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.imminst.org/forum/Sunday-Evening-Update-Guest-Tanya-Jones-Alcor-t20501.html

Immortality Update Chat: Sunday Evening Update, Guest: Tanya Jones (Alcor), All about cryonics. Sunday February 24th, 5pm CST (23:00 GMT)

Date and Time: Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 4:00pm MST

Location: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/immortality-update

Description: Chat will be preceded at 3:00pm MST by an Immortality Instituate Board of Directors meeting, live and public on Ustream.

Tune in to the Immortality Institute's Sunday evening news and commentary program The Immortality Update on Sunday February 24th at 5pm CST, (23:00) GMT, for a chat about the past, present, and future of cryonics with Tanya Jones of Alcor. The Imminst.org channel can be found here.

More information about Tanya here.

Sun February 24th
3:00 Pacific
4:00 Mountain
5:00 Central
6:00 Eastern

http://hplusclub.com/tucson/meeting20080229

Movie Night: The Oozing Skull

Date and Time: Friday, February 29, 2008 from 4:00pm until 7:00pm MST

Location: Charles P. Sonett Building, PIRL Lab, 1541 E University Blvd., Tucson, AZ, 85719 | Google Maps

Description: Instead of our usual meeting, we are getting together for a movie night and potluck. Please bring some delicious food and drinks to share, and we will sit down together to watch the return of movie riffing as only the talents from Mystery Science Theater 3000 can do it.

"From the people who brought you Mystery Science Theater 3000 comes a whole new movie-riffing experience: CINEMATIC TITANIC. Created by Joel Hodgson, creator and star of MST3K (as it's known to it's devoted fans), and featuring the writing and performing talents of the show's original cast: Joel (Joel Robinson), Trace Beaulieu (Crow, Dr. Forrester) and J. Elvis Weinstein (Servo, Dr. Ehrhardt) along with longtime writers and co-stars from the show's 10 year run, Frank Conniff (TV's Frank) and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester)."

See the rest of the press release [PDF] and see more details at the Cinematic Titanic website. Buy the DVD so they will keep making many more!

http://hplusclub.com/tucson/meeting20080222

Transhumanism: The Philosophy

Date and Time: Friday, February 22, 2008 from 4:00pm until 6:00pm MST

Location: Tubac Room, 4th Floor, Student Union Memorial Center, 1303 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ, USA 85721-0017 | Google Maps

Description: Transhumanism is described as both a social movement and a philosophy. We will look closer at transhumanism as a philosophy, with an exploration of the philosophy's roots, its important thinkers, and its relevant tenets.

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.imminst.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=20385

Immortality Institute Chat: Sunday Night Chat with Dr. Calvin Mercer, 4:00 pm CST, Religion and Extreme Life Extension

Date and Time: Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 3:00pm MST

Location: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/immortality-update

Description: Chat will be preceded at 2:00pm MST by an Immortality Instituate Board of Directors meeting, live and public on Ustream.

Join the Immortality Institute for the Sunday Night Chat February 17th with religious scholar Dr. Calvin Mercer.

4:00pm Central, 22:00 GMT (another chat at a reasonable time for all of our European members)

More details about Dr. Mercer can be found here.

QUOTE
Dr. Mercer is one of the few scholars considering the religious implications of radical life extension, a term that refers to science and technology that could provide extreme (perhaps indefinite) longevity of healthy human life.

This Sunday Night Chat will once again be streamed live and recorded on Ustream. The Immortality Institute stream can be found here. There is a text chat box available at the Imminst Ustream channel so you can ask questions and debate religion's place in extreme life extension while the chat is occurring.

Sun February 17th
2:00 Pacific
3:00 Mountain
4:00 Central
5:00 Eastern
[timezone help] .

http://extrobritannia.blogspot.com/2008/01/nextrobritannia-after-few-months-of.html

ExtroBritannia - February 16, 2008 Meeting

Date and Time: Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 12:30 GMT

Location: Penderel's Oak, 283-288 High Holborn, London WC1V 7HJ

Description:

NEXTROBRITANNIA - After a few months of inactivity, the UKTA is ready to spring back into action. What's the next step? NextroBritannia, obviously...

