What if we could bioengineer our bodies to live forever, would we and should we? What if we could avoid all the awkward bits of sex and just neatly copulate with a robot? And what if we never had to go through the bother and pain of pregnancy and could instead use artificial external wombs? Would we? And should we?
Transhumanists say these are moot questions because the superhuman or post-human train has well and truly left the station. We’re only decades from these altered, souped up realities. Oxford transhumanist scholar Elise Bohan and I roll our sleeves up to discuss the litany of moral questions that arise from this, like why the hell were we not consulted on this before the train took off? Has anyone stopped to ask if this is what humanity wants or can handle morally? We chat about the singularity, the particularly worrying effects on men and dating and Elise posits a timeframe for AI intelligence taking over from human smarts (!). If ever there was a conversation in history to get us talking about what matters and makes for a flourishing existence, this is it. Take a deep breath…
Grab Elise’s book, Future Superhuman: Our Transhuman Lives in a Make-or-Break Century
I refer to the book Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
And we reference previous podcast chats with William Macaskill
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ANGELA SAINI: How men came to rule the world
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BO SEO: How to fix polarization? By disagreeing…more!
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DR MICHAEL E MANN: There is a new climate war and you need to get armed
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NICK RIGGLE: A philosophical case for being awesome
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YAEL STONE: On loving the messiness of wokism and being wrong
BEST OF: TIM BROWN. This chat with my meditation teacher is one of the most
BEST OF: OLIVER BURKEMAN. Because his 4000 weeks theory became very hot.
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