Humanity, Technology, and Transhumanism

What is life?
What is it to be human?
What is the "I" that lies behind our eyes?
What is the relationship between humanity and technology?

While these timeless questions may seem difficult to approach, we are going to examine them through the eyes of a recent philosophical movement called Transhumanism. While transhumanism's broad scope exceeds the bounds of a short presentation, we may at least consider some of the philosophical assumptions held by its proponents, such as Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil, an inventor and author known for the accuracy of some remarkable predictions about technology, and others believe that technology and humanity will become increasingly intertwined, resulting in a fundamental shift in our conceptions and definitions regarding humanity.

We will also consider what concepts such as "Complexity" and "Emergence" have to say about human consciousness. We will consider the approach of cognitive/computer scientist Douglas Hofstadter and philosopher Daniel Dennett and examine the advantages and disadvantages to a variety of approaches to defining "humanity."

Finally, we will examine the concept of intelligence and discuss the future of A.I. (artificial intelligence). The presentation will be brief and as non-technical as possible in order to provide time for discussion.

Will Langley (one of our members) will be bringing us this topic. Bring a friend if you like and come discuss with us over dinner!

A donation of $1 per person is requested to cover Meetup fees.

PARKING DIRECTIONS:
You can park on the Eastbound side of Hillsborough street, or you can also park in the parking lot indicated on the Porter's Website, http://porterstavern....