UPDATED: Adelaide Festival of Ideas
Listen to Julian Savulescu in recent panel discussions on life-extension and 'the case for perfection'
The events were held as part of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, at Adelaide Town Hall (7-9 October 2011).
'Immortality...reality?' - 8 October.
According to some researchers, the first human to live for 150 years has already been born, and the first to live for 1000 years will probably be born within the next two decades. Is it really possible to live to 1000? More importantly, would you want to?
Chaired by Paul Willis, the panel (which included Brad Partridge and Fiona Wood) discussed implications for our bodies, minds and societies. Follow link for podcast and other resources: http://riaus.org.au/programs-and-events/immortality-reality/
UPDATE: Adelaide’s Festival of Ideas, “Immortality…reality” aired on ABC Radio National on Sunday 22 Jan. You can listen to it online here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/summer-on-radio-national-science---immortality/3695976
Also recorded at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas on 8 October 2011: ‘The Case for Perfection’.
The current possibilities for using genetics and other biotechnologies to enhance human cognitive and physical performance are real and significant. Savulescu argues we have a moral obligation to pursue the project of human perfection and to take the opportunity science is already affording us to improve moral behaviour.
Audio: http://radio.adelaide.edu.au/adelaidefestivalofideas2011/audio/08_perfection.mp3 | Video: http://blip.tv/slowtv/the-case-for-perfection-julian-savulescu-5662280
The following poems were performed at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, by their author Jude Aquilina
The Fat Aftermath
And when the renegade fat people
took to the streets because no one would rent
them rooms or houses and they were forbidden
to study or work unless they underwent
Government Buttoning,
they opened sly bakeries and lolly shops
in deserted buildings, imported chocolate
from Africa on the black market
grew illicit sugar cane in National Parks
and set up underground confectionary cells
stocked long before the prohibition.
The Fat Police hunted them like dogs,
loading them into glass-sided vehicles
for all to see as they shunted
them through the city to the nearest clinic.
Jaw wiring and stomach stapling were outlawed
years before: the community outraged at the
waste of government funds spent on hopeless
freaks, who didn’t want to help themselves.
Government Buttoning only requires
a local anaesthetic, a small slit
in the upper lip and a fleshy knob
stitched to the inside of the lower.
Laser sealed, the sinful mouth is mute.
The official Reduction Nurse
appears every day with a protein shake
and a long thin straw to insert through the nose.
The taste buds die after a few years and staying
within the legal range of size 0 to 1 is easy.
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Published: Midnight Echo, 2010
Jude Aquilina
jude_poet@yahoo.com.au
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The Genes Generation
The sperm that breaks the membrane.
The white moth on white bark.
The strongest of the litter
nudging the runt from a nipple.
Select the button for blue eyes
and dial up Mensa membership:
point an invisible bone
at pock marked genius.
Probes will reach new depths
to find the best of the best,
to set the clock, the face,
the fingers and toes.
The bellwether and Dolly girls
lead us to our destiny: a world
decorated with the recycled fabric
of catalogue-sale humanity.
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Jude Aquilina
Published: Ripples Magazine, Vol 2, 2005
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