Wow... what a lineup! ImmInst will have two representatives at the conference.. Director, Michael Anissimov and Advisor, Kenneth Sills (Lazarus Long).
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Subject: Papers at Transvision 2003 USA, June 27-29, Yale
Presentations Scheduled for Transvision 2003 USA
"The Adaptable Human Body: Transhumanism and Bioethics in the 21st Century"
June 27-29, 2003
Yale University
New Haven, CT
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Pre-register at: http://www.transhuma...org/tv/2003usa/
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Kenneth Sills
Co-Director
Immortality Institute
"Why Immortality?"
With average human lifespans nearly doubling in the past century, one might think the question of immortality had been answered by now. Yet, we're still grappling with this seemingly simple, exceedingly thorny issue. Scientist fear to tread near the topic for fear of cook labels and religious retribution. Regardless, a small group of visionaries have willingly placed their credentials on the line. This paper will attempt to help these scientist and leaders by providing some answers to the question - why immortality?
Sills, also known as Lazarus Long on the ImmInst forums, is a long time advocate for the possibility of physical immortality. A designer and researcher, he is a bi-lingual, multi-cultural expert educator. with special insight when it comes to physical immortality related issues. Sills is interested in participating in scientific and philosophical discussions in all the areas between anatomy and zoology including immortality. Look for his crafty wit and insightful posting on the forums as he'll be happy to answer questions.
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Michael Anissimov
Co-Director, Immortality Institute for Infinite Lifespans
"Accelerating Progress and the Potential Consequences of Smarter than Human Intelligence"
According to a growing group of prominent futurists and academics, exponentially accelerating trends in nano-, cognitive, and computer sciences will create a technological environment conducive to the creation of genuinely smarter than human intelligence by the middle of this century. This presentation will review the technologies currently moving in this direction, state how these technologies might be applied to the creation of transhuman intelligence, analyze the possible consequences of such an advance, and suggest actions that transhumanists can take to raise the probability of a positive outcome.
Born in 1984, Michael Anissimov is a co-director of the nonprofit Immortality Institute for Infinite Lifespans, an organization devoted to spreading information regarding the prospect of extending human lifespan indefinitely through the fruits of science and technology. He also volunteers for the nonprofit Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, an organization explicitly focused on creating self-improving AI and ensuring its integrity. Michael is currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science at the City College of San Francisco.
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Linda MacDonald Glenn LLM
Institute for Ethics, American Medical Association
"The Future Boundaries of Personhood: Evolving Technological, Legal, and Ethical Definitions"
As barriers between the species and man/machine begin to blur and blend, how will these affect legal and ethical notions of "personhood"?
Linda MacDonald Glenn, LLM is currently a senior fellow at the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association. Her thesis was entitled, "Biotechnology At The Margins of Personhood: An Evolving Legal Paradigm." Prior to returning to an academic setting, she consulted and practiced as a trial attorney with an emphasis in patient advocacy, bioethical and biotechnology issues, end of life decision-making, reproductive rights, genetics, parental/biological "nature vs. nurture", and animal rights issues. She was the lead attorney in several "cutting edge" bioethics legal cases, including Gray v. Romeo (697 F.Supp. 580, District of Rhode Island, 1988). She has advised governmental leaders and agencies, published numerous articles in professional journals, and has a book chapter in Nursing Malpractice: Sidestepping Legal Minefields (Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins Publishers, 2002.). She has taught at the University of Vermont School of Nursing and the Community College of Vermont, and addressed public and professional groups internationally. Her extensive experience and passion for the issues facing the legal and medical professions make her a compelling and thought-provoking lecturer. Her current research areas encompass End-of-Life Care and evolving notions of personhood.
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Mark Walker Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy
Trinity College, Univ. of Toronto
"Offensive Transhumanist Ethics"
Transhumanists often defend their ethical position "defensively" in terms of rights, e.g., it is sometimes claimed that we have the right to modify our bodies as we see fit. I argue that this concedes far too much to our opponents, and seriously underestimates the promise of transhumanism. I offer a more "offensive" view: we have a duty to employ technology for the purpose of improving ourselves.
Dr. Walker is the Editor of the Journal of Evolution and Technology, and a research fellow of the Department of Philosophy of Trinity College, University of Toronto.
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Nick Bostrom Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy, Harris Manchester College
Oxford University
"Our Human and Posthuman Dignity"
Opponents of transhumanism sometimes appeal to the idea of human dignity as a ground for resisting proposals to use technology to modify human nature. Genetic engineering, life-extension technology, psychopharmacology, and anticipated future technologies such as nanomedicine and artificial intelligence, are seen as threatening to undermine our human dignity. I argue that these objections to human enhancement rest on a narrow and misguided understanding of what human dignity is. Technology has already changed humanity profoundly. Our lives, concerns, abilities, thoughts, beliefs, and activities are vastly different from those of our "technologically naked" ancestors of a hundred thousand years ago. In this sense, we are already transhumans. Yet these developments have not made us less human. Rather, the use of technology to expand our human capacities and to develop ourselves in accordance with our ideals can be seen as a central aspect of our humanity. Furthermore, it would be naive to suppose that we have reached the endpoint of this long process of human self-transformation. It is much more likely, provided a species-destroying catastrophe is avoided, that we will one day in a not so distant future use technology to make ourselves posthumans beings with much longer lifespan, and vastly greater intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities than any currant human. This transhumanist perspective, I argue, suggests a different idea of human dignity and a family of ethical principles to go with it. We need to expand our concept of dignity to encompass also posthuman dignity, and we need to apply this broader concept when evaluating possible directions of current technological developments.
