Anathem

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

I just finished reading Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. Very interesting, very complex, and very long (the story concludes on page 890).

It took a good 100 pages to really feel immersed in the world of the book, which involves a good bit of made up terms (the book includes a 20 page glossary).

I hesitate to recommend it because of its length. It would have been good to have a large block of time to read it, rather than spreading it out over 3 ½ weeks, so perhaps if you’re going on a reading vacation. Or flying from California to the UK.

If you do read it, stick with it until you feel yourself really getting absorbed into the world of the book, then go back and start from the beginning again.

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For the DVD Queue of Your Choice

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

Kenny is an Australian mocumentary that I think works on a couple of levels — funny and touching, with a positive message.

Description:
Porta-loo deliveryman Kenny Smyth is probably one of the most underappreciated professionals on the planet. But without him, this much is true: There’d be a lot more crap to deal with. In a comedy of excremental proportions, Kenny makes his rounds with his dedicated Splashdown crew and ultimately finds himself at the mother of all waste management sites — the International Pumper and Cleaner Expo in Nashville.

Carrier is an actual documentary that aired on PBS last year, I believe.

Description:
Filmed during a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf in support of ground troops, this in-depth documentary takes an insider’s tour of the U.S.S. Nimitz, one of America’s most storied aircraft carriers. Cameras follow Navy personnel as they perform their duties, navigate conflicts and ponder questions about patriotism and sacrifice, all against the backdrop of daily routines aboard one of the most lethal naval vessels ever constructed.

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Increasingly Complex Birds and Bees Conversations

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

The New York Times looks (briefly) at conversations parents are now having with children born to surrogates with donor eggs and sperm: “No Stork Involved, but Mom and Dad Had Help.”

Every child has a birth story. The story of Simmie, who was born to a surrogate, is different from the stories of the three children in the movie. But her story, which is also the story of her 11-year-old twin brothers, Andrew and Benjamin, is less unusual than it used to be.

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One Path for Bioethics in the Church

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

My friend Sarah recently presented at the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity’s Global Bioethics: Emerging Challenges Facing Human Dignity conference. Her presentation was entitled “Women’s Discipleship: A Pathway for Bioethics in the Local Church,” and is available on her website, Women of Faith in Culture.

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Something Interesting about Michael Jackson

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

I know I feel like we’ve been overwhelmed with Michael Jackson news, but here’s an article that looks at his life from a slightly different perspective: “Was Michael Jackson a Transhumanist?”

Jackson [defied] his biological limitations in terms of his transformation of his inherited features — his cosmetic surgery and his change of skin color (he might also have included his cross-genderish style of dress and makeup).

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Terminator Salvation?

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

From MercatorNet:

So the question provoked by Terminator Salvation is this: is being plain old Humanity 1.0 worthwhile — in spite of our messy emotions, cloudy intelligence, imperfect bodies and unavoidable death? Or should we aspire to move forward to Humanity 2.0?

Posted in Emerging Technologies, Everyday Theology, Film, Transhumanism | Leave a comment

Will Machines Master Man?

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

Interesting article on a recent meeting about possible limits on the development of Artificial Intelligence.

Where have I heard this before?

“Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Horvitz said. “Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.”

Oh yeah, that’s right.

Posted in Emerging Technologies | 3 Comments

Excellent Article on Death and Dying

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

“Sisters Face Death With Dignity and Reverence,” New York Times:

Dr. McCann’s long relationship with the sisters gives him the time and opportunity, impossible in the hurly-burly of an intensive-care unit, to clarify goals of care long before a crisis: Whether feeding tubes or ventilators make sense. If pain control is more important than alertness. That studies show that CPR is rarely effective and often dangerous in the elderly.

“It is much easier to guide people to better choices here than in a hospital,” he said, “and you don’t get a lot of pushback when you suggest that more treatment is not better treatment.”

. . .

“This is what our culture, our society, is starved for, to be rich in relationships,” Sister Mary Lou said. “This is what everyone should have.”

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Required Reading: Horse then Cart

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

From Obama’s Bioethics Commission: Providing Practical Policy Options:

People largely have defined the first chair of the Bush commission, Leon Kass, and that commission as a whole, by their relative conservatism compared to previous commissions. But what Kass should be more famous for is his vision that bioethics should define societal goals or ends before we decide whether to pursue various types of biotechnology. I think it is this conversation that is considered “philosophical.”

Read the whole thing. Please.

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The President’s Council on Bioethics Disbanded

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Matthew Eppinette

As you may have heard by now, President Obama has disbanded the President’s Council on Bioethics. As usual, my buddy Joe says it better than I could:

To the electoral victor goes the electoral spoils, so Obama’s disbanding is neither surprising nor unprecedented. It is, however, lamentable, if for no other reason than that they will no longer be producing rich, nuanced works of philosophical reflection. Bioethics commissions have been around since the mid-1970s but under Leon Kass and later Edmund Pellegrino the council created a new literary genre of government documents: pythonic guides to policy.

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