The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies in Hartford hosted a conference in January of this year titled Forbidding Science. Transhumanism poster child Nick Bostrom was among the speakers at the event, and video presentation of his talk is now up.
For those in need of a transhumanism primer or on Nick Bostrom, Wikipedia has very nice coverage here and here. Bostrom is currently the director of Oxford's Institute for the Future of Humanity and argues agressively for free application of neuroscience and technological advances that he believes may serve some benefit for human kind. He seems to my eyes the most popular and powerful spokesperson of the "posthuman" movement, placed in direct opposition to Francis Fukuyama in the bioconservative - biolibertarian spectrum.
I imagine that his website words it best:
"I think it is likely that in this century, we will master technologies that will enable us to overcome many of our current biological limitations. Possible outcomes range from extinction to lives that could be wonderful beyond imagination. We might at last get rid of involuntary suffering, aging, and disease, and get the opportunity to truly grow up and experience life as it should have been all along.
In addition to transformative technology, we need the wisdom and the good will to use it well. In my view, all of us ought to have the option of becoming ageless creatures with vastly enhanced intellectual, emotional, and moral capacities. Why aim for less?"
A full schedule for the conference with accompanying video presentations can be found here.
----C.C.
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