PHIL%202525%20Lec%2023%20Transhumanism

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PHIL 2525Lec 23Transhumanism

• Kenn Brown art

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TranshumanismCarpe Diem or Playing God?
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Morality in the news...

• Ann Coulters visit...
• http//www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/spurn
  ed-in-ottawa-ann-coulter-gets-a-big-welcome-from-c
  algary/article1511247/
• The Harris Learning Library...

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• The Epic of Gilgamesh dates from the 3rd
  millennium BCE and is one of the finest surviving
  epic poems in world literature.

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Julian Huxley 1957

• "I believe in transhumanism ...once there are
  enough people who can truly say that, the human
  species will be on the threshold of a new kind of
  existence, as different from ours as ours is from
  that of Peking man. It will at last be
  consciously fulfilling its real destiny.

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Singularity

• Singularity...
• the point at which technological advancement
  will become so rapid that the possibilities will
  become endless...

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Coming to a college near you...

• Rutgers University (New Jersey)
• The course requires no science or technology
  background and is recommended for students with
  an art, humanities or business focus as well as
  anyone who anticipates working in a high
  technology or science-based industry or
  profession.

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Transhumanism and civil liberties...

• Technological self-determination
• Reproduction
• Cognition
• Gender re-assignment
• End of life technology

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Chimera

• In Mythology

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Parahuman... "human-animal hybrids"

• The Young Family 2002-3
• Artist Patricia Piccinini

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• At Stanford University in California, experiments
  aim to create mice with human brains.

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Relationship between eugenics and transhumanism...

• Perfecting the human race
• Humanity as a work in progress
• Enlightenment thinking
• Evolution

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Deaf child? A moral choice?
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Designer Babies....
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Designer Babies...

• Gattaca Trailer
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vYr1IB9RVE_Ufeature
  related
• Gattaca Antons birth
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vOk3YjypQ-84
• Designer Babies - Comments by Princeton professor
  Lee Silver
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vTN9ep4B9Hw0
• Designer babies CBS
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2ixEDLa3JlcNR1fe
  aturefvwp
• 60 minutes Gender selection instead of disease
  eradication?
• http//www.fertility-docs.com/htmldocs/Video_60Min
  -B.html
• CSI New York
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vkefoIXnLAN0NR1fe
  aturefvwp

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Ethics and embryology should deaf parents be
allowed to choose a deaf child?

• So, riddle me this a deaf couple want a second
  child, and because of the womans age theyll
  probably need to use in-vitro fertilisation
  techniques. No problem so far until you find
  that the parents want to be able to select for a
  deaf child, and the UK governments recent
  embryology bill will not allow them to do so.
• This is a textbook ethical dilemma, but its the
  sort of thing that advances in reproductive
  technology and genetic engineering are going to
  make more commonplace. I find myself (unusually)
  wanting to side with the government on this one
  but then Im not a parent, and I imagine that
  changes your perspective quite severely.
• Ive sat here at the keyboard for about half an
  hour trying to formulate an argument for either
  side, but I cant find anywhere Im entirely
  comfortable what do you think?

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Transhumanists vs. BioconservativesCarpe Diem
or Playing God?
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By way of review...
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James Rachels (1941-2003)
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Exam advice

• Review chapters 6 through 13. (No direct
  questions about the first five chapters, although
  that knowledge might help you answer the essay
  questions more effectively.)
• Review lectures 10 to 24. (the second term
  plus the lecture introducing Utilitarianism from
  the first term)

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By way of review Moral theories

• Moral Skepticism (Protagoras)
• Moral Absolutism (Plato)
• Virtue Theory (Aristotle)
• Divine Command (St. Augustine)
• Natural Law (St. Thomas)
• Social Contract (Hobbes)
• Utilitarianism (Bentham and Mill)
• Deontology (Kant)
• Ethical Egoism (Ayn Rand)
• Ethics of Care (Gilligan responding to Kohlberg)
• Virtue Theory (Elizabeth Anscombe)

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Review the readings...

• The ones we took up in class are the most
• important....
• The Singer solution to world poverty
• Omelas
• Tuskegee
• Sherrice Iverson
• The experience machine
• Etc.

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Review the PowerPoints...

• They dont outline the lecture...
• They illustrate what is illustratable...
• Note the quotations...
• Note the approximate timeframe...
• Note the publications...

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Jean-Paul Sartre Freedom and morality

• We are condemned to be free.
• Existence precedes essence.
• There is not a single one of our acts which does
  not at the same time create an image of man as we
  think he ought to be. To choose to be this or
  that is to affirm at the same time the value of
  what we choose.

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Viktor Frankl

• No matter what the circumstances we find
  ourselves, we always retain the last of human
  freedoms the ability to choose ones attitude
  in a given set of circumstances.

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(No Transcript)