{"id":190172,"date":"2024-05-26T16:52:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-26T21:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/training-transhumanists-at-oxford-university"},"modified":"2024-05-26T16:52:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-26T21:52:43","slug":"training-transhumanists-at-oxford-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/training-transhumanists-at-oxford-university","title":{"rendered":"Training Transhumanists at Oxford University"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E7g2RPIkLBI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Those who know Oxford University for its literary luminaries might be surprised to learn that some of the most important reflections on emerging technologies come from its hallowed halls. While the leading tech innovators in Silicon Valley capture imaginations with their bold visions of future singularities, mind-machine melding, and digital immortality by 2045, they rarely engage as deeply with the philosophical issues surrounding such developments as their like-minded scholars over the pond. This essay will briefly highlight some of the key contributions of Oxford University\u2019s professors Nick Bostrom, Anders Sandberg, and Julian Savulescu to the transhumanist movement. It will also show how this movement\u2019s focus on radical autonomy in biotechnical enhancements shapes the wider global bioethical conversation.<\/p>\n<p>As the lead author of the <a href=\"https:\/\/nickbostrom.com\/views\/transhumanist.pdf\">Transhumanist FAQ<\/a>, Bostrom provides the closest the movement has to an institutional catechism. He is, in a sense, the Ratzinger of Transhumanism. The first paragraph of the seminal text emphasizes the evolutionary vision of his school. Transhumanism\u2019s incessant pursuit of radical technological transformation is \u201cbased on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase.\u201d Current humans are but one intriguing yet greatly improvable iteration of human existence. Think of the first iPhone and how unattractive 2007\u2019s most cutting-edge technology is in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, transhumanists encourage radical physical, cognitive, mood, moral, and lifespan enhancements. The movement seeks to defeat humanity\u2019s perennial enemies of aging, sickness, suffering, and death. Bostrom recognizes that he is facing the same foes as Christianity and other traditional religions. Yet he is confident that Transhumanism, through science and technology, will be far more successful than outdated superstitions. Biotechnological advances are more reliable for this worldly benefit than religion\u2019s promises of some mysterious next life. Transhumanists claim no need for \u201csupernatural powers or divine intervention\u201d in their avowedly \u201cnaturalistic outlook\u201d since they rely instead on \u201crational thinking and empiricism\u201d and \u201ccontinued scientific, technological, economic, and human development.\u201d Nonetheless, Bostrom and his companions recognize that not all technology is created equal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Those who know Oxford University for its literary luminaries might be surprised to learn that some of the most important reflections on emerging technologies come from its hallowed halls. While the leading tech innovators in Silicon Valley capture imaginations with their bold visions of future singularities, mind-machine melding, and digital immortality by 2045, they rarely [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,30,1512,47,1501],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-ethics","category-mobile-phones","category-neuroscience","category-transhumanism-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}