Evan Selinger, associate professor of philosophy, will serve as an editor of Philosophy and Technology, a new academic, peer-reviewed journal published by Springer. Read the full story »

Day One: To describe a feeling or a state of mind...is to seek (usually through the eyes, into the back of the head, and then for me, down the spine and into the hollow of my center chest) to account for the tendency of not knowing at all what we are generally thinking. For instance, my feelings are usually rushed and hardly formulated before some murmur arises from my throat. I can remember only slight things, like sitting at a table, listening little to the conversation around; only and mostly noticing only the slight tapping of a hand on the table. The fingers went along with a song in the background, muffled by chatter and televised sports games. The fingers also tapped along with the rhythm of the teeth crunching, as the crunch went like that of masticating teeth and what you may expect of someone consuming dry cereal from the box. Only it was not cereal, it was indeed dinner. Sometimes, I listen in a fashion so much more like hearing, than really listening. This probably goes to show you something of my personality, being that of a poor listener, or maybe someone so consumed with their own thoughts that the act of listening to others becomes more like bird watching. I hear the sounds, the pitches with their voices wavering upwards then down. Mostly it is the eyes I am curious about, which signal to me whether they truly feel what they are saying...sometimes it is all a sly attempt to change an actuality. Then again, who's to say what is actuality anyway.

I met someone the other day, rather odd bird, her name was Amma, or so she said (I am easily inclined to disbelief and tend toward furthering myself from most people). Although Amma somehow seemed newer than others I had met, well newer and yet simultaneously unaffected by her life, as though she may have been an elderly woman heading into her late eighties, realizing that death was upon her. When we know our lives are behind us, we are truly freed of burden and forced to live fully in the now, with the coming clarity only brought to us by our own finitude. We spoke for a while, over coffee, which she lead on that she was only mildly addicted (I felt this to be an ironic exaggeration in the least). Still, it was nice. I having not spoken to anyone in a long time, and she, being at least twice my age was extremely level-headed and well-spoken. She expressed that she had recently met someone, someone unique who may at some point become a good friend of hers. I told her that that must indeed be a pleasant feeling, and followed with the story of the old man who lived next to my apartment some years ago...I told her of how we would play chess every other afternoon, and how we took walks to the park on occasion to feed the ducks stale bread in plastic bread bags. It was so joyous to have such a friend, I said; however at one point I lost contact with him after his family moved him to a home to recuperate from a knee surgery. I learned later that he had died peacefully and alone one night at the home, after his prosthetic knee was rejected by his body he ended up stroking and losing most all ability of his brain function-including the regulation of his heart and lungs. Anyway, I digress...but Amma, she knew exactly what to say, and she reminded me how fleeting circumstances are. That without the coming and going of things we may never find any meaning; we may never will anything, except for the fact of change. Change allows us to will in ways we would never, if experience did not mutate so, we may never appreciate... Read the full story »

Transhumanists believe that we can and should use technology to overcome the limitations of the human brain and body. For example, transhumanists advocate using technology to radically increase our lifespan, intelligence, happiness, and virtue. In relation to the themes of the journal of Minds and Machines transhumanists advocate cognitive enhancement along three vectors.

One vector is cognitive enhancement using pharmaceuticals, genetic therapies and tissue engineering. Direct modification of the organic brain will allow human beings to increase our intelligence, expand our memory, sharpen our capacity for concentration, and eliminate cognitive and psychological disabilities.

A second vector is through ‘cyborgization’ - the incorporation of devices, nanorobots and computers into the body. This trajectory may permit the augmentation of the senses with artificial hearing and sight superior to organic ears and eyes, the direct augmentation of cognition with brain prostheses, and connecting the brain wirelessly to the Internet. These technologies will likely converge with the growth of virtual worlds and augmented reality, blurring divisions between the “virtual” and the “real.”

The third vector of human enhancement is through the creation of ‘mind-children,’ computers and robots with, at least, human-level cognition, emotions and abilities. These machine minds may be created either through efforts to create artificial life and general intelligence, and/or by
uploading human minds into machines. Once created these machine minds may be far more capable and powerful than organic humans.

This special issue of Mind and Machines will explore the philosophical problems and implications of the transhumanist project in regards to these processes, cognitive enhancement, cyborgization and the creation of mind children. How far can these processes go, and how far should they go?


* What philosophical questions are posed by efforts to enhance intellectual, aesthetic and moral abilities with drugs, gene therapies, brain machines and computers?

* What philosophical questions are posed by cyborgization, uploading and the blurring of the real and virtual?

* How plausible are cognitive enhancement, human-machine integration, immersive virtual reality and the brain prostheses?

* Is uploading the mind to a computer platform possible?

* What implications do these technologies pose for personal identity and legal personhood? At what point, if any, do machines minds become rights-bearing persons?

* How likely is it that our descendents will be embodied in machines that stand to us in intelligence as we do our hominid ancestors? Read the full story »

RIT Scholars Explore the Impact of Imaging on Our Reality- Research investigates how imaging transforms, distorts and even creates what we perceive:
http://www.rit.edu/news/?v=47134

“Now more than ever, sight and perception are shaped by the technology we use, from X-rays and MRIs of the body to the Facebook photos of friends we only know online,” notes Timothy Engström, professor of philosophy at RIT and one of the leaders of the project. “In an imaging-saturated environment, sight is not about how the eye records the real, but about how imaging machines interpret and make the real available for certain kinds of use.”

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CHAPTER ONE

The Revival of Pragmatism
New Essays an Social Thought, Law, and Culture

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES PRAGMATISM MAKE? THE VIEW FROM PHILOSOPHY

Pragmatism as Romantic Polytheism: RICHARD RORTY

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