ELISE BOHAN: Ah shit, transhumanism….
Listen now
Description
What if we could bioengineer our bodies to live forever, would we and should we? What if we could avoid all the awkward bits of sex and just neatly copulate with a robot? And what if we never had to go through the bother and pain of pregnancy and could instead use artificial external wombs? Would we? And should we? Transhumanists say these are moot questions because the superhuman or post-human train has well and truly left the station. We’re only decades from these altered, souped up realities. Oxford transhumanist scholar Elise Bohan and I roll our sleeves up to discuss the litany of moral questions that arise from this, like why the hell were we not consulted on this before the train took off? Has anyone stopped to ask if this is what humanity wants or can handle morally? We chat about the singularity, the particularly worrying effects on men and dating and Elise posits a timeframe for AI intelligence taking over from human smarts (!). If ever there was a conversation in history to get us talking about what matters and makes for a flourishing existence, this is it. Take a deep breath… Grab Elise’s book, Future Superhuman: Our Transhuman Lives in a Make-or-Break Century  I refer to the book Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro And we reference previous podcast chats with William Macaskill ..... If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.  Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation.  Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life  Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More Episodes
Anna Funder (international bestselling author of Wifedom) pens books about power. She is the author of the international bestsellers Stasiland, about the Stasi, which is being made into a TV series starring Elizabeth Debicki, and All That I Am, about the Nazis, which won the Miles Franklin Award....
Published 04/16/24
In last week’s interview with a Palestinian and an Israeli Father, I promised to share how we met, a story that involves a famous actor, an Irish author and a bizarre email chain that starts in the Australian outback. Here it is. For some fun. And to remind us all of the power of story and of...
Published 04/11/24
Published 04/11/24