Panel Discussion: Humanity at the Digital FrontierJonathan Craig, Jahra (Arieta) Wasasala, Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker, and Stelarc

What would it mean to leave your body behind? Would it be a liberation or a loss?

Futurists have predicted that by 2045, we’ll be able to upload our minds into the cloud. This is one of the key promises of transhumanism, a philosophical movement that seeks to free us from our biological limitations, putting an end to pain, suffering, and even death. Nonetheless, many are sceptical about the prospect of mind uploading. Even through decades of research, we haven’t yet been able to define consciousness. Can we really convert all our memories and experiences into 1s and 0s? If we could, would that life feel like heaven or hell? Who would get a place in cyberspace, who would miss out, and who might be forced to move there? And what would all this mean for our sense of culture, identity, and spirituality?

Whether digital immortality proves to be prophecy or fantasy, the prospect challenges us to examine our values, and clarify our hopes for the future. This panel will interrogate transhumanist ideologies from a variety of perspectives, offering unique new angles on the quest for transcendence through technology.