Human-animal hybrids are now a reality (and have been for some years now). Mutants are no longer the subject of science fiction, they are now flesh and blood beings. For example: In China, human-monkey chimeras have been designed and born. (Planet of the Apes, anyone?) Japan has approved human-rat hybrid trials. (Ratman is somehow less exiting … Continue reading Chimera : A tail of mice and men
Here's another question to throw into the heated (understatement of the year) debates around 1) the legality of abortion and 2) the validity of IQ scores. Ethical question: Should we encourage women to abort their low-IQ embryos? Because now we can test for that in utero. How we answer that question, as individuals, as cultures, … Continue reading Generation Alpha, IQ, and the Bifurcation of Everything
Facial Justice by LP Hartley is not a good book. In fact, I would say it is a pretty terrible book. Bad plot, bad characters, badly written. Yet, I am still featuring it here because the book's big idea is brilliant. Facial Justice imagines a not too distant future where women are forced to have … Continue reading Facial Justice
Michel Houellebecq is clearly a polymath. In Atomised (a science fiction novel very cleverly disguised as serious prize-winning literary fiction) he demonstrates his wide ranging knowledge and deep understanding of subjects ranging from philosophy to physics, and from biology to psychology, to brilliant effect. The book reveals the author's uniquely considered philosophy of history. He illustrates through his … Continue reading Atomised
"The pseudoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate emphatic failure and ignore empire success." - The Life and Death of American Cities Scale by Geoffrey West may not be the easiest read (it has a highly academic style, complete with lots of highly academic jabs at different academic fields - … Continue reading Scale
The Brave New World conference took place in the Netherlands this week. One of the biggest ideas on display was that of bio-organic, 3D printed body parts. Yes, 3D body parts have been around for a while. The list of replacement cells, arteries and organs scientists can design and manufacture is an impressive, growing one. The … Continue reading Build Your Own Body Parts – A Brave New World Indeed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOYzFKizikU Dancing cheek to cheek may have been "the" way to get close to someone's thoughts back in Fred Astaire's day, but these days you can literally get into someone else's head. Matrix-style brain-to-brain internet (aka the Internet of People) is here. Mind reading? No problem! Japanese scientists can now de-code your thoughts into visuals that … Continue reading Cheek to cheek, brain to brain
“You can’t really put a lid on it, even if you wanted to” ~ Dr Jennifer Doudna, CRISPR researcher As always, the dichotomy between freedom and equality threatens to split humanity. This time though, I'm not talking about economic freedom vs economic equality; that good old battle between free market "monopoly capitalists" and their arch … Continue reading Procreative Freedom vs Genetic Inequality
I have already written about the inherent conflict between past, present and future generations for earthly resources. I thought, while I was at it, it was worth taking a few minutes to explore the future euthanasia and the great grey area mess of ethics around this concept. First, some definitions: Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally … Continue reading Senicide and other such things
Person or Property? - That is the Question... “From a legal perspective, this is a complicated area, as the algorithms of an AI act as a “black box” — even the creator of the artificial intelligence is not always sure why the algorithm made a certain decision," ~ Marten Kaevats, Adviser of the Strategy Unit of the Government … Continue reading With robot rights, come robot responsibilities
