Transvision 07

The Choice is Yours biweekly column by Gregor Wolbring

Oct 30^th 2007

http://politicsofhealth.org/wol/2007-10-30.html

I covered Transhumanism in a column last year. This is just an update column on what happened since then. In July 2007 Transvision 2007 the main conference of the World Transhumanist Association took place. The conference announcement asks among other things,

“Do you believe that emerging technology will give society the ability to solve the greatest challenges facing humanity? What's the biggest priority: longevity therapies, sustainable energy, clean water, a restored environment, or space development?

The World Transhumanist Association is a global non-profit member organization dedicated to the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities. The World Transhumanist Association supports the development of, and access to, new technologies that enable everyone to enjoy better minds, better bodies and better lives. This philosophy would be negligent without considering a better environment and a better planet in which to live. How can we live better than well if we don't take action now to solve the greatest challenges facing our world?”

Some of the topics were:

• Day One: Inner space: Transforming Ourselves Longevity, Life Extension, Nanotech, Nanomedicine, Bionics, Biotech, SENS, Cryonics;

• Day Two: Meta space: Transforming Humanity Environment, Global Warming, Sustainable Housing, Alternative Energy, AI, Robotics, Virtual Reality;

• Day Three: Outer space: Beyond the Planet Future Humans, Colonizing Outer space, Space Tourism, Future Civilizations”

Some of the write ups of the content of the conference can be found on the Reason magazine webpage.

According to Nanotech-now the following questions were addressed:

• How can we solve our three biggest risks: death, planetary extinction, and inability to live full lives?

• How much money should we spend on postponing aging?

• Mass marketers can now target you and everywhere you go. Is that good?

• Peter Diamandis says we can revolutionize health care, address poverty, and cure cancer. Is he right?

• Will the "New Green" clash with or support transhumanist goals of human enhancement?

• James Gardner believes we live in an "almost spookily bio-friendly" intelligent universe where we will some day create baby universes. Is this possible?

• What is the future of artificial intelligence and when will machines be smarter than us?

• What implantable medical devices are being developed and when will they be so powerful, safe and cheap that they will eliminate diseases and disabilities?

• When neurological enhancements can create believable simulated worlds like Second Life in your own brain, where and who are "you"?

Would you store the essence of your self in digital mindfiles that can be revived in the future via cyberconsciousness mindware so future scientists could bring "you" back via cybernetic consciousness or cellular/nanobio regeneration? Dr. Martine Rothblatt will explain how.

• Will digital codes replace DNA?

• Would you like to become a posthuman (a future being whose capacities radically exceed those of humans)?

That someone like William Shatner, the actor who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek Enterprise, was giving the keynote speech could be may be seen as an indicator that Transhumanism is making inroads. In the reason magazine Shatner is quoted : "Maybe the time has come for we human beings to practice intelligent design," explicitly endorsing the World Transhumanist Association's goal of using technology to create "better minds, better bodies and better lives."

The presence of a number of other people further supported the impression that the transhumanist philosophy is gaining acceptance. Ed Begley, Actor, Environmentalist, and founderof Begley’s Best put in an appearance. Some of the other speakers where Philip Rosdale of Second Life, Novamente AI researcher Ben Goertzel. Marvin Minsky who heads up MIT's Media Lab, Mark Ekstract, who founded the upscale green lifestyle magazine, Verdant. Jerome Glenn of the Millennium project , and Peter Diamandis, who is involved in theAnsari X Prize, which gave a prize for the first reusable private spacecraft, SpaceShipOne,

More write ups about transvision 07 can be found here and here.

A recent development with regard to transhumanism is the establishment of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University which is run by the president of the World Transhumanist Association. More about transhumanism can be found here, here and here

The Choice is Yours

If one reads the write ups from transhumanists with regard to their transvision conference one cannot help notice that many were disappointed over the level of attendance. However transhumanists are invited to many S&T policy discussions which do not involve as participants the marginalized majority (if one sums up all the people marginalized one could make the claim that together they are the majority of the world population) of the people of the world. It seems S&T discourses around new and emerging sciences and technologies have more and more often a transhumanist philosophy flavor and do not attempt to provide solutions to the problems one can expect in regards to marginalized populations.

On the World Transhumanist Association webpage one reads that a course in transhumanism was offered at Arizona State University, USA. Furthermore many of the ideas transhumanist hold dear are advanced on numerous levels without being linked directly to the term transhumanism. Lets see where we are next year. As usual the Choice is Yours.

Please contact the author for any information desired at gwolbrin@ucalgary.ca© Gregor Wolbring, All Rights Reserved, 2007. Please contact the author for permission to reprint. More columns can be found at innovationwatch.

Gregor Wolbring is a biochemist, bioethicist, disability/vari-ability/ability studies scholar, and health policy and science and technology governance researcher at the University of Calgary. He is a member of the Center for Nanotechnology and Society at Arizona State University; Part Time Professor at Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada; Member CAC/ISO - Canadian Advisory Committees for the International Organization for Standardization section TC229 Nanotechnologies; Member of the editorial team for the Nanotechnology for Development portal of the Development Gateway Foundation; Chair of the Bioethics Taskforce of Disabled People's International; and former Member of the Executive of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (2003-2007 maximum terms served). He publishes the Bioethics, Culture and Disability website and authors a weblog on NBICS and its social implications.