Un billet de Max More sur le mythe de la stagnation pour les individus avec une durée de vie "étendue". Comme souvent, très intéressant.
"The philosopher Bernard Williams once wrote a piece on “The Tedium of Immortality”. Although I have long thought his view reeked of sour grapes, he expressed similar sentiments to those I’ve heard many times over the years. “The Myth of Stagnation” is my rebuttal to those sentiments."
L'article The Myth of Stagnation sur le blog de Max More.
mercredi 11 novembre 2009
samedi 24 octobre 2009
Technology Review: Une prothèse neurale Wi-Fi
Technology Review, le magazine du MIT, nous fait découvrir une avancée récente concernant les prothèses neurales.
Auparavant, ces dernières devaient passer à travers la peau du crâne afin de faire les signaux, avec les risques d'infection qui vont avec. La prothèse Wi-Fi règle ce problème à coup de laser à faible puissance qui fait passer le signal à une diode implantée sous la peau.
"Scientists at Brown University have developed an entirely implantable version of a neural prosthesis used to translate neural signals from the brain. The ultimate goal is to use this kind of device to allow severely paralyzed people to control a computer or a robot limb with their thoughts. Results from preliminary tests in monkeys of the new version, in which data is transferred via laser through the skin, were presented Sunday at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Chicago."
L'article Neural Prostheses Go Wireless sur Technology Review.
Auparavant, ces dernières devaient passer à travers la peau du crâne afin de faire les signaux, avec les risques d'infection qui vont avec. La prothèse Wi-Fi règle ce problème à coup de laser à faible puissance qui fait passer le signal à une diode implantée sous la peau.
"Scientists at Brown University have developed an entirely implantable version of a neural prosthesis used to translate neural signals from the brain. The ultimate goal is to use this kind of device to allow severely paralyzed people to control a computer or a robot limb with their thoughts. Results from preliminary tests in monkeys of the new version, in which data is transferred via laser through the skin, were presented Sunday at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Chicago."
L'article Neural Prostheses Go Wireless sur Technology Review.
mardi 20 octobre 2009
En français: Aubrey de Grey dit que nous pouvons éviter de vieillir
De la part de Didier Coeurnelle de l'ImmInst :
-------------------------------------------------------
Bonjour,
J'ai le plaisir de vous faire savoir qu'un brillant exposé d'Aubrey de Grey est dorénavant disponible en ligne en version sous-titrée en français. Il s'agit d'une conférence Ted donnée en 2006.
Pour visionner, allez à la page http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html et choisissez "subtitles available in" French (France).
Didier C.
-------------------------------------------------------
Bonjour,
J'ai le plaisir de vous faire savoir qu'un brillant exposé d'Aubrey de Grey est dorénavant disponible en ligne en version sous-titrée en français. Il s'agit d'une conférence Ted donnée en 2006.
Pour visionner, allez à la page http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html et choisissez "subtitles available in" French (France).
Didier C.
vendredi 16 octobre 2009
Slate - Nanotechnologies et paranoïa
Un article de Slate.fr qui, présentant les courants en présence dans le débat sur les nanotechs, nous fait un inventaire un peu simple mais qui peut s'appliquer au champ technologique en général.
"Prévu dans le cadre du Grenelle de l'Environnement, le débat public sur les nanotechnologies (Débat public sur les options générales en matière de développement et de régulation des nanotechnologies) démarre le 15 octobre à Strasbourg. Dix-sept conférences seront organisées en France jusqu'au 24 février 2010. Un site Internet permettra à chacun de s'exprimer et de recueillir des informations tout au long du processus."
L'article Nanotechnologies et paranoïa sur Slate.fr
"Prévu dans le cadre du Grenelle de l'Environnement, le débat public sur les nanotechnologies (Débat public sur les options générales en matière de développement et de régulation des nanotechnologies) démarre le 15 octobre à Strasbourg. Dix-sept conférences seront organisées en France jusqu'au 24 février 2010. Un site Internet permettra à chacun de s'exprimer et de recueillir des informations tout au long du processus."
L'article Nanotechnologies et paranoïa sur Slate.fr
vendredi 2 octobre 2009
L'Innovation dans le domaine medical ameliore l'esperance de vie sans couter plus cher
Voici un article qui, bien que Americano-centré, s'applique également aux sociétés européennes.
