archive

Between biology and ideology

Benjamin C. Carpenter (St. Thomas): A Chip Off the Old Iceblock: How Cryopreservation Has Changed Estate Law, Why Attempts to Address the Issue Have Fallen Short, and How to Fix It. E. Paul Zehr on his book Inventing Iron Man: The Possibility of a Human Machine. Why you are not your brain: A brief guide to embodied cognition. Is transhumanism coercive? Forcing humanity to remain relatively stupid and sick doesn't make us freer. A review of The Brain is Wider Than the Sky by Bryan Appleyard. Why aren’t more wealthy people funding aging research? Aubrey de Grey wants to know. Your brain knows a lot more than you realize: Neuroscientist David Eagleman explores the processes and skills of the subconscious mind, which our conscious selves rarely consider. Will whole-genome sequencing create a new liability tsunami for physicians? Philosophy of mind: Laura Weed takes us on a tour of the mind/brain controversy. Kevin Drum on why artificial intelligence is closer than we realize. Massimo Pigliucci on the entanglement between biology and ideology. "Information is cheap, meaning is expensive": An interview with George Dyson on the definition of life, human progress and the importance of cognitive autarchy. Why aren't we smarter already? A look at the evolutionary limits on cognition. Will you live forever — or until your next software release — by uploading your brain into a computer? The future of moral machines: Many think the idea of ethically sensitive machines is a kind of techno-utopian joke, but we are already moving in that direction. A look at how brain-reading devices could kill off the keyboard. Different thinkers come to completely opposite conclusions about the effect that knowledge of the Singularity should have on our investment decisions; here are your options for treating the future seriously.