Transhumanism has a lot of opponents. Some people think we’re insane Robot Cultists drooling as we watch science-fiction movies and cowering in fear every time some aspect of our frail biology rears its head. Others think we’re immoral or philosophically confused or a hoard of imbeciles and will not deign to argue with us. Then [...]
There have been a lot more dust-ups than usual among the transhumanists and that is an exciting thing for me. J. Hughes’ series and my AI post (btw Hughes just delivered a hay-maker) have drawn heavy fire. A few of the comments have often wondered why I and others get snarky, acerbic, and [...]
Dr. Hughes is back with a new post in his “Problems of Transhumanism” series. The debates that have come out of these postings, both in the comments and in the larger intellectual sphere, make them some of the most productive transhumanist writing this year. Check out his newest “Moral Universalism vs Relativism.” Money quote:
[...]
Hughes demolishes Singulitarians who want a friendly AI dictatorship:
Perhaps I’m dating myself by hearing Marxist-Leninist warning sirens go off when I read the Singularitarian assertions that the benevolent omnipotent AI would be democratic if democracy was what was in our interests. Anyway, those sirens do go off for me.
The claim is that [...]
J. Hughes has another one of his excellent posts up from his “Problems of Transhumanism” series. As usual he does a great job giving the discussion context and summarizing the variety of the Enlightenment mind:
In fact, Enlightenment philosophers were intensely conflicted about the virtues of powerful monarchies and technocratic elites versus popular democracy. [...]
James Hughes has another great post up from his “Problems with Transhumanism” series. This time he’s tackling atheism and natural theology. The results from their survey of transhumanist beliefs didn’t exactly surprise me, but it was startling to see the results all the same:
Self-identified transhumanists today are mostly secular and atheist. In a [...]
Ron Bailey, whose book Liberation Biology I cannot recommend enough, points out just how bioconservative a lot of “liberals” and “progressives” really are:
But a quick reading of the book suggests that the divide between some bioethical progressives and conservatives isn’t particularly wide. With the notable exception of the abortion issue, the above list [...]
About
Pop Bioethics, written by Kyle Munkittrick, is an effort to study the ethics of the continuing evolution of the human species via the lens of pop culture and be somewhat entertaining in the process.
Kyle's writing can also be found at Discover's The Crux, Slate's Future Tense, and at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. For questions or comments: comments [at] popbioethics [dot] com
All opinions, ideas, and words either explicit or implicit found within this website are my own and represent no other person, organization, or group.Categories

