March 29, 2018
(The Conversation) – The central premise of transhumanism, then, is that biological evolution will eventually be overtaken by advances in genetic, wearable and implantable technologies that artificially expedite the evolutionary process. This was the kernel of More’s founding definition in … Read More
March 13, 2018
(MIT Technology Review) – This story has a grisly twist, though. For Nectome’s procedure to work, it’s essential that the brain be fresh. The company says its plan is to connect people with terminal illnesses to a heart-lung machine in … Read More
March 6, 2018
(BBC) – At a trendy east London bar, a group of body hackers are putting forward their reasons for human augmentation to a packed audience of mainly under-35s, many of whom are sporting piercings and tattoos. Putting a chip under … Read More
February 20, 2018
(The Atlantic) – Ascendance Bio soon fell apart in almost comical fashion. The company’s own biohackers—who created the treatment but who were not being paid—revolted and the CEO locked himself in a lab. Even before all that, the company had … Read More
February 15, 2018
(The Guardian) – A body-hacking scientist has said he plans to launch legal action against the New South Wales government after it cancelled a travel card he had surgically implanted in his hand. Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow – his legal … Read More
January 17, 2018
(Vice News) – The question of consciousness is at the heart of what he does just as it is at the heart of much science fiction. From the replicants of Blade Runner to the digital clones of Black Mirror, we … Read More
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
