Det posthumane vilkår

THE POSTHUMAN CONDITION:

LONG PERSPECTIVES, IMMINENT DECISIONS

MatchPoints 3 seminar at Aarhus University

May 6-7, 2010

Will humans be able to live 200 years? Or 500 years? If biotechnology can be used to “upgrade” humans physically and mentally, should it be done, and if so, to what extent? Are the consequences so overwhelmingly complex and uncertain that society should refrain from even limited uses of biotechnology? How will biotechnology affect societal cohesion, and can the development be controlled? Or is this a Pandora’s box that should remain closed?

These are just a few of the many questions that arise as a result of the increasing ability of technology to change biology and, in the long run, to radically change human living conditions. This development has created a new horizon that Professor Francis Fukuyama has called, in his skeptical book of the same title, “our posthuman future”, since it is predictable that over time a series of technologies can and will change our understanding of what it means to be a human being.

Featuring Francis Fukuyama as the keynote speaker, the conference aims to address the challenges of

• Imagining a society where the properties of humans have shifted radically;
• Assessing the scope of deploying technologies that are underway;
• Basing decisions on an ethical foundation that does not entail a concept of human nature;
• Finding out what kinds of political action can and should be taken in the face of this situation.

The conference is interdisciplinary and gathers leading Scandinavian and international researchers within the fields of biotechnology, medicine, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. The Australian artist Stelarc will participate via video link from Australia. Francis Fukuyama will be speaking on May 6 in the afternoon. See the complete programme below.

The conference is being organized by Associate Professor Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Professor Jacob Wamberg, and Professor Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, all of Aarhus University.
Registration is free. Please send a mail with name and institutional affiliation to posthumancondition@gmail.com. Without registration access to the conference cannot be guaranteed.
Programme: visit seminar site here