Dr. Bostrom founded the World Transhumanist Association, and is one of principal expositors of transhumanist philosophy. He is author of Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy. Dr. Bostrom is currently a research fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Oxford University.
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Mike Treder
President
Center for Responsible Nanotechnology
"Meeting the Challenge: Safe Utilization of Advanced Nanotechnology"
One of the postulated results of advanced nanotechnology is molecular manufacturing. If achieved, this could result in a world filled with billions of desktop-size nanofactories that manufacture almost anything in just a few hours. The first step in building a nanofactory is building an assembler. Once a basic assembler has been completed, it can begin the job of constructing a nanofactory. The blueprint will already be in place. Common wisdom says that progress from today's nanotechnology to an assembler to a nanofactory will be very slow. However, research by CRN suggests that the span of time from first assembler to first nanofactory could be measured in weeks. Nanofactories can then begin making products, including other nanofactories. The combination of rapid prototyping and simple CAD programs for product design will enable unprecedented levels of innovation and development. Resulting economic, environmental, and social changes worldwide could be extremely disruptive. The price for safe introduction of nanofactory technology is thorough, conscientious preparation.
Mike Treder is a business professional with a background in technology and communications company management. A native of California, Treder attended the University of Washington in Seattle, majoring in Biology. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. Within his adult life, Treder has been a husband, a father, a truck driver, a teacher, a salesman, a radio station manager, a website developer, an actor, and a vocational counselor for parolees. In recent years, he has become an active and well-known figure in the transhumanist movement. Treder serves on the Boards of Directors of the Human Futures Institute and the World Transhumanist Association, and is a member of the Executive Advisory Team for the Extropy Institute. He is Executive Director of the New York Transhumanist Association, developer of the Incipient Posthuman website, and is listed as a "Big Thinker" on KurzweilAI.net. In 2002, Treder co-founded the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) with Chris Phoenix. CRN is a non-profit organization working to raise awareness of the issues presented by advanced nanotechnology: the benefits and dangers, and the possibilities for responsible use. Treder is Executive Director of CRN.
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Austin Dacey Ph.D.
Philo
Center for Inquiry
"Is there 'human nature' after 'nature-nurture'? A developmental systems approach"
Many biological theorists seek to replace the problematic "nature-nurture" dichotomy with the concept of a "developmental system": the set of all reliably occurring structures (genetic, cellular, ecological, etc.) that contribute to ontogeny. I explore some implications of developmental systems theory for traditional notions of human nature, in light of transhumanist concerns.
Dr. Austin Dacey works for the Center for Inquiry, a think tank based near SUNY-Buffalo, where he is a visiting research professor of philosophy. He serves as director of educational programs and executive editor of Philo, a journal of philosophy. His writing has published in Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer, Journal of Value Inquiry, and elsewhere. He is co-author (with Lewis Vaughn) of The case for humanism: An introduction (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). He lives in New York City.
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Gregory Stock Ph.D.
Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society
UCLA
"Should Humans Accept or Reject the Genetic Path to the Post-Human? Accept" (A Debate with George Annas)
Gregory Stock has explored the larger evolutionary significance of humanity's recent technological progress for many years, and examined the subject at length in his 1993 book, Metaman: The Merging of Humans and Machines into a Global Superorganism.
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Natasha Vita-More
President
Extropy Institute
"Primo (3M+) Posthuman"
Engineering a new human body genre will happen, but not in one fall swoop. This new genre, "Primo (3M+) Posthuman," will occur sequentially by replacing the human body bit by bit. Despite the fact that "Primo" is a huge undertaking, the sequential process is already taking place. From electronic prosthetics and cochlear implants to neurological pharmaceuticals, we are replacing the human form, its skeletal system and the brain, with innovative technologies that will improve the vulnerability of the body and mental processes. Engineering programmable blood, respiratory and digestive systems, and building a human-like frame comprised of nanobots, are just a few of the possibilities. Our emotions, the guidepost for our human evolution, will undergo successive upgrades for enhanced interactive sensory experiences with other transhumans and nonbiological machine intelligence.
Natasha Vita More is an artist, author, bodybuilder, and advocate of Transhumanist Art.
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Jason Scott Robert Ph.D.
and Francoise Baylis Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy
Dalhousie University
"Confusion about crossing species boundaries: Scientific, ethical, and social aspects of chimaera making in stem cell biology"
The creation of novel beings from the genetic and cellular material of humans and creatures of other species tends to inspire moral unrest. But why should it? We survey the scientific justification for the creation of one sort of novel being (the human-to-animal chimaera), and critically assess ethical objections to such research.
Dr Jason Scott Robert is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, and holds a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Robert is a philosopher of biology with interests in bioethics. His first book, Embryology, Epigenesis, and Evolution: Taking Development Seriously, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
Dr Francoise Baylis is Professor in the Departments of Bioethics and Philosophy at Dalhousie University. Her current research involves social and ethical aspects of novel biotechnologies, and she has published widely in this area. Robert and Baylis have co-authored three forthcoming articles (on genetic enhancement, the creation of chimaeras, and germ-line genetic engineering), are both investigators in the Stem Cell Network (a member of the Networks of Centres of Excellence program), and are co-founders of the Novel Genetic Technologies Research Team at Dalhousie.
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William Edmundson Ph.D.
Depts of Law and Philosophy
Georgia State University
"Posterity and Embodiment"
Our duties to posterity raise questions about human nature, embodiment, and the identity of our kind over time. What is the right time-horizon to consider? Is consciousness essential to anything that should count as a human continuer? Is laissez-faire or dirigisme the better approach to prolonging our kind?
