DISCUSSION: What Limits Should Humans Impose Upon Themselves—and Why?

# Welcome to Coffee and Conversations!

MEETUP DISCUSSION: What Limits Should Humans Impose Upon Themselves—and Why?
Saturday, November 7 at 9:30 AM

Human beings have an extraordinary ability to overcome limits.

We can extend life, alter our bodies, manipulate our environment, engineer new technologies, modify genes, create artificial intelligence, control reproduction, and accomplish things previous generations could hardly have imagined.

But our increasing ability to do something raises a much harder question:
Just because we can do something, does that mean we should?

At this Coffee & Conversations Meetup, we'll explore the relationship between human freedom, technological progress, morality, and limits. Are limits simply obstacles to overcome—or might some limits actually be necessary for human flourishing?

Together, we'll discuss questions like:

• Is overcoming human limitations always a form of progress?
• How do we determine whether a new technology is good rather than merely useful?
• Are there things human beings should never do, even if we eventually have the ability to do them?
• Should we genetically enhance future children if we can?
• Should humans attempt to dramatically extend—or even overcome—the limits of human life?
• How far should we go in modifying our bodies?
• Should artificial intelligence eventually be allowed to make major decisions for human beings?
• Is dependence, weakness, aging, or mortality simply a problem for technology to solve?
• Does human nature place any moral limits on what we should become?
• Who should decide where the boundaries are: individuals, scientists, governments, communities, religious traditions—or someone else?
• Can freedom exist without limits?
• Could voluntarily accepting certain limits actually make us more human rather than less?
• And perhaps the biggest question of all: What must a human being be before we can know what human beings ought—or ought not—to become?

This discussion isn't about being for or against technology or progress. Instead, we'll examine the assumptions underneath them.

If human beings are completely self-defining, perhaps the only limits are those we choose for ourselves. But if there is such a thing as human nature, objective morality, or a purpose for human existence, then some boundaries may not be ours to erase.

Whether you approach these questions from science, philosophy, technology, religion, or simple curiosity, join us for an open and thoughtful conversation over coffee.

The question isn't merely, “What can we do?” It is, “What should we do—and what kind of human beings will we become if we do it?”

Location:
Js Coffee
42 S. Cass Ave.
Westmont, IL 60559

We will walk to a restaurant for lunch afterward for those who want to continue the conversation.

☕ Coffee
💬 Conversation
🧠 Big questions