November 16, 2012
Time magazine recently featured Kurzweil on it cover, and Fortune described him as “a legendary inventor with a history of mind-blowing ideas.” And now he has a new book, with a subtitle that suggests he has found another such idea: … Read More
November 12, 2012
Ray Kurzweil is a leading thinker, inventor, and futurist known for his track record of accurate predictions. In this video, shot in Kurzweil’s office near Boston, he talks to Techonomy founder David Kirkpatrick about Watson, IBM’s artificial intelligence computer system … Read More
October 26, 2012
If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do? (The Atlantic)
October 12, 2012
Ray Kurzweil, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines and a pioneer of artificial intelligence software, has always been one of the most provocative thinkers on technology and its future. When he spoke at the Demo conference last week, it was … Read More
September 7, 2012
Steroids. Ritalin. Modafinil. Prozac. EPO. These are just a selection of drugs that could be described as boosting the cognitive or physical performance of human beings. (Wired)
September 5, 2012
This week an Australian woman had some of her vision restored thanks to a retinal implant. Some transhumanists believe that as technology improves, people might replace their healthy retinas for implants if it meant gaining added functionality such as night … Read More
September 4, 2012
The London 2012 Paralympic Games have drawn attention to the role that technology and science can play in overcoming human limitations. From wind tunnel-tested wheelchairs to running blades and other prosthetics, technology has been used to adapt or enhance the … Read More
August 23, 2012
Technology and Human Flourishing 2012 Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture October 25-27, 2012 Baylor University Institute for Faith and Learning http://www.baylor.edu/ifl/index.php?id=88447
July 18, 2012
As you weigh whether to spend $1,500 on a Google Glass prototype, consider the less obvious downsides to the technology. French McDonald’s employees, for instance, may spontaneously attempt to strip it off your head while you’re eating a Chicken Ranch … Read More
March 12, 2012
Can we give ourselves super vision, super strength and super speed? Science fiction is littered with the theme of upgrading the human body with machinery. (BBC News)
September 7, 2011
By enhancing ourselves with technology, do we throw away a part of our humanity? That’s the question at the heart of a new video game, Deus Ex: Human revolution. (Wired)
August 16, 2011
Many of the things that transhumanism aspires to, like greatly extended life or special abilities, are not really new; expressing dissatisfaction with the human condition by rejecting some of its limits seems to be a perennial human possibility. So it … Read More
June 27, 2011
Instead of practicing for hours, a device can now teach you a tune by taking control of your hand. (New Scientist)
June 23, 2011
People have always dreamed of living for eternity, but it has always been a dream filled with Faustian bargains. Deep down, we want to believe that it’s possible to live forever, and many of us are willing to pay the … Read More
June 15, 2011
Primal transhumanism. Oxymoron? Maybe. Burgeoning lifestyle choice for a growing number of futurists? Most definitely. (IEET)
June 13, 2011
Human technology is an incredible phenomenon. It’s something that grows exponentially: for every advance we make, our next advances are more varied and easier to attain. (TNW)
June 3, 2011
When “X-Men: First Class,†a prequel to the popular series of comic-book adaptations, hits theaters this weekend, moviegoers will find themselves immersed in yet another superhero origin story, the fourth opening this summer, along with “Thor,†“Green Lantern,†and “Captain … Read More
May 9, 2011
Imagine you know everything on Wikipedia, in the Oxford English Dictionary, and the contents of every book in digital form. When someone asks you what you did 20 years ago, on demand you recall with perfect accuracy every sensation and … Read More
May 5, 2011
Will we become cyborgs? Will we be disease free? And what have vacuum cleaners got to do with it? John Holden asks scientists how humans might change over the next 50 years (IrishTimes.com)
May 5, 2011
The last symposium in M.I.T.’s 150-day celebration of its 150th anniversary (who ever said that geeks don’t like ritual?) is devoted to the question: “Whatever happened to AI?” Of course, that is a particularly appropriate self-introspection for M.I.T. because a … Read More
May 4, 2011
AÂ robot must protect its own existence. This mid-20th-century from science fiction author and biochemist Isaac Asimov seems cleanly in step with Darwinian theory and the biological world of survival of the fittest. (Scientific American)
April 25, 2011
A fundamental principle of bioethics requires the consent of a patient to any medical procedure performed upon them. A new patient will exist the moment a conscious mindclone arises in some academic’s laboratory or hacker’s garage. At that moment, ethical … Read More
April 21, 2011
As 20-year-old Hailey Daniswicz flexes muscles in her thigh, electrodes attached to her leg instruct a computer avatar to flex its knee and ankle — parts of Hailey’s leg that have been missing since 2005. (Reuters)
April 13, 2011
Technology to be launched tomorrow will allow film viewers to control key plot developments using the power of emotion. The Myndplay system uses a headset to pick up the patterns of brain waves associated with different states of mind, and based … Read More
April 12, 2011
While it seemed the rest of London was out soaking up the springtime sun this past Saturday, roughly 100 people opted instead to pass their time in a basement lecture theatre at Birkbeck College – discussing the possibilities of human … Read More
