TransVision

Posted by tomo at 10:27 PM in technology . | 1 Comments

Last week I sat in on the annual World Transhumanist conference, TransVision 2004, in Toronto. I got to hear Aubrey de Grey talk about the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, which he is quite optimistic about, believing there are no more than seven causes of aging which need to be (and are on their way to being) conquered in order to halt or reverse aging. Interestingly, this conference garnered a write-up in the libertarian magazine, Reason. And not too long ago, Aubrey was featured in Fortune. Is this the beginning of the mainstreaming of transhumanist ideas?

The conference wasn't just about aging. Other lecture topics ranged from activism and emerging technologies in Africa to theoretical nanomachines to mmorpgs. Even one entitled "Female Infertility and Reproductive Technology: An Artist's Perspective". I missed that one.

To top it off, the funny and entertaining Australian performance artist, Stelarc, was in attendance and gave a keynote address as well as a talk where he argued against the concept of self, believing himself (whoops) to be not unlike a zombie or a puppet.