Alcala090306
From Order of Cosmic Engineers
Mike Treder's CRN blog: Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Spain to address a large group of university students and professors about ethical use of advanced nanotechnology... While in Spain, I was interviewed by Euroresidentes, one of the country's most popular web portals. That interview has been posted in Spanish, and soon will be available in English, French, German, and Portuguese as well. We're very grateful to Rebecca, Andres, Mercedes, and everyone at Euroresidentes for their support of responsible nanotechnology.
Added on March 12 by Giulio Prisco: I think the event was very successful, with more than 500 students who listened to the presentations (I could notice only a few people asleep in the audience) and asked sensible questions.
I am receiving letters from students to thank the lecturers for opening their eyes on the transhumanist worldview. One letter says: "until now I viewed our mortal lives as something with a beginning and an end, and nothing more. But now I believe in Man and in his technology, and this gives me hope".
It is very intersting that we did not have any abstract ethical questions on whether human enhancement is "right", God's plans, respect for nature, reverence for our mortality, etc. The word "God" was not pronounced even once. But we had a lot of concrete ethical questions on the social impact of life extension, human enhancement and NBIC technologies.
My impression is that young students in Spain accept that human enhancement technologies will be developed and deployed, perhaps sooner than most people think, and that they are willing to consider this as a positive or at least acceptable trend. But they want to hear "the rest of the story": how to solve other, more urgent problems of our world like war, poverty, hunger, public health etc.
The "Segundas Jornadas sobre Convergencia Ciencia-Tecnología" took place in the University of Alcalá (near Madrid) from 6 to 10 March 2006. On March 9 there was a panel on "TRANSHUMANISMO: UNA VISIÓN ÉTICA DE LA TECNOLOGÍA PARA LA EXTENSIÓN DE LA VIDA" (Transhumanism: an ethical vision of life extension technology) with many transhumanist speakers and FutureTAG members:
JUEVES, 9 DE MARZO. 16:00-20:00 H (Esta jornada dispondrá de traducción simultánea)
TRANSHUMANISMO: UNA VISIÓN ÉTICA DE LA TECNOLOGÍA PARA LA EXTENSIÓN DE LA VIDA
Moderador - Vicente Ortega Castro, Catedrático Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Introductor - Giulio Prisco, Director, FutureTAG Ltd
Overview - James Hughes, Professor of Health Policy at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut, Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Life extension - Aubrey de Grey, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge. Chairman and Chief Science Officer, Methuselah Foundation
Nanotechnology - Mike Treder, Executive Director, Center for Responsible Nanotechnology
Virtual reality - Philippe van Nedervelde, Director, E-spaces
Neurotechnology - Eugen Leitl, Mind Uploading Research Group
Transhumanist visions - Anders Sandberg, Research Associate, Future of Humanity Institute, James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Philosophy
La tecnología al servicio del hombre: visiones CTS - Javier del Arco, Biólogo y Filósofo, Fundación Vodafone España
