Convocation: An Evening with Martine Rothblatt

Is Martine Rothblatt cool? Just ask her wife. Or the robot version of her wife.

Rothblatt is a futurist, scientist, attorney, entrepreneur, author, and philosopher. She founded Sirius Satellite Radio and, when her daughter developed a life-threatening lung disease, changed careers and started a biotech firm that makes life-saving medicines for rare diseases (including the one that saved her daughter’s life). In addition to her law degree, she holds a PhD in medical ethics and wrote her dissertation on xenotransplantation.

Born Martin, Martine sees herself less as transgender and more as transhumanist: one who believes that technology can liberate us from the limits of our biology, including even death. She is working to preserve the consciousness of Bina, her wife of 33 years, in the artificial intelligence of a robot that has been interviewed by the New York Times. (Search “Bina48” on Google to learn more.)

Rothblatt has chaired the International Bar Association’s Law & Medicine Committee and authored the book, Your Life or Mine: How Geoethics Can Resolve the Conflict Between Public and Private Interests in Xenotransplantation. She has published several other books on mindware ethics, satellite communications, gender differences, genetic engineering, organ transplantation, and Middle East peace.

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The Convocation is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. For more information please contact the Office of Public Programs at (440) 775-6785 or visit http://www.oberlin.edu/artsguide/convocation-series/rothblatt.shtml

Sponsored by the Office of the President and the Finney Lecture Committee