James Hughes (sociologist)

James Hughes (sociologist)
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 is the associate provost for institutional research, assessment, and planning at UMass Boston. 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 executive director of the World Transhumanist Association from 2004 to 2006 and currently serves as 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.
Before working at UMass Boston, he lectured at Northwestern University, the University of Connecticut, and Trinity College.
Rejecting bioconservatism and libertarian transhumanism, Hughes argues for democratic transhumanism, a radical form of techno-progressivism that 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 sits on the academic advisory council of the Christian Transhumanist Association.
Works
"Embracing Change with All Four Arms: A Post-Humanist Defense of Genetic Engineering". Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 6(4), 94-101
Hughes, James (2002). "Politics of Transhumanism". 2001 Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science
Hughes, James (2002). "Democratic Transhumanism 2.0". Transhumanity blog
Hughes, James (2002–2004). Changesurfing Archived Betterhumans column
Hughes, James (2004). Book: Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. Westview Press.
A collection of interviews and presentations at Science, Technology & the Future.
LaGrandeur, Kevin, Hughes, James J. (Eds.) (2017). Surviving the Machine Age: Intelligent Technology and the Transformation of Human Work.
Up and coming book: Cyborg Buddha: Using Neurotechnology to Become Better People.
See also
Cryonics
Human exceptionalism
Nanosocialism
Nick Bostrom
Reprogenetics
Techno-progressivism
Techno-utopia
Techno-utopianism
Technogaianism
Viridian design movement
Wisdom of repugnance
References
External links
Changesurfer Consulting, a web portal to James Hughes' projects
Changesurfer Radio , "a weekly, syndicated public affairs radio show transmitting a sexy, high-tech vision of a radically democratic future"
Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies: James Hughes
American Buddhists
American socialists
American sociologists
Bioethicists
Futurologists
1961 births
Living people
Trinity College (Connecticut) faculty
University of Chicago alumni
American transhumanists