•  1813
    A principal challenge facing the progressive bioethics project is the crafting of a consistent message on biopolitical issues that divide progressives. The regulation of enhancement technologies is one of the issues central to this emerging biopolitics, pitting progressive defenders of enhancement, “technoprogressives,” against progressive critics. This essay [PDF] will argue that technoprogressive biopolitics express the consistent application of the core progressive values of the Enlightenment…Read more
  •  1728
    Transhumanism and Personal Identity
    In Max More & Natasha Vita‐More (eds.), The Transhumanist Reader, Wiley. 2013.
    Enlightenment values are built around the presumption of an independent rational self, citizen, consumer and pursuer of self-interest. Even the authoritarian and communitarian variants of the Enlightenment presumed the existence of autonomous individuals, simply arguing for greater weight to be given to their collective interests. Since Hume, however, radical Enlightenment empiricists have called into question the existence of a discrete, persistent self. Today neuroscientific reductionism has c…Read more
  •  1683
    The future of death: cryonics and the telos of liberal individualism
    Journal of Evolution and Technology 6 (1). 2001.
    This paper addresses five questions: First, what is trajectory of Western liberal ethics and politics in defining life, rights and citizenship? Second, how will neuro-remediation and other technologies change the definition of death for the brain injured and the cryonically suspended? Third, will people always have to be dead to be cryonically suspended? Fourth, how will changing technologies and definitions of identity affect the status of people revived from brain injury and cryonic suspensi…Read more
  •  1561
    Buddhism and Abortion: A Western Approach
    In Buddhism and Abortion. pp. 183-198. 1999.
    Most Western Buddhists employ both utilitarian and virtue ethics, in the paradoxical unity of compassion and wisdom. On the one hand, our personal karmic clarity is most related to our cultivation of compassionate intention, but on the other hand we also need to develop penetrating insight into the most effective means to the ends. We do not believe that the person who helps others without any intention of doing so to have accrued merit, while we look upon the person who causes others suffering …Read more
  •  1456
    Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary
    with George Dvorsky
    Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. 2008.
    Postgenderism is an extrapolation of ways that technology is eroding the biological, psychological and social role of gender, and an argument for why the erosion of binary gender will be liberatory. Postgenderists argue that gender is an arbitrary and unnecessary limitation on human potential, and foresee the elimination of involuntary biological and psychological gendering in the human species through the application of neurotechnology, biotechnology and reproductive technologies. Postgenderist…Read more
  •  962
    Embracing Change with All Four Arms: Post-Humanist Defense of Genetic Engineering
    Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 6 (4): 94-101. 1996.
    This paper sets out to defend human genetic engineering with a new bioethical approach, post-humanism, combined with a radical democratic political framework. Arguments for the restriction of human genetic engineering, and specifically germ-line enhancement, are reviewed. Arguments are divided into those which are fundamental matters of faith, or "bio-Luddite" arguments, and those which can be addressed through public policy, or "gene-angst" arguments.The four bio-Luddite concerns addressed are:…Read more
  •  606
    Beyond “Real Boys” and Back to Parental Obligations
    American Journal of Bioethics 5 (3): 61-62. 2005.
    Learning to see the continuity between our everyday decision-making and our decision-making around new biotechnologies is key to acclimatizing to our enhanced future. By excavating this decision-making, Singh helps us see that Ritalin isn’t really that big a deal and helps dispel what Malcolm Gladwell (1999) noted as the “strange inversion of moral responsibility” encouraged by books like ‘Ritalin Nation’ and ‘Running on Ritalin,’ whose authors “seek to make those parents and physicians trying t…Read more
  •  591
    Algorithms and Posthuman Governance
    Journal of Posthuman Studies. 2017.
    Since the Enlightenment, there have been advocates for the rationalizing efficiency of enlightened sovereigns, bureaucrats, and technocrats. Today these enthusiasms are joined by calls for replacing or augmenting government with algorithms and artificial intelligence, a process already substantially under way. Bureaucracies are in effect algorithms created by technocrats that systematize governance, and their automation simply removes bureaucrats and paper. The growth of algorithmic governance c…Read more
  •  432
    Human Augmentation and the Age of the Transhuman
    In Tony J. Prescott, Nathan Lepora & Paul F. M. J. Verschure (eds.), Living Machines: A Handbook of Research in Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems, Oxford University Press. 2018.