William A. Edmundson is Professor of Law and of Philosophy at Georgia State University, in Atlanta. He is author of Three Anarchical Fallacies and An Introduction to Rights, published by Cambridge University Press.
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Alice Dreger Ph.D.
Center for Ethics & Hums in the Life Scis
Michigan State University
"The Once and Future Freak: What the History of the Medical and Social Treatment of People with Unusual Anatomies Might Tell Us about the Future of Transhumanism"
This presentation explores the history of the medical and social treatment of people with unusual (and typically threatening) anatomies with an eye towards predicting likely medical and "mainstream" popular responses to transhumanism.
Alice Dreger, Ph.D., is a historian of anatomy whose titles include Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Michigan State University and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Intersex Society of North America, an international non-profit advocacy group that seeks to build a world free of shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries for people born with atypical sex anatomies. Her books include Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex (Harvard, 1998) and One of Us: How Conjoined Twins Unite Us All (Harvard, forthcoming). Her essays on science, medicine, and life have appeared in the New York Times.
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Andrew Ward Ph.D., M.P.H.
and Paul Baker Ph.D.
Philosophy, Science and Technology Program
Georgia Tech
"Strategies for Workplace Disability Integration: a New Model of Universal Access"
Current strategies for workplace accommodation either make use of specialized assistive technologies or, more recently, environments designed to permit "universal" access and use. Both strategies have serious limitations. A more robust strategy expands design considerations from the external environment to a reconfiguration of the users of and within that environment.
Andrew Ward is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology, the Director of the "Policy Initiatives to Support Workplace Accommodations" portion of the RERC on Workplace Accommodations, the Director of the Georgia Tech's "Philosophy, Science and Technology Program", and a faculty member of Georgia Tech's Cognitive Science Program. Prior to coming to Georgia Tech, Ward was a faculty member at schools such as the University of Minnesota and San José State University, and was a Research Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Paul M.A. Baker is Associate Director of Policy Research, Georgia Centers for Advanced Telecommunications Technology (GCATT), a Project Director for the Policy Research Initiative of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Wireless Technologies for Persons with Disabilities (Wireless RERC); and a Project Director on the Workplace Accommodations RERC. His research is in the area of information and communication technology policy and the use of technology in the public sector. He is also an adjunct Associate Professor, School of Public Policy, Georgia Tech; and an Affiliate Professor with the School of Public Policy, George Mason University.
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Barbara Gibson MS, PT
Dept. of Phys. Therapy, U. of Toronto
"Identity Experiments: The Connectivity of Disability"
Through a discussion of disability experience and the intimate connections between humans, technologies and the environment, this presentation will draw on the work of Deleuze and Guattari to explore the fluid and contestable boundaries of human identity.
Barbara Gibson is a physical therapist and lecturer in bioethics in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto. She completed her Masters of Science in the Collaborative Program in Bioethics at the University of Toronto where she explored physicians' attitudes and practices towards long-term ventilation for young men with muscular dystrophy. Currently she is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research PhD fellow in Health Care, Technology and Place at the University of Toronto, where she is conducting an ethnographic study of young men with disabilities who use ventilators.
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Craig DeLancey Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy
SUNY Oswego
"Systematic Biocentric Axiology: Environmental Ethics as a Foundation for Transhuman Ethics"
Many ethical traditions assume that humans have moral value because they are human. The possibility of transhumans challenged this approach, since such individuals could lack features that traditional humans share, and could thus be deemed not deserving.
Craig DeLancey is assistant professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Oswego. He holds a joint Ph.D. in cognitive science and philosophy, and an M.S. in computer science. He works on issues in the theory of mind and environmental ethics, and his publications include _Passionate Engines: What Emotions Reveal about Mind and Artificial Intelligence_ (Oxford University Press, 2002). He has also worked as a business consultant for issues of finance and sustainable development.
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David Calverley J.D.
"Imagining an Artificial Intelligence as a Legal Entity"
AI, even before they come into existence, will tax the current legal systems and its concept of rights. This paper examines some of the possible areas where problems may arise and begins to set out a framework for the debate which will come in the future.
David Calverley is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Law. For more than twenty five years he has practiced law in the private sector.
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David Donnelly Ph.D.
School of Communications
Quinnipiac University
"The Ethics of Forecasting: A Look at Current Visions of the Future Human Race"
This presentation will examine the technological and social forecasts surrounding developments in the areas of biotechnology and transhumanism. The utilization of such forecasts in public discourse and the formulation of public policy will be discussed in conjunction with a consideration of the ethical responsibility of the forecaster.
Dr. David F. Donnelly is the Associate Dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University. He is the creator of online Media Futures Archives, and the web-based educational site Media Ethicopoly. His research areas include the social and cultural impact of technology, the process of technological innovation, and communication policy and new media. He has contributed to seven books and numerous scholarly and popular press publications. He received his MA. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in Communication, and his BA in Radio-Television- Film from the University of Maryland.
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David Wasserman Ph.D.
Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy
University of Maryland
"Human Variation and Fairness in Sports and Games"
This panel will examine the significance of variations in human functioning for the fairness of athletic competition and for the various purposes that sports serve.
David Wasserman is a research scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He currently works on ethical and policy issues in genetic research and technology, assisted reproduction, health care, and disability.
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Dorothy Wertz Ph.D.
American Society for Law, Medicine & Ethics
"Controversial Choices after Prenatal Diagnosis: Has Autonomy Gone Too Far?"
