Envisioning Transhumanism, San Diego
March 25th, 2012
Call for Presentations
Abstracts due March 15th
With speakers from abroad and within San Diego, we will discuss the promise and consequences of technologies which will augment and radically transform our minds, bodies, and cultures. These technologies range from visor cellphones, through more intimate cyborg interfaces, across biotech, and to in-silico life. Many see these transformations as inevitable outcomes of accelerating technological development and global market conditions. This conference aims to go deeper than the shiny veneer of hype, to investigate the scientific states-of-art, ethical and existential ramifications, and socio-economic consequences of human enhancement technologies. We are interested in both local short-term effects and broad, longer term questions.
We have four speaker slots left, and our editors welcome all relevant submissions. If in doubt, submit. We are, however, especially interested in presentations on the following topics:
--Economics of human-enhancement: E.g. How will increases in productivity, new artificial variation in intelligence, new management techniques, the widespread use of avatars, and the distribution of enhancement technologies affect current and future financial markets and conditions?
--Bio-conservative arguments: E.g. What are the strongest arguments against human augmentation? Are there practical programs to prevent it? Are there risks overlooked?
--Guidance and activism: E.g. To what degree do the market forces driving transhumanism diverge from the ends we ought to desire? What are the transhuman goals? How can we guide these transformations to optimize well being and freedom?
--The near and current cyborg world: E.g. How effective is life-logging? How good are the best happiness, intelligence and fitness improvement apps? What is the current state and prospects for physical and mental health enhancement technologies? What are the short term prospects for developing human potential and improving quality of life in San Diego for all groups, especially the worst-off?
--New technologies: E.g. What's next? What will be the order of development of human enhancement technologies, for much depends on this? What are the technical limits of augmentation? What are the limits and prospects for cognitive, emotive, and empathetic augmentation?
--Ethics and safety of particular technologies: E.g. What kinds of privacy rules should govern cellphone visors, can there be limits preventing users from transforming the appearance of others, how are children to be safely hybridized with cyborg technologies, what risks or better forms of life arise if individuality blurs when populations of cyborgs interconnect?
--Aging as pathology: E.g. To what degree is it appropriate to treat aging as a single pathology, what are the prospects for life-extension, the costs, the availability, the prospects of gene-therapy and pre-natal interventions?
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We want talks to be detailed, but not so technical as to alienate university educated participants. Talks are 25-40 minutes, and followed by roughly 15 minutes of commenting, and then audience questions. Commenting is a tradition at Philosophy conferences. Commenters are experts who politely ramify or challenge theses in the presentation. Commenters, as is the tradition, will send an outline of their remarks to the speaker before the conference, and in many cases contact the speaker.
Submissions should include:
--Title
--Abstract
--CV or description of relevant background
--Let us know if the talk has been presented elsewhere.
Send to: submissions@sandiegotranshumanists.org
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John Jacobson
PhD Candidate in Philosophy at UCSD and Research Collaborator at CNL, Salk Institute
Jamie Dunbaugh
Co-organizer and founder of San Diego Transhumanists
LongeCityAdvocacy & Research for Unlimited Lifespans
