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Transhumanism: Carpe Diem or Playing God?

 The Epic of Gilgamesh dates from the 3 rd millennium BCE and is one of the finest surviving epic poems in world literature.

Transhuman?

Julian Huxley 1957  "I believe in transhumanism:...once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.“

Aims of Transhumanism….  Increase in human health span (more than merely life span)  Extension of intellectual and physical capacities  Control of our mental states and moods

Singularity “Singularity... the point at which technological advancement will become so rapid that the possibilities will become endless...”

Singularity The Singularity is the technological creation of smarter-than- human intelligence.

Bioconservatives…  Are opposed to the use of technology to modify human nature  Believe that human enhancement technologies will undermine human dignity (i.e. be dehumanizing)  Argue for public control of such technologies

Two fears…  Posthumans might harm themselves  Posthumans might harm ‘ordinary’ humans

Transhumanism and civil liberties...  Technological self-determination  Reproduction  Cognition  Gender re-assignment  End of life technology

Coming to a college near you... Rutger’s University (New Jersey)  The course requires no science or technology background and is recommended for students with an art, humanities or business focus as well as anyone who anticipates working in a high technology or science-based industry or profession.

The ‘singularity’ is coming… Based on 21 st C advances in  genetics  nanotechnology  robotics (including artificial intelligence) 

Chimera  In Mythology

Who’s afraid of a little chimera?  First Spidey…  Now a little spider-goat…

Parahuman... "human-animal hybrids"  The Young Family  Artist: Patricia PiccininiPatricia Piccinini

 At Stanford University in California, experiments aim to create mice with human brains.

Relationship between eugenics and transhumanism... Perfecting the human race…  Humanity as a work in progress  Enlightenment thinking  Evolution

The Battleground?

 Clones  Designer babies  Spare parts babies  Deaf babies for deaf parents

Ethics and embryology – should deaf parents be allowed to choose a deaf child?  So, riddle me this: a deaf couple want a second child, and because of the woman’s age they’ll probably need to use in- vitro fertilisation techniques. No problem so far … until you find that the parents want to be able to select for a deaf child, and the UK government’s recent embryology bill will not allow them to do so.the parents want to be able to select for a deaf child, and the UK government’s recent embryology bill will not allow them to do so  This is a textbook ethical dilemma, but it’s the sort of thing that advances in reproductive technology and genetic engineering are going to make more commonplace.

Designer Babies... Designer Babies - Comments by Princeton professor Lee Silver  Designer babies CBS  minutes: Gender selection instead of disease eradication?  CSI New York: 

What do you think?  Should we aid in our own evolution?  Should we leave it up to nature?  Who should decide?  Who can decide?

Transhumanists vs. Bioconservatives Carpe Diem or Playing God?

Final Exam: 3 hours  70 Multiple Choice (70 marks)  Short Answer or True False (10 marks)  2 Short Paragraph Answers (20 marks)

Final Exam: what’s included… Everything we’ve done since Feb 3 rd  Lectures 17 to 24  The PowerPoints  The two movies  The readings and notes*

Multiple Choice…  Ionia, the birthplace of Western Philosophy, is in present-day  a) Greece  b) Italy  c) Turkey  d) Cyprus

 Which group is comprised entirely of ancient materialists?  a) Thales, Democritus, Augustine  b) Thales, Socrates, Plato, St. Thomas  c) Thales, Heraclitus, Democritus  d) Thales, Heraclitus, Descartes

 Which of the following suggested that the world consisted of tiny, indestructible elements called atoms?  a) Heraclitus  b) Democritus  c) Plato  d) Aristotle

 “Existence precedes essence,” comes from the pen of  a) Albert Camus  b) Soren Kierkegaard  c) Jean-Paul Sartre  d) Friedrich Nietzsche

 Which pairing makes the most sense?  a) John Locke and Tabula Rasa  b) J.S. Mill and Tabula Rasa  c) John Locke and the indubitable method  d) Rousseau and the indubitable method

 Three ideas which challenge Locke’s theories about memory carrying the ‘self’ are  a) forgetting, false memory syndrome and drunkenness  b) reason, law and false memory  b) identity, knowledge and truth  c) amnesia, love and faith

 Who was “awakened from [his] dogmatic slumber”?  a) Washington Irving  b) Rip Van Winkle  c) Immanuel Kant  d) No one; they’re all still sleeping

Short answers:  Why was Hobbes in trouble with the Catholic Church? True / False:  The tabula rasa is an ancient philosophical tablet from Ionia.

Paragraph Answer: Identify and discuss….  Allegory of the Cave  Blackfoot Origin Myth  Rawls’ Theory of Justice  Protagoras’ Moral Skepticism

 Remember that philosophy hides in plain sight everywhere. But you have to pay attention…

 Thanks for listening…