[ExI] Taxonomy of Human Enhancement

[Max More]

I'm not sure about the exact phrase "human enhancement", but "performance
enhancement" has been used for decades in discussions of enhancement in
sports and in intellectual pursuits. Prof. Michael Shapiro at USC has
written about this at least since the 1980s.

--Max


2012/1/9 John Tracy Cunningham <johntc at gmail.com>

> Morrison at Exeter in his 2008 paper<http://exeter.academia.edu/MichaelMorrison/Papers>,
> "Beyond the perils and promise...", says that the term enhancement grew out
> of the bioethical debate c. 1980 over gene therapy.  See the section
> beginning p. 8, "The origins and shaping of enhancement as a category," but
> other parts of the paper also address this question.
>
> Regards
>
> John
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 2:37 PM, Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc>wrote:
>
>> I did find the term used by Brodey and Lingren. I believe they were both
>> at
>> MIT in the '60s.  Here is a link between human enhancement and AI:
>>
>> "In 1969, Warren M. Brodey and Nilo Lingren co-authored 'Human enhancement
>> through evolutionary technology' (87-97) as a proposition that fosters
>> controlling man’s skills and his environment though artificial
>> intelligence.
>>
>> 'There is a need now, more than ever before, for men to stretch their
>> capacities in what we shall call evolutionary skills. Moreover, it is at
>> last becoming possible technologically to enhance these skills in man by
>> incorporating somewhat similar evolutionary skills in the machines which
>> we
>> design and build'(Brodey & Lingren 1969:1)." (Vita-More 2011)
>>
>> Brodey, Warren M. and Lindgren, Nilo. (1967) “Human enhancement through
>> evolutionary technology” in _IEET Spectrum_, Vol. 4, No. 9, September
>> 1967,
>> The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., pp 87-97.
>>
>> This links human enhancement to a more cyberentics approach, but I'm not
>> sure if this is where transhumanists started using the phrase.
>>
>> Natasha
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
>> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Natasha
>> Vita-More
>> Sent: Monday, January 09, 2012 7:04 AM
>> To: 'ExI chat list'
>> Subject: Re: [ExI] Taxonomy of Human Enhancement
>>
>> Human enhancement is a different concept than life extension, although it
>> can include it but does not have to, whereas life extension must include
>> enhancement. Fedorov was passionate about resurrecting the dead and Finot
>> envisioned humans creating new life forms on the molecular level, he
>> neither
>> wrote about "human enhancement".  Funny you should mention Ilia though
>> because yesterday we were working on a project for the upcoming Israel
>> festival on radical life extension. :-)
>>
>> Anyway, thanks but I need to know where the phrase "human enhancement"
>> originated because it has matured into a possible field and no one has
>> written about this and it would be good to credit the folks who came up
>> with
>> it.  I suppose it could as Roco and Bainbridge since they developed NBIC
>> (as
>> far as I know, but someone please correct me if I am wrong.)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Natasha
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
>> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK
>> Sent: Monday, January 09, 2012 1:51 AM
>> To: ExI chat list
>> Subject: Re: [ExI] Taxonomy of Human Enhancement
>>
>> 2012/1/9 Natasha Vita-More wrote:
>> > If anyone knows where human enhancement, as a phrase that refers to life
>> > extension, elevating the human condition, and uploading, please let me
>> know!
>> >
>>
>>
>> I think this might help.
>>
>> <http://jetpress.org/v21/stambler.htm>
>>
>> Life extension – a conservative enterprise? Some fin-de-siècle and
>> early twentieth-century precursors of transhumanism
>> Ilia Stambler
>>
>> Abstract
>>
>>  The beginning of the modern period in the pursuit of radical human
>> enhancement and longevity can be traced to fin-de-siècle/early
>> twentieth-century scientific and technological optimism and
>> therapeutic activism. The works of several authors of the period –
>> Fedorov, Stephens, Bogdanov, Nietzsche and Finot – reveal conflicting
>> ideological and social pathways toward the goals of human enhancement
>> and life extension.
>>
>> (Also see list of references at the end of the document).
>>
>>
>> BillK
>>
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-- 
Max More, PhD
Strategic Philosopher
Co-editor, *The Transhumanist Reader*
CEO, Alcor Life Extension Foundation
7895 E. Acoma Dr # 110
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
480/905-1906 ext 113
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