Conference CFA: AI-BASED ENHANCEMENT AND THE SEARCH FOR HUMAN PERFECTION

[amara esther]

3^rd International Virtual Conference on Transhumanism in Africa

AI-BASED ENHANCEMENT AND THE SEARCH FOR HUMAN PERFECTION: DEBATES FROM AFRICAN, EASTERN, AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES

Organised by Amara Esther Chimakonam

Host: The Conversational School of Philosophy (CSP), University of Calabar, Nigeria

 

Some transhumanists and moral enhancement advocates are optimistic that AI could finally achieve human perfection, bringing an age-long search for it to an end. This group of transhumanists has proposed attaining human perfection through AI-based enhancement. AI-based human enhancement involves AI interventions aimed at helping humans act in morally relevant ways and live healthier, longer, happier, and more meaningful lives. This could take the form of direct interventions that augment human capacities, such as moral, cognitive, genetic, and physical abilities, through AI-based technologies, or indirect interventions that assist humans, including in moral decision-making. This conference addresses the central question of whether we should attain human perfection through AI and what the implications would be. The aim is to bring together scholars from African, Eastern, and Western philosophical traditions to address these (and other) questions and to open an intercultural debate on AI-based human enhancement.

Papers that address any topic in the following broad themes are welcome:

·        AI-based human enhancement and Ubuntu

·        AI-based human enhancement and Afro-communitarianism

·        AI-based moral enhancement and personhood-based theory of right action

·        African Ethics and AI-based enhancement

·        AI-based enhancement and Complementary Ethics

·        AI-based enhancement and uze-Ezumezu ethics

·        AI-based enhancement, human perfection, God, and the philosophy of religion

·        Metaphysical or moral or religious status of AI-based enhanced humans

·        AI-based human enhancement: Perspectives from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism

·        AI-based human enhancement and environmental ethics

·        AI-based enhancement and animal ethics

·        AI-based human enhancement, intercultural philosophy and comparative philosophy

·        Consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics approaches to AI-based human enhancement

·        AI-based human enhancement and global justice

·        Feminist’s perspectives on AI-based human enhancement

 

Publication Output:

Papers presented at this conference will be published as an edited collection titled “AI-based Enhancement in African, Eastern, and Western Philosophies” (possible publisher: SUNY Press).

 Important Dates:

Submission of Abstracts: September, 2026

Abstract acceptance: Submissions are reviewed and accepted on an ongoing basis

Date of conference: 15 – 16 February 2027

Venue: Zoom.

Submission and inquiries: Amarae...@gmail.com 

Thank you,

AE Chimakonam

Centre for African Phenomenology, 

University of Fort Hare, South Africa.

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Recent book: Rethinking Feminist Discourse in Africa: Gender Marginalization or Complementarity. Edited by AE Chimakonam and JO Chimakonam. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham. 

Forthcoming book: Transhumanism in Africa: The Prospects of Moral Enhancement and Its Challenges. Edited by AE Chimakonam. Springer.