Transhumanism: The Most Dangerous Idea? "What ideas, if embraced, would pose the greatest threat to the welfare of humanity?" That question was posed to eight prominent policy intellectuals by the editors of Foreign Policy in its September/October issue (not yet available online). One of the eight savants consulted was Francis Fukuyama, professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, author of Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution, and a member of the President's Council on Bioethics. His choice for the world's most dangerous idea? Transhumanism. In his Foreign Policy article, Fukuyama identifies transhumanism as "a strange liberation movement" that wants "nothing less than to liberate the human race from its biological constraints." Human liberation from our biological constraints began when an ancestor first sharpened a stick and used it to kill an animal for food. What is a human capacity anyway? Our ancestors had no wings; now we fly.
Lust for life: Breaking the 120-year barrier in human aging I hate this mentality. The truth is, as long as we're tied to this rock of a planet, we only harm future generations by extending out longevity. If we could migrate to other planets? Sure, I'm all for it. On a personal level, I understand the fear of a final concept like death, especially when you have a decline in religious beliefs (I myself subscribe to none), but I'd argue that at least for those who do, perhaps they have a greater peace of mind with regard to death. I don't think it's in our best interest to eliminate disease.
Amazing macro-photography of individual snowflakes [10 Pictures] Photographer Alexey Kljatov takes incredible close-up photos of snowflakes in his backyard in Moscow. "I capture snowflakes on the open balcony of my house, mostly on glass surface, lighted by an LED flashlight from the opposite side of the glass, and sometimes in natural light, using dark woolen fabrics as background." Source:
9 Overlooked Technologies That Could Transform The World What I've noticed is that most people don't really pay attention to "science" news, unless it's something that they can see immediately. I think this is at least partially because of the amount of news that comes out daily - whatever we may think about the quality of news, there is just a flood of it, which makes picking out "interesting" items difficult. When I talk about (just for example) the idea of gene therapy, most people think that it is still complete science fiction, as opposed to a very near-term product that will be available. Of course, CSP has been around for years, so it isn't really "new" to the average person. What they don't realize is the way that efficiencies have improved... Finally, of course, for a majority of people, the only science fiction they think of it Star Wars/Trek, or (advanced!) If you are on friendly terms with a non-technical coworker, ask them about any of the subjects mentioned here, you will be surprised at their response.
British Astronomers to Join Search for Intelligent Alien Life If you're terrible with math I suggest you fix that for the following reasons: A) As an engineer, I need to do mathematics to improve on existent, and create new awesomeness. B) A scientist needs mathematics to discover more awesomeness about the universe (universe in the sense of everything in it, not just in the cosmological sense). C) The truth is mathematics doesn't care about being useful, it just wants to be awesome and the fact it works so well attests to it's being so. D) And if you really want to know why it's so awesome, you're going to have to learn mathematics. Where should I start you might ask. I'm sorry, you misunderstood. I think the Brits want ET to stop drawing graffiti in their crops.
Keeping It Up: The Science of Erections So, for the better part of the past forty years, doctors (men, I assume) have been working to understand erections, and how to treat the lack of such: meanwhile, we're no closer to curing cancer. I'm a guy, and even I think this is ridiculous. Many of the comments to my post site "quality of life," but when only 4% of men in their 50's, and 17% of men in their 60's; it's not like there's an ED Pandemic! And yes, not every scientist is out there concentrating on erections and ED; but how is our knowledge on the vagina and clitoris? I bet it's pretty sparse when compared to penis knowledge. And, what's more, the (largely male) scientific community was pretty much totally clueless about the clitoris until around 2009! Bakana, meet DanceoftheDreamMan. Yeah, why aren't more urologists practicing oncology?! In fact, I wish they would stop trying to practice oncology.And I refuse to feed the troll that started this thread. Medical science doesn't work like that.
Bostrom Responds to Fukuyama’s Assertion that Transhumanism is World’s Most Dangerous Idea Nick Bostrom (Sept 10, 2004) “What idea, if embraced, would pose the greatest threat to the welfare of humanity?” This was the question posed by the editors of Foreign Policy in the September/October issue to eight prominent policy intellectuals, among them Francis Fukuyama, professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. And Fukuyama’s answer? More accurately, transhumanists advocate increased funding for research to radically extend healthy lifespan and favor the development of medical and technological means to improve memory, concentration, and other human capacities. According to transhumanists, however, the choice whether to avail oneself of such enhancement options should generally reside with the individual. So why does Fukuyama nominate this transhumanist ideal, of working towards making enhancement options universally available, as the most dangerous idea in the world?
Human head transplants? Neurosurgeon says ‘we have the technology’ This is a link to a neurologist talking just a few days ago about the general concept of 'head transplants.' - It address your B question somewhat. Basically as it stands now, the spinal cord still can't be reconnected. As to your A question, here is another link, from the same doctor, directly talking about this particular claim - The C question is probably up to the individual.
Weekend Nightmare Fuel: The Biggest Crawling Animals on Earth Wow. io9, you should be ashamed for writing this. Biodiversity worldwide is threatened, and you make an article that is really little more than "big bugz r icky". I can see that you included factual information, but one of the largest problems on the planet regarding animals is that fact that the majority of people think that it's okay or cool to hate the ones with more than four legs and a chitinous exoskeleton (or just invertebrate animals in general). This article's overall "slant" is that all of these animals are awful and terrifying things that would surely not waste the opportunity to injure you in some way. That does not help all of the teenagers 20-somethings that live "away" from natural spaces and do not know that centipedes are masterful at keeping pests out of gardens and homes, and that out of thousands of species, less than 10 cockroaches can become pests, and only 3 or 4 of those species are ever any good at being pests. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Really, did you read the article?