Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights conference
I almost missed this one but came accross reading via slate.com about the Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights conference at the Stanford Law School. Judging by the description at slate.com, the discussions at the conference were out of the ordinary. The libertarian bent of the participants can be gleaned by the following excerpt.
The sessions were … interesting. A panel on religious views consisted of a transhumanist Zen Buddhist priest, an advocate of human enhancement as divine healing, and a pro-cryonics "Christian immortalist." Another panel addressed "the self-demand amputation community." You've heard of a woman trapped in a man's body? Imagine being a one-legged person trapped in a two-legged body, said the speakers. A third panel brought up the "cyborg dialectic": thesis, antithesis, synthesis, prothesis. I have no idea what a prothesis is. I assumed the cyborg dialectic would culminate in a prosthesis.
An interesting line of reasoning used by the proponents of radical transformation of humanity lies in analogy i.e., they take examples of current day modifications or changes that we have brought about in humans via technology and then basically state if this then why not that. It is difficult to argue against them and that is why their opponets should present counterarguments in order to stay in the discussion.
“..transformation of humanity lies in analogy..”
feed them to the deconstructionists, analogies seem to be their pet peeve.