• The Invention of Race

  "We tend to imagine that our racial classifications map onto natural kinds in the world, that in carving humanity up into 'Caucasoid', 'Negroid', etc., we are, so to speak, carving nature at its joints. In fact, these categories are recent inventions." (3quarksdaily)

  tags: race, biology, grue

• Of persons, robots, aliens and humans

  "It is common parlance to equate the words ?person? with ?human?. That is perhaps because of all the creatures we know, we humans are those with the most obvious claim to personhood. But, what actually is a ?person?? We know that a person is a moral entity - someone, rather than something, but that just requires us to define a ?moral entity?, so begs the question. This is a very vital question these days, as it relates to such issues as human embryo research, euthanasia, human genetic engineering and cloning, among others." (Human Enhancement and Biopolitics)

  tags: human.nature, bioethics, robots, grue

• Augmented cognition: Science fact or science fiction?

  "The limitations of cognitive processes, particularly attention and working memory, place a ceiling on the capacity of the brain to process and store information. It is these processes that some researchers are aiming to enhance with augmented cognition, an emerging field which aims to use computational technology to enhance human performance in various tasks by overcoming the bottlenecks in processes such as attention and memory. " (Neurophilosophy)

  tags: neurophilosophy, brain, memory, grue

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