Lauren H. Seiler
Professor

Office: Powdermaker Hall 252E
Telephone: (718) 997-2824
Fax: (718) 997-2820
Email: laurenseiler@verizon.net

Professor Seiler is writing a book with the working title ByLightOnWeb. He is former chair of the department and the author of over three dozen articles and chapters.

His most recent work, “What Are We? The Social Construction of the Human Biological Self,” appeared in The Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, September, 2007.  “What Are We?” rejects various truisms that define our human character while examining how the human biological self is socially constructed. In contrast to prevailing social and scientific views, “What Are We?” describes humans as “poly-super-organisms.” It further argues that humans reproduce both sexually and asexually, that gametes are organisms in their own right, and that human life begins before conception with the creation of gametes. In sum, this article contends that much in biology and much about human bodies fit outside current biological or cultural classifications. Finally, the way that science and society construct the human biological self is shown to affect our views on abortion, human cloning, and our post-human future.

Lauren H. Seiler originated the Queens College course in Post-Human Society (Sociology 381) in 1995. The course explores the consequences of rapidly changing technology — particularly genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, nanotechnology, and robotics — on humankind’s future. Fulfilling part of the requirements for that course, Beth Birnbaum created the story quilt shown below in 2002. The two center panels represent the origin of the universe and the origin or human culture. Working outward, the panels show evolutionary progression in each realm culminating in cities, circuit boards, and robots.