1. A Note From Dr. J.
2. IEET News
3. Articles
4. Multimedia
5. JET
6. Events
A NOTE FROM DR. J.
Today is Pride day, an international day of celebration of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights and identity. Living out in rural Connecticut I haven’t been to a Pride parade in a dozen years, since my comrades and I used to march in the Chicago Pride parade with our reddish pink banners. But today at church we were celebrating our queerness, remembering the burden of oppression that LGBTQ folks still face around the world, and the need to fight for equality for sexual minorities. A quiet Pride parade, in folding chairs with hymns.
But it set me to thinking about the connections between technoprogressive values and LGBTQ rights. George Dvorsky and I attempted to sketch out some of the connections in our “Postgenderism” essay last year (http://ieet.org/archive/IEET-03-PostGender.pdf). Basically we believe that technologies have progressively freed us upright simians from the limiting social roles, cognitive styles, and now, biology, of gender. Gender and sexual orientation are two of the most limiting aspects of “human nature,” and we are now gradually easing into a future in which our human potential can explored beyond the sex/gender binary.
But Mike Treder this week touched on the even more fundamental connection between sex/gender politics and technoprogressivism in his essay on “Moral Relativism vs. Moral Authority.” He reviewed Jon Haidt’s work on the five moral intuitions our monkey brains are coded with - justice, caring, respect for authority, in-group loyalty and purity. The first two, justice and caring, are central to the Enlightenment values that we technoprogressives are the champions of. The latter three - respect for authority, in-group loyalty and spiritual purity - are central to pre-Enlightenment conservatism. Many of the political battles for liberty, equality and fraternity of the last two centuries can be seen as an effort to allow the first two values to trump the latter three.
Yuval Levin was admirably clear about this in his essay “The Paradox of Conservative Bioethics” back in the first issue of New Atlantis in 2003 when he explained that conservative bioethics was a doomed attempt to argue for the legitimacy of taboos - concepts of spiritual purity - in democratic policy. Doomed because democratic politics is founded on Enlightenment values, where one has to demonstrate that some practice that the religious right wants banned actually hurts somebody. But, Yuval conceded, they can’t actually make that case, so they are bound to lose. They are having an increasingly difficult time, for instance, trying to convince the American populace that there is any rational reason to forbid gay marriage. Hopefully drug law reform will be the next major taboo to be transgressed.
This moral intuitions frame also explains much of the bioconservative resistance to human enhancement and technoprogressive ideas around ecological engineering. The taboo-driven conservatives simply see these ideas as wrong, regardless of any rational arguments in their favor. We technoprogressives, on the other hand, take seriously only arguments based on equality and public safety - justice and caring values - thereby also distancing ourselves from the libertarians who see self-interest as the only legitimate value.
By rooting ourselves in our fundamental Enlightenment values it is much easier to see which constituencies and causes are the natural allies of technoprogressivism. Queer rights may seem a far cry from human enhancement, geoengineering and basic income, but they are all natural extrapolations of a two hundred and fifty year struggle to assert the superiority of Enlightenment values and worldview over those who appeal to respect for authority, the danger of the Other, and the obviousness of sexual and religious taboos.
It may seem to some that ascendance of the Enlightenment is inevitable. After all, how can the Taliban win hearts and minds when we created medicine, the Internet and space travel? The religious and economic right-wingers are certainly on the defensive, but the martyrdom of Dr. George Tiller last week by an anti-choice zealot reminds us that they are no less dangerous now that they have lost the levers of power. In fact, driven by an eschatological narrative that casts every advance toward liberal and social democracy as another step toward the End-Times they are even more prone toward extremism.
Wow. Darker than usual. I’m actually feeling good today. Eight of my dozen grape plantings have finally bloomed, and the vegetable garden is coming in. I’m off to Washington next week with my son to show off his Castro documentary at National History Day, and the next week I’m speaking at Galacticon, a lefty SF con in Chicago, along with Sprite, who runs the anarchotranshumanism website. The IEET site is full of cool talks by Jamais Cascio, Andy Miah, Natasha Vita-More and Doug Rushkoff. Russell is collecting essays for a special issue of JET on European Posthumanisms, and I’m down to ten unanswered emails in my inbox.
We have to remember to have fun even as we keep an eye open for the wingnuts with guns.
Dr. Sweetness and Light out.
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IEET NEWS
Call for Papers - Nietzsche and European Posthumanisms (June 5, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cfpjet0906/
Issue 20(1) of the Journal of Evolution and Technology contains Stefan Sorgner’s article “Nietzsche, the Overhuman, and Transhumanism”. This argues (contrary to the published views of Nick Bostrom, for example) that there are significant and fundamental similarities between the posthuman and the Nietzschean “overhuman”.
