Category Archives: Transhuman

On Wednesday, 24 June (7 pm - 8.30 pm, London Time), Luke Mason will be interviewing Steve Fuller about his latest book, Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Era. The event, which is part of the FUTURES Podcast series, will be livestreamed but registration is required.

In Nietzschean Meditations, Fuller openly discusses the more transgressive elements of transhumanism, often in ways that transgress the norms of transhumanism itself. In particular, the book considers the nature and extent of the movements commitment to morphological freedom and asks whether the opportunity for immortality should be seized or resisted. In short, what is the new metaphysics of personal identity and the ethics of life and death in a transhumanist world? Those interested in dipping into the book, can do so here:

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Livestream event on Steve Fuller's Nietzschean Meditations - Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

Watch | Abu Dhabi launches world's first dedicated artificial intelligence university

Over the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has started dominating all courses of human lives, and now, a transhumanist thinker has predicted that robots powered with AI could complete all human tasks by 2050. As artificial intelligence will dominate the world in the future, humans will be allowed to move to post-compulsory work society.

The vitality of artificial general intelligence

These remarks were made by David Wood, president of the London Futurists, and treasurer of the Transhumanist Party in the United Kingdom. Wood believes that humans should use the advantages offered by artificial intelligence to improve their biological capabilities.

Researchers have trained an artificial intelligence to create a black metal album.Public Domain Pictures

"I believe there's a 50 percent chance of artificial general intelligence, and hence the possibility of robots doing all human tasks, by the middle of the century and I've said there's about a 10 percent chance we might have this by 2025," Wood told Express.co.uk.

It should be noted that artificial general intelligence is a point in time when AI matches or surpasses human intelligence in any particular area. Several top experts including Stephen Hawking believed that this could happen in the future, and the repercussions of this development are unpredictable.

AI to revolutionize the world

Wood believes that wise usage of artificial intelligencein areas of gene editing could revolutionize the future, and people can solve various problems like aging effectively.

"I think we can solve aging and death and that we can allow people to truly live better lives by enhancing not just their physical wellbeing but their mental, emotional, we might even say spiritual wellbeing and that more of us will be able to live in ways that occasionally we only glimpse today. With these technologies we could become a lot more like the sages, the gurus, the mystics," added Wood.

Future humans will be hybrids

A few months back, Professor David J Gunkel, a top expert in robot ethics at Northern Illinois University, Chicago had suggested that future humans could be a mix of organics and technology. He also predicted the actual legal standing of robotscould emerge as the hottest point of debate in the future.

As per Gunkel, future humans will augment themselves with artificial devices in the future, and thus physical and mental capabilities of human beings can be extended beyond limits.

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AI-powered robots will complete all human tasks by this year, reveals transhumanist thinker - International Business Times, India Edition

When I think back on the most thrilling experiences of my life as theatergoer, an inordinate number can be traced to a common source: Austins Fusebox Festival. For those who have never attended Fusebox, its hard to succinctly describe whats so special about the annual five-day, multivenue gathering of theater and dance creators from around the world. A given day might include a robotics-based dance piece, an opera cobbled together out of Lionel Richie songs, a heartfelt monologue based on snippets of home videos, a choral reading of the sexual biographies of a half-dozen elderly volunteers, a sunset orchestral performance atop a Highland Lakes dam, and a late-night dance party where drag meets hip-hop meets elaborate trans-human costumes.

At its best, Fusebox is an ongoing inquiry into the furthest and deepest possibilities of live artistic performance. So what happens when, thanks to COVID-19, in-person experiences of all sorts are suddenly against the rules? That was the rather depressing question last Friday, when Fusebox executive and artistic director Ron Berry took to the internet, broadcasting from his home to Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms to introduce a shrunken and virtual edition of Fusebox Festival 2020.

Berry began his opening toast by referencing the wave of cancellations that waylaid Austins cultural sector beginning in early March with South by Southwest. We felt like we were in a position to respond creatively, and there was meaning in that, Berry said. That wave of cancellations did not have to totally define us. We felt like, Hey, we still have our imaginations, and our imaginations have a role to play right now.

