{"id":9275,"date":"2017-03-16T19:16:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T18:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.bcsss.org\/2017\/bcsss-dialogue-april-12th-2017-the-utopia-of-universal-control-critical-thoughts-on-transhumanism\/"},"modified":"2017-03-16T19:16:27","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T18:16:27","slug":"bcsss-dialogue-april-12th-2017-the-utopia-of-universal-control-critical-thoughts-on-transhumanism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/2017\/bcsss-dialogue-april-12th-2017-the-utopia-of-universal-control-critical-thoughts-on-transhumanism\/","title":{"rendered":"BCSSS Dialogue. April 12th 2017 &#8222;The Utopia of Universal Control: Critical Thoughts on Transhumanism&#8220;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On April 12th 2017 the Bertalanffy Center invites to a discussion on Transhumanism introduced by a critical talk by Janina Loh <strong>&#8222;The Utopia of Universal Control: Critical Thoughts on Transhumanism&#8220;<\/strong> and a statement <strong>&#8222;The Ghost of Transhumanism and the Sentience of Existence&#8220;<\/strong> by Sarah Spiekermann.<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/philtech.univie.ac.at\/team\/janina-loh-nee-sombetzki\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Janina Loh<\/a><\/strong> is University Assistant in <a href=\"http:\/\/philtech.univie.ac.at\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Philosophy of Media and Technology<\/a> at the<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.univie.ac.at\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of Vienna<\/a> and is writing her habilitation on the movement of trans- and post humanism.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Janina-Loh.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8493\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Janina-Loh.jpeg\" alt=\"\" height=\"289\" width=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Janina-Loh.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Janina-Loh-300x217.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Janina-Loh-100x72.jpeg 100w, https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Janina-Loh-150x108.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Janina-Loh-200x145.jpeg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wu.ac.at\/ec\/team\/sarah-spiekermann\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sarah Spiekermann<\/a> is University Professor and head of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wu.ac.at\/ec\/home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Institute of Management Information Systems<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wu.ac.at\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vienna University of Economics and Business<\/a> and works on<br \/>\nethical design of IT.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sarah-Spiekermann.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8494\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sarah-Spiekermann.jpeg\" alt=\"\" height=\"291\" width=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sarah-Spiekermann.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sarah-Spiekermann-300x218.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sarah-Spiekermann-100x73.jpeg 100w, https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sarah-Spiekermann-150x109.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sarah-Spiekermann-200x146.jpeg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8222;The Utopia of Universal Control: Critical Thoughts on Transhumanism&#8220;<\/strong><br \/>\nTrans- and posthumanism are two heterogeneous movements of the late 20th century, located in philosophical anthropology and philosophy of technology. They combine several disciplines such as philosophy, social and cultural studies, computer and AI-sciences. The transhumanist project is a development, enhancement, and perfection of man by transforming her. Posthumanism wants to overcome man and predicts her approaching end. The transhumanist goal is a \u201cnew human being\u201d, a human being x.0 so to speak, whereas the technological-posthumanists\u2019 goal is commonly an artificial superintelligence. Transhumanists address issues such as human enhancement, cryonics, cyborgization, virtuality, and space. Technological posthumanists discuss topics such as mind uploading, artificial alterity and the singularity. Critical posthumanism questions humanist categories and traditional dualisms such as subject \u2013 object, nature \u2013 culture, man \u2013 woman, mind \u2013 body, the natural \u2013 the artificial, and so on. Via this procedure it aims at overcoming any anthropocentric and essentialist concept of \u201cthe human\u201d. In a nutshell, in trans- and posthumanism exist at least three strategies to overcome man: (1) Transhumanism tends to enhance man to a human x.0, (2) technological posthumanism creates an artificial alterity, and (3) critical posthumanism questions conventional categories to define man. In my talk I will outline my critique of transhumanism and technological posthumanism as the agenda of a utopia of universal control.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThis discussion is an event organised by the BCSSS Research Group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/research\/fields-and-groups\/emergent-systems-information-and-society\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>&#8222;Emergent Systems, Information and Society&#8220;<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nDate: <\/strong>April 12th 2017<br \/>\n<strong>Time: <\/strong>6.30 pm<\/p>\n<p><strong>Venue: <\/strong>Bertalanffy Center, Paulanergasse 13\/5, 1040 Wien<\/p>\n<p>For registration please send an email to <a href=\"mailto:tess.werner@bcsss.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tess.werner@bcsss.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 12th 2017 the Bertalanffy Center invites to a discussion on Transhumanism introduced by a critical talk by Janina Loh &#8222;The Utopia of Universal Control: Critical Thoughts on Transhumanism&#8220; and a statement &#8222;The Ghost of Transhumanism and the Sentience of Existence&#8220; by Sarah Spiekermann. Janina Loh is University Assistant&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}