Treder, Goertzel, Scott in Summer Issue of h+ Magazine (June 3, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hmag0906/
IEET Managing Director Mike Treder, IEET Fellow Ben Goertzel and IEET intern Kristi Scott have articles in the summer issue of h+ Magazine.
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ARTICLES
Randall Mayes: Openness and Biosecurity: Can They Co-exist? (June 7, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mayes20090607/
Our growing ability to decode and re-encode genomes has enabled rapid responses to emerging diseases, but also potentially empowers would-be bio-terrorists. It is urgent that we develop national and international policies to regulate this dual use technology to ensure its benefits and minimize its risks.
Doug Rushkoff: How Google Trained Your Brain (June 5, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoff20090603/
With Bing, Microsoft has created a faster search engine, says Douglas Rushkoff. But also a greedier one. Why Google’s information-based ethos will trump Microsoft’s commerce-driven approach.
Mike Treder: Moral Relativism vs. Moral Authority (June 5, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090605/
Born in Hawaii—a crossroads of culture between Far East and Far West—of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya and raised partially in Indonesia by a Muslim stepfather, an African-American man with an unlikely background and an even more unlikely name, Barack Hussein Obama, arose to become President of the United States. Does that globalized pedigree, along with a prodigious intellect, give him a unique moral authority?
Doug Rushkoff: Obama’s Internet Misfire (June 5, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rushkoff20090529/
The president’s announcement Friday of a new czar to protect our cybersecurity misses the point, says Douglas Rushkoff. We need a generation of hand-to-hand digital soldiers, not armchair generals.
George Dvorsky: Welcome to the Machine, Part 5: Simulation taxonomy (June 4, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dvorsky20090604/
As shocking as the Simulation Argument is, it’s (arguably) a revelation that’s no less shocking than previous existential paradigm shifts. While undoubtedly disturbing to the people alive at the time, previous civilizations have come to grips with the knowledge that they do not live on a flat Earth nor at the center of the Universe.
Mike Treder: Not ‘more!’ Not ‘enough!’ We want BETTER!! (June 1, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090601/
Over the next two or three decades, our world will change dramatically and in many different ways: we should expect political, economic, social, technological, and environmental uplifts and quite possibly revolutions. Understanding where we’ve come from, where we might go—and what our choices could be—is a first step toward taking active control over our lives and the world in which we live.
Mike Treder: Awaiting the Sixth Paradigm (May 31, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/awaiting_the_sixth_paradigm/
It’s been an interesting few weeks for the announcement of potentially dazzling new online applications, from Microsoft’s search engine Bing, and Google’s collaborative communication tool Wave, to the giant killer of them all, Wolfram Alpha, supposedly the biggest thing since, well, Google.
Mike Treder: Toward a Technoprogressive Manifesto (May 30, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090530/
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Marcelo Rinesi: The Swans are Black, not Invisible (May 29, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rinesi20090530/
A collective failure of judgment is not the same thing as a freak accident.
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MULTIMEDIA
Part 1: The Origins of Corporate Alienation (June 6, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090613/
Part 2: Building Local Resistance to Commodified Life (June 6, 2009) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090620/
Douglas Rushkoff is author of, among his dozen books, Playing the Future, Open Source Democracy and Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, the novels Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy, and the graphic novels Club Zero-G and Testament. He has written and hosted two award-winning Frontline documentaries, and is working on a third, Digital Nation. He hosts a weekly radio show the Media Squat. We discuss his most recent book Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back (lifeincorporated.net).
Mobile Intelligence (June 6, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio200906/
In this video Jamais Cascio talks about Mobile Intelligence (”Your Brain’s Future, Mobilized”). This is about the Augmented Future: augmented awareness, augmented society, augmented environments… He sketches 3 possible futures: participatory, interconnected and leapfrog - all with different features and also why it is matters to be aware of this.
Everything Incorporated (June 4, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/Rushkoff200906/
Social critic Douglas Rushkoff is ready to think big in response to the economic crisis still rocking the U.S. and the world. Really big.
How the Web Ate the Economy and Why This Is Good for Everyone (June 4, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/Rushkoff200904/
A few “bugs” in society from hundreds of years ago have had profound consequences for society today, according to author Douglas Rushkoff. In this presentation from the Web 2.0 Expo he points out two false assumptions about the world, their medieval origins, and how the internet has provided a brief window where we can fix them.
Open Source Genetically Engineered Food (June 3, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/lnpollan09/
“The real key to genetic engineering is control of intellectual property of the food crops that we depend on,” says author Michael Pollan of companies like Monsanto. He advocates an open source GE model.
