If we are to believe transhumanists, people who bill themselves as champions of superlongevity and artificial human enhancement, 2045 should be a very good year. (The Boston Globe)

Wallach is a pioneer in the nascent field of robot ethics and has captured the imaginations of futurists with his theories on artificial moral agents and computational ethics. In fact, he designed the world’s first course on the subject at Yale, and he published a book last year entitled, Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong. (ZDNet)

The American Journal of Bioethics (Volume 10, Issue 7, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Disaster in the Gulf: Public Health and Public Responsibility” by Summer Johnson, 1-2.
• “Should Human Beings Have Sex? Sexual Dimorphism and Human Enhancement” by Robert Sparrow, 3-12.
• “The Risks of ‘Sexual Normalcy’” by Ronald M. Green, 13-14.
• “Humans Should Be Free of All Biological Limitations Including Sex” by James J. Hughes, 15.
• “Resisting Sparrow’s Sexy Reductio: Selection Principles and the Social Good’ by Thomas Douglas, Russell Powell, Katrien Devolder, Pablo Stafforini, and Simon Rippon, 16-18.
• “Sexual Dimorphism and the Value of Feminist Bioethics” by Nancy J. Matchett, 18-20.
• “Sex and Enhancement: A Phenomenological-Existential View” by Jenny Slatman, Annemie Halsema, and Guy Widdershoven, 20-22.
• “The Value of Sex in Procreative Reasons” by Guy Kahane and Julian Savulescu, 22-24.
• “Sexual Dimorphism and Sexual Intermediaries” by Thomas Marino, 24-25.
• “Is There a Moral Obligation to Have Children of Only One Sex?: by Kalina Kamenova, 26-27.
• “This is What Happens When You Forget About Gender” by Dan O’Connor, 27-29.
• “Sex, Romance, and Research Subjects: An Ethical Exploration” by Timothy F. Murphy, 30-38.
• “No Sex Please, We’re Social Scientists?” by Michael Dunn and Mark Sheehan, 39-41.
• “On the Costly Compromises of Nonclinical Research Relationships” by Hallie Liberto, 41-42.
• “No Sex Please in Sexuality Research” by Bridget Haire, 43-44.
• “Human Dignity and Transhumanism: So Anthro-Technological Devices Have Moral Status?” by Fabrice Jotterand, 45-52.
• “Human Dignity, Transhuman Dignity, and All That Jazz” by Immaculada de Melo-Martin, 53-55.
• “Toward a ‘Post-Posthuman Dignity Area’ in Evaluating Emerging Enhancement Technologies” by Annelien L. Bredenoord, Rieke van der Graaf, Johannes J.M. van Delden, 55-57.
• “Dignity and Agential Realism: Human, Posthuman, and Nonhuman” by Linda MacDonald Glenn and George Dvorsky, 57-58.

The New York Times Sunday business section recently ran an enormous puff piece on Ray Kurzweil and the “Singularity” cult (my term, not the Times’s). Kurzweil is a successful inventor–entrepreneur best known lately for his sci-tech prophecies. He claims that advances in AI, nanotech, biotech, computer science and neuroscience are bearing us toward a radical transformation of our minds and bodies called the Singularity—aka “rapture of the geeks”. (Scientific American)

Transhumanism is the idea of guiding and improving human evolution with intention through the use of technologies and culture. If those technologies are not robotic and cybernetic but, instead, genetic and organic, then so be it. (IEET)

ON a Tuesday evening this spring, Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, became part man and part machine. About 40 people, all gathered here at a NASA campus for a nine-day, $15,000 course at Singularity University, saw it happen. (New York Times)

The emergent course of our human bio-technological transition is leading toward a species transformation. In light of this, approaches to transhumanism are varied and some are without clear conceptual apparatus; people want to extol its far-out promise or decry its fearful premise. How can the forecasts of converging sciences and technologies be better understood? Discussions need to include how we might experience an enhanced existence. I suggest aesthetics as a means by which we can gaze onto the topography of human enhancement and into the core of transhumanist experience. (IEET)

A major objective of the technoprogressive agenda is to close the gap between popular presentations of transhumanism and the mainstream of social/political thought. In order to effect a significant influence on public policies related to human enhancement technologies and other major transhumanist interests, it is necessary to push hard on two fronts: 1) to increase mainstream acceptance of the transformative value of emerging technologies; and 2) to improve the perception of H+ by reducing emphasis on fringe ideas. (IEET)

