[snaps fingers]

Can't believe this near-miss: I mentioned in my talk that i've seen in the New York Times (among many other places) how transhumanist ideas are getting an increasingly serious hearing. Well, on the chore-packed day of my talk, i only gave the paper a quick scan. But it turns out that on that very day, the science column featured on the Op Ed page was titled Computers vs. Brains, and starts this way:
"Inventor Ray Kurzweil, in his 2005 futurist manifesto “The Singularity Is Near,” extrapolates current trends in computer technology to conclude that machines will be able to out-think people within a few decades." They go on to be skeptical (part valid, and part silly: "we can already create a human-level computer by having a child" -- huh?). But they're positive about aspects of brain<->computer research. And the bigger point is that the ideas are filtering out, getting respect, being debated, changing the culture. I could multiply examples endlessly, but this one was too made-to-order to pass up.

Meeting on Transhumanism 3/31

The action-packed, visual-aid-studded lecture will not assume any
background, so feel free to come as you are. But if you want a head
start, check these out:
First: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
Then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Below are in-depth resources for those who are not doing anything for
break, are dying of curiosity, or for follow-up after the meeting:

Transhumanism (h+) in academic philosophy:
Here's an online journal that includes phil along with other areas:
http://jetpress.org/
This is the only online phil dissertation i know of that's directly
about h+ -- specifically personal identity, which i hope to deal with
in my talk. (Had a chance to chat with the author at a conference,
btw.):
http://www.maxmore.com/disscont.htm
Now some (openly) h+ philosophers:
http://www.nickbostrom.com/
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/bio/blackford/
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/bio/walker/
And for an mp3 of an interview with another (about his h+ phil book),
you can listen to this:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/2878/

Next, bioethics, which i separate out because i put out the word to
those folks:
One good overall beginning is this:
http://bioethics.com/?cat=21
And here's an interesting chart of positions:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/biopolitics
Finally, a notable h+ academic who i guess is more bioethics than phil:
http://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/npublicationslisted.htm
, and who just happens to be the latest guest on Philosophy Bites:
http://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/philosophy_bites/2009/03/julian-savulescu-on-the-yuk-factor.html

Penultimately, just for thoroughness, here are general h+ resources:
The biggest umbrella group is moving to a new name/identity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanity%2B
But the old version has tons of resourses. At (rapidly) increasing length:
A short, close-as-it-comes-to-canonical self-definition:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/declaration/
A widely respected explanation that covers some bigger-picture issues
i'll deal with:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/more/transhumanist-values/
And a massive(ly informative) and pretty canonical FAQ:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/faq/
Here's a "technoprogressive" (not h+, they insist ;^) organization that
i (also) endorse. (Hey, it's my talk; and i'm going to make clear which
strands of h+ i agree with and which i think are nutty):
http://ieet.org/
Finally, i have to toss out this aging but very interesting collection:
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/

And finally-finally (finally!): i'm going to hand out an outline at the
meeting, which will incl schools of thought and organizations for
searching/WPing. But if folks want, i can post it all linkified for
your convenience.

Relevant Primary Source stuff

Part 5 of Beyond Good and Evil, A Natural History of Morals can be found online at: http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/Nietzsche/beyondgoodandevil5.htm
I'll be going over it before the meeting and I encourage anyone else who's interested in learning about the topic from the man himself to do the same.

Possible Topics

Possible topics with links to the corresponding articles in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

1. Aristotle-Ethics
2. Authority
3. Compatibilism
4. Virtue Ethics
5. Distributive Justice
6. Moral Realism and Moral Anti-Realism
7. Paternalism
8. Pragmatism
9. Realism
10. Richard Rorty
11. Scientific Realism
12. Moral Skepticism
13. Naturalistic Social Construction
14. Stoicism
15. Toleration
16. Incommensurable Value
17. Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Value
18. Value Pluralism
19. Democracy
20. Egalitarianism
21. Equality
22. Contractarianism
23. Moral Reasoning
24. Political Representation
25. Skepticism
26. Truth
27. Freewill
28. Moral Perfectionism
29. Scientific Explanation
30. Knowledge Analysis
31. Nietzsche - Moral and Political
32. Habermas
33. Nominalism
34. Personal Identity
35. Plato - Ethics and Politics

Meeting Topic Brainstorm

Leave a comment with suggestions for possible topics. Feel free to indicate areas of special interest or expertise or resources you think would be especially helpful in facilitating discussion on a certain topic. I will compile the topics into a master list, and then we can vote to determine actual topics.

Meeting on 1/27: Human Nature

Alyosha has volunteered to present on and facilitate a discussion about
human nature, as it relates to his future topic of Transhumanism. Quoth alyosha:

"Since HN has long been and often remains misunderstood and out of
fashion within academe (esp humanities/leftie types), i'll focus on
defending a contemporary evolutionary psychological version.

If you want to prep before we meet, i'm coming from somewhere generally
along the lines of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blank_Slate
http://www.amazon.com/Blank-Slate-Modern-Denial-Nature/dp/0142003344
This work is esp good because he deals with recent academic/leftie
rejections of HN; tho oc i don't agree with him on everything.

And because critiques of HN (or outdated versions of HN being
critiqued) tend to be biologically oversimplified, it's worth glancing
at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norms_of_reaction
Likewise, since i'm mostly going to try to argue for the legitimacy and
truth of a broad idea of HN, it might be stimulating to glance down
this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_universals
I'm not attached to this list, but it might serve to get the wheels
turning re the general point that humans occupy a small subset of the
space of possible "species natures" (term not used in the marxian
sense, btw).

If you want to read more (tho don't feel at all obliged), you might
start with:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evolutionary-psychology/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sociobiology/

Ok!; sharpen your knives, and i'll see you there!"