A parody of the tear-jerking Obama “Yes We Can” video.

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Akansha is an aspiring scientist, philosopher and science journalist who joins us from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  She is currently completing her senior thesis on Alexander’s disease at the Waisman Center. 

The Fermi Paradox—if there’s other intelligent life in the galaxy, given how long the galaxy’s been here, how come we haven’t seen any indication of it?—is an important puzzle for those of us who like to think ahead. Setting aside the mystical (we’re all that was created by a higher being) and fundamentally unprovable (we’re all living in a simulation), we’re left with two unpalatable options: we’re the first intelligent species to arise; or no civilization ever makes it long enough. 

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According to a little more than half of you internet addiction is for real, even if a little overblown.

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There’s two kinds of people asking me about the economy lately: people with money wanting to know how to keep it “safe,” and people without money, wanting to know how to keep safe, themselves. Maybe it’s the difference between those two concerns that best explains the underlying nature of today’s fiscal crisis. 

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Shannon Vyff is author of 21st Century Kids, an SF novel for kids. We talk about futurism, cryonics, social justice, calorie restriction, talking to kids about death, and teaching transhumanism in the Unitarian Universalist Sunday School program. (MP3)

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Discussions of the implications of the augmentation of our biological bodies with prosthetic technologies can be found quite readily in the esoteric discourses of self-described transhumanists, social theorists and bioethicists.

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CONTENTS

1. A Note From Dr. J.
2. IEET News
3. Articles
4. Multimedia
5. TechEthx News
- Existential Risks List Posts
- Trans-Spirit List Posts
6. Events
- with IEET Speakers
- all events

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There’s been considerable media attention surrounding a recent breakthrough in the development of a male birth-control pill (MBCP).

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Abstract: This article investigates the conceptual distinctions between therapy and various forms of human enhancement. It begins by proposing a typology of human enhancements in order to make more rigorous and grounded discussions about the distinction between therapy and enhancement. Three types of human enhancement are proposed: 1) engineering traits of accepted value, 2) engineering traits of contested value and 3) radical transhuman enhancements. Subsequently, the paper explores the distinctions between the ethical justifications that are advanced for therapeutic interventions, comparing them with human enhancements, concluding that the salient characteristic of health-related suffering enables enhancement to gain legitimacy from the perspective of traditional medical ethics. Finally, the paper considers a number of practical obstructions to the realization of radical transhuman enhancements. Specifically, it discusses procedural obstacles to approving experimental medical research for human enhancements, the likely commercialization of human enhancements that would ensue from their development, and the need to develop experimental medical interventions via animal models.
Recommended Citation

Miah, Andy (2008) “Engineering Greater Resilience or Radical Transhuman Enhancement?,”

Available as PDF here after registration

Products put together by a nanofactory (see here for some fun examples) can be expected to be far more powerful and sophisticated than today’s best-built products. 

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This episode:

# An overview of my recent talk at the Center for Inquiry
# Discussing Twitter and Google Apps
# Part 3 of my Fermi Paradox talk: Possible solutions and next steps
# Why the male birth-control pill is so important for men; sorry, ladies—this pill isn’t about you

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I have one thing to say: depopulation is not a global warming strategy.

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Interested in developing the “technoprogressive” political perspective? Then join the the technoprogressive list.

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Scientists, with the help of Buddhist monks and the Dalai Lama, are unlocking mysteries of the brain.

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Transhumanist philosopher (and IEET Chair) Nick Bostrom desperately hopes that we never find signs of extraterrestrial life—advanced or otherwise.  Why? Because he understands the Fermi Paradox.

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“Maybe there are only two sexes: men and mothers.” Alice Sheldon, writing as James Tiptree Jr. to Joanna Russ

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If we are alone it may be evidence that we have sneaked past the huge hurdles in the way of any species becoming an intelligent star-faring civilization. Then again, we could still be extinguished at any moment. 

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We need a crash development program for wind, solar, tidal, wave, geothermal - and possibly nuclear - energy infrastructures. Geo-engineering is too risky except as an absolute last resort.

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The grand myth of environmentalism is that it’s all about saving the Earth. It’s not. The Earth will be just fine. Environmentalism is all about saving ourselves.

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In 2004, I wrote a piece called “Transhumanism at the Crossroads,” which has been one of my most popular essays. It was originally published as part of my old “Eye of the Storm” irregular column on the Betterhumans site.

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The IEET Board of Directors and I are delighted that the esteemed artificial intelligence researcher Dr. Ben Goertzel has accepted our invitation to become an IEET Fellow. Ben’s (partial) bio here.

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Every now and then, someone suggests to me that, alongside the pursuit of Artificial Intelligence, we should also be pursuing “Artificial Wisdom”

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I (J. Hughes) just returned from a wonderful conference on the history and future of the theory of evolution. 

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Dungeons & Dragons made me a professional futurist.

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To toot my own horn, one of my favorite talks in recent memory was one I gave to the Templeton folks on the compatibility of religion and transhumanism. Andres put it up on Thoughtware.tv, and he wrote to let me know that it has been their top-rated talk there.  Listen to it here.  The slides associated with that talk are here, and the paper is here.

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IEET Fellow and JET Editor Russell Blackford writes: Udo Schuklenk and I will be co-editing a book, provisionally entitled Voices of Disbelief, which will contain 50 to 60 relatively short essays by prominent people explaining why they are not religious believers - why they don’t accept the existence of the Abrahamic God, or subscribe to other religious doctrines. 

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Abstract: Popular discussion of utopian possibilities and apocalyptic risks from new technologies is sometimes dismissed as ungrounded millennial hysteria. In this essay I reflect on the various types of historic, pancultural millennialism. I then suggest how contemporary forms of secular techno-utopian and techno-apocalyptic discourse reflect these millennialist types and their characteristic biases to over- or under-estimate catastrophic risks, and adopt fatalistic or inappropriate stances toward risk reduction. Then I suggest that awareness of these characteristic millennialist cognitive biases help us separate grounded assessments of catastrophic risks from their attendant psycho-cultural baggage. By carefully parsing our hopes and fears about the future from the characteristic dysfunctions of millennialism we can tap millennialism’s energy without being led astray by it. (Download the PDF)

Congrats to IEET’s Linda MacDonald Glenn for getting a review of Freeman Dyson’s latest book, A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe, in Nature Biotechnology.

The goal of a liberal society puts obligations on its citizens, that we practice reasonableness and openness to ideas, that we do not just tolerate one another but support one another to our fullest flourishing. A liberal society is not neutral about values like disease and health, sloth and effort, deceit and integrity, cowardice and courage. There are excellences that citizens of a liberal society must promote to survive. [Discuss this article in IEET Fora]

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