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Friends,
As you may know, my book about transhumanism and democracy, Citizen Cyborg, is coming out in two weeks: www.amazon.com/exec/obido...0813341981/
I'd like to request your helping in promoting it. A couple ideas:
1. I'll be traveling some in the coming months and I'm trying to set up book store readings/signings. In the NYC/NJ/New England area I could probably make an event with little advance planning. Outside of New England my travel plans currently are:
- October 23-24 - Washington D.C.
- October 28-31 - Philadelphia, PA
- November 6-7 - Chicago
- November 14-16 - Portsmouth NH
- November 25-28 - Washington D.C.
- January 13-15 - Santa Fe, New Mexico
- March 4-6 - New York City
So if you are in one of those places, and would like to help me arrange something, let me know.
2. The book's visibility on Amazon is partly determined by whether people have recommended it as an "in addition to" or "instead of" for other books. Citizen Cyborg's ISBN is 0813341981, and you just put it in the little box on another book's page, like Andy Clark's Natural Born Cyborgs www.amazon.com/exec/obido...0195148665/ or Stock's Redesigning Humans www.amazon.com/exec/obido...061806026X/
3. I'm a scintillating interviewee, full of pithy quotable opinions. If there is a local radio talk show that you think might be good call/email them the material below, and tell them to book me. Make sure to tell them about Fukuyama's assertion that transhumanism is the most dangerous idea in the world.
Thanks for your help. We have a couple explicitly transhumanist books coming out in the coming year, such as Ramez Naam's More than Human, so let's all help get them to the top of the charts. Starting with mine.
;-)
----------------------------------
Dr. J. Hughes
Author of Citizen Cyborg
(Westview Press, 2004)
cyborgdemocracy.net/citizencyborg.htm
(phone) 860-428-1837
jhughes@changesurfer.com
------------------------------------------------
SAMPLE EMAIL TO A LOCAL RADIO STATION
Dear (Program Director/Show Producer),
There is someone who I think would be great on [name of show]: Dr. James Hughes, the author of the book Citizen Cyborg thats coming out November 1.
His book is about the growing debate over "transhumanism," the idea that people should be allowed to become "more than human." Recently Francis Fukuyama, a professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins who is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, wrote in the journal Foreign Policy that transhumanism was the most dangerous idea in the world.
I've heard Hughes speak (he produces a weekly radio program that's on the web) and he would make a great guest.
Here are the details about his book:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Title: Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future
Author: James J. Hughes Ph.D.
ISBN: 0813341981
Publisher: Westview Press
Release date: November 1
Book Website: cyborgdemocracy.net/citizencyborg.htm
Bio: Dr. Hughes teaches Health Policy in the public policy program at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. Dr. Hughes received his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1994. He is a member of the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University.
Dr. Hughes has taught health policy at the University of Chicago and the University of Connecticut. He serves as Executive Director of the World Transhumanist Association, an organization advocating the use of technology to transcend the limitations of the human body. He also produces the weekly public affairs radio show Changesurfer Radio, writes the Change Surfing column at Betterhumans.com, and contributes to the Cyborg Democracy blog.
Publicist: Jason Brantley Jason.Brantley@perseusbooks.com
Endorsements for Citizen Cyborg:
"A challenging and provocative look at the intersection of human self-modification and political governance. Everyone wondering how society will be able to handle the coming possibilities of AI and Genomics should read Citizen Cyborg."
(Dr. Gregory Stock, author of Redesigning Humans)
"A powerful indictment of the anti-rationalist attitudes that are dominating our national policy today. Hughes brings together ideas from religion, history, science, bioethics, and politics in a unique way. The book sparkles with insights, challenges, and new ways of looking at the problems our society is facing today. He is a worthy guide to a more humane future."
(John Lantos M.D., author of Do We Still Need Doctors)
"James Hughes is a sober, insightful, useful and optimistic thinker about the astonishing changes in store for human nature. Citizen Cyborg is an important contribution to the rapidly moving debate on human enhancement."
(Joel Garreau, author of While God Wasn't Watching: The Future of Human
Nature)
"A fascinating tour of the coming intersection of politics, nanotechnology, and biology, by the leading champion of Transhumanism.
Anyone who wants to understand the tumultuous bio-politics of the next decade should read this book."
(Gregory Pence, author of Who's Afraid of Human Cloning, Professor, Philosophy and School of Medicine, University of Alabama Medical
School.)
