Thomas Söderqvist BODIES and Body Worlds are about human bodies of the past and present. But what about the body in the future? All those with a critical interest in displaying human enhancement, medical science and emerging technologies might get some interesting input from these two upcoming events in May:
On Monday 19 May the University of Warwick Sociology Department arranges its annual debate on the topic ‘There is no scientific basis to the concept of humanity’ at 5.30-7 pm. Bioethics professor John Harris (Manchester; author of Enhancing Evolution, 2007) will argue in favour of the claim, and sociology professor Steve Fuller (Warwick) against. Also, the same week, Peter Sloterdijk (author of the widely debated 1999 essay ‘Regeln für den Menschenpark’, see a comment here) will be visiting the Warwick campus. In other words, plenty of input for all kinds of discussions about posthumanism and converging technologies. Contact ann.ryan@warwick.ac.uk for details.
Ten days later, on Friday 30 May, BioSys (a Copenhagen-based high-tech knowledge network for bioinformatics and systems biology) invites to a public symposium on “Human Post-Genomics, Evolution and the Future of Life” with the aim to inform “everyone with an interest in the frontiers of Life Science” about how computer technology and software for handling complex biological data are revolutionizing today’s biological research. But the meeting is also supposed to provide “a new foundation for contesting and reconfiguring former understandings of human nature, human history and the future of human life”— i.e., the posthumanist agenda, broadly seen. The Copenhagen meeting will take place in the new Royal Library Black Diamond from 9 am to 4 pm. Attendance is free, but pre-registration necessary (www.biosys.dk).
(for earlier posts on this blog about medical science and human enhancement, see for example here, here and here).
What about the human body in the future?
BODIES and Body Worlds are about human bodies of the past and present. But what about the body in the future? All those with a critical interest in displaying human enhancement, medical science and emerging technologies might get some interesting input from these two upcoming events in May: On Monday 19 May the University of Warwick Sociology Department arranges its annual debate […]
