We’re returning to the issue of the New Atheism today. I’ve been thinking about it more and more lately. Rosie (whom I’ve had some spectacular arguments with over the topic) has just had a New Atheist T-shirt made up that reads “God: Neither Necessary Nor Sufficient” across the front of it. And Jason at EvolutionBlog […]

Do you perceive a growing sense of mistrust from the public with respect to science?
This is the second parter of a Brain Parade that we ran last month. I’ve already given an answer focusing on the “culture wars” in the United States and Canada and growing acceptance of Global Warming back then.
Looking back at my […]

Is the Enlightenment ideal on the rocks or is it merely a bit shaken?

MT: The three answers that we received to this question are wildly divergent from each other. Partly this is because in common usage the term enlightenment tends to denote not just the idea that reason can be used to build authoritative systems of logic, aesthetics and ethics, (a concept rooted, as Robert Freeman points out below, in the idea of the perfectibility of man) but also the wider concept that the application of reason through the scientific method is the best way to understand the physical world.

Some transhumanists have advocated the “uplifting” of primates. Do you see any merit in this idea?

The inspiration for this Brain Parade comes from my readings of thinking in the transhumanist movement. I agree with the transhumanists in a lot of things. They’re right to say that our response to ethical challenges posed by future technologies should be informed by something more than yuk factor.

Today we tackle a tricky question: Do you think advances in technology may spell the end for asymmetric warfare? And if so is this necessarily a bad thing?
Asymmetric warfare as defined by Wikipedia:
Asymmetric warfare is a term that describes a military situation in which two belligerents of unequal strength interact and take advantage of their respective strengths and weaknesses. This interaction often involves strategies and tactics outside the bounds of conventional warfare.

Science Fiction often presents a coded commentary on the present. What current work of science fiction do you think delivers the most relevant/poignant message with respect to our present geopolitical situation?

Today we interview The Guardian’s Technology editor Charles Arthur on the Free Our Data campaign, aimed at persuading the British government to stop charging for non personal data collected at the taxpayers expense. To read the original article that started the campaign go here. (link)

I have to confess to having a crush on utopian visions. I suspect that’s a side effect of a happy childhood and reading too much science fiction growing up. On the flipside however whenever people get the idea in their heads that the world would be perfect if only we did X, Y and Z then they tend to be a bit ruthless in their pursuit of it.

As usual you’ll have to wade through my two cents first: The first step that I see happening are networked grassroot movements gaining an increasing say in the internal politics of political parties. This isn’t going to happen quickly.

Today we get a head start on the week with an interview with science fiction author Mark Budz. I talk to him about science ficiton, writing, military robots and his latest novel Idolon.

I don’t pretend to have a crystal ball but I’m very optimistic about the effect of reputation systems will have in opening up new ways of doing business that sidestep Big Capital. Which isn’t to say that I think that market capitalism is somehow about to vanish but that we’re probably going to see more and more enterprises running on a different economic model.

Today we interview Keith Brooke the British science fiction author behind Genetopia (link), Green Party candidate and the man behind curtain at Infinityplus.co.uk. I asked him a few questions about his work and his politics.

We’re seeing renewed attacks on evolution, certain branches of scientitic research and conspiracy theories involving climatologists and Global Warming. At the same time supernatural thinking (new age, crystals, ID, deified interpretations of the Gaia hypothesis) are thriving. Should we be concerned by the level of magical thinking in our society? And if so what, if anything can be done about it?

o me the answer is to the first part of the question is a hell ya. To a limited extent we’re already there. The CIA extraodinary rendition scandal was broken by a network of bloggers with digicams. Tracking the movements of a CIA black op qualifies as government level survaileance in my books.

I’ve got a lot of good commentary on this Brain Parade from people who are much more knowledgeable and articulate on the subject than I am so instead of giving you my two pence let’s just get straight to the commentators:

We’re keeping it political today with a mini interview with Jamais Cascio who is the co-founder of Worldchanging (link), one of my favourite blogs. I got some commentary from Jamais for some of upcoming Brain Parades but I also took the oppurtunity to ask him some non-Brain Parade questions as well the answers to which I relate to you here:

I’m not going to answer this Brain Parade myself. I’ve already in fact written on this topic here (link) and I’ve got plenty of good commentary that covers most of the bases I’d want to elaborate on further anyway.

‘ve interviewed a number of transhumanists here over the past few weeks. Today I bring you an interview with Paul Hughes (no related to Dr. J Hughes) the editor of Future Hi. Paul is a pscyhedelic transhumanist, part of a movement that combines elements of spirituality, pschedelic culture and transhumanist thought.

We’ve interviewed a number of transhumanists over the past month. This week we interview technoprogressive Dale Carrico, a lecturer with the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California. I’ve read some of his writing on the IEET (link) and am impressed by his point of view.

Nick Bostrom is the co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association. In 2004, along with James Hughes, Bostrom co-founded the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. In 2005 he was appointed Director of the newly created Oxford Future of Humanity Institute.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Natasha recently, a transhumanist theorist and futurist with a background in the arts. She was kind enough to answer a few questions about transhumanism and futurism for us.

You’ve heard me mouth off last week about the Geek Rapture (a utopian Singularity scenario) and why I liken it to a religion (link). A few science fiction authors were kind enough to throw in their two cents. We’ll also be touching on this subject in the episode 7 of Meme Therapy the science fiction podcast which is going online in a few days.

It’s probably the circles I move in but when I usualy hear about the rapture, an event where us lowly mortals get uplifted into an indescribably wonderful higher state, its not in reference to the christian rapture but the geek one. The Geek Rapture refers to a utopian Singularity scenario.

We didn’t get into the concept of the Singularity in the last podcast. And while we will do a podcast on that topic in the future I came across a flick on the subject that is so good that I want to commend it to your attention now. It’s called Building Gods and you can download it off Google Video (link). I don’t normaly link to cool bits of media on the web but this nugget warrants a finger pointed at it.

As a warm up for our Transhumanim episode that we’re releasing this tuesday we conducted a short email interview with Mac Tonnies, a transhumanist and writer.

Continuing on with the transhumanist vein there’s a very interesting discussion paper published by Demos and the Wellcome trust available for download here discussing arguments both for and against various life / longevity / intelligence enhancing technologies. The potential social and political impacts of some of these future technologies are truly mind boggling and raises the possibility that within the next few decades the world could become a truly strange place.

If you want a dose of Transhumanism check out Dr. J’s Changesurfer radio. There’s some thought provoking interviews and speeches from scientists and science fiction writers. These guys aren’t just speculating on a transhumanist future they’re advocating it politicaly.

We seem to be entering an age where science is becoming increasingly political. Do you feel that there is an onus on science fiction writers to grapple with contemporary and near future political issues in their writing? And if so what kinds of issues and insights would you like to see the genre tackle more?