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Tag Archives: ethics

the road less taken
Posted in Act II Chapter II: Infinity /By dustin m. smith /2 comments

Tools, Shortcuts, And A Whiff Of Infinity

It took me several hours to fix. Four or five at least. It could have been worse, I now realize. It could have been… irreparable. If there was ever any doubt, there isn’t any longer: There’s always a cost when you take a shortcut. * * * The internet isn’t infinite, although it might as well be. Where is the ceiling for something on the internet? It’s exists, sure. But it’s so unfathomably high that you could never possibly reach it. Literally all your grandest dreams for growing your idea, your tribe, or your movement on the internet will pale … Read more »

28Jul
scooter in times square
Posted in Act I Chapter X: Transhumanism, Biology, Curious? /By dustin m. smith /3 comments

What Is Transhumanism?

Wikipedia defines transhumanism as: an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities One of the lessons I’ve learned as an adult is that sometimes the best response is silence and contemplation. So, this is me contemplating, and (almost) being silent.   Any thoughts?   *Photo Credit: Rodrigo Cayo (Creative Commons) This week’s topic (also known as the Weekly Curiosity) is transhumanism. Check back each weekday at 12:34pm for a new … Read more »

19Jun
ray kurzweil explaining singularity
Posted in Act I Chapter X: Transhumanism, Biology /By dustin m. smith /Leave comment

Ray Kurzweil Is Not A Crazy Person

Ray Kurzweil is not a crazy person. He’s been called “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. PBS included him on an elite list of 16 “revolutionaries who made America,” a list meant to span the whole of U.S. history. Bill Gates described him as “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence,” and Gates is hardly the only tech mogul paying Kurzweil their attention. Bill Joy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, shares Gates’ interest, beginning his widely read 2000 article in Wired magazine with the following: From the … Read more »

18Jun
futuristic surgery on human
Posted in Act I Chapter IX: Gentic Engineering /By dustin m. smith /Leave comment

Symptoms And Diseases: When Better Is Really The Same

Not long ago, I read medical records for a living. Each day I’d scan through hundreds, if not thousands, of pages, looking for diagnoses, treatment plans, and patients’ responses to prescribed medication. A boring job for some; but, for me, it was fascinating. You learn a lot reading medical records. There are a million different ways to break the machine we call the human body. There are perhaps even more to break the mind. In order to succeed, I had to learn very early on a critical distinction. I had to learn the distinction between symptoms and diseases. The Common Cold … Read more »

14Jun
woman holding plant samples at gene bank
Posted in Act I Chapter IX: Gentic Engineering /By dustin m. smith /3 comments

Ethics Of Genetic Engineering: To Cure Or Enhance?

I’d like to begin exploring our next idea by kicking things off with a question. The question is hardly exclusive to the topic of genetic engineering. We can (and do) ask it in the fields of medicine, psychiatry, and many others. Genetic engineering just happens to be one of those places where it’s asked with great frequency, for reasons that we’ll discuss throughout the next few days. The question is this: Should the ultimate goal of (technology x) be to cure or to enhance? Jagged Terrain, Murky Waters It’s a simple enough question, I think. As history so often demonstrates, … Read more »

11Jun
sisters on beach
Posted in Act I Chapter VIII: Heredity /By dustin m. smith /5 comments

What Makes You You

What makes you you? When it comes to our stories, there might not be a more important question than this. Are you, as they say, your mother’s daughter? Your father’s son? Are you the apple that didn’t fall far from the tree? So much hinges upon our answers to these questions. So much depends on the ways our identities are formed. Thus, it seems that we’d better ask… What makes you you? Nature-Nurture Building on what seems to be a recent theme, the question could also be asked like this: Is our identity determined by the way the world is … Read more »

05Jun
Posted in Arts and Humanities /By dustin m. smith /Leave comment

American Values In A Flat World

There’s a lot being said right now about who is best fit to lead our country out of its current state of affairs. Actually, there is probably no less being said than in any other time about any other state of affairs- but that’s beside the point. If you listen to the talk radio shows or read the newspaper, you’re likely to find sensational accounts of how “they” have gotten it wrong and are leading the country off a cliff. “They” are both Republicans and Democrats. They want tax cuts and they want tax increases. They want small government and … Read more »

12Sep