Justice De Thézier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Justice De Thézier
Born	April 20, 1975(1975-04-20) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation	Social entrepreneur, creative professional

Justice De Thézier (born 20 April 1975) is a Canadian social entrepreneur and creative professional.^[1] He is mostly known for having become a critic of transhumanism after having been the most prominent black transhumanist in the 2000s.

The son of Haitian immigrants, De Thézier was born and grew up in Montreal. A secular progressive primarily concerned with creating awareness of community perspectives on the asserted right to "human enablement",^[2] he sought to promote a middle ground between technorealism and techno-utopianism known as "democratic transhumanism" through discussion, education, and art. At the time, De Thézier's advocacy for social change was summarized in the following argument:

What people really want to know is whether "human enhancement" is only going to benefit the Donald Trumps of the world [the rich and powerful]. This legitimate concern is the reason why progressives need to understand and explain the importance of a transparent government not only funding the research and development of "enhancement" technologies but also guaranteeing all citizens safe, universal and voluntary access through a modernized health care system. Rather than banning these technologies for fear that they might increase social inequalities, they should be seen as tools for the poor and disadvantaged to gain not only better health but social mobility.

From November 2005 to March 2007, De Thézier contributed to the Cyborg Democracy web portal and blog.^[3] In 2003, De Thézier founded the Montreal Transhumanist Association (later renamed the Quebec Transhumanist Association), the first and only non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of transhumanism in Quebec, as part of NEXUS, a network of local technoscience-focused progressive organizations he strived to build. In January 2008, he abandoned the NEXUS project and closed down the QTA. From January 2006 to January 2008, De Thézier served on the board of directors of the World Transhumanist Association, an international non-governmental organization which advocates the ethical use of emerging technologies that expand human capacities.^[1]

On 1 January 2008, Justice De Thézier publicly renounced his adherence to the transhumanist ideology and movement.^[4][5][6] As his driving justification, he cited what he considers to be the three flaws of the transhumanist mindset, which he never embraced:

1. An undercritical support for technology in general and fringe science in particular;
2. A distortive "us vs. them" tribe-like mentality and identity; and
3. A vulnerability to unrealistic utopian and dystopian "future hype".

In 2008, Cristian Valeriu Jereghi named his Russian rock band Justice De Thézier simply because he liked the sound of this French name after finding it on Wikipedia by loading a random article.^[7]

[edit] References

[edit] External links