Transhumanism: Future scenarios, with Stefan Lorenz Sorgner

Which future scenarios involving transhumanism are the most likely or the most desirable?

Is it time to retire the term "transhumanism", or is that term poised for a new take-off?

Which transhumanist projects most deserve attention and support?

To what extent are diverse voices a source of strength for the transhumanist community, and to what extent do they risk diluting focus?

Which criticisms of transhumanism are confused, which are malevolent or deliberately contrarian, and which are actually catalytic?

Does transhumanism have any special insight on whether technology should be accelerated, harnessed, or even paused?

In a world of populism and turmoil, does transhumanism provide a true north, or is it the opium of the people?

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During 2025, London Futurists will host a series of webinars collectively addressing the above questions, featuring speakers from around the world, who have each thought long and hard about at least some of these issues.

The webinars will be recorded and made available for viewing, as a public record of the state of transhumanism in 2025.

To launch this new series, we are very fortunate to welcome Professor Stefan Lorenz Sorgner as the first guest speaker.

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner is a philosophy professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Director and Co-Founder of the Beyond Humanism Network, Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), Research Fellow at the Ewha Institute for the Humanities at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, academic Advisor of Humanity+, and Visiting Fellow at the Ethics Centre of the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena.

Sorgner has recently given the 2024 Stanislaw Kaminski Memorial Lectures (*) at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, which was a 30-hour course dedicated to "Euro-Transhumanism". In this webinar, we'll be reviewing a number of the key themes of that course.

The webinar will include plenty of time for audience questions and feedback.

(*) Twenty years ago, this prestigious lecture series was given by John Searle, whose Chinese Room Argument has become a standard topic concerning the philosophy of AI.

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This event will be hosted on Zoom. To register, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XE-H-OyYSJm3aEzhcokTJA.

There will be no charge to attend the webinar.

The webinar will start broadcasting at 4pm UK time on Sat 25th January. To find this time in other timezones, use https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20250125T160000&p1=136

Please log into Zoom up to 10 minutes ahead of the start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast.

As the discussion proceeds, attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.

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To register for this event, click here.