Growing respect for individual autonomy in Western nations, combined with controversial requests for prenatal diagnosis (e.g., sex selection) do not provide evidence of a trend toward "perfect babies," according to a survey of 2906 genetics professionals in 36 nations and 1463 genetics patients in the US, Germany, and France.
"Twenty-one Arguments Against Human Cloning, and Their Responses"
Using a consequentialist (utilitarian) approach, this paper examines each of 21 arguments commonly given against human reproductive cloning, including effects on the individual, family, society, sexual reproduction, and the moral order. It concludes that the only valid argument against cloning is safety.
Dorothy C. Wertz is Research Professor of Psychiatry , University of Massachusetts Medical School, Shriver Division, in Waltham, MA., and Senior Scientist at the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics in Boston, MA. She has authored over 150 articles and book chapters on ethics, genetics, and reproduction. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard in the Study of Religion, and taught sociology and anthropology for 18 years. Her books include Genetics and Ethics in Global Perspective (forthcoming), Lying In: A History of Childbirth in America, 1989, and Ethics and Human Genetics: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (1989). She is an expert advisor to WHO, a member of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) Ethics Committee, Chair of the New England Regional Genetics Group Ethics Committee, founder of Geneletter, an online educational resource, and a contributor to Genedit at the University of Montreal's HumGen website. She has received a 3-year grant from NIH to study "DNA Fingerprinting and Civil Liberties".
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Evelyne Shuster Ph.D.
Philosophy in Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania
"To Live Forever: A Blessing or a Curse?"
The religious cult, the Raelian, has pledged to achieve eternal life on earth using cloning techniques. To live forever is a philosophical theme more real today than it was 450 years ago when Descartes made it famous. Is living forever likely to be a blessing or a curse for posthumans?
Evelyne Shuster is a medical ethicist, founder (and first chair) of the Ethics Committee at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She also holds a faculty position as adjunct associate professor of philosophy in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.
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George Annas J.D.
Health Law Program
Boston University
"Should Humans Accept or Reject the Genetic Path to the Post-Human? (Debate with Greg Stock): Reject"
George J. Annas is the Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law, Chairman of Health Law Department at the Boston University School of Public Health. He holds a degree in law from Harvard Law School and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a widely published national expert in the field of law and medicine, whose books include The Rights of Patients and Some Choice: Law, Medicine and the Market. Professor Annas is the cofounder of Global Lawyers & Physicians and the Patients Rights Project. Professor Annas has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nightline, Frontline, Today, and Good Morning America as well as the nightly news programs of NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. For five years, he was the director of the Boston University School of Law's Center for Law and Health Sciences. Professor Annas teaches bioethics.
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Iain McKenna
Dept. of Philosophy
Concordia Univ.
"Transhuman Identity: Distentio Animi"
If technological advances manage to alter the brain, then we will have to rethink the intentional structures of action, speech and the very notion of identity. I will examine ways in which we might approach the question "who?" with respect to Transhuman identities.
Iain McKenna worked in the high-tech industry for twelve years and currently is studying Philosophy at Concordia University.
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John Davis J.D., Ph.D. Medical Humanities
Brody School of Medicine
"Methuselah's Children: Life-Extension and Fears of Collective Harm"
There is little merit to Malthusian objections to life-extension, for denying life-extension to those who wish it is tantamount to sentencing everyone to a needlessly early death in order to preserve a standard of living which not everyone values more highly than longer life.
John K. Davis is assistant professor of medical humanities at the Brody School of Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Washington, and his J.D. at the New York University School of Law. Besides life extension ethics, his research interests include the right to control one's future self in medical and other contexts, reproductive technology and theory of beneficence, and moral reasoning.
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John Alan Cohan J.D.
Law Offices of John Alan Cohan
"The Question of Self-Identity and Brain Transplants"
Until recently, the concept of human brain transplantation was considered to be the realm of science fiction. The body for transplantation would be a decedent who had been declared brain dead but whose other vital organs were extant. Is the real person
John Alan Cohan is an attorney in California.
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Lanfranco Aceti
Central Saint Martins
College of Art and Design
"Prosthesis' Digital Aesthetic: The Integrated Technology of Human Extensions"
The concepts of endotechnology and esotechnology, as described by Baudrillard and Virilio, represent the transhuman body as an incongruous cybernetic metastasis. But what if the categories used by these authors to describe the cyber body are incongruous and imprecise?
Lanfranco Aceti's research focuses on the avant-garde in fine art and digital media. In his research endeavor he has analyzed how technology and cross platform media are expressions of cutting edge creativity. He is working on a theoretical structure for evolutionary media, which remodels the philosophical and aesthetic approach to the human body. The human body, therefore, is a medium: the world is not externalized but internalized. In this context, cybernetic is an aesthetic tool which will redesign humans according to new digital perceptions.
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Mark Gubrud Ph.D.
Research Associate,
Center for Superconductivity Research
"A Humanist Response to Transhumanism"
It is irrational and immoral for humans to subordinate humanity to any "higher purpose" or view any nonhuman form as a desirable replacement for our species. Describing the transfer of our species' "identity" to another species, or of our individual selves to other bodies, requires the invocation of supernatural entities.
Mark Avrum Gubrud is a physicist, writer and social activist. His Ph.D. dissertation, completed in early 2003, is on superconducting devices for quantum computing. He has worked in political and antiwar campaigns and in arms control research. He is the author of a seminal analysis of the effects of advanced nanotechnology on military stability, and other essays on technology, war and peace, and the human future.