Saturday the 16th of February 2008, from 12:30 at the Penderel's Oak in Holborn, London (see below for address and map). Everyone welcome.

The plan is to catch up with each other's news over lunch and then discuss the way forward. The points on the agenda are:

- The possibility of a rotating chair system for organising meetings and events
- How to structure meetings and events
- Candidates for the future UKTA roles
- Date, time, place and person responsible for organising the next meeting
- Any other business

Penderel's Oak
283-288 High Holborn
London WC1V 7HJ
Tel: 0207 242 5669
Nearest tube: Holborn
MAP

If it's your first time at an ExtroBritannia event, look out for a copy of Aubrey de Grey's "Ending Aging" at our table.

http://www.imminst.org/forum/Sunday-Night-Chat-with-Todd-Huffman-500-pm-CST-t20268.html

Immortality Institute Chat: Sunday Night Chat with Todd Huffman, 5:00 pm CST, Neuroscience, life extension, and of course...magnets

Date and Time: Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 4:00pm MST

Location: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/immortality-update

Description:

Join the Immortality Institute for a very special Sunday Night Chat February 10th with neuroscientist and life extension supporter Todd Huffman.

Mr. Huffman became famous for implanting a magnet in his finger to create a sixth sense. Find out his current take on transhumanism, cryonics and life extension.

5:00pm Central, 23:00 GMT

This Sunday Night Chat will be extra special because it will be streamed live on Ustream. The Immortality Institute stream can be found here. There won't be anything broadcasting most of the time (maybe my cats while I am testing it out). We are just going to start out streaming the Sunday Night Chat. I will record the stream so that it can be listened to at any later date on Ustream. I will also record an mp3 for podcast and make it available as a download from Itunes or other services. Besides the special guest, there will also be an Imminst update and some of the latest news from the world of anti-aging science. Even though this first stream will be audio only (like a radio program), there will still be an opportunity for interaction. Each Ustream broadcast has a chatbox. I will be monitoring the chatbox for questions and comments while I am interviewing the guest.

If this goes well then perhaps the Institute can fill the Ustream channel with more content during more times of the week and include video as well as audio. See you there on Sunday night! It will be good.

Sun February 10th
3:00 Pacific
4:00 Mountain
5:00 Central
6:00 Eastern
[timezone help] .

http://hplusclub.com/tucson/meeting20080208/

Open Discussion

Date and Time: Friday, February 08, 2008 from 5:00pm until 6:00pm MST

Location: Tubac Room, 4th Floor, Student Union Memorial Center, 1303 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ, USA 85721-0017 | Google Maps

Description: Open discussion: hacktivism and Anonymous, holographic display breakthrough by UA scientists, upcoming events, and more.

http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=20156

Immortality Institute Chat: Imminst Member Mondey

Date and Time: Sunday, February 03, 2008 from 2:30pm until 3:30pm MST

Location: Skype Chat - email chat organizer to be added to chat list

Description:

Chat guest: Imminst member Mondey. One of the world's leading anti-aging and stem cell researchers.

What's the latest in stem cell technology?
What are the remaining hurdles before we see widespread use of stem cell therapy?
How soon before stem cell therapy reaches a hospital near you?
What about the embryonic stem cell debate?
Much more.

Again, like last week, this will be a Skype text chat since it is much more stable. Please send me your Skype name so I can invite you into the chat on Sunday afternoon.

If you cannot attend but have a burning question about stem cell technology, please list it here.

Special Note: Due to the high profile nature of the research Institutions Mondey is affiliated with, he/she has requested that only the nickname "Mondey" be used during the chat and within this thread. Please respect this request. Many Imminst members are familiar with Mondey so if you are curious, just ask privately.