Conservatives Move to Close TGTS Loophole to Gay Marriage Bans (June 2, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/wingnuts0906/
Although this is an Onion news piece (ergo parody) the issue is real. In some states couples that want to get married have to have been different genders at birth, while in others they only have to be different genders when asking for the permit, which has meant that trans-women can only marry women in some states, but can only marry men in others.
A Singularity Public Service Announcement (June 2, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/singpsa09/
This public service announcement is brought to you by Dr. Steel™
Are Humans Still Evolving? (June 1, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dye200903/
Christopher Dye spoke at Gresham College in London March 26, 2009. It was thought that the dramatic extension of life spans during the 20th century eliminated natural selection, but new evidence shows that to be false. Will selection always be natural, or could postmodern also mean posthuman? Christopher Dye is Director of Health Information in the Office of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization and Gresham Professor of Physic in the City of London.
Evil Genes Part 1 (May 30, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090529/
Evil Genes Part 2 (May 30, 2009)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/csr20090605/
Dr. J. chats with Barbara Oakley about her book Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend (evilgenes.com), a sweeping review of the emerging neuroscience of psychopathy and Machiavellianism, and their relationship to history, politics and evolution.
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JOURNAL OF EVOLUTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Call for Papers - Nietzsche and European Posthumanisms
Issue 20(1) of the Journal of Evolution and Technology contains Stefan Sorgner’s article “Nietzsche, the Overhuman, and Transhumanism”.
http://jetpress.org/v20/sorgner.htm
This argues (contrary to the published views of Nick Bostrom, for example) that there are significant and fundamental similarities between the posthuman and the Nietzschean “overhuman”.
We expect that this paper to be of general interest to transhumanists and scholars with an interest in transhumanism, and we are calling for papers that respond to it - either by replying directly to its arguments (with agreement, disagreement or otherwise) or by looking further into the relationship between transhumanism and European thought. Authors might, for example, wish to consider the work of Habermas, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Foucault, Lyotard, or Sloterdijk.
We are looking for (1) short responses (under 2000 words), which will not be peer-reviewed but selected by the editors on the basis of merit, and (2) full-length articles which will be peer-reviewed in the normal way. Please make clear how you wish any submission to be treated.
The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2009. Submission guidelines can be found here:
http://jetpress.org/authors.html
The Journal of Evolution and Technology is a peer-reviewed online journal, published by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
Editor-in-chief Russell Blackford
Associate Editor James Hughes
Managing Editor Marcelo Rinesi
________________________________
IEET SPEAKER EVENTS
Aubrey @ HealthQuake summit
Detroit, Michigan, USA
2009 June 8-9
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090608/
Andy Miah on “Nanotechnology and Postmodern Culture”
Sheffield, UK
2009 June 9
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090609/
Andy Miah on Human Evolution
London, UK
2009 June 10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090610/
Goertzel @ Toward a Science of Consciousness 2009 Hong Kong, China
2009 June 11-14
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tsc09/
Bostrom, Warwick, BSG Cast on Battlestar Galactica: Cyborgs on the Horizon 92nd Street Y, NYC, NY USA
2009 June 12
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostorm20090612/
Bostrom on Infinite Worlds
NYU, NYC, NY USA
2009 June 13
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostrom20090613/
Goertzel @ Workshop on Machine Consciousness Hong Kong, China
2009 June 15
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/iwmc09/
Aubrey @ IdeaCity
Toronto, Canada
2009 June 17-19
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090717/
Andy on “Bioart as Bioethics”
Belfast, Northern Ireland
2009 Jun 22-24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090622/
Aubrey @ FutureFest 2009
Cambridge, UK
2009 Jun 23-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090623/
Jamais on “What if we really COULD change the future for the better?”