    Human augmentation is discussed in three axes: the technological means, the ability being augmented, and the social systems that will be affected. The technological augmentations considered range from exocortical information and communication systems, to pharmaceuticals, tissue and genetic engineering, and prosthetic limbs and organs, to eventually nanomedical robotics, brain-computer interfaces and cognitive prostheses. These technologies are mapped onto the capabilities which we are in the pro…Read more
  •  369
    Socialists have historically thought a lot about the catastrophic risks society faces. Today many DSA chapters have gotten involved in mutual aid to respond to the Covid crisis, generating a debate about how mutual aid fits into socialist work. One form of community engagement that is likely to be increasingly necessary, and is an opportunity for radicalizing angry neighbors, is disaster preparedness. While the prepper subculture is perceived as right-wing, and parts are tied into the militia mo…Read more
  •  272
    EcoSocialism and the Technoprogressive Perspective
    Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. 2021.
    The ecosocialists have broad agreements about the radical political economic changes that are called for, and have largely rejected the mysanthropic and anti-technological views of some radical ecologists. But the ecosocialists differ on what role nuclear power and emerging technologies should play under a Green New Deal. The ecomodernists broadly agree on the importance of nuclear and emerging technologies, but their impact has been muted by their association with corporate “greenwashing” and n…Read more
  •  265
    We are likely to have immersive virtual reality and ubiquitous augmented reality in the coming decades. At least some people will use extended reality or “the metaverse” to work, play and shop. In order to achieve the best possible versions of this virtual future, however, we will need to learn from three decades of regulating the Internet. The new virtual world cannot consist of walled corporate fiefdoms ruled only by profitmaximization. The interests of workers, consumers and citizens in virtu…Read more
  •  195
    Global technology regulation and potentially apocalyptic technological threats
    In Fritz Allhoff, Patrick Lin, James Moor & John Weckert (eds.), Nanoethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology, Wiley. pp. 201-214. 2007.
    In 2000 Bill Joy proposed that the best way to prevent technological apocalypse was to "relinquish" emerging bio-, info- and nanotechnologies. His essay introduced many watchdog groups to the dangers that futurists had been warning of for decades. One such group, ETC, has called for a moratorium on all nanotechnological research until all safety issues can be investigated and social impacts ameliorated. In this essay I discuss the differences and similarities of regulating bio- and nanotechnolog…Read more
  •  186
    The alleged threats to human nature are at the root of many concerns about the use of nanotechnology to extend human health and capabilities. Bu the concept of human nature is illusory, selectively deployed, and does not impose any ethical constraint on human enhancement. Human nature is not only a meaningless concept, a product of our imperfect human cognition and a relic of the idea of a "soul," but, as it is deployed today against human enhancement technologies, it is also a morally offensive…Read more
  •  175
    Contradictions from the Enlightenment Roots of Transhumanism
    Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (6): 622-640. 2010.
    Transhumanism, the belief that technology can transcend the limitations of the human body and brain, is part of the family of Enlightenment philosophies. As such, transhumanism has also inherited the internal tensions and contradictions of the broad Enlightenment tradition. First, the project of Reason is self-erosive and requires irrational validation. Second, although most transhumanists are atheist, their belief in the transcendent power of intelligence generates new theologies. Third, althou…Read more
  •  163
    The prospect of neurotechnologies for mood manipulation alarms some people who worry about the pernicious effects they might have. In particular there is a concern that individuals will be pressured to make themselves inauthentically happy, and tolerant of things that should make them sad or angry. The most common result of social pressures to adjust mood will likely be far more beneficial both for the individual and society. This essay reviews research on the stresses of "emotion work" and the …Read more
  •  161
    Utilitarianism, And The Genetic Welfare Of Future Generations: A Reply To Salvi
    Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 7 (2): 38-39. 1997.
    The utilitarian calculators of genetic therapy would do well to reflect again on Mills' liberal democratic rules of thumb: utility will generally be maximized when people are free to make choices, with good information, good instruments of collective action (democracy), and relative equality. My rule of thumb is that if we give future generations genetic choices, they will generally choose health, happiness, intelligence, and longevity, for themselves and their descendants.