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A typical Fusebox Festival, according to associate artistic director and curator Anna Gallagher-Ross, takes two years to program and develop. This virtual version was thrown together in just four weeks, both to meet the moment Berry described and to provide a much-needed platform and paid gig for artists. I can attest that the virtual festival felt just as necessary as an audience member, providing a welcome change after weeks stuck at home with Netflix and other prerecorded fare.

The virtual festival was conceived and presented as a riff on public-access TV, with a single-channel stream featuring a few dozen consecutive virtual performances over the course of three days. A few of these shows felt pitch-perfect for the current social distancing moment, speaking to our cloistered and anxious lives under COVID-19 shutdown. For instance, Alexa Caparedas solo piece Alexa featured the performer, a ballet master, as an embodiment of the Amazon artificial intelligence of the same name. Wearing a futuristic gray skullcap, black clothing, and blue lipstick, Capareda acted the automaton as audience members were invited to ask her questions and give her instructions, with results ranging from Swiffer the floor with your head to Dance the dying swan. Flitting around a too-small enclosure, performing lonely physical acts both absurd and sublime, Capareda spoke not only to the undertone of captivity in the voice of technology circa 2020, but also to our present digitally abetted confinement.

A small number of festival performances took place on Zoom and other platforms according to the interactive needs of the piece. Perhaps the most topical such performance was Erica Nixs Sweet Dreams. This Zoom experience offered participants the chance to fall asleep while quietly gazing into each others eyes. Most of those who signed on were single people sheltering alone. There was something so sweet and honest about staring at complete strangers in bed, Gallagher-Ross wrote in an email afterward. It kind of felt like everyone needed a little human contact and a hug, and this felt close to that.

Other pandemic-themed artworks were more lighthearted. In Fuseboxs take on a cooking show, chef Fiore Tedesco of Austin restaurant LOca dOro offered LETS MAKE MEATLOAF! : An Existential Crisis and Tutorial. Tedesco, better known for his culinary creations for refined palates, appeared onscreen in his bathrobe to instruct the locked-down masses in how to make a rustic yet delightful lump of cheesy baked meat.

Despite these and other inspiringly creative responses to the shutdown, there was no escaping a sense of loss around this virtual Fuseboxin particular, the important stage shows that proved too challenging to adapt into virtual space. One such sorely missed production was Is This a Room, a docudrama by Tina Satter drawn from a verbatim transcript of the FBI interrogation of former U.S. intelligence contractor Reality Winner. Winner, who grew up in Kingsville, was arrested in 2017 after leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Satter, Winners mother Billie Winner-Davis, and Winners attorney joined the virtual edition of Fusebox for a discussion of the case, though Texas audiences will sadly have to wait to catch the play, which earned rave reviews in New York. Its a missed opportunity. Winner-Davis clearly hoped that the plays Texas debut could galvanize local activism on behalf of her daughter, who remains incarcerated in the longest-ever sentence for a government leaker.

Two of the best performances of the weekendSongs at the End of the World, by Dutch collective Wunderbaum, and NO BOUNDARIES: The Journey to Embody and Archive the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers by Gesel Mason Performance Projectshad been filmed from staged productions mounted in the pre-COVID-19 era. These professionally shot and edited videos might not have looked out of place on PBS. The fact that these two entries in the virtual Fusebox lineup stood out so much only underlined the limitations of performances made from home during the shutdown, such as grainy cameras, bad lighting, and a lack of audience reactions. As lip-synch artist Dickie Beau put it in his livestreamed-from-home festival workshop, As many of you are awareif indeed anyone is watchingits so strange to have no feedback.

Some of the most poignant moments of the virtual Fusebox Festival came at moments like that one, when performers stopped trying to put on a show and instead simply bared their souls about the present predicament. Playwright, performer, and erstwhile Austinite Daniel Alexander Jones brought to the festival a live solo reading of his in-progress play about the quasi-friendship between first lady Mary Todd Lincoln and her formerly enslaved dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckleyan intriguing project. But what stuck with me most, and what might finally sum up the ethos of this strange and compelling virtual festival, is something Jones said during a livestreamed, impromptu conversation on the topic of theater artists mourning canceled projects and closed venues.