Sydney, Australia
2009 Jun 24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090528/
Hughes on “Science & Technology for Liberation” @ Think Galacticon Chicago, Illinois USA
2009 Jun 26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20090627/
Andy @ Social Media
Leicester, UK
2009 Jun 26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090626/
Cognitive Enhancement Workshop and Symposium` Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 Jun 27-28
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fhice09/
Bostrom @ Converging Tech and Philosophy Enschede, The Netherlands
2009 Jul 8-10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ctcs09/
Vita-More on “Cosmos, Nature, Culture”
Phoenix, AZ
2009 Jul 18-21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20090718/
Andy on Climate Change and Nanotechology Daejeon, South Korea
2009 Aug 20-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090820/
Andy @ International Symposium of Electronic Art Ulster, Northern Ireland
2009 Aug 26-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090826/
Aubrey @ SENS4
Cambridge, UK
2009 Sep 4-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubreysens4/
Vita-More on “Transformative Human: radically enhancing/extending life”
Melbourne, Australia
2009 Nov 26-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20091126/
ALL EVENTS
Aubrey @ HealthQuake summit
Detroit, Michigan, USA
2009 Jun 8-9
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090608/
Andy Miah on “Nanotechnology and Postmodern Culture”
Sheffield, UK
2009 Jun 9-9
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090609/
Andy Miah on Human Evolution
London, UK
2009 Jun 10-10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090610/
Goertzel @ Toward a Science of Consciousness 2009 Hong Kong, China
2009 Jun 11-14
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tsc09/
Bostrom, Warwick, BSG Cast on Battlestar Galactica: Cyborgs on the Horizon 92nd Street Y, NYC, NY USA
2009 Jun 12-12
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostorm20090612/
Bostrom on Infinite Worlds
NYU, NYC, NY USA
2009 Jun 13-13
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bostrom20090613/
Goertzel @ Workshop on Machine Consciousness Hong Kong, China
2009 Jun 15-15
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/iwmc09/
Aubrey @ IdeaCity
Toronto, Canada
2009 Jun 17-19
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090717/
First World Congress on Positive Psychology Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2009 Jun 18-21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pospsycon2009/
CyberTherapy and CyberPsychology Conference (CT14) Lago Maggiore, Verbania-Intra, Italy
2009 Jun 21-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ct14/
Andy on “Bioart as Bioethics”
Belfast, Northern Ireland
2009 Jun 22-24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090622/
Aubrey @ FutureFest 2009
Cambridge, UK
2009 Jun 23-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubrey20090623/
Jamais on “What if we really COULD change the future for the better?”
Sydney, Australia
2009 Jun 24-24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20090528/
Hughes on “Science & Technology for Liberation” @ Think Galacticon Chicago, Illinois USA
2009 Jun 26-26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20090627/
Andy @ Social Media
Leicester, UK
2009 Jun 26-26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090626/
Cognitive Enhancement Workshop and Symposium` Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 Jun 27-28
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fhice09/
The Paradox of Neurotechnology II
Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 Jul 1-31
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tpon2/
Ethics for the 21st Century
Edinburgh, Scotland
2009 Jul 2-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ef21c09/
Technological Singularity and Acceleration Studies Barcelona, Spain
2009 Jul 2-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tsas09/
7th European Conference on Computing And Philosophy Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
2009 Jul 2-4
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/singeccp/
Metaphysics of Science
Melbourne, Australia
2009 Jul 3-5
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mos09/
Visions of Humanity in Cyberculture, Cyberspace and Science Fiction Oxford, UK
2009 Jul 6-8
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vhccsf09/
Bostrom @ Converging Tech and Philosophy Enschede, The Netherlands
2009 Jul 8-10
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ctcs09/
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
Veronda, VR. Italy
2009 Jul 18-22
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aimed09/
Vita-More on “Cosmos, Nature, Culture”
Phoenix, AZ
2009 Jul 18-21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20090718/
Science in Society
Cambridge University, United Kingdom
2009 Aug 5-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/scisoc09/
Andy on Climate Change and Nanotechology Daejeon, South Korea
2009 Aug 20-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090820/
Emotions and Machines
University of Geneva, Switzerland
2009 Aug 21-21
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/emnomach09/
Andy @ International Symposium of Electronic Art Ulster, Northern Ireland
2009 Aug 26-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/miah20090826/
Aubrey @ SENS4
Cambridge, UK
2009 Sep 4-7
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/aubreysens4/
Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies Seattle, WA USA
2009 Sep 8-11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/s_net09/
Foundations for a Common Morality
The United Nations, New York City, NY USA
2009 Sep 11-11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/fcm09/
Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2009 Sep 14-17
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/mmmmee09/
Workshop on Biopolitics
Beijing, China
2009 Sep 15-20
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/biopol09/
Politics of the Life Sciences in an ‘Age of Biological Control’
London, UK
2009 Sep 16-18
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/lse2009/
Technology, Democracy, and Citizenship
Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
2009 Sep 24-25
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tdc09/
New Directions in Neuroethics
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2009 Sep 24-26
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ndne091/
The Perfect Body: Between Normativity and Consumerism Scandic Linköping Väst, Sweden
2009 Oct 9-13
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pbbnc09/
Vita-More on “Transformative Human: radically enhancing/extending life”
Melbourne, Australia
2009 Nov 26-29
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/vitamore20091126/
Gender, Bodies and Technology
Roanoke, VA USA
2010 Apr 22-24
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/gbt2010/
Neuroethics Society
Washington D.C.
2010 May 10-11
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/ns09/
Neural Interfaces Conference
Long Beach Convention Center, CA, USA
2010 Jun 21-23
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/nic10/
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