"Citizen Cyborg is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the dangers posed by radical transhumanism. James Hughes's passionate and skilled advocacy forces us to confront the kind of society we want for ourselves and our children."
(Wesley J. Smith, author of Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World and Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America)
Summary:
In the next fifty years, life spans will extend well beyond a century.
Our senses and cognition will be enhanced. We will have greater control over our emotions and memory. Our bodies and brains will be surrounded by and merged with computer power. The limits of the human body will be transcended as technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering converge and accelerate. With them, we will redesign ourselves and our children into varieties of posthumanity.
This prospect is understandably terrifying to many. A loose coalition of groups-including religious conservatives, disability rights and environmental activists-has emerged to oppose the use of genetics to enhance human beings. And with the appointment of conservative philosopher Leon Kass, an opponent of in-vitro fertilization, stem cell research and life extension, to head the President's Council on Bioethics, and with the recent high-profile writings by authors like Francis Fukuyama and Bill McKibben, this stance has become more visible-and more infamous-than ever before.
In the opposite corner a loose transhumanist coalition is mobilizing in defense of human enhancement, embracing the ideological diversity of their intellectual forebears in the democratic and humanist movements.
Transhumanists argue that human beings should be guaranteed freedom to control their own bodies and brains, and to use technology to transcend human limitations.
Identifying the groups, thinkers and arguments in each corner of this debate, bioethicist and futurist James Hughes argues for a third way, which he calls democratic transhumanism. This approach argues that we will achieve the best possible posthuman future when we ensure technologies are safe, make them available to everyone, and respect the right of individuals to control their own bodies.
Hughes offers fresh and controversial answers for many other pressing biopolitical issues-including cloning, genetic patents, human genetic engineering, sex selection, drugs, and assisted suicide-and concludes with a concrete political agenda for pro-technology progressives, including expanding and deepening human rights, reforming genetic patent laws, and providing everyone with healthcare and a basic guaranteed income.
A groundbreaking work of social commentary, Citizen Cyborg illuminates the technologies that are pushing the boundaries of humanness-and the debate that may determine the future of the human race itself.
As you may know, my book about transhumanism and democracy, Citizen Cyborg, is coming out in two weeks: www.amazon.com/exec/obido...0813341981/
I'd like to request your helping in promoting it. A couple ideas:
1. I'll be traveling some in the coming months and I'm trying to set up book store readings/signings. In the NYC/NJ/New England area I could probably make an event with little advance planning. Outside of New England my travel plans currently are:
- October 23-24 - Washington D.C.
- October 28-31 - Philadelphia, PA
- November 6-7 - Chicago
- November 14-16 - Portsmouth NH
- November 25-28 - Washington D.C.
- January 13-15 - Santa Fe, New Mexico
- March 4-6 - New York City
So if you are in one of those places, and would like to help me arrange something, let me know.
2. The book's visibility on Amazon is partly determined by whether people have recommended it as an "in addition to" or "instead of" for other books. Citizen Cyborg's ISBN is 0813341981, and you just put it in the little box on another book's page, like Andy Clark's Natural Born Cyborgs www.amazon.com/exec/obido...0195148665/ or Stock's Redesigning Humans www.amazon.com/exec/obido...061806026X/
3. I'm a scintillating interviewee, full of pithy quotable opinions. If there is a local radio talk show that you think might be good call/email them the material below, and tell them to book me. Make sure to tell them about Fukuyama's assertion that transhumanism is the most dangerous idea in the world.
Thanks for your help. We have a couple explicitly transhumanist books coming out in the coming year, such as Ramez Naam's More than Human, so let's all help get them to the top of the charts. Starting with mine.
;-)
----------------------------------
Dr. J. Hughes
Author of Citizen Cyborg
(Westview Press, 2004)
cyborgdemocracy.net/citizencyborg.htm
(phone) 860-428-1837
jhughes@changesurfer.com
------------------------------------------------
SAMPLE EMAIL TO A LOCAL RADIO STATION
Dear (Program Director/Show Producer),
There is someone who I think would be great on [name of show]: Dr. James Hughes, the author of the book Citizen Cyborg thats coming out November 1.
His book is about the growing debate over "transhumanism," the idea that people should be allowed to become "more than human." Recently Francis Fukuyama, a professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins who is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, wrote in the journal Foreign Policy that transhumanism was the most dangerous idea in the world.