I grew up on a street where people sang as they were walking down the street, cause they had to sing it, and there was a transmission in that, Jones said. Im not minimizing the loss of income and the loss of opportunity and the tremendous grief that people are feeling But I am saying: We are in an urgent time. It was already urgent, and now its more urgent, and things are falling apart. And so, am I gonna wait for those things to return which may not return? Or am I gonna sing on the street?

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Boxed in by Social Distancing, an Endlessly Inventive Theater Festival Powers on Online - Texas Monthly

Titania in love with Bottom, in A Midsummer Night's Dream / Edwin Landseer

The transhumanist impulse to substitute technology for reasoning and will is on display in a startling new book from two utilitarian academics from Oxford University. In Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships, bioethicists Brian D. Earp and Julian Savulescu argue that biochemical interventions can strengthen relationships.

Their book builds a case for conducting research into "love drugs" and "anti-love drugs" and explores their ethical implications for individuals and society.

Scandalously, they contend, Western medicine tends to ignore the interpersonal effects of drug-based interventions. Why are we still in the dark about the effects of these drugs on romantic partnerships? And how can we overhaul scientific research norms to take relationships more fully into account?

Drugs for love and relationships are not some far-off speculation. Our most intimate connections are already being influenced by drugs we ingest for other purposes. Controlled studies are underway to see whether artificial brain chemicals can enhance couples therapy. The authors even claim thatconservative religious groups are experimenting with certain medications to quash romantic desires among children and vulnerable sexual minorities.

Part of the reason why drugs are needed to maintain relationships, they say, is that human beings evolved to have much shorter spans of romantic attachment. Our capacity for love did not evolve to support lifelong relationships in contemporary societies. Rather, it evolved to support our ancestors' reproductive success under social conditions that for the most part no longer exist. Now that people are living longer, healthier lives, drugs might be needed to keep love alive.

A moments reflection suggests that latter-day love potions could be dangerous as well as therapeutic. If drugs can change the object of desire, the born-that-way philosophy of the LGBTQI+ movement collapses. Chemicals could be used to destroy relationships.

Many questions remain to be answered, Earp and Savulescu admit:

Will knowing how love works, and even shaping it through hormones and chemistry, rob it of its importance in our lives? Or will it empower us to make our most intimate relationships more reliably consistent with real human flourishing?

Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge.

MORE ON THESE TOPICS |

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Will love potions be the future of relationships? - BioEdge

In September 2019, it became known that Facebook bought the developer of neural interfaces CTRL-Labs. Google Glasses are compatible with the NeuroSky EEG biosensor through the open-source MindRDR application. In July 2019, Elon Musk's startup introduced the revolutionary Neuralink brain-machine interface claiming to start the trans-human evolution.

All these pieces of news indicate the direction the industry is heading to. Internet companies that receive their main profit from showing targeted advertising try to take into account the interests of their users. To determine these interests, they massively collect data, tracking the user's actions on the web, building profiles and social graphs, monitoring messages, calls, physical movements, shopping carts, contact lists. But it seems this is not enough for them.

So far, EEG scanners and implants have very limited functionality, but this technology is developing rapidly. Based on the results of a brain activity scan, it is already possible to recognize basic emotions, some unspoken words, and mental attempts to make physical movements. Scientists have found similarities in how different peoples brains process information. It is now possible to make assumptions about a persons thoughts based on his or her brains neural activity.

Medical brain-computer interfaces should help people regain control of their limbs or control prostheses. Inexpensive headsets are positioned as relaxation tools or entertainment gadgets. However, companies have already begun experimenting with EEGs to evaluate the performance of advertising campaigns.

Facebook and startups like Neuralink are developing a new generation of neurotechnology tools and making bold promises. For example, Facebook promises to let people type by simply imagining themselves talking, and Elon Musk anticipates the merger of the human brain with AI.