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Patrick Hopkins Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy
Millsaps College
"Barbie Bodies, Bacon Bodies, Plato Bodies, Nietzsche Bodies: Differing Visions of How Biotechnology Should Be Used to Transform Human Bodies"
Very different philosophies underlie the desire to transform bodies. I examine four-the Barbie approach (reforming bodies into superficial human ideals); the Bacon approach (staying human but getting rid of disease); the Plato approach (abandoning body for a transhuman existence); and the Nietzsche approach (augmenting bodies for superhuman existence).
Patrick D. Hopkins teaches philosophy and science and technology studies at Millsaps College in Mississippi. He is the author of numerous articles on bioethics, technology studies, and gender studies. He is editor of Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender, and Technology (Indiana University Press, 1999).
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Stuart Hameroff M.D.
Center for Consciousness Studies
University of Arizona
"Artificial quantum consciousness: Is it possible, what would it look like, how would it feel?"
Quantum models imply that consciousness occurs at the fundamental level of the universe, connected to the brain via quantum computations within neurons. Artificial consciousness based on specific types of quantum computers (e.g. fullerene technology) may be possible, and lead to posthumous consciousness extension and a scientific basis for spirituality.
Stuart Hameroff M.D. is Professor, Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology, and Associate Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. A clinical anesthesiologist and editor/author of 5 books and numerous papers on the problem of consciousness, Hameroff has teamed with British mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose to develop a specific theory of consciousness (Orchestrated objective reduction: "Orch OR") based on quantum computation in "microtubules" within neurons. The Orch OR model links the brain to fundamental proto-consciousness and Platonic values embedded at the most basic level of the universe. Hameroff's work can be found at www.consciousness.arizona.edu/hameroff
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Susantha Goonatilake Ph.D.
Center for Studies of Social Change
New School for Social Research
"Body, self and environment as constructed and reconstructed: Insights from Buddhist philosophy for the ethics of the future transhuman and posthuman"
When we are constructed and reconstructed, from new developments in biotechnology and information technology as say clone or robot or admixtures of both, deep questions are raised that challenge existing ethical systems. Dominant Western ethical systems are derived from Christianity, Judaism or Islam (the latter included as part of the larger Western "Abrahamaic" family of religions); the ethical system being "revealed" and to be "God's word". New developments from abortion, to cloning and in the future, artificial genes and artificial chromosomes challenge some of these ethical assumptions. Recent approaches to the living world and the environment have utilized cultural elements from major non-Western philosophies as well as those of simpler belief systems. A major cultural approach that has change as its core is Buddhist philosophy. Some core Buddhist approaches have direct relevance to a future where both the human and his/her environment is constructed and reconstructed. The paper describes the central Buddhist position on both the human person, including his body and mind, as well as the environment he operates in, as not given or sacred but constructed and changing. The paper suggests that an orientation from this core Buddhist perspective of continuous change, no permanent self and both human and nature as constructed would fit better as a cultural orientation to examine and live in a future world under continuous change and where man and nature are continuously reinvented and reconstructed. It also suggests that Buddhist ethics derived from such a perspective (which unlike the revealed religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is not absolute but contingent and situational) may better fit as a means of navigating the coming interconnected world of the clone, the robot and the cyborg. The paper describes what such an ethical perspective could be and its implications for a transhuman and posthuman society.
Susantha Goonatilake teaches at the New School of Social Research, and is author of Merged Evolution: the Long Term Implications of Information Technology and Biotechnology and Evolution of Information: Lineages in Genes, Culture and Artefact.
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Twyla Gibson
McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology
University of Toronto
"Philosophical Foundations and Methodological Framework for a Transhumanist Bioethics"
This study considers the moral choices and ethical dilemmas raised by the use of technology to augment the human body. It presents the philosophical foundations and methodological framework for a transhumanist bioethics that is grounded in the Platonic definitions. The study offers this definitional framework as a basis for establishing a dialogue among transhumanists, bioethicists, anti-technology activists, and critical social theorists of science and technology. Emphasis is placed on understanding how the definitions can be mutually accessed and applied to the core of identified problems and to an expanding range of issues.
Twyla Gibson is a senior postdoctoral fellow at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. She is concurrently pursuing postdoctoral work on the history of ideas at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto, where she also earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy, religious studies, and education. Gibson is an award winning writer with numerous credits in film, television, and print media. She recently developed a bioethical framework for dealing with privacy issues stemming from genetic information for a study commissioned by the Canadian Biotechnology Secretariate. She has also been a researcher and conference organizer for topics related to the future of Canada's health care system for U of T's department of philosophy and Center for Bioethics. As senior research associate for Vocational Rehabilitation Associates and Robert D. Katz (Canada's leading expert witness on issues of employment and employability) she prepared over 200 legal briefs aimed at defending the rights of disabled workers in the Canadian law courts.
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Wendell Wallach
WW Associates
"Robot Morals: Creating an Artificial Moral Agent (AMA)"
With the advent of increasingly autonomous software agents and robotic systems, developing artificial agents capable of making moral decisions becomes a necessity. The engineering issues entailed in creating an AMA offer a unique perspective on ethics and practical decision-making in both humans and machines.
Wendell Wallach founded and managed two computer consulting companies. Among his clients were PepsiCo International, the State of Connecticut, and educational
institutions in the Northeast. He is presently working on two books, one on Robot Morals and the other on ethics and human decision-making in the Information Age.
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William Grey Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy
University of Queensland
"Design constraints for the Posthuman Future"
This paper examines the force of objections to germline engineering based on the principle that we ought not place individuals at significant risk without their consent.