[ieet] Bailey: Medical innovation boosts life expectancy, but
doesn't cost more
A new report finds that medical innovation boosts life expectancy, but doesn't cost more
"About half of all growth in health care spending in the past several decades was associated with changes in medical care made possible by advances in technology," declared a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report last year. "Health care economists attribute about 50 percent of the annual increase of health costs to new technologies or to the intensified use of old ones," writes bioethicist Daniel Callahan in his new book, Taming the Beloved Beast: How Medical Technology Costs Are Destroying Our Health Care System. Conventional wisdom holds that the nation is facing a massive health care bill thanks to our use (and potential overuse) of pricey new treatments and technology.
L'article Medical innovation boosts life expectancy, but
doesn't cost more publié par"Reason Magazine"
[ieet] Bailey: Medical innovation boosts life expectancy, but
doesn't cost more
A new report finds that medical innovation boosts life expectancy, but doesn't cost more
"About half of all growth in health care spending in the past several decades was associated with changes in medical care made possible by advances in technology," declared
L'article Medical innovation boosts life expectancy, but
doesn't cost more publié par"Reason Magazine"
FP: H+ & Longevity - Ankara, Turkey - Aug 2-6, 2010
Re: Call for papers. "The promise of biological enhancement and longevity in popular culture". ISSEI Conference, Ankara, August 2010.
Dear Colleague,
We have the pleasure of informing you about the forthcoming 12th International conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI). It will be held in cooperation with Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey, August 2 - 6, 2010. The theme of the conference is: Thought in Science and Fiction
A special conference workshop will be dedicated to H+-related issues and is entitled
"The promise of biological enhancement and longevity in popular culture"
(Categories I. History, Geography, Science and V. Language, Philosophy, Anthropology, Psychology, Religion, in the list of conference workshops)
http://issei2010.haifa.ac.il/
The promise of biological enhancement and longevity has been a main-stay topic in popular culture since the beginning of modernity to the present, in science fiction, popular science, in widely disseminated ethical and ideological manifestos, as the dystopian and utopian visions vied for public acceptance. The popular expectations derived from and extrapolated on contemporary scientific and technological advances, and conversely, the popularly anticipated promise and peril of "life-enhancing" and "life-extending" technologies affected the support of particular branches of research. Moreover, in different national contexts, different ideological schemes - secular humanism or religion, discrimination or egalitarianism, idealism or materialism, socialism or capitalism, liberalism or totalitarianism - yielded different justifications for the necessity of life enhancement and longevity research and impacted profoundly on the way such goals were conceived and pursued.
Speakers are invited to present on the diverse representations of the promise of life-enhancement and life-extension in an historical and contemporary perspective, pointing to the profound mutual impact between the scientific and broader popular cultural domains.
Papers to be presented should not exceed 3000 words, or ten double-spaced pages, including Notes. The length of time for presentation of papers is approximately 15 minutes. (Notes need not be included in the presented papers, but should be presented for the final selection of papers for the Proceedings).
Please e-mail abstracts (preferably before January 15, 2010) to the panel chair
Ilia Stambler
Department of Science, Technology and Society
Bar-Ilan University,
Ramat Gan
Israel
e-mail: ilia.stambler@...
Dear Colleague,
We have the pleasure of informing you about the forthcoming 12th International conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI). It will be held in cooperation with Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey, August 2 - 6, 2010. The theme of the conference is: Thought in Science and Fiction
A special conference workshop will be dedicated to H+-related issues and is entitled
"The promise of biological enhancement and longevity in popular culture"
(Categories I. History, Geography, Science and V. Language, Philosophy, Anthropology, Psychology, Religion, in the list of conference workshops)
http://issei2010.haifa.ac.il/
The promise of biological enhancement and longevity has been a main-stay topic in popular culture since the beginning of modernity to the present, in science fiction, popular science, in widely disseminated ethical and ideological manifestos, as the dystopian and utopian visions vied for public acceptance. The popular expectations derived from and extrapolated on contemporary scientific and technological advances, and conversely, the popularly anticipated promise and peril of "life-enhancing" and "life-extending" technologies affected the support of particular branches of research. Moreover, in different national contexts, different ideological schemes - secular humanism or religion, discrimination or egalitarianism, idealism or materialism, socialism or capitalism, liberalism or totalitarianism - yielded different justifications for the necessity of life enhancement and longevity research and impacted profoundly on the way such goals were conceived and pursued.
Speakers are invited to present on the diverse representations of the promise of life-enhancement and life-extension in an historical and contemporary perspective, pointing to the profound mutual impact between the scientific and broader popular cultural domains.
