TRANSHUMANISM – THE PROPER GUIDE TO A POSTHUMAN CONDITION OR A DANGEROUS IDEA?

Organizers

SIG Emergent Systems, Information and Society (supported by the Leibniz-Sozietät der Wissenschaften zu Berlin and the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science) and Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Social Responsibility (FIfF), Germany

 

Call for papers

Transhumanism is an international philosophical and futuristic movement aiming to enhance the intellectual and physical capabilities of human beings beyond their current limits. It has gotten quite some drive and attention in the last 30 years. Transhumanists intend to employ already existing technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, cognitive science, information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and others as human enhancement technologies.

Max More, one of the major proponents, defines transhumanism as „a class of philosophies that seek to guide us towards a posthuman condition“. In contrast, critics like Francis Fukuyama consider transhumamism as one of „the world´s most dangerous ideas“.
The workshop will provide a forum to discuss the pros and cons of transhumanism from the point of view of information sciences, ethics, economics, psychology etc. Interested researchers are invited to submit a two-page abstract.

Invited Speakers

Olle Häggström Chalmers University of Technology
Janina Loh, University of Vienna, Austria
Sarah Spiekermann, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Felix Tretter, Bayerische Akademie für Suchtfragen in Forschung und Praxis BAS e.V. Munich, German

Program committee

Wolfgang Hofkirchner, Vienna University of Technology, Austria,
wolfgang.hofkirchner@bcsss.org
Hans-Jörg Kreowski, University of Bremen, Germany; Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Social Responsibility (FIfF), Germany (Chair)
kreo@informatik.uni-bremen.de
Tomáš Sigmund, University of Economics, Prague, Czechia,
tomas.sigmund@gmail.com
Britta Schinzel, University of Freiburg, Germany; Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Social Responsibility (FIfF), Germany
schinzel@modell.iig.uni-freiburg.de
Christian Stary, Johannes Kepler Universität, Linz, Austria,
Christian.Stary@jku.at
Sabine Thürmel, Technische Universität München. Munich, Germany,
Sabine@Thuermel.de