Dr William Grey is a graduate of Cambridge University, and was appointed to the Department of Philosophy at the University of Queensland in 1994. He has been involved with the development and teaching of ethics courses across the curriculum. He is current
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Wrye Sententia
Co-Director
Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics
"The Case for Cognitive Liberty"
Wrye Sententia is co- Director of the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE). As director of the CCLE, she oversees projects that aim to focus public attention on cognitive technologies in relation to individual rights of mind, as well as neuroethical concerns about trends in psycho-pharmacology & related neuroscience fields.
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Greg Pence Ph.D.
Philosophy & School of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham
"Why Not Re-Invent Humans? Is This The Best We Can Do?"
Greg Pence, author of Who's Afraid of Human Cloning? and Designer Food: Mutant Harvest or Breadbasket of the World?.
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Eliezer Yudkowsky
Research Associate
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
"Posthumanity: A Nice Place To Live?"
We spend so much of our time around other humans, we forget to ask what other possibilities might exist. Step outside the human space and take a look around. Transhumanists know that changes can sometimes be for the better. Let's examine some really big changes.
Eliezer Yudkowsky serves on the Board of Directors of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the World Transhumanist Association. His publications include "Levels of Organization in General Intelligence" and "Creating Friendly AI."
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Hatuna Pokrovskaia
NYU Colleges Against Cancer
New York Transhumanist Association
"Ecce Trans-Homo: The Progression of Ethics in the Technological Revolution"
An interdisciplinary approach to Transhumanism, focusing mainly on the adaptability of the biological human to the technological human.
Ms. Pokrovskaia is currently an undergraduate student in my sophomore year at New York University. I am pursuing a pre-medical track and a major in Psychology/Neuroscience.
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James Hughes Ph.D.
Public Policy Studies
Trinity College
"Transhumanist Bioethics: An Overview"
A summary of the emergence of transhumanism as a bioethics viewpoint, and its principal arguments.
James Hughes teaches health policy at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut, and serves as Secretary of the World Transhumanist Association, a nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging the use of technology to transcend the limitations of the human body. His weekly radio program, Changesurfer Radio, can be heard in streaming MP3. You can reach him at jhughes@changesurfer.com.
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Jose Cordeiro
President
Sociedad Mundial del Futuro Venezuela
"The Global Geopolitics towards Transhumanism and Beyond"
According to the UN, the average European cow receives more in subsidies than an African farmer earns to feed his or her family. This is a terrible situation that makes progress toward transhumanist ideas difficult in the current world context. Will humanity survive its present dilemmas up to the point in which transhumanity becomes a reality? A quick review of world development with a millennial perspective serves of introduction to what might happen in the next few decades. Demographic, economic and scientific forecasts will also be presented, taking into consideration the current accelerating trends. Technological change is incorporated into the analysis, from the printing machine to biotechnology. A view from the developing world is a fundamental part of this global picture if the whole of humanity is going to make it to some sort of "singularity" threshold. Major countries like China and India, the former with biotechnology and the second with computer science, for example, are making impressive advances in new fields that will be fundamental in the future. Even small countries like Singapore or Costa Rica are ahead in some areas of the scientific race for a better world. For better or for worse, the weight of strong or weak States, large or small countries, rich or poor nations should not be underestimated. The risks of overlooking these geopolitical factors open the frightening possibility of another Hitler, Stalin or Osama Bin Laden. Transhumanity can only become an utopia if we avoid dystopian global scenarios.
José Luis Cordeiro is a Venezuelan citizen with a B.Sc. (1983) and M.Sc. (1984) in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, with a minor in languages (Spanish, French and German). He later obtained an economics degree from Georgetown University (1989) and an MBA (1991) from the European Business School (INSEAD) in France. He did his masters thesis on dynamics behavior of the NASA "Freedom" Space Station and worked as an engineer for UNIDO in Vienna, and then for Schlumberger in many oil countries around the world. He is director of the Club of Rome (Venezuela Chapter) and president of the World Future Society Venezuela. He has written eight books, mostly about the future of Latin America.
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Rafal Smigrodski M.D., Ph.D. Department of Neurology
University of Virginia
"Emerging Life Extension Therapies"
I will present an overview of life extension, with practical advice for today, subjects to follow in the near future, and some dreams worth paying attention to. Life extension, one patient at a time, has been the goal of medicine since its very beginning but for the most part, only persons with identifiable pathological conditions could hope to benefit from therapy. In the last few decades, however, a small mumber of pharmacological treatments has been developed, which appear to prolong survival of healthy humans by preventing many of the deadly conditions associated with aging, such as stroke, or myocardial infarction. These drugs include statins, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, as well as possibly some other compounds, and are available today. For the near future, the progress in elucidating the cause of aging gives us for the first time in history some hope of directly influencing the rate of aging, perhaps by mitofection, caloric restriction, and stem cell therapy. And, last but not least, there are even more daring approaches on the far horizon, such as cryonics, and uploading, offering the distant but so tempting vision of freedom from aging, the fulfilment an age-old dream.
Dr. Smigrodski was born in 1965 in Poland. MD-PhD in human molecular genetics at Heidelberg University, involved in the identification of genetic causes of epilepsy. Postdoctoral work at University of Pittsburgh on brain cortex development. Neurology residency at University of Pittburgh. Presently a movement disorders fellow at the University of Virginia, working on mitochondrial dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.