Papers to be presented should not exceed 3000 words, or ten double-spaced pages, including Notes. The length of time for presentation of papers is approximately 15 minutes. (Notes need not be included in the presented papers, but should be presented for the final selection of papers for the Proceedings).
Please e-mail abstracts (preferably before January 15, 2010) to the panel chair
Ilia Stambler
Department of Science, Technology and Society
Bar-Ilan University,
Ramat Gan
Israel
e-mail: ilia.stambler@...
Transhumanist European Front
Since the cat is out of the bag by now, I am pleased to announce "officially" a new international transhumanist Web site, established by Riccardo Campa and myself at http://www.transhumanismus.eu.
The site is still at a very primordial stage, and its future development will depend to a large extent to the data and materials that the selected local orgs may care to submit.
Please note that as a purely personal initiative the same does not involve any responsibility from the side of the Associazione Italiana Transumanisti, nor of course of any other association already or in the future mentioned therein.
This is the statement of its mission:
<
Accordingly, we have no plan to replace them, but rather to support, promote and integrate their activities. Nor for that matter is it our intention to try and compete with Humanity Plus, formerly the World Transhumanist Association, of which many of the groups mentioned herein are local chapters.
Yet, the name of this initiative is eloquent as to the very explicite stances which have commanded its establishment.
*EUROPEAN*: In spite of a wide use of a "global" or "globalist" vocabulary, or perhaps because of it, transhumanism is still too often perceived as a niche, peculiar US phenomenon, and this impression is reinforced by the over-representation of American initiatives, mentality, events, political and cultural debates, points of views, authors, concerns in its international fora and press. While the "hub" role that the United States - or, for that matter, California - may have historically played in the establishment of contemporary, organised transhumanism cannot be denied, this fact obviously does not make for an easier penetration and adoption of our ideas in other parts of the world, let alone where globalism is more likely to be perceived as an entropic loss of diversity, identity and popular sovereignty. Additionally, Europe in particular has expressed along the years a vibrant thread of cultural movements and trends and writers deserving attention and recognition as obvious precursors of transhumanism, or as open transhumanists themselves, irrespective of the adoption of the T word itself. This makes for a richness and for a difference in flavours which should not be underestimated and/or neglected, and for an important opportunity for cross-pollination amongst different European Transhumanist cultural environments.
*TRANSHUMANIST*: In order for the best, most balanced and reasonable policies to be adopted at national, continental and international levels, we believe that the case should be bluntly and unabashedly presented for technology, scientific freedom, biological self-determination, grand civilisational projects, fundamental research and generous financing thereof, directed evolution and eugenics, up to and beyond a posthuman change in plural directions. Exactly as the opposite is done by the
adversaries of all that. Even without resorting to Nietzsche, Foucault, Heidegger and Lyotard (or, more recently, Roberto Marchesini or Peter Sloterdijk or R?mi Sussan), we contend that simply on the basis of contemporary scientific worldviews "humanity" may well be considered an important evolutionary step, but not something which should emotionally be more important to us than, say, "simianity" or "mammalism". Moreover, we deem it unlikely that an attempt to think a posthuman-ist future can spare the effort of developing a post-humanist vision - whatever positive values humanism may have had in its time having being encompassed, as the WTA Transhumanist Declaration used to say in its point five,... by transhumanism itself. Thus, we do not cater to the idea that transhumanism's first concern should be that of appeasing the fears of neoluddites, comply with western political correctness, or struggle for a "respectability" that would only be the mark of irrelevance. "Compromises", "tradeoffs" and "doublespeak" are the tools-in-trade of governments, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats, entrepreneurs. Not of lobbies, visionaries, think tanks or grass-roots movements.
*FRONT*: We chose to adopt this provocative word with its political and military undertones to express the idea that transhumanism in our view is emphatically NOT a cheerleading ring for technological developments bound to take place automagically no-matter-what, a fandom, or a tea-club for some Gedankenexperimente on a Rapture-(or Possible-Doom-Unless-X)-to-Come. We see transhumanism as a metapolitical, social and cultural struggle, aimed at a revolutionary change of our way of life on the scale of the neolithic revolution, and in the shorter term fighting for self-determination and
access to technology, against prohibitionist policies at a national as well as at an international level. Whatever changes may be prophesised or hoped for, for the near or the remote future, we maintain that it will only take place if somebody will make them happen. Indulging in the investment of too many energies in discussing how to steer in the most responsible and consensual fashion eschatological transformations taken for granted, when everything in our reality indicates a spotty scenario at best, and stagnation or relinquishment at worse, does not bode well for transhumanism's credibility and seriousness. In conclusion, transhumanism has an interest for us only inasmuch as it is a movement with an agenda, competing for mindshare with other similar movements; and as it has supporters willing to accord priority to the achievement of its short- and mid-term goals over old ideological splits.>>
--
Stefano Vaj
The site is still at a very primordial stage, and its future development will depend to a large extent to the data and materials that the selected local orgs may care to submit.
