Table of Contents Contributor Biographies ix Part I Roots and Core Themes 1 1 The Philosophy of Transhumanism 3 Max More 2 Aesthetics: Bringing the Arts & Design into the Discussion of Transhumanism 18 Natasha Vita-More 3 Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up 28 Nick Bostrom 4 Transhumanist Declaration 54 Various 5 Morphological Freedom -- Why We Not Just Want It, but Need It 56 Anders Sandberg Part II Human Enhancement: The Somatic Sphere 65 6 (...) Welcome to the Future of Medicine 67 Robert A. Freitas Jr. 7 Life Expansion Media 73 Natasha Vita-More 8 The Hybronaut Affair: A Ménage of Art, Technology, and Science 83 Laura Beloff 9 Transavatars 91 William Sims Bainbridge 10 Alternative Biologies 100 Rachel Armstrong Part III Human Enhancement: The Cognitive Sphere 111 11 Re-Inventing Ourselves: The Plasticity of Embodiment, Sensing, and Mind 113 Andy Clark 12 Artificial General Intelligence and the Future of Humanity 128 Ben Goertzel 13 Intelligent Information Filters and Enhanced Reality 138 Alexander “Sasha‘ Chislenko 14 Uploading to Substrate-Independent Minds 146 Randal A. Koene 15 Uploading 157 Ralph C. Merkle Part IV Core Technologies 165 16 Why Freud Was the First Good AI Theorist 167 Marvin Minsky 17 Pigs in Cyberspace 177 Hans Moravec 18 Nanocomputers 182 J. Storrs Hall 19 Immortalist Fictions and Strategies 196 Michael R. Rose 20 Dialogue between Ray Kurzweil and Eric Drexler 205 Part V Engines of Life: Identity and Beyond Death 213 21 The Curate’s Egg of Anti-Anti-Aging Bioethics 215 Aubrey de Grey 22 Medical Time Travel 220 Brian Wowk 23 Transhumanism and Personal Identity 227 James Hughes 24 Transcendent Engineering 234 Giulio Prisco Part VI Enhanced Decision-Making 241 25 Idea Futures: Encouraging an Honest Consensus 243 Robin Hanson 26 The Proactionary Principle: Optimizing Technological Outcomes 258 Max More 27 The Open Society and Its Media 268 Mark S. Miller, with E. Dean Tribble, Ravi Pandya, and Marc Stiegler Part VII Biopolitics and Policy 279 28 Performance Enhancement and Legal Theory: An Interview with Professor Michael H. Shapiro 281 29 Justifying Human Enhancement: The Accumulation of Biocultural Capital 291 Andy Miah 30 The Battle for the Future 302 Gregory Stock 31 Mind is Deeper Than Matter: Transgenderism, Transhumanism, and the Freedom of Form 317 Martine Rothblatt 32 For Enhancing People 327 Ronald Bailey 33 Is Enhancement Worthy of Being a Right? 345 Patrick D. Hopkins 34 Freedom by Design: Transhumanist Values and Cognitive Liberty 355 Wrye Sententia Part VIII Future Trajectories: Singularity 361 35 Technological Singularity 365 Vernor Vinge 36 An Overview of Models of Technological Singularity 376 Anders Sandberg 37 A Critical Discussion of Vinge’s Singularity Concept 395 David Brin, Damien Broderick, Nick Bostrom, Alexander “Sasha‘ Chislenko, Robin Hanson, Max More, Michael Nielsen, and Anders Sandberg Part IX The World’s Most Dangerous Idea 419 38 The Great Transition: Ideas and Anxieties 421 Russell Blackford 39 Trans and Post 430 Damien Broderick 40 Back to Nature II: Art and Technology in the Twenty-First Century 438 Roy Ascott 41 A Letter to Mother Nature 449 Max More 42 Progress and Relinquishment 451 Ray Kurzweil Index 454. (shrink)

Over the past decade, interest in human enhancement has waxed and waned. The initial surge of interest and funding, driven by the US Army’s desire for a ‘Future Force Warrior’ has partly given way to the challenges of meeting operational demands abroad. However the ethical opportunities provided by soldier enhancement demand that investigation of its possibilities continue. Benefits include enhanced decision-making, improved force capability, reduced force size and lower casualty rates. These benefits — and enhancement itself — carry concomitant risks, (...) including morale issues due to tension between enhanced and unenhanced soldiers, the issues of enhanced veterans and ownership of enhanced bodies, challenges to the army’s core values and personal identity issues. A range of measures should be designed to highlight the opportunities offered by enhancement while also minimising the potential risks. This includes providing advice on which areas the army ought to demonstrate restraint in research for ethical reasons. (shrink)

Bringing together contributors from philosophy, international relations, security studies, and strategic studies, New Wars and New Soldiers offers a truly interdisciplinary analysis reflective of the nature of modern warfare. This comprehensive approach allows the reader to see the broad scope of modern military ethics, and to understand the numerous questions about modern conflict that require critical scrutiny. Aimed at both military and academic audiences, this paperback will be of significant interest to researchers and students in philosophy, sociology, military and strategic (...) studies, international relations, politics, and security studies, acting as an ideal course text or as supplementary reading. (shrink)

The Routledge Handbook of Military Ethics is a comprehensive reference work that addresses concerns held in common by the military services of many nations. It attempts to discern both moral dilemmas and clusters of moral principles held in common by all practitioners of this profession, regardless of nation or culture. Comprising essays by contributors drawn from the four service branches as well as civilian academics specializing in this field, this handbook discusses the relationship of ethics in the military setting to (...) applied and professional ethics generally. Leading scholars and senior military practitioners from countries including the US, UK, France, China, Australia and Japan, discuss various national cultural views of the moral dimensions of military service. With reference to the responsibilities of professional orientation and education, as well as the challenges posed by recent technological developments, this handbook examines the difficulties underpinning the fundamental framework of military service. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, war theory, ethics philosophy, sociology, war and conflict studies, and security studies. (shrink)

The paper concerns itself with the moral aspects of the development of science and its consequences for contemporary society. Particular attention is given to ethical reflection on the problem of scientific activities and the role of moral responsibility in science. Scientific responsibility is a problem which, in the context of contemporary scientific discourse, demands a dialogue with ethics. This should not result in burdening science but rather in overcoming the antinomies to which science has, often not on its own, lead (...) itself. To accept responsibility and some degree of critical evaluation in the decision making process is not only the strategy of scientific work but mainly the “human” dimension and mission of science. The ethos of science and the ethos of the scientist are directly connected with the issue of scientific responsibility and its different connotations. (shrink)

The article deals with one of the most problematic principles of just war theory. It looks at the usage of the terms civilian, innocent and non-combatant and suggests how they can be interpreted. The principle of non-combatant immunity remains a real challenge for just war theory in the 21st century as it is designed to protect a specific group of people in times of war. The article considers the problematic issue of targeting non-combatants in war times as well as suggesting (...) how we might better comprehend the problem. (shrink)

The article analyzes the main problems and risks associated with new forms of technology and technological developments and their impact and response to current ethics and the related image of man. The author is interested in particular issues of the transformation of man, machines and machinery in the context of modern technology. Thus, the author’s thoughts on the current debate on Humanism and Posthumanism are expressed. At the beginning of the 21st century, one can speak of a new stage of (...) man and machine especially when the machine becomes directly part of man. In this paper, the author analyzes the forms of the so-called postmodern machine in connection with the development of nanotechnology. The author also discusses the risks associated with the issues of Applied Ethics at the new phase of human evolution when the so-called “engineered evolution” is being widely discussed. (shrink)