http://www.srcf.ucam.org/cuths/cognitive-enhancement/

Cambridge University Transhumanis Society Meeting - "Cognitive Enhancement"

Date and Time: Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 7:00pm local time (GMT)

Location: Samuel Butler Room, St. John's College, Cambridge, CB2 1TP, United Kingdom

Description:

The Cambridge University Transhumanist Society is most pleased to announce the second talk this term. Dr Anders Sandberg and Dr. Sharon Morein will be talking about Cognitive Enhancement.

The talks will be held at 7pm on Sunday, February 24th, in the Samuel Butler Room of St. John’s College. This is in first court - as soon as you walk through the great gate of St. John’s College, turn left. The SBR is right in front of you, in the corner of the court.

Many thanks go out to The SBR committe for letting us have this most excellent room!

Abstracts follow below:

Dr. Sharon Morein:

Drugs to improve cognition are needed to treat cognitive disabilities and improve quality of life for patients with neuropsychiatric disorders and brain injury. Pharmacological enhancement of cognition in both the young and
old healthy populations seems set to become increasingly popular, extending from dietary supplements to drugs specifically targeted at improving aspects of cognition. The effects of pharmacological substances on cognition are
complex, often limited in magnitude and the extension of enhancement from the controlled laboratory environment to daily life is controversial. Nevertheless, with a greater understanding of brain chemistry and the role of genetic variation, increasingly effective approaches are under development.

Dr. Anders Sandberg: "A Device for Turning Coffee into Theorems"

Cognition enhancing drugs such as caffeine and nicotine are in widespread use, and new pharmaceuticals appear to promise improved ways of staying awake, learning more, focusing and making careful decisions. Ethical concerns involve both safety (how do we develop and test such drugs), social issues (would they promote improductive competition, how would they affect inequalities), psychological issues (how is human authenticity influenced) and questions of the nature of humanity and human striving. I will discuss how some of these concerns fit with the issue of enhanced students and faculty. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing us is not enhancement but to figure out what the education of the future ought to be.

http://www.asu.edu/clas/ihr/lectureseries/

Arizona Statue University The Institute for Humanities Research 2008 Distinguished Lecturer: Dr. Michael Bérubé - "The Humanities and the Limits of the Human"

Date and Time: Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 7:00pm MST

Location: Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Armstrong Hall, Room 105, Arizona State University, 1100 S. McAllister Ave., Tempe, AZ, USA 85287

Description:
From flyer [PDF]:

Have critical theory, neurology, bioethics, and disability studies transformed what it means to be human? If so, how are we now to understand the scope and concerns of the humanities?

Distinguished IHR Lecturer for 2008, Michael Bérubé, grapples with those questions by considering what such academic advances and their interpretation in contemporary popular culture tell us about being human in the 21st century… and how the humanities must respond.

From website:

The IHR is pleased to welcome Dr. Michael Bérubé, Paterno Family Professor in Literature, Department of English, and Co-Director, Disability Studies Program, Pennsylvania State University, as the 2008 IHR Distinguished Lecturer.

Michael Bérubé is the author of six books to date: Marginal Forces / Cultural Centers: Tolson, Pynchon, and the Politics of the Canon (Cornell University Press, 1992); Public Access: Literary Theory and American Cultural Politics (Verso, 1994); Life As We Know It: A Father, A Family, and an Exceptional Child (Pantheon, 1996; paper edition, Vintage, 1998); The Employment of English: Theory, Jobs, and the Future of Literary Studies (New York University Press, 1998); What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and "Bias" in Higher Education (W. W. Norton, 2006) and Rhetorical Occasions: Essays on Humans and the Humanities (University of North Carolina Press, 2006). He is also the editor of The Aesthetics of Cultural Studies (Blackwell, 2004), and, with Cary Nelson, of Higher Education Under Fire: Politics, Economics, and the Crisis of the Humanities (Routledge, 1995). Bérubé has written over 150 essays for a wide variety of academic journals such as American Quarterly, the Yale Journal of Criticism, Social Text, Modern Fiction Studies, and the minnesota review, as well as more popular venues such as Harper's, the New Yorker, Dissent, The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, the Nation, and the Boston Globe.