  •  144
    Technopolitics is Not Beyond Left and Right After All
    Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. 2021.
    Attitudes towards science and technology are closely aligning with Culture War attitudes towards secularism, sexuality, gender, civil liberties, race and nationalism
  •  128
    Transhumanism is a modern expression of ancient and transcultural aspirations to radically transform human existence, socially and bodily. Before the Enlightenment these aspirations were only expressed in religious millennialism, magical medicine, and spiritual practices. The Enlightenment channeled these desires into projects to use science and technology to improve health, longevity, and human abilities, and to use reason to revolutionize society. Since the Enlightenment, techno‐utopian moveme…Read more
  •  115
    In the coming decades humanists and trans-humanists need to wage a global campaign to radicalize the idea of human rights. We need to assert our rights to control our own bodies and brains, whether we choose to change our genders or medicate our brains. We need to assert that the measure of a society’s fairness is how universally available we make the prerequisites for achieving our fullest potential. We need to defend the right to enhance ourselves - whether through education and exercise or ge…Read more
  •  107
    Aliens, Technology and Freedom: SF Consumption and SocioEthical Attitudes
    Futures Research Quarterly 4 (11): 39-58. 1995.
    As we enter the 21st century, we do well to consider the values implicit in science fiction, the principal arena of future speculation in popular culture. This study explored whether consumption of science fiction (SF) is correlated with distinctive socio-ethical views. SF tends to advocate the extension of value and rights to all forms of intelligence, regardless of physical form; enthusiasm for technology; and social and economic libertarianism. This suggests that consumers with these socio-et…Read more
  •  105
    To the degree that we succeed in our campaign for personhood over human-racism we will fulfill the dreams of our humanist forebears.
  •  60
    Buddhism and Our Posthuman Future
    Sophia 58 (4): 653-662. 2019.
    New human enhancement technologies will radically challenge traditional religious understandings of the human project. But among the world’s faiths, Buddhists will have some distinct advantages adapting to and contributing to thinking about, a posthuman future. Buddhism and human enhancement have some affinities and some useful complementarities. In the Abrahamic faiths, humanity is divinely created with static capacities, while in traditional Buddhism, human beings routinely evolve into gods an…Read more
  •  52
    Commentary: Freedom Means Self-Awareness and Self-Control: Bioenhancement Can Help
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 26 (3): 394-397. 2017.
    The manipulation of sentiments and capacities for self-control can be combined in a program of posthuman character development that enhances flourishing and the subjective sense of free will. Indeed the faculties of self-awareness, deliberation, and self-control are the only referents this illusory concept of free will can be based on.
  •  47
    Guest Editorial: How Moral is Moral Enhancement?
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 24 (1): 3-6. 2015.
    Moral bioenhancement is a topic that will only increase in controversy as neuroscience advances.
  •  41
    Robotics and artificial intelligence are beginning to fundamentally change the relative profitability and productivity of investments in capital versus human labor; creating technological unemployment at all levels of the workforce; from the North to the developing world. As robotics and expert systems become cheaper and more capable the percentage of the population that can find employment will also fall; stressing economies already trying to curtail "entitlements" and adopt austerity. Two addi…Read more
  •  37
    Moral Enhancement Requires Multiple Virtues
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 24 (1): 86-95. 2015.
  •  33
    The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 10, Page 42-43, October 2011
  •  30
    Human vs. posthuman
    Hastings Center Report 37 (5): 4-7. 2007.
    Agar is inadvertently pointing to two more subtle problems with transhumanist ethics however, ones with which many of us are grappling. The first is the problem of balancing beneficent solidarism with strict non-interventionist liberalism. When, for instance, is someone's choice to modify their brain equivalent to selling themselves into slavery? Transhumanists need to articulate "the good life," inevitably shaped by local values, to ensure that we are in fact enhancing and not simply changing. …Read more
  •  28
    Humans Should Be Free of All Biological Limitations Including Sex
    American Journal of Bioethics 10 (7): 15-15. 2010.
    This Article does not have an abstract