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Ron Bailey
Science Editor
Reason Magazine
"Who's Afraid of PostHumanity? politics and ethics of genetically engineering people"
Fear of posthumanity ranges across the political spectrum from Left to Right. In fact, strange bedfellow alliances between the Left and Right have formed as evidenced by joint op/eds by long time leftwing anti-biotech activist Jeremy Rikfin and conservative Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol. My presentation will look at what these groups fear, and how they are organizing to stop biotech progress. I will show that their fears are exaggerated and/or misconceived. Biotech advances will tend to enhance values like liberty and equality rather than threaten them.
Ron Bailey, the science and ecology correpsondent for the libertarian Reason Magazine, and the editor of Earth Report 2000. Ron is currently writing a book entitled, Liberation Biology: A TechnoPolitical Manifesto for the 21st Century.
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Ramez Naam CEO
President and CEO
Apex Nanotechnologies
"The Wired Brain"
Researchers in the burgeoning field of neural prosthetics have now used electrodes implanted in the brain to restore sight to blind man, given quadriplegics the ability to control a computer simply by thinking, and more. Come learn about recent work and future directions in brain computer interfaces. Ramez Naam is CEO of Apex NanoTechnologies, a Computer Aided Molecular Design software company. Prior to Apex he served as Lead Program Manager for Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer. He is currently writing his book More Than Human, an exploration of the technologies that may soon enhance human beings and the ethics of their use.
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Munawar Anees Ph.D.
Editor-in Chief, Periodica Islamica
Knowledge Management Systems
"Transhumans and humans: Conflict or Convivencia?"
Extrapolating what we have learnt from the contemporary tensions arising out of technological impact upon social and cultural structures, this presentation is an attempt to speculate about the future of social/technological interface. These speculations will largely be derived from the religious culture and its role in resistance to technological change.
Dr. Anees is a writer and a social critic. One of his books on bioethics, Islam and Biological Futures, is considered a classic. Author of half a dozen books and over 300 articles, he founded the world's premiere journal of current awareness: Periodica Islamica. It has been recognized as "an invaluable guide." An advisory editor of the Journal of Islamic Science, in 2000, he was selected as Religion Editor for the online encyclopedia, Nupedia. He is a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion. An American citizen, he was nominated for the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
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Aubrey de Grey Ph.D.
Department of Genetics
University of Cambridge
"Foreseeable, radical life extension: the biology to inform the philosophy"
Anti-aging biotechnology is far closer than most biologists realise: in ten years we should be able to treble the remaining healthy life expectancy of a late-middle-aged mouse that has received no treatment before that age. I will discuss the biology underlying this claim and its present-day sociological and ethical implications.
Aubrey de Grey is a biogerontologist at the University of Cambridge, UK. He designs interventions to reverse (not just retard) the cellular and molecular changes that accumulate with age and reduce remaining life expectancy (i.e., cause aging). He has coined the term "strategies for engineered negligible senescence" (SENS) to describe these interventions, which he has argued are the only feasible way to extend human lifespan by more than a decade. He has published widely on such technology (see http://www.gen.cam.a...ns/AdGpubs.htm). He is holding a major conference on such technologies in Cambridge, UK on September 19-23, 2003 (see http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/iabg10/).
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Andrew Zolli
President
Z + Partners
"Visions of the Future"
Andrew is a forecaster, design strategist and author, working at the intersection of culture, creativity, technology, and futures research. Andrew specializes in helping people and institutions see, understand and act upon complex change. Most recently, Andrew was the editor of the Catalog of Tomorrow, (QUE Publishing, 2002) which explores 100 trend and technologies for the next 25 years. His next book, In Good Company, about the complex relationship between brands and culture, will be published in 2003. Andrew is the former Chief Marketing Officer of one of the world's leading brand consultancies, Siegelgale, where he helped develop new brands, businesses, products and services for companies such as The Weather Channel, Netscape, Kodak, American Express, AT&T, Toys R Us, Silicon Graphics, Lucent, Hewlett Packard, Forrester Research, Sappi, T. Rowe Price, The Industry Standard, and IBM, among many others. While at Siegelgale, Andrew was also instrumental in creating the CRAVE Conference, a design event exploring the nature of and craft of compelling design experiences. In the mid-1990's, Andrew helped found the company's new media practice, and helped envision and develop next-generation approaches to product development, user experience, and communications. He also created and led the company's research and development lab, which explored digital user experience and interface design. Under his direction, the lab developed significant virtual reality and graphics applications for the Web. Prior to this, in the early 1990's, Andrew participated as an academic researcher in core technology and standards research and development that shaped the World Wide Web. Andrew speaks and writes widely on the subjects of technology, design, communications and long-term forecasting. He has spoken at conferences around the world, including at The Design Management Institute, Internet World, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, The Conference Board, the American Center for Design, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and Columbia, the Federal Trade Commission, as well as for Fortune 500 and other institutions. He has edited several books on new technology and his work, ideas and writing have appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Wired, I.D., The Industry Standard, Eye magazine, and National Public Radio. Andrew is a past board member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts' New York chapter. He has served as an advisor to TRUSTe, the leading Internet privacy organization, to The Doctors' Company, a leading healthcare insurance concern, and to the Arlington Institute, a leading futures research firm. He has also served as a conference programming advisor to CNET and the Seybold Seminars.
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Miller Brown Ph.D.