I have proposed that a scenario of slower-than-disruptive tech development over the next 15-20 years combined with weak or reduced opposition to human enhancement could result in “increasing irrelevance” for transhumanists. But what exactly does that mean? (IEET)

Transhumanists, like Enlightenment partisans in general, believe that human nature can be improved but are conflicted about whether liberal democracy is the best path to betterment. The liberal tradition within the Enlightenment has argued that individuals are best at finding their own interests and should be left to improve themselves in self-determined ways. But many people are mistaken about their own best interests, and more rational elites may have a better understanding of the general good. Enlightenment partisans have often made a case for modernizing monarchs and scientific dictatorships. Transhumanists need to confront this tendency to disparage liberal democracy in favor of the rule by dei ex machina and technocratic elites. (IEET)

In 2003, the idea that one might have a freedom to change one’s body and brain as one liked was being discussed in relation to the Transhumanist FAQ. This idea receives much less attention in the current FAQ, where it is largely replaced by a lesser freedom to enhance. This is interesting, because morphological freedom has significant implications. (IEET)

IBM’s Blue Gene brain simulation has made gains in one of the most sophisticated tasks man has ever taken on—creating artificial intelligence (AI). With the true AI milestone comes the dawn of the singularity, when computers overtake humans. Contributing editor Glenn Reynolds looks into the future and wonders; what happens after the singularity? (Popular Mechanics)

Philosophy & Public Affairs (Volume 37, Issue 4, Fall 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “The Normative Insignificance of Neuroscience” by Selim Berker, 293-329.
• “Neuroscience and Moral Reasoning: A Note on Recent Research” by F.M. Kamm, 330-345.
• “Moral Status and Human Enhancement” by Allen Buchanan, 346-414.

61-year-old Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award winner, futurist and inventor guy Ray Kurzweil has made a lot of wild predictions that end up being appealing or terrifying. One of those is his belief that, within the next 20-25 years, our mastery of nanotechnology will be at such a level that we’ll basically be immortal cyborgs. So, hey — how’s that sound? (DVICE)

Transhumanism is, essentially, the advanced tech-art of improving both the physical and mental capacities of human beings with the aid of existing and emerging 21st century technologies in the Bio, Info and Nano (BIN) spheres. At present, transhumanism is fast becoming an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities. Transhumanism is symbolised by H+ or h+ and is often used as a synonym for “Human Enhancement”. (mi2g)

Many practitioners, for instance, do not realize that their scientific research may have ethical ramifications, Grinnell said. When scientists repeat their experiments, they accumulate ten to fifteen notebooks with many sets of data that eventually become a paper. (Science Progress)

Artificial Intelligence Review (Volume 28, Number 3, October 2007) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Human–Computer input and output techniques: an analysis of current research and promising applications” by Marco Porta, 197-226.

Dialog (Volume 48, Issue 2, Summer 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Animals and the Image of God in the Bible and Beyond ” by Joshua M. Moritz, 134-146.
• “The Animal that Aspires to be an Angel: The Challenge of Transhumanism” by Philip Hefner, 158-167.
• “Human Dignity—A Theological and Confucian Discussion” by Pilgrim W.K. LO, 168-178.

The notions of biomedical enhancement and our possible posthuman future are very much, so to speak, topics du jour in the bioethical literature. Over the past few years a number of books have appeared that address the ethical issues that surround our using medical technology not simply to treat disorders, but to increase our capacities beyond their normal range, perhaps even to the point where we no longer can be counted as human. These include landmark works by John Harris (Enhancing Evolution) and Michael Sandel (The Case Against Perfection), along with other excellent and thought-provoking works by the likes of Jürgen Habermas and Francis Fukuyama, as well as a first-rate edited collection (Human Enhancement) produced by Julian Savulescu and Nick Bostrom. (Metapsychology)

Dr. Susan Schneider, IEET fellow and assistant professor of philosophy and an affiliated faculty member with Penns Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, speaks at a UPenn Media Seminar on Neuroscience and Society on philosophical controversies surrounding cognitive enhancement. (IEET)

For inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, being human with limited intelligence and doomed biology was never good enough. So he came up with an idea called the Singularity - a time when humans merge with machines, become smart and live forever. From MIT to the White House, people either hate the idea or can’t wait for it to happen. So, asks Liz Else, will any of us live long enough to see it? (New Scientist)