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DR. JAMES J. HUGHES
The Intertwined Benefits section of
The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend
Biology by
Ray Kurzweil began with the following quote from
James Hughes
It's like arguing in favor of the plough. You know some
people are
going to argue against it, but you also know it's going to
exist.
Dr. James J. Hughes teaches Health Policy at
Trinity College in Hartford
Connecticut, and serves as Trinity's Associate Director of Institutional
Research and Planning. He also serves as the Executive Director
of the
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and its affiliated
World Transhumanist Association. He produces the weekly
syndicated public affairs talk show
Changesurfer Radio, writes the
Change Surfing column for
Betterhumans.com, and contributes to the
democratic transhumanist
Cyborg Democracy blog. He is the author
of
Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the
Redesigned Human of the Future.
Listen to his talk with Santa Clara law professor
Kerry Lynn
Macintosh,
author of
Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law.
Listen to his talk with
Alex Alaniz, a nuclear weapons physicist at Los
Alamos
and author of the novel
Beyond Future Shock.
Listen to his talk with fellow Scientific
Advisory Board
member
Ian Pearson,
author of many
articles about the future and official futurologist for British Telecom.
James authored
The Death of Death,
Democratic Transhumanism,
The Politics of Transhumanism,
Medical Ethics through the Star Trek Lens,
The Future of Death: Cryonics and the Telos of Liberal
Democracy,
From Anti-Globalization to Global Governance
and
Relinquishment or Regulation: Dealing with Apocalyptic
Technological
Threats.
When he was at the University of Chicago, James worked and taught at
their
MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics while completing his
doctorate in medical sociology. During that time he also founded
and edited the internationally distributed journal, EcoSocialist
Review, a
publication dedicated to encouraging dialogue between social justice
activists and ecological activists.
As a consultant to the University of Chicago Hospital and the Midwest
Business Group on Health, and founder-editor of the international
newsletter Doctor-Patient Studies, he developed a unique
perspective on systemic reform of health care organizations to empower
patients. His
dissertation examined the proposition that expert systems
in the hands well-organized and well-trained nurses, midwives and allied
health professionals may soon
supplant doctors in the practice of
medicine.
As the 90s progressed James became increasingly distressed by the
knee-jerk Luddism of both the Left and bioethics, and began to develop
his pro-technology radical democratic perspective. This orientation led
to writings such as his 1994
Embracing Change with All Four Arms: A
Post-Humanist Defense of Human Genetic Engineering.
In 1998 he started Changesurfer Radio, a weekly half hour public
affairs program on the politics of future technologies. Under the the
"nom de air" of "Dr. J.", he has interviewed hundreds of the
leading thinkers and activists in bioethics, politics and the sciences.
In 2002, he also began publishing and distributing his Change
Surfing columns, primarily published in Betterhumans.com. He also
contributes to the Cyborg Democracy blog.
James lives in rural eastern
Connecticut with his wife, the artist
Monica Bock, and their two
children.
Listen
to his interview by
Sentient Developments Radio!
Print bio!
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