Sentient Developments Retrospective: Part V

This week marks the 5th anniversary of Sentient Developments. This will be the final day of my retrospective. Today's entry reviews the best of November 2006 through to the present.

The Ashley X story hit prime time in January 2007 and I found myself embroiled in the controversy. Back on November 6, 2006 I published the article, Helping Families Care for the Helpless, in which I defended the actions of Ashley's parents. They in turn cited the article to help explain their actions. Among the many interviews I did that week I appeared on the BBC.

Also in January I appeared on the CBC's 'The Hour' and discussed the future of humans.

I came up with 30 must-know terms for the 21st century intellectual. This article went completely viral and is undoubtedly my most popular post.

Beliefnet offered me the opportunity to respond to Nigel Cameron's bioconservative concerns. In the interview, titled "Nanotechnology Will Reshape Humanity," I discussed such things as security, privacy, nanotech and the ethics of enhancement.

The Blogisattva Awards were announced earlier this year and my blog was the winner of two awards: Best Achievement Blogging on Matters Philosophical or Scientific and Best Achievement in Wonderful, Remarkable, Elegant Design.

I wrote about cheating vs. enhancement in chess and the future of chess.

I railed against the prospect of giving up sleep.

I hated Aronofsky's pro-death 'Fountain', I declared that Star Trek's 'Prime Directive' was stupid (which pissed off a number of Trekkies -- just check out the comments), and wrote about 'Jesus Camp' and the art of brainwashing children.

I wondered if the world was ready for cyborg athletes and the New York Times quoted my 'sober' opinion.

I wanted to have nothing to do with mind controlling parasites.

I argued that there there should be an X Prize for an artificial biosphere.

I worried about our pending authoritarian neugenic nation.

I defended the right to be wrong and tolerated Holocaust deniers and global warming skeptics.

I discovered that Second Life was a dangerous place where perils abound and terrorists struggle for their digital rights. I also joined Facebook and paid witness to the the ongoing demise of anonymity.

I argued that British Columbia was right to seize Jehovah's Witnesses babies.

I struggled to manage my 50,000 daily thoughts. I wrote about synesthetic art and interpretation.

I felt that resistance was futile and that we should not even bother to prepare for an alien invasion.

I wondered if non-human animal uplift was imperialistic.

A heart-felt thanks goes out to all my regular readers! I deeply appreciate the support you've given me over the years!