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Humanity+ UK2010
How will accelerating technological change affect human mental and physical capabilities as well as the environment in which we live?
Humanity+ UK2010, a one-day conference in London on 24 April 2010, gathers together some of the leading thinkers to discuss these and many other topics. Panel talks are at the end.
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Humanity+ UK2011
The Humanity+ UK 2011 conference is an opportunity to meet some of the most interesting futurist thinkers in the UK - to listen to their ideas, hear about the progress of their projects, ask them questions, and debate with them.
The principal theme of the conference is "Making a human difference".
The speakers will be as follows (listed in alphabetical order by first name):
*) Ajit Jaokar -- Meditation as a transhumanist technology;
*) Dr Amnon Eden -- Scientific notions of Technological Singularity;
*) Dr Anders Sandberg -- The future of ideas on machine intelligence;
*) Anna Salamon - Survival in the margins of the singularity?
*) Dr Aubrey de Grey -- Approaching the human longevity escape velocity;
*) David Pearce -- What is empathetic superintelligence?;
*) David Wood -- Five key questions for futurists;
*) Dean Bubley -- Session chairman;
*) Professor Kevin Warwick -- Human Enhancement: A Practical Guide;
*) Luke Robert Mason -- Traversing the Transhuman: Bridging the Gap Between Biology and Technology Through Art;
*) Dr Marios Kyriazis -- Achieving human biological immortality;
*) Michael A. Woodley -- How clever-sillies might thwart the singularity;
*) Pieter Bonte -- Estranging ourselves from nature: from existential principle to transhuman practice;
*) Rachel Armstrong -- Living megacities: the forthcoming habitat of synthetic biologies;
*) Richard Osborne -- The next steps to the solar system;
*) Tom Michael -- Evidence based cognitive enhancement: a neuropsychological perspective.
See http://humanityplus.org.uk/spe<wbr>akers/ for more details.
The agenda for the day is at http://humanityplus.org.uk/age<wbr>nda/
To cover the costs of hiring the main rooms in Conway Hall for an entire day, there will be a small entry fee for attendees. This is described at the page http://humanityplus.org.uk/reg<wbr>istration/ -- which links in turn to an EventBrite page. (Sorry, an RSVP on this Facebook page is, by itself, NOT sufficient to gain entry to this event.)
Examples of the kinds of questions that will be explored during the day:
1) Setting aside hype, what are the realistic scenarios for progress with emerging technologies that have the potential to make us all smarter, stronger, healthier, longer-lived, kinder, more fulfilled, and more sociable?
2) What are the most serious risks ("existential risks") facing humanity over the next few decades, and what is the role of technology in addressing these risks?
3) What are the implications of rapidly changing technology for what it means to be human?
4) What are the pros and cons of aspiring to a "Humanity+" phase of evolution, with powers and experiences as far above those of present humans as human experience exceeds that of pre-human apes?
5) If people want to become involved in activism supporting Humanity+, what are the best steps they can take?
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Towards the Abolition of Suffering - David Pearce [UKH+]
Reflections on the Abolitionist Project
The Transhumanist Declaration advocates "the well-being of all sentience, including humans, non-human animals, and any future artificial intellects, modified life forms, or other intelligences to which technological and scientific advance may give rise."
Yet is "the well-being of all sentience" serious science - or just utopian dreaming? What does such a commitment entail? On what kind of realistic timeframe might we command enough computational power to police an entire ecosystem?
In this talk, the speaker wants to review recent progress in understanding the neurobiology of pleasure, pain and our core emotions. Can mastery of our reward circuity ever deliver socially responsible, intelligent bliss rather than crude wireheading? He also wants to examine and respond to criticisms of the abolitionist project that have been levelled over the past decade - and set out the biggest challenges, as he sees them, to the prospect of a totally cruelty-free world.
Link to the transhumanist declaration (2009 version): http://humanityplus.org/learn/<wbr>transhumanist-declaration/
** About the speaker
David Pearce is an independent researcher and vegan animal activist based in Brighton UK.
In 1995, he wrote an online manifesto, The Hedonistic Imperative, advocating the use of biotechnology to abolish suffering throughout the living world. David predicts that our descendants will be animated by gradients of cerebral bliss orders of magnitude richer than anything accessible today.
David has also written on the philosophy of mind and perception; utilitarian ethics; psychopharmacology; life extension; cognitive enhancement technologies; mood enrichment; genetic recalibration of the hedonic treadmill; ecosystem redesign; reprogramming predators; and -- more speculatively -- on a posthuman future based on "paradise engineering".
In 1998, David and Nick Bostrom set up the World Transhumanist Association (now rebranded as Humanity +). Transhumanists promote the responsible use of advanced technology to overcome our biological limitations.
For more details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D<wbr>avid_Pearce_%28philosopher%29
This lecture was recorded on 16th of October 2010 at the UKH+ meeting. For information on further meetings please see:
http://extrobritannia.blogspot<wbr>.com/
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SENS4 - Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering
A series of talks on stem cells and tissue engineering.
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