In 2012, I sat down with Dr. James Hughes, bioethicist, sociologist, and executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
Fourteen years later, the questions we wrestled with have only sharpened.
Why are transhumanist atheists so often drawn to Buddhism? Is optimism rational, or just a posture we adopt to keep moving? What does it mean to redesign the human being, and which democratic institutions are ready to respond when we do?
James does not flinch from any of it. He talks about his first book Citizen Cyborg, the then forthcoming Cyborg Buddha, moral enhancement, animal uplift, and what our actual chances are of surviving the technological singularity.
What struck me most was his refusal to retreat into easy camps.
Not a cheerleader, not a doomsayer. Someone who interrogates the world and engages it on its own terms.
That is the spirit I have always chased on this show. Less prophecy, more scrutiny.
The conversation holds up better than most things recorded last year, which tells you something about whether we are asking the right questions about #transhumanism, #AI, and the future of the species, or just louder ones.
Listen and decide for yourself where James lands.
Want to see Dr. James Hughes talk about transhumanism, the singularity, Buddhism, AI and animal uplift?! Watch his interview for SingularityWeblog.com