Workshop: Transhumanism—The Proper Guide to a Posthuman Condition or a Dangerous Idea? ^†

Organizers: IS4SI 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

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 and future 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 provided a forum to discuss the pros and cons of transhumanism from the point of view of information sciences, ethics, economics, psychology etc. The program comprised twelve presentations.

• Syed Mustafa Ali: Transhumanism and/as Whiteness
• Christopher Coenen: Transhumanism: A Progressive Vision of the Future or Liberal Capitalism’s Last Ideological Resort?
• José Díaz-Nafría and Teresa Guarda: Is the Internet-of-Things a Burden or a Leverage for the Human Condition?
• Olle Häggström: Aspects of Mind Uploading (invited)
• Wolfgang Hofkirchner: Imagined Futures Gone Astray. An Ontological Analysis
• Hans-Jörg Kreowski: Transhumanism and Nanotechnology—Will Old Myths Come True?
• Roman M. Krzanowski and Kamil Trombik: Just Machine Test (JMT)
• Janina Loh: The Utopia of Universal Control—Critical Thoughts on the Transhumanist and Technological-Posthumanist Concept of the Human, Transhuman, and Posthuman (invited)
• Tomáš Sigmund: Motives of Transhumanism
• Sarah Spiekermann: Human Manifesto (invited)
• Christian Stary: Agogic Principles in Trans-human Settings
• Felix Tretter: Image of Men in Posthumanism of Information Society (invited)