Programme

Please join us at: The Florin Pub, Nobelstraat 2.

Setting the stage for the rest of the conference, we review the history of transhumanism, the past 25 years of Transvision, and look ahead to what a transhumanist future might look like for the individual, for society, and for the environment.

Chair:
Charl Linssen

Speaker #1:
Natasha Vita-More, « Eloquent Neuroplasticity: Beyond Bias, Theoretical Twist, Pernicious Prattle »

Speaker #2:
Anders Sandberg, « When is the future? Some musings on transhumanism, timing, foresight, and shaping the future »

Speaker #3:
Christopher Coenen, « Futures of transhumanism in an atavistic world – a historical perspective »

Speaker #4:
Beatrice Erkers, « Navigating Our Future with Existential Hope »

All participants will have a chance to present a topic of their choosing in a 3-minute presentation.

A group photo will be taken at the start of lunch.

Recent progress in neuroscience puts us on a clear timeline towards cognitive enhancements and whole-brain emulation. We consider the ways in which these technologies are changing our ways of interacting with the world, and how we can manage this change.

Chair:
Charlotte Rouvez

Speaker #1:
Randal Koene, « The case for a standardized WBE challenge, being concrete about whole brain emulation and mind uploading »

Speaker #2:
Marc Roux, « A mental enhancement that respects human rights »

Extension of human health- and lifespan is within reach, and to some degree already possible today. With the scale and pace of improvements in healthy human longevity continuing to grow exponentially, we look ahead at what these longevity interventions might be and how they could be made available equitably and ethically.

Chair:
Marc Roux

Speaker #1:
Didier Coeurnelle, « How to Better Share and Use Health Data for Healthy Longevity? »

Speaker #2:
Brenda Ramokopelwa

Speaker #3:
Jessica Lombard, « The Phenomenological Question of Time: How the Aspiration for Immortality Unveils Something of the Human Condition »

Speaker #4:
David Wood, « Longevity Escape Velocity: Getting there sooner »

The dinner at: The Florin Pub, Nobelstraat 2.

In this session, we discuss the potentials and impacts of the current wave in AI, starting from regulatory and ethical questions about how these systems are used at present, to what a future with superhuman intelligence could look like.

Chair:
Didier Coeurnelle

Speaker #1:
Aimen Taimur, « Mind Reading AI & Cognitive Manipulation: A Rights-Based Threat Assessment »

Speaker #2:
Pepijn Kip

Speaker #3:
Otto Barten, « Reducing existential risk by informing the public debate »

Speaker #4:
Lou de Kerhuelvez, « AI Alignment: Challenges & Hope »

In this concluding plenary session, we discuss how to empower people locally and globally, and to integrate and celebrate diverse viewpoints and methods; to study where the overlap lies in our goals and where transhumanism, as a paradigm and as a community, is headed.

Chair:
David Wood

Speaker #1:
James Hughes, « The Technoprogressive Declaration After Ten Years »

Speaker #2:
Sandrine Ngatchou, « What about the black body in a racial context in the field of assisted reproductive technologies? »

Speaker #3:
Matthew Dennis, « The Spectrum of Enhancement »

Speaker:
Zita Smit

Several themes will be discussed in-depth in small groups. All participants are encouraged to brainstorm together and share their thoughts. At the end of the session, each table host gives a quick report of the discussions.

Please join us at: Café Joost, Achter Sint Pieter 3.