From: Giu1i0 Pri5c0 (g2002@prisco.info)
Date: Sun Nov 17 2002 - 23:06:11 MST
New on Transhumanity (http://transhumanism.com)
TRANSHUMANISTS - CO-CREATORS OF THE UNIVERSE!, by Marc Geddes, November 16, 2002. ...If all physical process can be simulated on a computer, then some scientists ask why it is not valid to simply regard all physical processes as 'information processing'. Philosopher Nick Bostrom has proposed that the known universe is indeed simply a computer simulation set up by some advanced being. [1] (The idea is the central plot of the superb cult movie 'The Matrix'). A more subtle variation of this idea has been developed by philosopher Chris Langan. Langan's 'Cognitive Theoretic-Model of the Universe' (CTMU) proposes that the whole of reality is a 'self-simulation': a Self-Configuring, Self-Processing computer language (SCSPL)...
Change Surfing #2 - Cloning As A Valid Reproductive Choice, by James Hughes, November 16, 2002. This past spring, the Bush administration and pro-life Republicans in the United States Congress killed legislation that would have banned reproductive cloning - cloning to make babies - by insisting that the bills also ban cloning for research purposes. Now the Bush administration, the Vatican and bloc of Catholic countries have killed a treaty at the United Nations to ban reproductive cloning. Again, the Bush and his fundamentalist allies want the treaty to go further to include banning any use of embryo cloning, which the Franco-German U.N. committee will not agree to. Although I don't agree with the Bush and Vatican reasons for opposing the cloning bans, I welcome the fact that they are a roadblock in this silly stampede...
Versus Column #3, by Cyril Fievet, November 16, 2002. Transhumanism vs. Plastic Surgery. A few weeks ago, I read an article about those "strange people who want to be more than human", or at least different. Curiously, the author was dealing with the possible applications of nanotechnology to fight - or reverse - the aging process, with the present cryonics techniques, and with plastic surgery...
[edit]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jan 15 2003 - 17:58:12 MST