Transvision 2003 :: The Adaptable Human Body

Inside the Movement for Posthuman Rights
Cyborg Liberation Front
by Erik Baard



Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
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Yeats's wish, expressed in his poem "Sailing to Byzantium," was a governing principle for those attending the World Transhumanist Association conference at Yale University in late June. International academics and activists, they met to lay the groundwork for a society that would admit as citizens and companions intelligent robots, cyborgs made from a free mixing of human and machine parts, and fully organic, genetically engineered people who aren't necessarily human at all. A good many of these 160 thinkers aspire to immortality and omniscience through uploading human consciousness into ever evolving machines.

The three-day gathering was hosted by an entity no less reputable than the Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project's Working Research Group on Technology and Ethics; the World Transhumanist Association chairman and co-founder is Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom. Dismiss it as a Star Trek convention by another name, and you could miss out on the culmination of the Western experiment in rights and reason.

More: http://villagevoice..../0331/baard.php

The Village Voice article is a fine piece of work and very flattering toward transhumanism.

Are we on the road to legitimacy?

As James said, the 'movement' is starting to take shape. When we reach 'legitamacy' is highly speculative, but I think we're on the right road.

When I first got active in the reproductive cloning movement and commenced exploring literature on related topics like genetic engineering, I discovered the writings of Ronald Bailey.

One of the most stimulating adventures one can undertake is to go to the http://www.reason.com site and look up all the articles Ronald Bailey has written. His early take on cloning was enlightened. However, his interview with Lee Silver about "pharming" and an article about genetically engineered food entitled "Dr. Strange Lunch" are my favorites.

The only area I find myself disagreeing with Ronald Bailey is in his libertarian approach to the environment. Then again, no one is perfect.

Edited by Lazarus Long, 22 November 2003 - 04:21 AM.

I only added the link so that it crosses back to the source randolf.
Nothing was altered for content.

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