Life As We Know It was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 1996 and was chosen as one of the best books of the year (on a list of seven) by Maureen Corrigan of National Public Radio.

The event is free but seating is limited. Please send your reservation request (name, number of attendees, contact information) to ihr@asu.edu or call 480-965-3000. If you have problems with the ihr@asu.edu account please send your request to carol.withers@asu.edu.

Driving directions to campus Campus Map Parking map

Note: Free surface parking available for attendees in Lot 44. Additional visitor pay parking in the Rural Road parking structure (entrance on Terrace).

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=21526357840

http://www.freethoughtcanada.ca/

http://toronto.transhumanism.com/

Cyborgs of the Past, Present and Future

Date and Time: Thursday, January 31, 2008 from 6:30pm until 9:30pm EST

Location: Communication, Culture and Technology Building (CCT) Rm. 1080, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd N., Mississauga, ON, Canada | Google Maps

Description: Cyborgs of the Past, Present and Future

An overview of cybernetic technologies, the merging of humans with machines and the coming cyborg revolution.

A talk by George Dvorsky. FREE admission

To explore the topic of transhumanism, and to celebrate Charles Darwin's upcoming 199th birthday, the Halton-Peel Humanist Community is joining the Mississauga Freethought Association to present an entertaining and informative talk by George Dvorsky, Canada's leading agenda-driven futurist, activist and award-winning blogger.

FULL PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWS:

The Next Stage in Human Evolution

Across the world, in countries ranging from England to Benin, from France to Australia, from Chile to Hungary; and from India to Canada, people will be gathering on or about February 12 to celebrate Darwin Day.

The purpose of this annual event is to promote public education about science and to encourage the celebration of science and humanity. Science is our most reliable knowledge system. It has been, and continues to be, acquired solely through the application of human curiosity and ingenuity.

For more than 20 years, Darwin collected vast amounts of scientific data which he examined in great depth in search of a mechanism that permitted life to change over time. Eventually, he explained that the primary underlying mechanism was natural selection.

Today, we look at how plants, animals and humans have evolved and continue to evolve, not only through natural processes, but by human intervention.

Nanotechnology, for example, seeks to design machines billionths of a meter in size to be used for human health and advancement. Is a person with an artificial heart, pacemaker, insulin pump or hearing aid a 'new kind of human'? Will technological advances force us to transcend our very humanity? Will there be bionic brains in the
future?

To explore these questions, the Halton-Peel Humanist Community is joining with the Mississauga Freethought Association to present an entertaining and informative talk, by George Dvorsky: "Cyborgs of the Past, Present and Future: an overview of cybernetic technologies, the merging of humans with machines and the coming cyborg revolution"

A cyborg is an organism that is a self- regulating integration of artificial and natural systems. Who better to deal with this topic than George Dvorsky, whose primary concern is the ethical and sociological impacts of emerging technologies, specifically, human enhancement technologies; Dvorsky seeks to promote open discussion for the purposes of education and foresight. He writes and speaks on a wide range of topics, including technoscience, ethics, existential risks, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence , and futures studies, from a democratic transhumanist and technoprogressive perspective.

Canada's leading agenda-driven futurist, activist and award winning blogger, George has written and spoken extensively about the impacts of cutting-edge science and technology. He is the Director of Operations for Commune Media, an advertising and marketing firm that specializes in marketing science.

George has more than 10 years' experience in media, arts and communications. With relationships forged across several continents, he has managed international accounts for leading brands. In addition to his work with Commune, George is the Editor-in-Chief for the online portal, Betterhumans, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He is the co-founder and president
of the Toronto Transhumanist Association and has served on the Board of Directors for the World Transhumanist Association. George has been interviewed by such publications as The Guardian, the BBC, Radio Free
Europe, and Beliefnet. He made an appearance on the CBC's The Hour and has been profiled in NOW and This Magazine.

The event which is free and open to the public takes place in the 500 seat Room 1080 the CCT building at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd, on Thursday, January 31 at 6:30 pm.

We look forward to an exciting and informative evening.

Visit www.freethoughtcanada.ca for more info