On September 10, 2019, the Royal Society of London published a 106-page report on the future and risks of neurotechnology. It predicted that a neural revolution" will happen in the coming decades.

Brain-computer devices generate a huge amount of neural data potentially one of the most sensitive forms of personal information. And the main problem is how this brain data will be commercialized. Advertisers are already using confidential information about people's preferences, habits, and locations. Adding neural data to the mix will seriously increase the threat to privacy.

Getting data directly from the brain will be a real paradigm shift. If Facebook, for example, combines neural data with its extensive collection of personal data, then it can create much more accurate and comprehensive psychographic profiles.

Experts say that for now, there are almost no legal obstacles to prevent companies from trading neural profiles.

Neuromarketing is a new industry in marketing research that uses brain scans to know consumers better than they know themselves. Neuromarketers clearly promise to exploit neural profiles commercially.

By non-invasively recording the bioelectrical activity of the brain (electroencephalography), neuro marketers monitor the brain's response to viewing ads. In the future, they hope that this technology will also allow tracking brain activity while using applications, communicating on the Internet, watching movies and TV shows. This will help to maximize the effectiveness of advertising (and, perhaps, other methods of influencing people.)

It is already clear that such technologies will be used not only in the advertising industry. In arecent interview, Edward Snowden explained that technology giants are tools in the hands of even more powerful players: We see how authoritarianism is growing all over the world, and the reality is that all of them are parts of the same threat. These companies function as weapons in the hands of governments. Its too easy to say that tech giants are a real threat; in reality, all of them are part of the same threat the system.

Snowden pointed out that it is better to use WhatsApp rather than simple unencrypted SMS, but it is still not a good idea to use WhatsApp if you are a prime minister and wish to communicate with your staff. For now, you can encrypt and hide your communication if you usevirtual private networks. Withbrain-computer interfaces, it is impossible to encrypt neural signals inside your brain.

Ethics experts also fear that information from the brain may be potentially used for discrimination. For example, if there are patterns of brain activity similar to patterns observed in drug addicts or people suffering from depression or other diseases, perhaps, on the basis of such patterns, employers will refuse to hire people. In addition, insurance companies could raise premiums and banks offer loans on less favorable terms.

The future we are striving for is a world in which our neural data, which we do not even have access to, can be used against us. For now, our thoughts are the last frontier of the defense in the war for privacy. It is sad, but all previous battles have been unconditionally lost.

Originally posted here:
The Neural Revolution Is Almost Here. Should We Fear It? | Articles | Chief Data Officer - Innovation Enterprise

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. Photo: Guo Chen/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images

New technologies in society raise important questions about the soul, according to a Catholic delegate attending the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Fr Philip Larrey, Chair of Logic and Epistemology at the Pontifical Lateran University, who has been in discussions with tech companies about the ethical questions around Artificial Intelligence and robots,took part in a discussion Faith in the Fourth Industrial Revolution", sponsored by the United Arab Emirates.

Fr Larrey told The Tablet that how emerging technologies raise questions about immortality and the soul. Among Silicon Valley billionaires, he explained, heavy investment was going into technologies about how to vastly extend life expectancy and the transhumanist movement looking at ways to transfer human consciousness into a digital format.

The smartest ones [tech companies] want to dialogue with the Catholic Church because we have a 2,000 year tradition about what it means to be human, he said.The richness of the Catholic tradition gives us the framework to speak out the technologies we have. How we were created and what is our purpose.

Fr Larrey, from Mountain View, California, where Google has its HQ, and who helped arrange the 2016 meeting between the Pope and Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google holding company Alphabet,pointed out that the question of whether we can we really become immortal goes back to the Book of Genesis.

He said some of the tech gurus have made it clear they are not interested in having a dialogue with the Vatican.

They want to do their own thing, and are pushing ahead with a lot of money with projects to try and keep them immortal, or solve health issues, said Fr Larrey, who has written two books,Connected World and Artificial Humanity.

