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Kalo 'smi loka-ksaya-krt (Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds) -Robert Oppenheimer. Blast Zone of 20 Megaton Warhead. The Inferno. Project Frankenstein. Technology inspired by holy quest build New Atlantis and restore man’s dominion over nature
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Kalo 'smi loka-ksaya-krt (Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds) -Robert Oppenheimer
Project Frankenstein • Technology inspired by holy quest build New Atlantis and restore man’s dominion over nature • 20th century technology increasingly seems to become a Frankenstein monster turning on its creators • Enormous benefits spawned a variety of lethal problems from global warming to threat of mass destruction • Help of technology 1st time man has both the means to greatly lengthen/improve life or bring about his own extinction • Seems New Atlantis is starting to face the fate of the old
The 3 transhumanist technologies • Genetic engineering, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence perhaps 3 greatest 21st century technologies the ones most relevant to the transhumanist enterprise • Ironically these technology of transcendence and immortality also the ones that allows KMD (knowledge-enabled mass destruction)
KMD • What is KMD? • How does KMD differ from old modes of mass destruction? • Do you agree that these KMD technologies made the extinction of mankind inevitable?
Hubris? • The ancient Greeks called the pride of being like the god ‘hubris’ archetypal examples Adam, Eve and Icarus • Do you think death can be conquered by technological means? • Do you think the transhumanist enterprise is ultimately one of hubris? • Do you think the older spiritual quest for transcendence is necessarily superior to the newer technological quest for immortality?
Solutions: if any • Can we arrest the technological trends leading towards AI, nanotech and genetic engineering? • Should we? • And if we cannot or should not, how do we manage the inherent dangers of the transhumanist technologies?
An alternative utopia, if any • Other than the quest for a technological paradise, are there any viable alternatives? • What are the things necessary to make possible this viable alternative?