James Hughes
American sociologist and bioethicist

James Hughes

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American sociologist and bioethicist
A.K.A.
James J. Hughes
Gender:
Male
Places:
United States of America
Is:
Sociologist
Work field:
Social science
Birth:
27 May 1961(Columbus, USA)
Star sign:
Gemini
Residences
Hartford, USA
Education:
University of Chicago
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Introduction

James J. Hughes (born May 27, 1961) is an American sociologist and bioethicist. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and teaches health policy at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in the United States. He is the author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future and is currently writing a book about moral bioenhancement tentatively titled Cyborg Buddha: Using Neurotechnology to Become Better People.

Biography

Hughes holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he served as the assistant director of research for the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Before graduate school he was temporarily ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1984 while working as a volunteer in Sri Lanka for the development organization Sarvodaya from 1983 to 1985.

Hughes served as the executive director of the World Transhumanist Association (which has since changed its name to Humanity+) from 2004 to 2006, and currently serves as the executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, which he founded with Nick Bostrom. He also produces the syndicated weekly public affairs radio talk show program Changesurfer Radio and contributed to the Cyborg Democracy blog. Hughes' book Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future was published by Westview Press in November 2004.

Rejecting bioconservatism and libertarian transhumanism, Hughes argues for a third way, "democratic transhumanism", a radical form of techno-progressivism which asserts that the best possible "posthuman future" is achievable only by ensuring that human enhancement technologies are safe, made available to everyone, and respect the right of individuals to control their own bodies.

Hughes is also on the "Academic Advisory Council" of the Christian Transhumanist Association

James Hughes is also an international conference speaker on transhumanist topics. In April 25, 2016, Zoltan Istvan had a transhumanism politics debate with James Hughes at Harvard University. According to a report on Vice motherboard, "For the first time, Hughes and Istvan met on the debate stage, in a small classroom auditorium at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts It wasn’t exactly a clash of ideas so much as a clang. It’s clear that Transhumanists on either side of the political spectrum share a basic tenet of the philosophy, the vague notion of the need to use science and technology to make humanity better, but from there on out, everything else is up for debate." James Hughes spoke on Technoprogressivism at Nigeria ICT Fest 2015 in Lagos, Nigeria, via Skype.

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