Super-intelligence and eternal life: transhumanism's faithful follow it blindly into a future for the elite Distant Earth. Alexander Thomas , University of East London The rapid development of so-called NBIC technologies – nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science – are giving rise to possibilities that have long been the domain of science fiction. Disease, ageing and even death are all human realities that these technologies seek to end. They may enable us to enjoy greater “morphological freedom” – we could take on new forms through prosthetics or genetic engineering. Or advance our cognitive capacities. We could use brain-computer interfaces to link us to advanced artificial intelligence (AI). Nanobots could roam our bloodstream to monitor our health and enhance our emotional propensities for joy, love or other emotions. Advances in one area often raise new possibilities in others, and this “co...
Facebook ten year challenge: how our need to belong trumps our distrust of social media ra2studio via Shutterstock Ana Isabel Domingos Canhoto , Brunel University London When the ten year challenge began doing the rounds on social media, people rushed to post profile pictures of themselves from 2009, side by side with one from 2019, to highlight how much they had changed (or not) in the meantime. It is estimated that more than 5.2m social media users participated in this challenge. It started on Facebook towards the end of January 2019, and it didn’t take long for experts like tech author Kate O’Neil to suggest that the trend could have harmful consequences. Specifically, by posting the now-and-then photos with the #10yearchallenge hashtag, social media users were, possibly, helping to train facial recognition software to recognise – or predict – age-related changes. Facebook has denied that it is behind the viral trend or that it had...
Debate: How to stop our cities from being turned into AI jungles In the city of London, security cameras can even be found in cemeteries. In 2021 the mayor’s office launched an effort to establish guidelines for research around emerging technology. Acabashi/Wikimedia , CC BY Stefaan G. Verhulst , New York University As artificial intelligence grows more ubiquitous, its potential and the challenges it presents are coming increasingly into focus. How we balance the risks and opportunities is shaping up as one of the defining questions of our era. In much the same way that cities have emerged as hubs of innovation in culture, politics, and commerce, so they are defining the frontiers of AI governance. Some examples of how cities have been taking the lead include the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights , the Montreal Declaration for Responsible AI , and the Open Dialogue on AI Ethics . Others can be found in San Francisco’s ban of facial-rec...
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