Last September, Silicon Valley big hitters went to the Vatican to discuss ethics amid talk of a potential papal document on artificial intelligence. Archbishop Vincenzio Paglia, the Popes point man on family and pro-life issues, has met Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft. The next assemblyof his Pontifical Academy of Life department will focus on AI.

Fr Larrey stressed that whatever the technological developments, it was important to put people before platforms

The Church is not against the use of machines, but what the Pope is saying is put the human being at the centre of technology, he explained .

The priest-philosopher pointed out that parishes, while using digital technology, are places of human contact. He said claims about robots taking over the world are overblown, and that governments will not allow machines to take over peoples jobs right away. The same is true for pastoral ministry.

I dont see robot priests in the future, he added.

Pope Francis in his messagereminded those at the gathering for the World Economic Forum that their overriding concern must be for the one human family, and warned against the isolationism, individualism and ideological colonisation of contemporary debate.

Digital and technological changes, he said, had benefited humanity, but also left people behind. The Popes message was delivered by Cardinal Peter Turkson, of the integral human development dicastery, who was in Davos, and who was joined by Fr Augusto Zampini-Davies, an official at the dicastery.

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Catholic priest at Davos on AI and the soul - The Tablet

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Medical Technology is now available on all devices! Read it here for free in the web browser of your computer, tablet or smartphone.

To kick off the new decade, we find out how technological innovations are revolutionising hearing aids, speak to industry insiders to understand how 3D printing is changing dentistry, and examine the challenge of regulating implants as the market continues to expand and new technologies continue to blur the boundaries between what is and is not a medical device.

Sticking with implants, we delve into the complicated world of transhumanism and biohacking to find out how rising interest in tech implants could impact medical devices, explore ways that tech can unleash preventative personalised medicine with Verita, and learn more about a computerised kidney, which is helping to shed light on dehydration.

Plus, we take a look at the current state of the medical tourism industry to see how technology is impacting such a profitable sector, find out how combining wearables and drugs could help to treat Alzheimers, and as always we get the latest industry analysis and insight from GlobalData.

Timeline: the evolution of hearing aidsHearing aids have come a long way since the weird and wonderful vacuum tube contraptions of the 1800s, but its only within the last few decades that a truly transformative wave of fashionable, functional devices have started to appear. But how did this happen?Chloe Kentlooks back at the history of digital hearing aids, from the first devices of the 1990s to the innovative AI-powered technologies of the present day.Read more.

Open wide: how 3D printing is reshaping dentistryThe dental 3D printing market is expected to reach $930m by the end of 2025, and its application across different procedures is far-reaching, from the development of dentures to Invisalign retainer braces.Chloe Kentspeaks to Digital Smile Design directorGeorge Cabanasand Formlabs dental project managerSam Wainwrightto learn more about how 3D printing could help us all smile a little brighter.Read more.

Regulating implants: how to ensure safetyAs the implant market expands and new innovations become a reality, the challenge of regulating these new technologies is getting harder. With biohacking implants already being performed in tattoo studios, how will regulators ensure the safety of patients?Abi Millar reports.Read more.

From grinders to biohackers: where medical technology meets body modificationA new generation of patients are demanding medical interventions that not only make it easier to manage medical conditions, but also enhance their day-to-day lives. Engineers and researchers have responded with futuristic innovations that push the boundaries of biohacking.Chloe Kentrounds up the bizarre and brilliant innovations that could be the future of medicine as we know it.Read more.

Q&A: how tech can unleash preventative personalised medicine with VeritaVerita Healthcare Group is a company with fingers in many pies, but one of its key focuses is on bringing preventative healthcare to the masses through technology.Chloe Kentcatches up withJulian AndrieszandJames Grant Wetherillto find out more about the companys latest digital health acquisitions and what it sees in its future.Read more.

No filter: understanding how medicines impact dehydrationComputer models of a kidney developed at the University of Waterloo could tell us more about the impacts of medicines taken by people prone to dehydration.Natalie Healeyfinds out more.Read more.

