The Beginning

Welcome everyone to The New Humanist blog. Apparently, it's not as "new" as I thought, as there are a couple of other websites out there titled "The New Humanist," but technically speaking since they've been around longer than me, this is still "The NEW Humanist."
The genesis of this idea came from this slide show:

http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv

If you haven't seen it, check it out before proceeding.

The slideshow is concerned with how fast our world is changing and what life could look like in the 21st century. There was one particular section concerned with technology and how by 2020, there will be one computer that will surpass the entire human race in brain power that costs...1,000.00 dollars!

That started me thinking, do we really understand the path we're going down? Will having those sophisticated computers make human beings obsolete? Do we control technology or does technology control us? And, perhaps most importantly, what does it mean to be a human being in this age of insane technology?

A friend of mine commented that we're living in an age dominated by technicians and if you think about it he's right. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and several Information Technology companies are dominating the US, and soon, the World economies. The point he raised is that there doesn't seem to be any philosophy or moral context for these technicians to follow. Just because we can do something, does that mean we should do that thing? Think about some of the issues that this century is going bring to light; cloning, genetic enhancement, Artificial Intelligence. All these things and other things we can't even conceive of will become possible in this century. How do we decide if these things should be pursued or not.

Well, those are the issues I'd like to debate and discuss in this blog. And I'm really counting on you all to participate in this dialogue and to bring others into the discussion. To hopefully develop and discuss a philosophy that can help us to make those decisions. Each week, I'll present a new topic to guide us through these decisions.

Secondly, I'd like to take this blog to celebrate some of the positive things that human beings are capable of; we often hear of all the negative things out there but it's rare to hear about all the good that happens, which as you will see far outweighs the bad. If you hear or see a story that shows the positive side of humanity, please share it.

Finally, a third theme that will be running through this blog is the idea of technology and how we as humans can positively interact with technology vs. being dominated by it. And let me say up front that I'm not against technology, as I write this blog from my awesome MacBook Pro. I'm just interested to see if technology has really made our lives better. That is, once we figure out what living a good life means.

So, this week's philosophical topic is: What does it mean to be a human being?

Philosophers and theologians have been debating this question for milennia. Aristotle used something called "The Function Argument," to describe what he thought constitued a human being. He posited that things are defined by what they distinctly do, for example, the Eye is defined as something that sees. Using this logic, Aristotle went on to say that the distinguishing factor for the human race is something that is rational or thinks. So, for Aristotle, what it meant to be a human being was to be a rational being. And I can certainly buy that, but it seems somewhat deficient. Isn't there more to being a human than just something that thinks? Don't we also feel emotions, have aspirations, build systems to support those aspirations, and a myriad of other things?

So, that's the question for this week: What does it mean to you to be a member of the human race?

On the positive note: this past Tuesday was National Sportmanship Day, I was watching Sportscenter and ran across this nice video clip demonstrating good sportsmanship. Check out the ESPN on NSD link in the bottom right hand corner.

http://www.internationalsport.com/nsd/index.cfm#

Have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you.