SATURDAY June 28, 2003
1:30-3:00pm
Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 62
High St., New Haven CT
"Posthuman Bodies"
Patrick Hopkins Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy Millsaps College
"Barbie Bodies, Bacon Bodies, Plato Bodies, Nietzsche Bodies:
Differing Visions of How Biotechnology Should Be Used to Transform Human
Bodies"
Very different philosophies underlie the desire to
transform bodies. I examine four-the Barbie approach (reforming bodies
into superficial human ideals); the Bacon approach (staying human but
getting rid of disease); the Plato approach (abandoning body for a
transhuman existence); and the Nietzsche approach (augmenting bodies for
superhuman existence).
Patrick D. Hopkins teaches philosophy and science and
technology studies at Millsaps College in Mississippi. He is the author
of numerous articles on bioethics, technology studies, and gender
studies. He is editor of Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender, and
Technology (Indiana University Press, 1999).
Ian McKenna
Dept. of Philosophy Concordia Univ.
"Transhuman Identity: Distentio Animi"
If technological advances manage to alter the brain,
then we will have to rethink the intentional structures of action,
speech and the very notion of identity. I will examine ways in which we
might approach the question "who?" with respect to Transhuman
identities.
Iain McKenna worked in the high-tech industry for
twelve years and currently is studying Philosophy at Concordia
University.
Anders Sandberg Ph.D.
Swedish Transhumanist Association
and Tankesmedjan Eudoxa AB (2001-)
"Morphological Freedom"