I've heard Hughes speak (he produces a weekly radio program that's on the web) and he would make a great guest.
Here are the details about his book:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Title: Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future
Author: James J. Hughes Ph.D.
ISBN: 0813341981
Publisher: Westview Press
Release date: November 1
Book Website: cyborgdemocracy.net/citizencyborg.htm
Bio: Dr. Hughes teaches Health Policy in the public policy program at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. Dr. Hughes received his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1994. He is a member of the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University.
Dr. Hughes has taught health policy at the University of Chicago and the University of Connecticut. He serves as Executive Director of the World Transhumanist Association, an organization advocating the use of technology to transcend the limitations of the human body. He also produces the weekly public affairs radio show Changesurfer Radio, writes the Change Surfing column at Betterhumans.com, and contributes to the Cyborg Democracy blog.
Publicist: Jason Brantley Jason.Brantley@perseusbooks.com
Endorsements for Citizen Cyborg:
"A challenging and provocative look at the intersection of human self-modification and political governance. Everyone wondering how society will be able to handle the coming possibilities of AI and Genomics should read Citizen Cyborg."
(Dr. Gregory Stock, author of Redesigning Humans)
"A powerful indictment of the anti-rationalist attitudes that are dominating our national policy today. Hughes brings together ideas from religion, history, science, bioethics, and politics in a unique way. The book sparkles with insights, challenges, and new ways of looking at the problems our society is facing today. He is a worthy guide to a more humane future."
(John Lantos M.D., author of Do We Still Need Doctors)
"James Hughes is a sober, insightful, useful and optimistic thinker about the astonishing changes in store for human nature. Citizen Cyborg is an important contribution to the rapidly moving debate on human enhancement."
(Joel Garreau, author of While God Wasn't Watching: The Future of Human
Nature)
"A fascinating tour of the coming intersection of politics, nanotechnology, and biology, by the leading champion of Transhumanism.
Anyone who wants to understand the tumultuous bio-politics of the next decade should read this book."
(Gregory Pence, author of Who's Afraid of Human Cloning, Professor, Philosophy and School of Medicine, University of Alabama Medical
School.)
"Citizen Cyborg is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the dangers posed by radical transhumanism. James Hughes's passionate and skilled advocacy forces us to confront the kind of society we want for ourselves and our children."
(Wesley J. Smith, author of Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World and Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America)
Summary:
In the next fifty years, life spans will extend well beyond a century.
Our senses and cognition will be enhanced. We will have greater control over our emotions and memory. Our bodies and brains will be surrounded by and merged with computer power. The limits of the human body will be transcended as technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering converge and accelerate. With them, we will redesign ourselves and our children into varieties of posthumanity.
This prospect is understandably terrifying to many. A loose coalition of groups-including religious conservatives, disability rights and environmental activists-has emerged to oppose the use of genetics to enhance human beings. And with the appointment of conservative philosopher Leon Kass, an opponent of in-vitro fertilization, stem cell research and life extension, to head the President's Council on Bioethics, and with the recent high-profile writings by authors like Francis Fukuyama and Bill McKibben, this stance has become more visible-and more infamous-than ever before.
In the opposite corner a loose transhumanist coalition is mobilizing in defense of human enhancement, embracing the ideological diversity of their intellectual forebears in the democratic and humanist movements.
Transhumanists argue that human beings should be guaranteed freedom to control their own bodies and brains, and to use technology to transcend human limitations.
Identifying the groups, thinkers and arguments in each corner of this debate, bioethicist and futurist James Hughes argues for a third way, which he calls democratic transhumanism. This approach argues that we will achieve the best possible posthuman future when we ensure technologies are safe, make them available to everyone, and respect the right of individuals to control their own bodies.
Hughes offers fresh and controversial answers for many other pressing biopolitical issues-including cloning, genetic patents, human genetic engineering, sex selection, drugs, and assisted suicide-and concludes with a concrete political agenda for pro-technology progressives, including expanding and deepening human rights, reforming genetic patent laws, and providing everyone with healthcare and a basic guaranteed income.
A groundbreaking work of social commentary, Citizen Cyborg illuminates the technologies that are pushing the boundaries of humanness-and the debate that may determine the future of the human race itself.
posted by:
|
Hartford
|
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