Anders Sandberg

Abstract:

The enhancement debate in neuroscience and biomedical ethics tends to focus on the augmentation of certain capacities or functions: memory, learning, attention, and the like. Typically, the point of contention is whether these augmentative enhancements should be considered permissible for individuals with no particular "medical" disadvantage along any of the dimensions of interest. Less frequently addressed in the literature, however, is the fact that sometimes the diminishment of a capacity or function, under the right set of circumstances, could plausibly contribute to an individual's overall well-being: more is not always better, and sometimes less is more. Such cases may be especially likely, we suggest, when trade-offs in our modern environment have shifted since the environment of evolutionary adaptation. In this article, we introduce the notion of "diminishment as enhancement" and go on to defend a welfarist conception of enhancement. We show how this conception resolves a number of definitional ambiguities in the enhancement literature, and we suggest that it can provide a useful framework for thinking about the use of emerging neurotechnologies to promote human flourishing.

Abstract:

The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the strong likelihood of alien intelligent life emerging (under a wide variety of assumptions) and the absence of any visible evidence for such emergence. In this paper, we extend the Fermi paradox to not only life in this galaxy, but to other galaxies as well. We do this by demonstrating that travelling between galaxies - indeed even launching a colonisation project for the entire reachable universe - is a relatively simple task for a star-spanning civilisation, requiring modest amounts of energy and resources. We start by demonstrating that humanity itself could likely accomplish such a colonisation project in the foreseeable future, should we want to. Given certain technological assumptions, such as improved automation, the task of constructing Dyson spheres, designing replicating probes, and launching them at distant galaxies, become quite feasible. We extensively analyse the dynamics of such a project, including issues of deceleration and collision with particles in space. Using similar methods, there are millions of galaxies that could have reached us by now. This results in a considerable sharpening of the Fermi paradox. © 2013 IAA.

Abstract:

This chapter presents comments by David Brin, Damien Broderick, Nick Bostrom, Alexander "Sasha" Chislenko, Robin Hanson, Max More, Michael Nielsen, and Anders Sandberg on Vernor Vinge's Singularity concept. Vinge's "Singularity" is a worthy contribution to the long tradition of contemplations about human transcendence. Around 2050, or maybe as early as 2020, is when Dr. Vernor Vinge's technological Singularity is expected to erupt, in the considered opinion of a number of scientists. Two potential technologies stand out from the others in terms of their importance: superintelligence and nanotechnology. Vinge says that probably by 2030 and occurring "faster than any technical revolution seen so far," perhaps "in a month or two," "it may seem as if our artifacts as a whole had suddenly wakened." The Singularity idea exerts a powerful intellectual and imaginative attraction. Precisely because of this powerful attractive force, the Singularity idea deserves a critical examination. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.