism and the idea of education in the world of cyborgs. Michał Klic...eraser Juan José Calderón
Transhumanism and the idea of education in the world of cyborgs. Michał Klichowski .
We are cyborgs. We are transhumans; transitory people that exist in a luminal
phase2, waiting for a transfer to the posthuman world.3 Our children do not
need education; it is cyborgization that ensures their development. This is the
idea of transhumanistic philosophy, a thoroughly (non-/anti-)pedagogic idea.
Better than well-being: Education beyond transhumanism.
D. Lewin, A. Edwards
Liverpool Hope University
ABSTRACT
Much has been said about the different conceptions of well-being that educatorslook towards. In this paper we consider how transhumanists attempt to think beyond well-being. Our purpose here is not to suggest that we have arrived at a meaning of being or well-being and that it is now time move on towards a transhuman future.On the contrary, the transhuman vision beyond the present tells us more, we argue,about the limitations of our understanding of the depth of well-being. What might seem like rather fantastical models of the goal of education are not as distant asthey seem; the practical implications of modern technology increasingly require usto face the projection of humanity in our own image. It is argued that a theological conception of human nature will provide insight into transcendence that transhumanism does not consider.
Engineering
‘Posthumans’: To Be
or Not to Be?
Marianna Karamanou,1
Theodore G. Papaioannou,2,*
Dimitrios Soulis,2 and
Dimitrios Tousoulis2
Emerging technological innovations
have transformed some science
fiction ideas into reality,
promising radical changes in
human nature. New philosophical
and intellectual movements such
as ‘transhumanism’ and ‘posthumanism’
try to foretell and even
direct the future of our existence
while dealing with new and complex
ethical, social, political issues
and dilemmas.
Evolution for Everyone How Darwin’s Theory Can ChaBetseyCalderon89
Evolution for Everyone
How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We
Think About Our Lives
David Sloan Wilson
Distinguished Professor
Departments of Biology and Anthropology
Director of EvoS (http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~evos/)
Binghamton University
Binghamton, New York 13902-6000
Tel: 607-777-4393 Fax: 607-777-6521
[email protected]
Representation:
Michelle Tessler
Tessler Literary Agency
27 West 20th Street, Suite 1003
New York, NY 10011
(212) 242-0466
www.tessleragency.com
To be published by Bantam Press in Spring 2007..
Table of Contents
1. The Future Can Differ From The Past 5
2. Clearing The Deck 14
3. A Third Way Of Thinking 19
4. Prove It! 23
5. Be Careful What You Wish For 29
6. Monkey Madness 36
7. How The Dog Got Its Curly Tail 41
8. Dancing With Ghosts 49
9. What Is The Function Of A Can Opener? How Do You Know? 55
10. Your Apprentice License 60
11. Welcome Home, Prodigal Son 63
12. Teaching The Experts 69
13. Murder City 76
14. How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Genetic Determinism 85
15. They’ve Got Personality! 92
16. The Beauty Of Abraham Lincoln 105
17. Love Thy Neighbor Microbe 114
18. Groups All The Way Down 121
19. Divided We Fall 126
20. Winged Minds 130
21. The Egalitarian Ape 138
22. Across The Cooperation Divide 149
23. The First Laugh 156
24. The Vital Arts 163
25. Dr. Doolittle Was Right 174
26. How Many Inventors Does It Take To Make A Light Bulb? 181
27. I Don’t Know How It Works! 193
28. Darwin’s Cathedral 209
29. Is There Anyone Out There? Is There Anyone Up There? 228
30. Ayn Rand: Religious Zealot 240
31. The Social Intelligence of Nations, or, Evil Aliens Need Not Apply 254
32. Mr. Beeper 266
33. The Ecology Of Good And Evil 274
34. Mosquitoes Under The Bed 281
35. The Return Of The Amateur Scientist 288
36. Bon Voyage 308
Acknowledgements 313
Endnotes 314
Bibliography 327
Websites 340
For H.
Chapter 1
The Future Can Differ From The Past
This is a book of tall claims about evolution: that it can become uncontroversial;
that the basic principles are easy to learn; that everyone should want to learn them, once
their implications are understood; that evolution and religion, those old enemies who
currently occupy opposite corners of human thought, can be brought harmoniously
together.
Can these claims possibly be true? Isn’t evolution the most controversial theory
the world has ever seen? Since it’s a scientific subject, isn’t it hard to learn? If the
implications are benign, then why all the fear and trembling? And how on earth can the
old enemies of evolution and religion do anyth ...
Transhumanism and the idea of education in the world of cyborgs. Michal Klich...eraser Juan José Calderón
Transhumanism and the idea of education in the world of cyborgs. Michal Klichowski. Adam Mickiewicz University
We are cyborgs. We are transhumans; transitory people that exist in a luminal
phase2, waiting for a transfer to the posthuman world.3 Our children do not
need education; it is cyborgization that ensures their development. This is the
idea of transhumanistic philosophy, a thoroughly (non-/anti-)pedagogic idea.
