IEET Conference in Second Life

Last Friday, 30 June, I attended a remarkable event: a virtual conference in Second Life. James Hughes, executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies held a presentation about the activities of this organization. What I can say is: Transhumanism is clearly developing itself from an obscure group of hardcore sciencefiction-readers thinking it will only be a matter of time untill we all will live in the Matrix to a scientifically founded organization of people with a lot of more vision about the near and not-so-near future than most others.

With Transhumanism becoming mainstream, the downside is that some people are frightened by the new possiblities. “Playing God”, references to Nazi-Germany and Eugenics, and of course, mentioning “Brave New World” (the novel by Aldous Huxley), are the means whereby the public is scared off by the idea of a better, wealthier, longer and – best of all – healthier life.

Personally I think people should have a right to “opt out” and to not participate in a world where people live longer and healthier. Playing God or playing Ostrich. There must be some people somewhere in the western world who still don’t own a television, a telephone, a car or a computer, although, thinking about it, I myself don’t know anyone who chose to live in the past tense. The future will be for the people who choose to live in it and are willing to prepare for it.

Philosophers like Francis Fukuyama and Peter Sloterdijk call for a strong government regulation. This means that scientists will have to negotiate with politicians about what research is ethical and can be done. Of course this will slow down evolution of mankind enormously; politicians are usualy not the most enlightened people on earth. But: it is undeniable that there is such a thing as government and we will have to deal with politicians. This means that educating people and enlighten politicians about the possibilities and hazards of e.g. Molecular Nano Technology is, although time-consuming, necessary. For this, I think, the case for transhumanism is in good hands with the IEET.