Doing a bit of transhumanist web surfing today while pondering writing a paper on the transhuman agenda and Christian social justice and came across the article below over at Betterhumans.com.

In Betterhumans > Ending Aging to Help the Poor author Simon Smith argues,

Rather than hinder the fight against poverty, funding life extension research is one of the best things we can do to improve everyone’s quality of life.

There’s many things in his piece that I find unsettling including his argument that a fraction of the defense budgets of the Western world could be diverted to anti-aging research. The implication in the article seems to be that the research would then be used for the good of all. I’m sorry but I can’t see that happening. It’s like arguing that phamaceutical research benefits all evenly – rather than only those who can afford it. Pharmaceuticals become an economic “weapon” – just ask those countries who need them, can only afford generic drugs and then get slammed with economic implications.

There’s also the implication that unless we get the anti-aging treatment the elderly are inherently worth less than the younger – that they have nothing positive to contribute any more.

Anyway, have a read and a think about it. I think I might use it in class next week when we look at the doctrine of humanity.

Jonathan’s post zone de confluence has some interesting refections on a French art exposition on technology’s effects on our perceptions on time and space.

He also had a link to this movie (WeAccept_H.mov) produced by one of the artists – D-Fuse – as a response to the commercialisation of the Internet.

Saw this the other day in the paper edition of the Science & Theology News that I get.

The connection between design and devotion is under study by a group of clerics, neuroscientists and architects who are trying to understand how the mind reacts to the sensations of entering a house of worship. The result, they hope, will be better designs that enhance the meeting of the sacred and earthly.

I’d like to read their final report sometime.

Full article at: Science & Theology News – Architects parse out what makes holy spaces holy

Interesting post over at Paradoxology: Without a Rite-of-Passage….

Some days it seems just like this – Calvin and Hobbes — 21-09-1993.

A year or so ago I blogged about Greenflame: Genetics with some links to a couple of genetics resources I’d found (including a Gattaca study guide). Now it looks like we’re a lot closer to the Gattaca scenario than we were then. Check out Wired News: Quick Read on Your Genetics.

Thanks to Andii at Nouslife: Gattacca is nearly here for pointing it out.

I’m skimming through Stanley Grenz’ The Social God and the Relational Self and came across the following in a section where he’s talking about metaphorical language (especially with respect to Sallie McFague’s writing).

The acknowledgment that theological language is metaphorical alters our understanding of the task of the theologian. Rather than a scientist who discovers truths about God waiting to be discerned, the theologian is a poet who crafts meaningful pictures about our world and our relationship to the transcendent.

In effect, the theologian becomes, or is, a storyteller painting word pictures. Though why stop only with the medium of words?

Seen at: Inventor sniffs out nose-operated mouse | Tech News on ZDNet. (More details there)

Dmitry Gorodnichy, an inventor from the Institute of Information Technology in Ottawa, has developed a computer navigation system that relies on the movements of a user’s nose to direct a cursor, New Scientist reported on Wednesday.

For good measure, a simple blink of the right or left eye corresponds to the right or left click of a mouse button, the magazine said.

I was reading the article “Complexity Theory as Model and Metaphor for the Church” by David A. Wollert yesterday and the following paragraph stood out.

Unlike passive components, such as water molecules, human beings presumably can direct their own interactions. Thus the connectivity of “the church” itself is a dynamic process and not a static map. How we interact with one another becomes one of the defining features in an emergent systems view of the church. If we isolate ourselves, then the church will tend toward a static or fixed attractor; if we interact with everything around us, then the church will tend to become chaotic and overextended to the point of failure. Maintaining an optimum autopoietic state requires an adaptive form of connectivity, sufficiently self-contained to maintain stability and individuality, yet suffuciently responsive to the world to benefit from the synergy of working together. In the jargon of complexity theory, the church must exist at “the edge of chaos.”

I like the idea of existing at “the edge of chaos” – resonates for me with thoughts Steve had at KB04 about standing on the foreshore before the chaotic sea.

(I’m also preparing some lecture notes on the Trinity so thoughts about integration, codependency, identity, structured dynamism & personhood also spring to mind).

For those who are interested the full reference to the paper is:

Wollert, David A. “Complexity Theory as Model and Metaphor for the Church,” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 56:1 55-59, M 2004.

I was looking for NZ images of the sea and land for the KB04 presentations and I came across this site: New Zealand Photos and Images by Vonnagy.

Some really nice photos of NZ – including some local Waitakere ones – AND you can download them and use them for free. (If you use them on your web site then he asks that you add a link back to his site).

The images are fairly small (600×400) but don’t have any watermarks etc. Also if you want a higher resolution image – say for a print – you can obtain one from him too.