How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we are marching into battle against an enemy (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1881) As advances in genomics and in vitro fertilization unite to bring us such technologies as germline manipulation and in-depth embryo diagnosis, must there be a battle over their use? Policymakers might, after all, acknowledge the arrival of these technologies, accept that people differ in their attitudes toward them, realize that society will adjust as it has to past advances such as the birth-control pill, and support efforts to minimize risks and maximize benefits.
Unfortunately, that scenario is unlikely. So symbolic and evocative of people's fears is the manipulation of human embryos that many countries have already banned the procedures. In Germany, either germline manipulations or preimplantation genetic diagnosis can bring a fiveyear prison sentence, according to the 1991 Embryo Protection Law (now being reconsidered), and the minister of justice stated that the purpose of the law was to "exclude even the slightest chance for programs aimed at so-called improvement of humans?" 1 Even in the relatively permissive United States, moves are under way to hold such research apart and subject it to special scrutiny. In September 2000, a committee under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (see Frankel and Chapman 2000), urged an immediate block on a wide range of clinical procedures that the group labeled "inheritable genetic modifications" (IGM). These included reproductive cloning, germline procedures, and fetal therapies that might alter eggs or sperm. Because cellular fluid, called

The Transhumanist Reader : Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future

Max More; Natasha Vita-More

John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated

Wiley & Sons, Limited, John

Verlag nicht ermittelbar

John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 2013

First edition, Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 2013

Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar, 2013

United States, United States of America

1.publ, Chichester, West Sussex, 2013

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Referenced by: doi:10.1093/humrep/16.3.513 doi:10.1017/s0730938400022206 doi:10.1038/355010a0 doi:10.1038/ng0398-215 doi:10.1089/hum.1995.6.6-791 doi:10.1038/383204a0

"The first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns. Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature. Editors: Max More, PhD is President and CEO of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the world's leading cryonics organization. An internationally acclaimed strategic philosopher, Dr. More is recognized for his thinking on the philosophical and cultural implications of emerging technologies. Natasha Vita-More, PhD is a leading expert on human enhancement and emerging and speculative technologies and is a Professor at the University of Advancing Technology, Tempe Ariz. Dr. Vita-More's writings have appeared in Technoetic Arts: Journal of Speculative Research, Metaverse Creativity and The Global Spiral. She has appeared in numerous televised documentaries on media design, culture, and the future."--[source inconnue]

The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns. Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature. -- Provided by publisher

Roots And Core Themes -- Human Enhancement : The Somatic Sphere -- Human Enhancement : The Cognitive Sphere -- Core Technologies -- Engines Of Life : Identity And Beyond Death -- Enhanced Decision-making -- Biopolitics And Policy -- Futute Trajectories : Singularity -- The World's Most Dangerous Ideas. Edited By Max More And Natasha Vita-more. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.