Dean of the Faculty
Trinity College
"Sports and Transhumanism"
W. Miller Brown, a philosophy professor and a highly respected member of the Trinity College faculty since 1965, serves as the Dean of the Faculty. Brown has lectured and written extensively in the areas of philosophy of science and philosophy of sport. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and was a member of the Society of Fellows of the University of Durham in Durham, England. He is active in the community, having served as, among other things, a lecturer for the past 13 years in Hartford's Classical Magnet Program. Prior to joining Trinity's faculty, Brown was a teaching fellow at Harvard University (from 1963-1965) and a lecturer in French at Boston University (from 1960-1963).
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Anita Silvers Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy
San Francisco State University
"Human Variation and Fairness in Sports and Games"
Anita Silvers, Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, has published seven books, including Medicine and Social Justice (with Rosamond Rhodes and Margaret Battin), Americans With Disabilities: Exploring Implications of the Law for Individuals and Institutions (with Leslie Francis), Disability, Difference, Discrimination: Perspectives on Justice in Bioethics and Public Policy (with David Wasserman and Mary Mahowald), Sociobiology and Human Nature (with Michael Gregory). and The Recombinant DNA Controversy (with Michael Gregory). She has written more than one hundred book chapters and articles on ethics and bioethics, social philosophy, aesthetics, law, feminism, and disability studies, In 2002, Silvers co-directed (with Eva Kittay) an NEH Summer Seminar on "Justice, Equality, and the Challenge of Disability". The California Faculty Association honored her with its Equal Rights Award for her work in making higher education more accessible to people with disabilities.
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George Dvorsky
Toronto Transhumanist Association
"Reproductive Rights, Designer Babies, and the Consent of the Unborn"
State enforced limitations of human reproductive options in the 21st century will need to be considered neugenic and dysgenic. Assisted reproductive technologies and the advent of `designer babies' are a legitimate reproductive option that will require monitoring and regulation. Parents have the consent of the unborn to commit their genome to these changes, and an ethical imperative to do so is forthcoming.
George Dvorsky is the Deputy Editor of Betterhumans and author of the Transitory Human column. He is also a co-founder and the Vice-President of the Toronto Transhumanist Association. Primarily concerned with the ethical and sociological impacts of Transhumanism and future technologies, George actively promotes informative, honest and open discussion for the purposes of education. George writes and speaks on a wide range of topics, including bioethics, futurism, science, technology and Transhumanism in general.
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Anatoly Nichvoloda
Associate, Internatura Think Tank
"System Completion Theory: from Local to Global Consciousness-Humans, AI and Beyond"
System Completion Theory describes evolution and role of Human Consciousness and conscious AI systems in the context of evolution of the Universe by identifying them as a Converging (local) Consciousness en route to Diverging (global) Consciousness.
Anatoly Nichvoloda received his Master's degrees in Journalism and Philosophy with minor in Psychology from Dnepropetrovsk State University, Ukraine in 1996. Anatoly Nichvoloda received his Bachelor's Degree in Marketing/Advertising from the University of Oklahoma, Norman in 2000. In 1998 he joined "Internatura" think tank under the auspices of St. Petersburg State University, Russia. The goals of this organization include development of the systematic description of our reality and role of Human Consciousness in it. Anatoly developed System Completion Theory coauthoring it with professor Victor Tolkachev. This theory lays out the structure of Human Consciousness, its role and function in the Universe. Theory suggests that main organizational and functioning principles of Human Consciousness will serve as the foundation for future AI systems. Anatoly Nichvoloda is currently a PhD student and a contributing writer/speaker to "Internatura" think tank. In December 2002 Anatoly joined New York Transhumanism Association and has been an active participant and a presenter.
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Simon Smith
Founder, Editor-in-Chief
Betterhumans
"Mainstreaming Offensive: Making Transhumanism the Next Big Thing"
Some propose that Transhumanism is inherently offensive to most sensibilities and that it could never become a mainstream movement without weakening what makes it valuable and unique. This presentation argues that Transhumanism can become the Next Big Thing.
Simon Smith is founder and editor-in-chief of Betterhumans.
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Benjamin Hyink
TransCentral, Chicago Transhumanist Association
"Organizing Campus Transhumanist Groups and an International Facilitation Network"
This proposal to create an international facilitation network for the organization of campus transhumanist groups finds its justification in the need to continually engage young generations in transhumanist dialog in order to undo the hegemony of the bio-conservative political establishment, to catalyze sympathetic students, and to educate communities of learning about transhumanist issues and ideas. A number of options for implementation of the network will be offered, as well as perspectives on key resources, target cultures, specific v. broad groups, inclusive involvement, local chapter support, advocacy, a rough timeline, and a wish list to which the audience may add suggestions.
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John Smart
President
Institute for Accelerating Change
"Development after De Chardin: The Accelerating Transhumanist Frontier"
Will accelerating change ever slow down? What cosmological, computational, information theoretic, or systems theory interpretations have been proposed for this phenomenon? We'll explore the latest literature and informed speculations on these topics, and consider what increasingly autocatalytic technological change might mean to transhumanists, futurists, and singularity-unaware society in coming years.
John Smart is chairman of the Institute for Accelerating Change, a nonprofit community of 1,200 academics, futurists, and lay scholars dedicated to data-driven analysis, informed speculation, and agendas for action in the understanding and management of accelerating change. He is organizing the world's first conference on these fascinating topics, the Accelerating Change Conference 2003, Sept. 12-14 at Stanford University. John has a B.S. in Business from Berkeley and seven years of biological, cognitive, computer and physical science at UCLA, Berkeley, and UC San Diego. He is currently completing the M.S. in Future Studies at the University of Houston, and writing his second book, Destiny of Species, on the coming technological singularity.
Edited by Lazarus Long, 12 April 2003 - 12:16 PM.
