Panelists: James Hughes, PJ Manney (both at IEET), and Pramod Nayar (Hyderabad Uni) discuss humanities fitness for the future – covering important points including: Are we morally equipped to deal with humanities grand challenges? If the majority population of a democratic state were morally deficient, would it be okay to morally enhance the population, or…
James Hughes discusses the neuroanatomy of moral cognition, and the potential for brain stimulation and brain-computer interfaces to modulate moral emotions, cognition and behavior. This talk was part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference. Video here. Audio: Synopsis: Links between brain structures and cognition began with studies of victims of brain injuries, and…
Interview with Pramod K. Nayar on #posthumanism ‘as both a material condition and a developing philosophical-ethical project in the age of cloning, gene engineering, organ transplants and implants’. The book ‘Posthumanism’ by Pramod Nayar: https://amzn.to/2OQEA8z Rise of the posthumanities article: https://bit.ly/32Q67Pm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDjYjWh6-xo This time, I decided trying to itemize the interview so you can find…
What is the relationship between anti-aging and the reduction of suffering? What are some common objections to the ideas of solving aging? How does Anti-Aging stack up against other cause areas (like climate change, or curing specific diseases)? How can we better convince people of the virtues of undoing the diseases of old age? Keith…
Aging is a technical problem with a technical solution – finding the solution requires clear thinking and focused effort. Once solving aging becomes demonstrably feasible, it is likely attitudes will shift regarding its desirability. There is huge potential, for individuals and for society, in reducing suffering through the use of rejuvenation therapy to achieve new…
Michio Kaku on Nanotechnology – Michio is the author of many best sellers, recently the Future of the Mind! The Holy Grail of Nanotechnology Merging with machines is on the horizon and Nanotechnology will be key to achieving this. The ‘Holy Grail of Nanotechnology’ is the replicator: A microscopic robot that rearranges molecules into desired…
The topic of is controversial (and often misrepresented); it is considered by many to be repugnant – provocative questions arise like “who’s morals?”, “who are the ones to be morally enhanced?”, “will it be compulsory?”, “won’t taking a morality pill decrease the value of the intended morality if it skips the difficult process we normally…
Dr Randal Koene covers the motivation for human technological augmentation and reasons to go beyond biological life extension. Competition is an inescapable occurrence in the animate and even in the inanimate universe. To give our minds the flexibility to transfer and to operate in different substrates bestows upon our species the most important competitive advantage.”…
The Quantified Self movement is usefully encouraging loads of people to record metrics about their personal health – the resulting big data will be useful to mine in doing research on how food and lifestyle impact health. There are also some ethical issues around privacy if personal metrics are used inappropriately. Here is an interview…
My sociology of knowledge students read Yuval Harari’s bestselling first book, Sapiens, to think about the right frame of reference for understanding the overall trajectory of the human condition. Homo Deus follows the example of Sapiens, using contemporary events to launch into what nowadays is called ‘big history’ but has been also called ‘deep history’…
