News of the Future - July 20, 2026

The Technoprogressive Opportunity: The future of ethics and emerging technologies

Saturday, September 19-20 - London, United Kingdom

​Join members of London Futurists and the IEET (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) in this free-to-attend event, held in the LSBU Hub in London SE1.

Free and open to the public

About Event

​We live in a time of dramatic changes in the capabilities of technologies. Political and social norms are being disrupted as never before. Humanity faces both unprecedented risks and unprecedented opportunities.

• ​How can society make wise decisions about which technologies to encourage and which to constrain?

• ​How can society ensure that these decisions are followed in practice, rather than being ignored or subverted by powerful short-sighted forces?

• ​How can a technoprogressive coalition grow in strength, as a decisive counter to existing worldviews which are more likely to leave humanity diminished, fragmented, or even extinct?

The IEET and the Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston co-sponsored a conference on the ethics of brain-computer interfaces in Boston, June 5-6, 2026.

• Therapy/Enhancement in Neurotechnology - Alta Charo, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

• Neurorights in Practice - Stephen Damianos is the Executive Director of the Neurorights Foundation.

• BCI Ethics Conference: Panel 1: Neurotechnology and Consciousness

  • Luke Roelofs (University of Texas at Arlington)
    “Five Theses on the Potential of Neurotechnology”

  • Brian Edlow, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School)

  • Michael Hegarty (UMass Boston, Applied Ethics Center)
    "Spooky Action at a (Mental) Distance?"

• BCI Ethics Conference: Panel 2: Neurotechnology and Ethics

  • Laura Specker Sullivan (Fordham University)
    “The Purpose of Ethics Guidance for Neurotechnology”

  • Cody Turner (Bentley University)
    “Neurorights, Neurocapitalism, and Neuroenhancement”

  • Maria Brincker (UMass Boston)
    "How Do You Trust a Company with your Mind? From Embodiment Relations to For-Profit Cyborgs"

• BCI Ethics Conference: Panel 3: Military Applications of Neurotechnology

  • William Casebeer (HRL Laboratories)
    "Neuroethics Extended: Building an Artificial Conscience to Govern Autonomous National Security Systems"

  • Nick Evans (UMass Lowell)
    "Institutionalizing Enhanced Warfighters"

  • Joseph Chapa (Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force)
    "Virtue and Vampires: Is Human Flourishing Possible for Neuro-Enhanced Military Professionals?"

• BCI Ethics Conference: Panel 4: Neurotechnology and Religion

  • James Hughes (UMass Boston & Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies)
    "The End of the Sovereign Soul: BCIs, Buddhism, and the Co-Evolved Mind"

  • Seth Villegas (Boston University)
    "BCIs and the Quest for Authentic Religious Experience"

  • Daniel Munro (Boston University)
    "Artificial Mystics, Conversation, and Religious Belief"

On April 16, 2026, the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), together with the Hub for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (HEET), convened Horizons in Ethics & Emerging Technologies (HEET 2026) in Turin, Italy.

The conference marked the inaugural public event of HEET, a new research hub based at the University of Turin and affiliated with IEET. Its aim is to support rigorous, interdisciplinary, and practically relevant work on the ethical dimensions of emerging technologies.

We are pleased to share that the full HEET 2026 materials are now available online:

Conference playlist

• HEET 2026 Welcome Remarks | Steven Umbrello, Luca Lo Sapio, Vincenzo Crupi & James J. Hughes

• Ethical Implications of Quantum Technologies: Governance, Security, and Society

• Human Enhancement: Ethics, Flourishing, and Governance

• Safe, Reliable & Trustworthy AI: Governance, Tools, and Digital Humanism

Short Interviews with Speakers:

• Steven Umbrello on HEET, IEET, and Responsible Innovation

• Pieter E. Vermaas on Ethics and Quantum Technologies

• Paul O’Hara on AI, Consciousness, and Human Agency

• Massimo Reichlin on Bioethics and Human Enhancement

• Luca Lo Sapio on Moral Philosophy and Emerging Technologies

• Lílian Santos on Responsible Human Enhancement

• James J. Hughes on Technoprogressivism and Emerging Technologies

• Erich Prem on Digital Humanism and Trustworthy AI

• Cody Turner on Human Enhancement and Ethical Futures

• Anders Sandberg on the Future of Human Enhancement

Dec 10-11, 2026 - Venue: Univ of Abuja, Nigeria + Virtual (Hybrid)

Organizers: Transhumanists Africa and the Enlightenment Transhumanist Forum of Nigeria
Co-sponsors: AFT-Technoprog, IEET, Humanity+

To present: Send an abstract (max 300 words) and bio (100–150 words) to: aiche@transhumanistsafrica.org, and cc: chogwu.abdul@uniabuja.edu.ng
Deadline: 15 Sept 2026
Additional info at: https://transhumanistsafrica.org/AICHE2026

The Best Way to Nationalize AI:
Sovereign Wealth Funds, AI and Automation

OpenAI is offering 5% equity to the US government. Trump has ordered the creation of a US sovereign wealth fund, received 10% government equity in Intel, and a “golden share” in US Steel. Now Bernie Sanders has proposed 50% nationalization of AI stocks, to be held in a sovereign wealth fund that will finance a UBI. Why is there a sudden convergence by Right and Left on nationalizing AI?

Technoprogressive Worldbuilding
J and Matteo discuss the themes of the IEET Summer Course

This summer Matteo MacDermant is teaching a course on Technoprogressive Worldbuilding for the IEET. We discuss the themes of the course, and some philosophical reflections about the technoprogressive project.

Future Histories

Lizzie O’Shea is a lawyer and the author of Future Histories, wherein she makes the argument that the key to understanding technology lies not in the future, but in the past. In this episode we speak in depth about creating histories, and dig into cybernetics, social movements, social history, and much more.

The View From the Peak:
Toward a Technoprogressive Philosophy of Knowledge

It is crucial to consider technoprogressivism a progressive philosophy of knowledge, or a progressive knowledge praxis, which as an active philosophy is also a progressive form of worldbuilding.

Magnificent Humanity

J and Nir talk to Father Michael Baggot about Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which outlines Catholic positions on AI and other emerging technologies. Father Michael Baggot is an Associate Professor of Bioethics at the Vatican’s Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, a member of the Scholarly Advisory Board for Magisterium AI, and the chief editor of Enhancement Fit for Humanity: Perspectives on Emerging Technologies.

From 1998 to 2012 Dr. J. produced a radio show and podcast called Changesurfer Radio. The show was eclectic, but its tag line was “a sexy high-tech vision of a radically democratic future” and it helped shape the technoprogressive ideas that we have been nurturing at the IEET. Many are still quite relevant, and its time to dust some off and share them again.

Gender, Genes and Space - Martine Rothblatt (1998-09-05)

Body Loathing at Escape Velocity - Mark Dery (1998-10-10)