Oscar Pistorius and the Future Nature of Olympic, Paralympic and Other Sports

in SCRIPT-ed – A Journal of Law, Technology & Society
Gregor Wolbring, pp.139-160

Oscar Pistorius is a Paralympic bionic leg runner and record holder in the 100, 200, and 400 meters who wants to compete in the Olympics. This paper provides an analysis of a) his case; b) the impact of his case on the Olympics, the Paralympics and other –lympics and the relationships between the –lympics; c) the impact on other international and national sports; d) the applicability of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. It situates the evaluation of the Pistorius case within the broader doping discourse and the reality that new and emerging science and technology products increasingly generate internal and external human bodily enhancements that go beyond the species-typical, enabling more and more a culture of increasing demand for, and acceptance of modifications of the human body (structure, function, abilities) beyond its species-typical boundaries and the emergence of new social concepts such as transhumanism and the transhumanisation of ableism.

online open access here
Technorati Tags: Technology, Politics, Sports, Pistorius

Nanotechnology: Ethics and Society (Perspectives in Nanotechnology) (Paperback)

Nanotechnology: Ethics and Society (Perspectives in Nanotechnology) (Paperback)
by Deb Bennett-Woods (Author)
description here
I have a little piece in there called “Nanoscale sciences and technology and the framework of Ableism:”

New Bionanoscience dept launched at TU Delft Netherlands

Over the next decade, TU Delft will invest €10m derived from its assets in the new department, which will form part of the university’s Kavli Institute of Nanoscience. The Kavli Foundation will also donate $5m (€3.4m).
The new department will explore the full spectrum from nanoscience to cell biology to synthetic biology to create gene regulation systems, artificial biomolecules and nanoparticles that can be deployed within the cell.

more here

European Food Safety Agency assessing nanoparticles and cloned meat

more here

Nanomedicine, is it the Real Deal?

The Institute of Nanotechnology is organising a public engagement evening ‘Nanomedicine…hype? Or a real revolution in healthcare?’ on the 28th November at the Royal College of Surgeons of London. This free event offers an opportunity to the general public to share their thoughts with industrial leaders, nanotechnologists and politicians.
In the interest of openness and public engagement this panel discussion and public debate, which will be held at the Royal College of Surgeons from 18.30hrs–20.30hrs on 28th November 2007, is free of charge and open to all. Places are limited and, therefore, early registration is recommended. For more information and to register please visit http://www.nano.org.uk/events/ionevents.htm or contact Tiju Joseph, tiju.joseph@nano.org.uk, on +44(0)141 330 8734.

The event is organised in conjunction with the ‘Investing in Medical Nanotechnologies II’, conference and exhibition to be held at the Royal College of Surgeons on the 28th and 29th November 2007, http://nanomednet.org/conference07.

BT Eyes Technology Revolution for the Pharma Industry

In a white paper, ‘Pharma Futurology: Joined Up Healthcare, 2016 and beyond’, BT’s pharmaceutical division brings its expertise in connecting people and businesses to create a big-picture outlook for the industry. The research reveals expected technology inspired changes that threaten pharmaceutical companies with isolation from an increasingly patient-centric healthcare community.
morehere

new column of mine is out Bionics

seehere

NBICS and Climate Change

my new column out

Newest column of mine NBICS, Cultural Identity and Diversity, and the CBD

NBICS, Cultural Identity and Diversity, and the CBD
this is the second part on the convention on biological diversity CBD
first one is
here

and all my columns are listed here

my new column out: NBICS and the Convention on Biological diversity (CBD)

see here
a list of all columns can be found here

“SENSOrimotor structuring of Perception and Action for emergent Cognition”

see more at source
“The SENSOPAC project will combine machine learning techniques and modelling of biological systems to develop a machine capable of abstracting cognitive notions from sensorimotor relationships during interactions with its environment, and of generalising this knowledge to novel situations.

Through active sensing and exploratory actions the machine will discover the sensorimotor relationships and consequently learn the intrinsic structure of its interactions with the world and unravel predictive and causal relationships. Together with action policy formulation and decision making, this will underlie the machine’s abilities to create abstractions, to suggest and test hypotheses, and develop self-awareness.

The project will demonstrate how a naïve system can bootstrap its cognitive development by constructing generalization and discovering abstractions with which it can conceptualize its environment and its own self. The continuous developmental approach will combine self-supervised and reinforcement learning with motivational drives to form a truly autonomous artificial system.

Throughout the project, continuous interactions between experimentalists, theoreticians, engineers and roboticists will take place in order to coordinate the most rigorous development and testing of a complete artificial cognitive system.”
from here

Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution project PACE

The European Commission is supporting the Integrated Project PACE in its Future Emerging Technologies program that will create the foundation for a new generation of embedded IT using programmable, self-assembling artificial cells.
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Neurotech Industry 2007 Report Key Findings

Neurotechnology Industry Report Says Revenues Grew 10% to $120.5 Billion in 2006; U.S. Economic Impact of Brain-related Illness Reached $1 Trillion
Specific findings from the Neurotechnology Industry 2007 Report include:
• Brain-related illnesses afflict more than two billion people worldwide
• The worldwide economic burden of this problem has reached more than $2 trillion per year; more than $1 trillion in the U.S. alone
• 2006 venture capital investment in neurotechnology rose 7.5% to $1.666 billion
• Neurotech industry revenues rose 10% in 2006 to $120.5 billion; this includes neuropharmaceutical revenues of $101 billion, neurodevice revenues of $4.5 billion, neurodiagnostic revenues of $15 billion
• The Neurotech Index of publicly-traded neurotechnology companies was up 53% from its December 31, 2003 conception to March 31, 2006, outpacing the NASDAQ Biotech Index which gained 7% during the same period

Neurotechnology is still very much a frontier industry. In the past year we’ve reached some important milestones, including formation of NIO, the first industry organization devoted to the specific needs of neurotechnology companies. 2006 was also a tremendous year of growth for the industry, and 2007 looks to continue this trend so as technologies improve and our collective body of knowledge grows. Countless opportunities exist as visionary researchers tackle the complexities of brain-related health and visionary companies, organizations and policy makers address the complexities of bringing those discoveries to the billions of people suffering from brain-related illnesses.

more at source

Scientists close in on “cyborg-like” memory chips

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 16:15

Tel Aviv (Israel) – Two scientists from the Tel-Aviv University have
shown that information can be stored in live neurons. The research
results provide a new way to help understand how our brain learns and
store information, but also indicate that a “cyborg-like integration of
living material into memory chips” could become a reality in the
foreseeable future.
more at source

Converging Cognitive Enhancements

Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg have another paper out: Converging Cognitive Enhancements, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1093: 201–227 (2006). It is part of a NY annals volume titled Progress in Convergence: Technologies for Human Wellbeing edited by William Sims Bainbridge and Mihail C. Roco.
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Edmonton Aging Symposium Recordings

Edmonton Aging Symposium – Presentation Archive – a number of presenations from the Edmonton Aging Symposium, covering both the biomedicine and politics of ageing.

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Our Synthetic Futures

What might happen if we repurpose biology to our own ends?
Newsweek May 27, 2007
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in vitro meat

another of my columns

Human 2.0

more at source

another of my columns out

Neurodiversity, Neuroenhancement, Neurodisease, and Neurobusiness see here