cyborg in God's image?

Stephen at Greenflame [quoting Philip Hefner] and I think that this question is really, really interesting. Especially given what I've just blogged a few minutes ago about transhumanism ... "If the techno-human, the cyborg, is created in the image of God, what does that tell us about God?"

Greenflame: Technology and Human Becoming:

Researchers compost old mobile phones & transform them into flowers

"A special formulation of PVAXX Research and Development Ltd's biodegradable polymer range was developed in conjunction with materials researchers at Warwick, that produces a high quality finish but which also biodegrades easily in compost.

Secondly the engineers at the University of Warwick have created a small transparent window in the case or cover in which they can embed a seed. The seed is visible to the environmentally aware mobile phone user but will not germinate until the phone cover or case is recycled"

Now all we've got to do is work on something for the innards and it's hunky dory.

Researchers compost old mobile phones & transform them into flowers:

Transhumanism -an intro

I'm not sure how I feel about this but I have a sense of something significant about this and that we should keep an eye on as concerned human beings and Christians. This is a good palce to start by the looks of it. "Democratic transhumanism stems from the assertion that human beings will generally be happier when they take rational control of the natural and social forces that control their lives." Muich of the article is an interview with the founding philosopher of 'Democratic Transhumanism' Dr. James Hughes.

One of the interesting and challenging things he says is: ""human dignity" are empty signifiers that have crept into our language as proxies for "soul," and progressives need to rethink their use of these categories.". And evben more interestingly and controversially , he goes on to say; "The transhumanist position is known in bioethics as "personhood theory": you can be a self-aware person and not be human (great apes for instance) and you can be "human" and not be a person (such as fetuses and the brain dead). Rights are for persons, not humans."

Whatever you think about the arguments around that I felt that this is worth taking on board in its argument against individualist libitarianism.
"Libertarian individualism is completely self-defeating for the human enhancement movement. You want to make yourself and your kids smarter? You can take a smart pill and do your mental gymnastics, but you still need good books, stimulating friends, a solid education, a free and independent press, and a stable, well-regulated economy so your PDA keeps beaming Google searches and email chat into your eyeball through that laser display. And it might be nice to have a strong, independent Food and Drug Administration to make sure that your smart pill doesn't cause dementia in five years, and that that laser display doesn't blind you."
Nicely said.

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: A Conversation with Dr. James Hughes (part 1 of 3):

cool alternative to cremation

My biggest difficulty with cremations is that they use up so much fossil fuel. "Wiigh-Masak's solution has bodies immersed in liquid nitrogen to remove water, causing them to crumble into fine organis dust." Sound a lot better. Although the reason for doing this is " burials require that the corpse be filled with embalming fluids which can pollute the groundwater as the body decays." -I suspect that this is not applicable in the UK as we don't normally embalm. In which case woodland burial still seems the most ecological option as there is no power use to cool the liquid nitrogen.

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Alternatives to traditional burials:

Freecycling

Paint of no return

I only just came upon this idea and it seems a goodie -just wondering how to go about kicking it off here [if it's not already happening unbeknownst to me]: it'd require some good advertising and a decent critical mass to get it started and easy enoug means to move stuff around. It's the kind of thing to suggest to Year of Living Generously. Anyway there's a company doing it on an industrial scale in NYC with the slogan:
Anyway doing a Google search on 'freecling UK' comes upo with a lot of hits, which is encouraging.
Freecycling groups spurn the landfill and spawn goodwill | By Michelle Nijhuis | Grist Magazine | Main Dish | 17 May 2004

Reframing the Planet

Useful article taking up the challenge bout reframing the green agenda in terms that 'ordinary' voters can buy into. I think that the suggestions are definitely worth considering and we need to be doing something about it. I must admit it kind of remoinds me of a debate I had in my last diocese with one frighteningly ecologically-aware synod member who was so het up about the issue that he succeeded in alienating people: I tried to point out to him that winning friends meant influencing people whereas alienating potential friends meant losing the arguments time and time again or, in fact, not even being able to make the arguments because people had already switched off when they saw you coming. This reframing of the issues has the same kind of feel to it: this is the way we need to put things over in order to make the case or even to be heard.

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Reframing the Planet

China's Energy Agenda

Not to take the heat off the USA's officail attitude to global warming, but... just check out the Chinese contribution

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: China's Energy Agenda