Nick Bostrom
From dKosopedia
Nick Bostrom is a British philosopher, bioethicist and posthumanist. He is currently the director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University.
Bostrom's work expresses an optimistic view of the potential life-enhancing applications of nascent and emerging biotechnology and cybernetics. Focusing on the ethical implications of these technologies, he has written at length about the positive potential of a "posthuman" state of being following the technological Singularity predicted by Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil, among others. He is not, however, a utopian and acknowledges the existential risks posed by nanotechnology and strong Artificial Intelligence.
Bostrom is opposed to the bioconservatism of outspoken critics like Leon Kass and Francis Fukuyama who act as intelelctual front men for the Republican bioethical agenda which is guided by Christian moral interpretation and the attempt to expand the social conservative voting base rather than by logic or rationalism. He questions the abstract notion of "human dignity" that bioconservatives invoke as an argument in-itself against human enhancement.
Bostrom has often expressed views contrary to those of the President's Council on Bioethics.
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