From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Nov 26 2002 - 06:48:21 MST
On Sun, Nov 24, 2002 at 11:14:45AM -0800, Ramez Naam wrote:
>
> I'm also currently working on a book with the working title "More Than
> Human: Technology and the Future of Mankind". The thesis of the book
> is that it is a fundamental part of human nature to seek to improve
> ourselves and our offspring, and as such, we should welcome
> technologies such as intelligence augmentation, lifespan extension,
> stem cells, cloning, genetic engineering, and brain computer
> interfaces, as they provide very promising paths to the self- and
> offspring- improvement that we seek.
This is promising. I made roughly the same point in my talk at the
Danish ethical council last week. I outlined my concept of what it
means to be a human, and showed that it meshes fine with self-enhancing
technology, unlike the static concept of human nature of Fukuyama.
> The book is aimed at a lay
> audience and covers both the technologies I just mentioned and the
> common sense ethical arguments for embracing them (with all due regard
> to issues of safety). I hope to have the book completed by spring in
> time for Fall publication, though my friends who are published authors
> inform me that this is quite an ambitious timeline. If you're
> seriously interested in reviewing and offering feedback on parts of
> the book during the writing process, let me know and I'll add you to
> my review loop.
I think we might all benefit from throwing ideas at each other and the
list on these subjects. I feel that right now this list need more
discussions that tie together the here-and-now, the cool-and-remote
tech and the high philosophy. Maybe you should from time to time post a
synopsis of a chapter with its arguments, and see what could be
improved?
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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