Fast Forward Radio Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A panel of futurists, including Brian Wang of Next Big Future, will discuss how and why people are going to be making major enhancements to themselves, and soon on Fast Forward Radio. This will be part 4 of the World Transformed Series by the Speculist blog.

We’re all familiar with enhancements intended to make us stronger or to look younger or more beautiful, but those hardly scratch the surface. Are you ready for technologies that can make us truly younger, stronger, smarter?

How about rebuilding the human machinery from the ground-up? Need longer legs? An extra hand? Eyes literally in the back of your head?

Who wants feathers? Wings? Gills?

Or maybe you’re tired of having your computer do all the thinking for you. Are you ready to become the computer yourself?

From the highly desirable to the downright disturbing, we explore arguments for and against, benefits and risks, and the inevitability of re-working the human architecture.

The Guest Panelists

RU Sirius is the man who shows us where cyberculture and counterculture meet. He is a writer, talk show host, musician, and the editor of H+ magazine.

George Dvorsky is a transhumanist futurist who serves on the board of directors for Humanity+ and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He blogs at Sentient Developments, where he provides speculations on the future of intelligent life.

Brian Wang is a futurist who blogs about all things future-related at NextBigFuture. He is the Director of Research for the Lifeboat Foundation and a member of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Task Force.

The Speculist talks about enhancement in a recent article.