In this paper, I will present basic transhumanism ideas and stress the criticism
on education created within this philosophy. This text is neither a systematic
study on transhumanism nor a pedagogical analysis. It is merely an attempt
at showing teachers how education can be deprecated in modern philosophies
that are technologically-oriented.
One line of escape from the maze of blind alleys is of particular relevance to our theme: a phenomenon which goes under the name of 'paedomorphosis'. It was described by Garstang in the 1920s, and taken up by several biologists; but although the existence of the phenomenon is generally accepted, it made little impact on the orthodox theory and is rarely mentioned in the textbooks. It indicates that at certain critical stages evolution can retrace its steps, as it were, along the path which led to the dead end and make a fresh start in a new, more promising direction. The crucial event in this process is the appearance at the foetal, larval or juvenile stage of some useful evolutionary novelty which is carried over into the adult stage of the organism's progeny.
Now this lowering of the age of sexual maturity is a well-known evolutionary phenomenon called neoteny. It has two aspects: the animal starts to breed while still in a larval or juvenile stage; and it never reaches the fully adult stage, which is dropped off - eliminated from its life cycle ('terminal abbreviation').
Sir Gavin de Beer compared the process to the re-winding of a biological clock when evolution is in danger of running down and coming to a standstill: 'A race may become rejuvenated by pushing the adult stage of its individuals off from the end of their ontogenies, and such a race may then radiate out in all directions.'
Paedomorphosis - or juvenilization - thus appears to play an important part in the grand strategy of evolution. It involves a retreat from specialized adult forms to earlier, less committed and more plastic stages in the development of organisms - followed by a sudden advance in a new direction. It is as if the stream of life had momentarily reversed its course, flowing uphill for a while towards its original source; then opened up a new stream-bed - leaving the koala bear stranded on his tree like a discarded hypothesis. In other words, we are faced here with the same pattern of reculer pour mieux sauter, 'step back to leap', which we have encountered at the critical turning points in the evolution of science and art. Biological evolution is to a large extent a history of escapes from the blind alleys of over-specialization, the evolution of ideas a series of escapes from the tyranny of mental habits and stagnant routines. In biological evolution the escape is brought about by a retreat from the adult to a juvenile stage as the starting-point for the new line; in mental evolution by a temporary regression to more primitive and uninhibited modes of ideation, followed by the creative forward leap (the equivalent of a sudden burst of 'adaptive radiation'). Thus these two types of progress - the emergence of evolutionary novelties and the creation of cultural novelties reflect the same undoing-redoing pattern and appear as analogous processes on different levels.
―Janus: A Summing Up by Arthur Koestler
THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE TO INCREASE THE COGNITIVE, PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICA...Fernando Alcoforado
This article aims to demonstrate the extreme need to create more biologically evolved human beings with the use of science and technology to make them defy the limits imposed by nature and survive as a species today and in the future. It is necessary to make the formation of super-men and super-women that can be achieved through the use of science and technology (biotechnology, nanotechnology and neurotechnology) to increase the cognitive capacity and overcome the physical and psychological limitations of beings humans. This situation can be achieved through transhumanism, which is a philosophy that aims to eradicate in any way the suffering caused by diseases, aging or even the death of human beings, as well as reaching the maximum potential in terms of human development.
School paper: Human evolution essay. Evolution of man short essays. Human Evolution Article. Evolution in Humans From the Ancient Days Article Example | Topics and .... Evolution The Core Theme Of Biology Essay - Theme Image. Essay On Human Evolution. Human Evolution Essay Example | StudyHippo.com. Business paper: Essay on human evolution. A Brief History of Human Evolution - Reading Comprehension Text .... COMPLETE GUIDE ON WRITING AN EXPOSITORY ESSAY ON EVOLUTION OF HUMAN B…. (PDF) On Human Evolution. Evolution of behavior sample essay. Creationism/Evolution essay - GCSE Science - Marked by Teachers.com. Evolution essay (Anthropology grade 11). A Brief Explanation of How Evolution Created Human Culture, essay by .... Theory of Evolution - Short Essay (500 Words) - PHDessay.com. History Of Human Evolution Graphic Diagram Flat Powerpoint Design .... Essay on Human Evolution.
Segun la Teoria Integral, la conciencia ha venido evolucionando y las diferentes etapas de la conciencia tienen todo que ver con los profesiones y supuestos que vivimos. Esta actualmente en el ingles.
Similar to In defense of posthuman dignity. Nick Bostrom (2005). (14)
Encuesta sobre consumo y adquisición de medicamentos para implementación de F...Jorge Pacheco
Este informe fue realizado por la Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Dirección de Administración de Salud (DAS) de la Ilustre Municipalidad de Talcahuano en colaboración con el Equipo de Farmacia DAS, Sra. Alejandra Arriaza del Departamento de Comunicaciones DAS, dirigentes comunitarios y funcionarios de los cuatro CESFAM de la comuna.