Medical tourism: how is digital tech reshaping the industry?Medical tourism is a large and growing sector that is being driven by high costs and long waiting times in developed countries. But how is the rise of digital technology and Big Data influencing the development of medical tourism hotspots around the world?Chris Lofinds out.Read more.

Triple combo: calming Alzheimers agitation with ai, wearables and a novel drugBioXcel Therapeutics is developing an acute agitation drug, BXCL501, for Alzheimers disease. To improve management and prevention of agitation, the company is leveraging an existing wearable device and developing AI algorithms to predict and prevent aggressive agitation.Allie Nawratexplores this novel, triple combination initiative to prevent and treat symptoms of Alzheimers.Read more.

In the next issue of Medical Technology we take a look at the need for a more proactive approach to encourage health screening uptake, and explore ways that AI could help to make healthcare more human-centric.

Also in the next issue, we find out how a combination of virtual reality and haptics is being used to help virtually train surgeons to perform complex procedures, examine the potential of smell-powered diagnostics, and investigate the rise of chronic illness groups on social media platforms.

Plus, we examine how the uncertain future of Ehtylene oxide could impact device manufacturers, speak to Medidata about the companys merger with Dassault Systmes, and take a look at the recall of Bayers Essure contraceptive implant.

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The future of implants in the latest Medical Technology - Verdict Medical - Medical Device Network

ActorHarry Hains, whose roles included appearances on American Horror Story: Hotel'sfifth-season episode "Devil's Night" andThe OA's second-season episode "Angel of Death," has died at age 27.

Hains' mother, actressJane Badler (V: The Series, Mission: Impossible), announced the news on her Instagram.

"On Jan 7 my beautiful son died. He was 27 and had the world at his feet. But sadly he struggled with mental illness and addiction," Badler wrote. "A brilliant spark shone bright too short a time .. I will miss you Harry every day of my life."

Back in October, Badler had posted a throwback photo of her children, as she reflected on motherhood:

The young actor and model also appeared in such genre fare asA Haunting at Silver Falls: The Returnand was scheduled to appear in an upcoming horror film titledKlowns, among many other projects, according to his IMDb page.

Hains was also a musician, performing under the name ANTIBOY. Hains described ANTIBOY as "a trans human/android from afuture in which all social constructs - including gender, sexuality, and race - have been destroyed." Attitude Magazine named Hains one of its rising stars:

A memorial service for Hains will be held on Jan. 12 at Hollywood Forever in Los Angeles.

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Harry Hains, actor in American Horror Story and The OA, dies at 27 - SYFY WIRE

WISeKey to Hold its 13th Annual Cybersecurity IoT Bloackchain Roundtable in Davos on January 22, 2020

Geneva December 23, 2019- WISeKey International Holding Ltd ("WISeKey", SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a leading global cybersecurity and IoT company, today announces that it will hold its 13th Annual Cybersecurity Roundtable in Davos on January 22, 2020 (starting at 6:00pm CET), at the Piano Bar of Hotel Europe (Promenade 63, 7270, Davos Platz, Switzerland).

This closed-door event will take place during the upcoming World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos. For more information and registration details visit https://www.wisekey.com/davos/.

Agenda for the 2020 Cybersecurity Roundtable includes the following events:

Cybersecurity Tech AccordAs a core signatory of the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, this networking reception hosted by WISeKey and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord will include a panel conversation focused on the role cybersecurity plays in ensuring the trust in our digital economy, and how the technology industry can work together to further improve the security of our online ecosystem. It will particularly look at the role of technology can play in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with a special focus promoting peace, justice, and strong institutions.

The Cybersecurity Tech Accord is a public commitment among now more than 130 global technology companies to protect and empower civilians online and to improve the security, stability and resilience of cyberspace. Since forming the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, signatories have supported initiatives on email and routing security, implemented Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) in their own operations, participated in global requests for comments on the UNs new High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, and endorsed the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace as an early supporter. Additionally, the group has coordinated with like-minded organizations such as the Global Cyber Alliance, the Internet Society, and the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE).

