Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Overview of Biopolitics

Check out the link below for a brief overview of Biopolitics from the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies: Promoting the Ethical Use of Technology to Enhance Human Capabilities or IEET for short.

Find out about 'Libertarian Transhumanists', 'Technoprogressives', 'Left-wing Bioconservatives' and 'Right-wing Bioconservatives' here.

It also has some papers on some interesting toipics:



All Together Now (IEET White Paper 01) by George Dvorsky, Jul 2006

Also it has a link to the Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET).

Which it describes as:
"a scholarly peer-reviewed journal published by the IEET. JET welcomes submissions on subject matters that many mainstream journals shun as too speculative, radical, or interdisciplinary on all issues relating to the future prospects of the human species and its descendants. Since its inception in 1998, JET has had five editors-in-chief: Dr. Nick Bostrom, Dr. Robin Hanson, Dr. Mark Walker, Dr. James Hughes and and (currently) Dr. Russell Blackford."
I have read plenty of Nick Bostrom and Robin Hanson from on the Overcoming Bias site.

I think I will have to check JET out and report back soon.

The other thing that I found on this site was a link to two books that I think I am going to have to track down:

Human Enhancement (2009)
by Edited by Julian Savulescu and Nick Bostrom
  • Human enhancement is now one of the biggest dilemmas facing modern science
  • The latest developments in this highly controversial debate
  • New essays from some of the world’s leading ethicists, including Peter Singer
  • Truly international perspectives, from North America, Europe, Japan, and Australasia
  • Discusses such contentious issues as selection of children and use of drugs in sport

Based on a conference entitled “Tomorrow’s People: the Challenges of Technologies for Life Extension and Enhancement” which was organized by the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and held in Oxford in 2006.

It was a lecture by Steve Raynor that got me interested in switching careers (called "Wicked problems and their clumsy solutions") and it would be a dream to study further at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization.

Maybe one day.

**If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

What is nanotechnology?
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History of Nanotechnology
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Nanotechnology - risks and benefits

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

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