Consciousness and the transhuman August 19, 2006

Dr M A Twyman on "Consciousness and the transhuman"

Many of the long-term futurist scenarios frequently discussed by transhumanists touch upon questions of the nature of sentience. For example: Is uploading feasible, or even possible in principle? How might we assess the degree or type of sentience in a truly alien lifeform? Serious answers to these and other questions require recourse to scientific theories of the nature of consciousness and human sentience. Dr Twyman will briefly review the principal contemporary accounts of consciousness, and then describe their relevance to areas of particular interest to transhumanism, before leading discussion of the kinds of social and research policies
which transhumanists should perhaps be advocating.

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