2020 Blockchain Outstanding AwardsChina Blockchain Application Center will present the "2020 Blockchain Outstanding Awards" to companies and individuals who have made great impacts globally to the development of Blockchain industry in the past year.

TransHuman Code for a Sustainable Era RoundtableFollowing the Tech Accord panel discussion, WISeKey will hold its 3rd Annual "TransHuman Code Meeting of Minds Roundtable." This year the roundtable will have special focus on Human Sustainability using Deeptech technologies. The TransHumanCode Platform coupled with AI agents, data mining, machine learning, and natural language search, will comprise the latest Deeptech revolutionary technologies. They comprised of AR/VR, IoT wearables like smart glasses, autonomous sensors, and decentralized computing with blockchain. This decentralized computing will provide greater security and data authentication, speeding everything up. Adding advanced integrations, the TransHumanCode platform secured by WISeKey will seamlessly work with physical environment. It will overlay everything including conversations, roads, conference room, and classrooms with AI-powered interaction and intuitive information.

In the TransHumanCode era, every physical element of every building in the actual world will be fully digitized. There will be virtual avatars for each human being and one can roam in virtual work or meeting places. This means that every piece of information around the world will become human centric.

The final version of the "transHuman Code" book bestseller will be distributed and an insightful interactive conversation will start on the precarious balancing act between technology and humanity in the application of AI, blockchain, cybersecurity, IoT, and robotics to education, employment, communication, transportation, communities, security, government, food, finance, entertainment and health.

We truly look forward to welcoming you. Historically, this event has been quickly oversubscribed. To avoid disappointment, please CLICK HERE to book your place now.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey Microprocessors Secures the pervasive computing shaping todays Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKeys Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit http://www.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:

Disclaimer:This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

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WISeKey to Hold its 13th Annual Cybersecurity IoT Blockchain Roundtable in Davos on January 22, 2020 - GlobeNewswire

On a recent Sunday at the Queen Anne Lutheran Church basement, parishioners sat transfixed as the Rev. Dr. Ted Peters discussed an unusual topic for an afternoon assembly: Can technology enhance the image of God?

Peters discussion focused on a relatively new philosophical movement. Its followers believe humans willtranscend their physical and mental limitations with wearable and implantable devices.

The movement, called transhumanism, claims that in the future, humans will be smarter and stronger and may even overcome aging and death through developments in fields such as biotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI).

What does it mean to be truly human? Peters asked in a voice that boomed throughout the church basement, in a city that boasts one of the worlds largest tech hubs. The visiting reverend urged the 30 congregants in attendance to consider the question during a time when being human sounds optional to some people.

Its sad; it makes me feel a lot of grief, a congregant said, shaking her head in disappointment.

Organized religions have long served as an outlet for humans to explore existential questions about their place in the universe, the nature of consciousness and free will. But as AI blurs the lines between the digital and physical worlds, fundamental beliefs about the essence of humanity are now called into question.

While public discourse around advanced technologies has mostly focused on changes in the workforce and surveillance, religious followers say the deeper implications of AI could be soul-shifting.

It doesnt surpriseJames Wellman, a University of Washington professor and chair of the Comparative Religion Program, that people of faith are interested in AI. Religious observers place their faith in an invisible agent known as God, whom they perceive as benevolent and helpful in their lives. The use of technology evokes a similar phenomenon, such as Apples voice assistant Siri, who listens and responds to them.

That sounds an awful lot like what people do when they think about religion, Wellman said.

When Dr. Daniel Peterson became the pastor of the Queen Anne Lutheran Church three years ago, he hoped to explore issues meaningful both to his congregants and to secular people.

Petersons fascination with AI, as a lifelong science-fiction fan, belies a skepticism in the ubiquity of technology: Hes opted out of Amazons voice assistant Alexa in his house and said he gets nervous about cameras on cellphones and computers.

