From the Journal of Evolution and Technology, John Hickman (Berry): Mapping a Small Moral Universe. From First Things, a review of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion: Illusions, Delusions, and Realities About Human Nature by Malcolm Jeeves and Warren S. Brown; and a review of Neither Beast nor God: The Dignity of the Human Person by Gilbert Meilaender. From National Review, Wesley Smith on the top ten bioethics stories of the decade. The New Atlantis' "Futurisms" is a blog critiquing the project to reengineer humanity (or a collection of anti-transhumanist intellectuals). Bioethics and the progressive neocons: Some progressives have progressed so far that they've become technophobic reactionaries. James Hughes on problems of transhumanism (and part 2 and part 3 and part 4). Kyle Munkittrick on how there is no concept of “perfect” in transhumanism. Kris Notaro on transhumanism and phenomenological reduction: What properties of consciousness and mind will remain the same in a posthuman world? Many transhumanists are under the mistaken impression that the world they live in operates like a science fiction novel — it doesn’t. As satisfying as sex and sexuality are, there seems little doubt that, eventually, transhuman minds will discover new forms of pleasure and fulfillment going far beyond what we now get from sexuality (and a response). From IEET, will cognitive enhancement technology make us dumber? Philippe Verdoux investigates; Martine Rothblatt on why cyberconsciousness won’t take aeons to evolve; and are you living in a computer simulation, and will uploaded minds in machines be alive? From Rolling Stone, when man and machine merge: Meet Ray Kurzweil, prophet of the techno rapture.
