January 3, 2018
(The Guardian) – Musk is not alone in believing that “neurotechnology” could be the next big thing. Silicon Valley is abuzz with similar projects. Bryan Johnson, for example, has also been testing “neural lace”. He founded Kernel, a startup to … Read More
December 4, 2017
(Gizmodo) – After the initial warning, Gizmodo reached out to the FDA for clarity on how it might affect the biohacking community. For one, the agency, made clear, it’s not just CRISPR: “Gene editing in humans by any method would … Read More
December 1, 2017
Zygon Journal of Religion and Science (vol. 52, no. 3, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Transhumanism, Theological Anthropology, and Modern Biological Taxonomy” by Travis Dumsday “A Contribution to the Debate on Science and Faith by Christian … Read More
November 27, 2017
(Boston Business Journal) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a stern warning against the use of “do it yourself” gene therapy kits, pushing back against a nascent “biohacker” movement that seeks to make experimental medicines and technologies … Read More
November 9, 2017
(Quartz) – The life-extension methods that Silicon Valley visionaries are pumping millions of dollars into will, by definition, be prohibitively expensive. Cryogenics, for example, can range in price from the $28,000 price tag of smaller firms to the $200,000 charged … Read More
October 30, 2017
(The Guardian) – Earlier this year I went to an event in Austin, Texas, billed as a sneak preview of the evolution of our species. The #Bdyhax Conference, which took place in a downtown exhibition complex, promised a front-row insight … Read More
October 17, 2017
The New Bioethics (vol. 23, no. 2, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Sperm Donation and the Right to Privacy” by Oliver Hallich “Kinship Identities in the Context of UK Maternal Spindle Transfer and Pronuclear Transfer Legislation” by … Read More
October 2, 2017
(The Guardian) – Anthony Levandowski, who is at the center of a legal battle between Uber and Google’s Waymo, has established a nonprofit religious corporation called Way of the Future, according to state filings first uncovered by Wired’s Backchannel. Way … Read More
September 29, 2017
The Journal of Medicine & Philosophy (vol. 42, no. 3, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Bioethics and Transhumanism” by Allen Porter “Personhood and Natural Kinds: Why Cognitive Status Need Not Affect Moral Status” by Joseph Vukov … Read More
September 11, 2017
(BBC) – The rather more futuristic-sounding concept of transhumanism – the idea that every human should have the right to enhance themselves beyond the so-called “norm” through science and technology – was the subject under scrutiny at a debate this … Read More
August 21, 2017
(Quartz) – Marjorie Prime uses emerging technology as a window into our desire to self-select the past. Directed and co-written by Michael Almereyda and based on a play by Jordan Harrison, the movie’s focus is on a timeless question that … Read More
August 16, 2017
Faith and Philosophy (vol. 34, no. 3, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Christian Cyborgs – A Plea For a Moderate Transhumanism” by Benedikt Paul Göcke
August 1, 2017
(The Conversation) – But there is a darker side to the naive faith that Pearce and other proponents have in transhumanism – one that is decidedly dystopian. There is unlikely to be a clear moment when we emerge as transhuman. … Read More
July 24, 2017
(The Verge) – The better wearable devices get, the less sense it makes to permanently modify your body. Things like exoskeletons, smart glasses, and external brain-computer interfaces are safer and much easier to upgrade than their implanted counterparts. Plus, you … Read More
July 6, 2017
(Wired) – But helping to restore a damaged brain is only an entry point for Kernel. Johnson, a 39-year-old from Utah, is looking forward—with almost unseemly enthusiasm—to the day that healthy people can get neural augmentation. He has emerged as … Read More
June 23, 2017
(Deutsche Welle) – But the second, and perhaps more interesting aspect of digitalization, is that we can experiment with our identity, Sjoblad says. He calls himself a “biohacker,” a person who “hacks” biological, organic processes to make them better. According … Read More
June 9, 2017
(Wired) – Life hacks make tedious tasks like slicing avocados or opening jars a bit easier. Such tricks are for amateurs. Hardcore hackers slice open their arms, or hands, or ears to install magnets, RFID tags, and other nifty devices … Read More
May 9, 2017
(Wired) – A next-generation technology, likely to arrive in five to 10 years, is being credited as the saviour of capitalism. Known today as neural prosthetics, or neural lace, it’s essentially tech that reads your brainwaves. This tech promises to … Read More
May 5, 2017
(The Conversation) – Neuralink – which is “developing ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers” – is probably a bad idea. If you understand the science behind it, and that’s what you wanted to hear, you can … Read More
April 19, 2017
(The Guardian) – Many transhumanists such as Kurzweil contend that they are carrying on the legacy of the Enlightenment – that theirs is a philosophy grounded in reason and empiricism, even if they do lapse occasionally into metaphysical language about … Read More
April 4, 2017
(The Conversation) – How closely will we live with the technology we use in the future? How will it change us? And how close is “close”? Ghost in the Shell imagines a futuristic, hi-tech but grimy and ghetto-ridden Japanese metropolis … Read More
March 28, 2017
(STAT News) – Tech billionaire Elon Musk is announcing a new venture called Neuralink focused on linking brains to computers. The company plans to develop brain implants that can treat neural disorders — and that may one day be powerful … Read More
March 7, 2017
(Undark) – What if technology could set us free from our own mortal bodies? If there were a way to expand our mental and physical beings beyond the limitations we were born with? If we could harness science to morph … Read More
March 2, 2017
(NPR) – “Flesh is a dead format,” writes Mark O’Connell in To Be a Machine, his new nonfiction book about the contemporary transhumanist movement. It’s an alarming statement, but don’t kill the messenger: As he’s eager to explain early in … Read More
February 24, 2017
(Australia Broadcasting Co) – Can transhumanists, biohackers and grinders live forever? The answer is maybe soon — at least according to them. Ok. So what’s a transhumanist? Like some scientists, they believe that ageing is a disease, and they are … Read More
