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Showing posts from October, 2014

FRIDAY, October 17: An Introduction to Transhumanism

Dialogue Leader:  Carl Youngblood Discussion: Transhumanism  is an international cultural and intellectual movement focused on observing the ways that technology is changing the human condition and anticipating the potential challenges and opportunities presented by these changes. Prominent venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, scientists and philosophers identify as transhumanists or share transhumanist sympathies, including Kevin Kelly, Doug Rushkoff, Ray Kurzweil, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Peter Diamandis, Nick Bostrom, and Aubrey de Grey. Perhaps transhumanism's greatest contribution is Ray Kurzweil's  law of accelerating returns , which demonstrates that technological innovation has generally followed an exponential rate of progress. This exponential growth is unintuitive to humans, resulting in some surprising predictions, including innovations in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics that transhumanists claim will lead to radically enhanced human capabilities, inclu