Please note that as a purely personal initiative the same does not involve any responsibility from the side of the Associazione Italiana Transumanisti, nor of course of any other association already or in the future mentioned therein.
This is the statement of its mission:
<
Accordingly, we have no plan to replace them, but rather to support, promote and integrate their activities. Nor for that matter is it our intention to try and compete with Humanity Plus, formerly the World Transhumanist Association, of which many of the groups mentioned herein are local chapters.
Yet, the name of this initiative is eloquent as to the very explicite stances which have commanded its establishment.
*EUROPEAN*: In spite of a wide use of a "global" or "globalist" vocabulary, or perhaps because of it, transhumanism is still too often perceived as a niche, peculiar US phenomenon, and this impression is reinforced by the over-representation of American initiatives, mentality, events, political and cultural debates, points of views, authors, concerns in its international fora and press. While the "hub" role that the United States - or, for that matter, California - may have historically played in the establishment of contemporary, organised transhumanism cannot be denied, this fact obviously does not make for an easier penetration and adoption of our ideas in other parts of the world, let alone where globalism is more likely to be perceived as an entropic loss of diversity, identity and popular sovereignty. Additionally, Europe in particular has expressed along the years a vibrant thread of cultural movements and trends and writers deserving attention and recognition as obvious precursors of transhumanism, or as open transhumanists themselves, irrespective of the adoption of the T word itself. This makes for a richness and for a difference in flavours which should not be underestimated and/or neglected, and for an important opportunity for cross-pollination amongst different European Transhumanist cultural environments.
*TRANSHUMANIST*: In order for the best, most balanced and reasonable policies to be adopted at national, continental and international levels, we believe that the case should be bluntly and unabashedly presented for technology, scientific freedom, biological self-determination, grand civilisational projects, fundamental research and generous financing thereof, directed evolution and eugenics, up to and beyond a posthuman change in plural directions. Exactly as the opposite is done by the
adversaries of all that. Even without resorting to Nietzsche, Foucault, Heidegger and Lyotard (or, more recently, Roberto Marchesini or Peter Sloterdijk or R?mi Sussan), we contend that simply on the basis of contemporary scientific worldviews "humanity" may well be considered an important evolutionary step, but not something which should emotionally be more important to us than, say, "simianity" or "mammalism". Moreover, we deem it unlikely that an attempt to think a posthuman-ist future can spare the effort of developing a post-humanist vision - whatever positive values humanism may have had in its time having being encompassed, as the WTA Transhumanist Declaration used to say in its point five,... by transhumanism itself. Thus, we do not cater to the idea that transhumanism's first concern should be that of appeasing the fears of neoluddites, comply with western political correctness, or struggle for a "respectability" that would only be the mark of irrelevance. "Compromises", "tradeoffs" and "doublespeak" are the tools-in-trade of governments, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats, entrepreneurs. Not of lobbies, visionaries, think tanks or grass-roots movements.
*FRONT*: We chose to adopt this provocative word with its political and military undertones to express the idea that transhumanism in our view is emphatically NOT a cheerleading ring for technological developments bound to take place automagically no-matter-what, a fandom, or a tea-club for some Gedankenexperimente on a Rapture-(or Possible-Doom-Unless-X)-to-Come. We see transhumanism as a metapolitical, social and cultural struggle, aimed at a revolutionary change of our way of life on the scale of the neolithic revolution, and in the shorter term fighting for self-determination and
access to technology, against prohibitionist policies at a national as well as at an international level. Whatever changes may be prophesised or hoped for, for the near or the remote future, we maintain that it will only take place if somebody will make them happen. Indulging in the investment of too many energies in discussing how to steer in the most responsible and consensual fashion eschatological transformations taken for granted, when everything in our reality indicates a spotty scenario at best, and stagnation or relinquishment at worse, does not bode well for transhumanism's credibility and seriousness. In conclusion, transhumanism has an interest for us only inasmuch as it is a movement with an agenda, competing for mindshare with other similar movements; and as it has supporters willing to accord priority to the achievement of its short- and mid-term goals over old ideological splits.>>
--
Stefano Vaj
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