Transbeman, the era of CyberConsciousness (or the Death of Death?)

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending a private screening of Transbeman, a techno-fable film produced by Martine Rothblatt, that explores ethical, legal, and social implications of techno-immortality. I've asked for a clip/teaser to post, so that our readers can get a flavor for the film, but I can tell you that it is thoughtful, provocative, and raises many questions that would be a lot of fun to discuss in law classes or bioethics classes.

In an interview with We magazine, we get a peek into Martine's motivation: trying to make the world a better place. The problem, she explains is not that we are not smart enough, but that we are not empathetic, or kind, or compassionate enough, and the film explores that issue, masterfully. (And in the interest of full disclosure, Martine and I share a common passion -- to expand traditional notions of personhood.) The film has many wonderful archetypal references to the concept of dying to be reborn, but I don't want to reveal more, until the movie is officially released -- the producers, Transformer Films, are still looking a distributor, but once they find one, I have feel we'll be seeing a lot more of Transbeman, both in popular culture and in the classrooms of higher education. And considering that ABC news is doing their own research and special on the continuing evolution of the human race, it is a timely topic.

Stay tuned for more as this film and others like it, are released -- I look forward to the discourse!
[Mia, the first transbeman, developed by Qualia Robotics, depicted in the film]

A new species of humans?

We've blogged many a time before about a question philosophers and ethicists love to debate about: What does it mean to be 'human'? Now, thousands of human-like bones belonging to numerous individuals have been discovered in the Pacific island nation of Palau, that paleoanthropologist Lee Berger describes as "pushing the published boundaries of human variation."

According to National Geographic, "The remains are between 900 and 2,900 years old and align with Homo sapiens, according to a paper on the discovery. However, the older bones are tiny and exhibit several traits considered primitive, or archaic, for the human lineage."

The full article can be seen here and the video of Lee Berger and his finds can be seen here.

A few years ago, the bones of what have dubbed Homo floresiensis or "hobbits' were found in Indonesia in 2004 and the debate of whether those hominids were 'human' is still raging on. This new find will certainly add fuel to the fire of the debate of whether or not 'humans' are exclusively Homo sapiens.

The question, it seems to me, is do what want a more inclusive notion of what humanity means? Or a more exclusive notion?

If it is a more exclusive notion, then let me quote Groucho Marx: "I'm not sure I'd want to be member of a club that would have me as a member."