He became interested in looking at AI from a spiritual dimension after writing an article last year aboutthe depiction of technologies such as droidsin Star Wars films. In Petersons eyes, artificially intelligent machines in the films areequipped with a sense of mission that enables them to think and act like humans without needing to be preprogrammed.

His examination of AI yielded more questions than answers: What kind of bias or brokenness are we importing in the artificial intelligence were designing? Peterson pondered. If AI developed consciousness, what sort of philosophical and theological concerns does that raise?

Peterson invited his church and surrounding community to explore these questions and more in the three-part forum called Will AI Destroy Us?, which kicked off with a conversation held by Carissa Schoenick from the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, followed by Peters discussion on transhumanism, and concluded with Petersons talk on his own research around AI in science-fiction films.

Held from late September to early October, the series sought to fillwhat Peterson called a silence among faith leaders about the rise of AI. Peterson and other religious observers are now eager to take part in a new creation story of sorts: Local initiatives held in places of worship and educational institutions are positioning Seattle as a testing ground for the intersection of AI and religion.

The discussion on transhumanism drew members of the community unaffiliated with the church, including David Brenner, the board chair of Seattle-based organization AI and Faith. The consortium membership spans across belief systems and academic institutions in an effort to bring major religions into the discussion around the ethics of AI, and how to create machines that evoke human flourishing and avoids unnecessary, destructive problems, Brenner said in an interview at the church. As Brenner spoke, a few congregants remained in the basement to fervently chat about the symposium.

The questions that are being presented by AI are fundamental life questions that have now become business [ones], said Brenner, a retired lawyer. Values includinghuman dignity, privacy, free will, equality and freedom are called into question through the development of machines.

Should robots ever have rights, or is it like giving your refrigerator rights even if they can function just like us? Brenner said.

Religious leaders around the world are starting to weigh in. Last April, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission the public-policy section of the Southern Baptist Convention published a set of guidelines on AI adoption that affirms the dominion of humans and encourages the minimization of human biases in technology. It discourages the creation of machines that take over jobs, relegating humans to a life of leisure devoid of work, wrote the authors.

In a speech to a Vatican conference in September, Pope Francis echoed the guidelines sentiment by urging tech companies and diplomats to deploy AI in an ethical manner that ensures machines dont replace human workers. If mankinds so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good, this would lead to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest, he said, according to The Associated Press.

On the other hand, some faith perspectives have cropped up in recent years that hold AI at the center of their value systems. Former Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski formed Way of the Future church in 2017 with the aim of creating a peaceful transition into an imminent world where machines surpass human capabilities. The churchs website argues thathumanrights should be extended to machines, and that we should clear the path for technology to take charge as it grows in intelligence.

We believe it may be important for machines to see who is friendly to their cause and who is not, the websitewarns.

But Yasmin Ali, a practicing Muslim and AI and Faith member, has seen AI used as a tool for good and bad. While Ali believes technology can make peoples lives easier, she has also seen news reports and heard stories from her community about such tools being used to profile members of marginalized communities. China, for instance, has used facial-recognition technology to surveil Uighur Muslim minorities in the western region, according to a recent New York Times investigation.

I think we need to get more diversity with the developers who provide AI, so they can get diverse thoughts and ideas into the software, Ali said. The Bellevue-based company she founded called Skillspire strives to do just that by training diverse workers in tech courses such as coding and cybersecurity.

We have to make sure that those values of being human goes into what were building, Ali said. Its like teaching kids you have to be polite, disciplined.

Back at Queen Anne Lutheran, congregants expressed hope that the conversation would get the group closer to understanding and making peace with changes in society, just as churches have done for hundreds of years.

Bainbridge Island resident Monika Aring believes the rise of AI calls for an ongoing inquiry at faith-based places of worship on the role of such technologies. She shared the dismay she felt when her friend, a pastor of another congregation, said the church has largely become irrelevant.

It mustnt be. This is the time for us to have these conversations, she said. I think we need some kind of moral compass,one that ensures humans and the Earth continue to thrive amid the advancement of AI.

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Seattle faith groups reckon with AI and what it means to be truly human - Seattle Times