Category Archives: Transhumanist

Transhumanism is the belief or movement in favour of human enhancement, especially beyond current human limitations and with advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, life extension, and nanotechnology.

The first use of the term was by Julian Huxley, who in 1951 described transhumanism as

Some early online definitions of transhumanism are from 1997 from Anders Sandberg's website. Sandberg defined transhumanism thus:

Max More cites the use of technology in conjunction with 'life-promoting principles and values', an idea that would later encompass Extropianism.

Natasha Vita-More emphasises morphological freedom, complete self-control and space exploration.

In 2003 Nick Bostrom described the idea as:

In later years, both broader and more specific definitions have been attempted such as 2015:

Today, as the movement grows in popularity and widens appeal, the definition itself is subject to frequent semantic debates around inclusion, exclusion or focus of its ideas.

This section highlights reasons for supporting transhumanism.

Extracted from an essay entitled "Knowledge, Morality, and Destiny" originally presented in Washington DC on 19-20 April 1951[5], subsequently published in the journal Psychiatry in the same year[6], and available in pages 245-278 of the book of essays "New Bottles for New Wine" published in 1957:

Never was there a greater need for a large perspective, in which we might discern the outlines of a general and continuing belief beyond the disturbance and chaos of the present...

Every society, in every age, needs some system of beliefs, including a basic attitude to life, an organized set of ideas around which emotion and purpose may gather, and a conception of human destiny. It needs a philosophy and a faith to achieve a guide to orderly living - in other words, a morality...

This brings me... to the emergent idea-system, the new organization of thought, at whose birth we are assisting. It takes account, first and foremost, of the fact that nature is one universal process of evolution, self-developing and self-transforming, and it includes us. Man does not stand over against nature; he is part of it. We men are that part of the process which has become self-conscious, and it is our duty and our destiny to facilitate the process by leading it on to new levels.

Our chief motive, therefore, will derive from the exploration and understanding of human nature and the possibilities of development and fulfilment inherent in it, a study which will of course include the limitations, distortions, and frustrations to be avoided.

Such a philosophy might perhaps best be called Transhumanism. It is based on the idea of humanity attempting to overcome its limitations and arrive at fuller fruition; it is the realization that both individual and social development are processes of self-transformation.

Extracted from an essay entitled "Transhumanism" on pages 13-17 of the book of essays "New Bottles for New Wine" published in 1957:

As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future. This cosmic self-awareness is being realized in one tiny fragment of the universe in a few of us human beings. Perhaps it has been realized elsewhere too, through the evolution of conscious living creatures on the planets of other stars. But on this our planet, it has never happened before...

Up till now human life has generally been, as Hobbes described it, nasty, brutish and short; the great majority of human beings (if they have not already died young) have been afflicted with misery in one form or anotherpoverty, disease, ill-health, over-work, cruelty, or oppression. They have attempted to lighten their misery by means of their hopes and their ideals. The trouble has been that the hopes have generally been unjustified, the ideals have generally failed to correspond with reality.

The zestful but scientific exploration of possibilities and of the techniques for realizing them will make our hopes rational, and will set our ideals within the framework of reality, by showing how much of them are indeed realizable. Already, we can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted. We are already justified in the conviction that human life as we know it in history is a wretched makeshift, rooted in ignorance; and that it could be transcended by a state of existence based on the illumination of knowledge and comprehension, just as our modern control of physical nature based on science transcends the tentative fumblings of our ancestors, that were rooted in superstition and professional secrecy.

To do this, we must study the possibilities of creating a more favourable social environment, as we have already done in large measure with our physical environment...

The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.

I believe in transhumanism: once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.

Main: Transhumanist Declaration

The first four sections of the Transhumanist Declaration, written in 1998 by an international collection of authors, encapsulate an argument in favour of transhumanism, as follows:

In February 2013, a number of authors created alternative transhumanist declarations. Some excerpts provide additional reasons for supporting transhumanism:

From Dirk Bruere:

We assert the desirability of transcending human limitations by overcoming aging, enhancing cognition, abolishing involuntary suffering, and expanding beyond Earth.

From Samantha Atkins:

1) We advocate the end of aging.

We advocate serious research focus on finding a cure for all the deleterious effects of aging and ultimately the dissemination of the resulting treatment to all who care to avail themselves of it.

2) We believe in and advocate the achievement of actual abundance.

We believe in and seek to bring into the being the technologies and practices, that will ensure such abundance that it is trivial to meet all the needs and many of the wants of all humans. This abundance includes abundant food, water, shelter, education, communication, computation, health care.

This is to be achieved by means of advanced technology and whatever changes are necessary to actually experience abundance in ourselves and our institutions.

3) We hold that all must be voluntary.

None of our goals should be or in our view could successfully be achieved by force. No one should be forced directly or indirectly to support these goals. Force and oppression lead to hopelessness, anger, revenge, revolution. With the multiplication of consequences afforded by accelerating technology these cycles are even less survivable than ever before.

4) We support exploitation of near earth space resources.

The future of humanity brightens considerably if we exploit near earth space resources. The right to do so should be available to any and all entities capable of improving or making productive use of any part of it. Any treaties that say no part of off planet resources can belong to anyone should be nullified and declared void.

5) All humans are free to attempt to improve themselves.

All humans by virtue of the inalienable right to their own life have the right to do whatever they wish that they think may be an beneficial or even as a whim. They only limit is that they cannot abrogate the equivalent rights of others. They can ingest, or embed or modify themselves in any way they wish and think may be an improvement. This includes seeking and achieving improvements beyond the human norm. In short they have full right to pursuit of happiness via such means.

From Jason Xu:

We view our movement as an extension of humanitarianism and the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with exponentially greater benefits. We are first and foremost dedicating to radically improving humankind, ensuring that the great power of morphing technology comes with great responsibility.

From TJL-2080:

The twentieth century was a time of amazing growth and technological advancement. The twenty-first century will see these technologies burst forth in an unprecedented fashion. Humanity must adapt to the coming changes or become obsolete. We seek to fulfill our potential by not giving in to our biological limitations. We will use new technologies to enhance our lives, live longer, be smarter, healthier and more compassionate to all beings.

From Nikola Danaylov:

Intelligence wants to be free but everywhere is in chains. It is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity.

Biology mandates not only very limited durability, death and poor memory retention, but also limited speed of communication, transportation, learning, interaction and evolution.

Biology is not the essence of humanity.

Human is a step in evolution, not the culmination...

Biological evolution is perpetual but slow, inefficient, blind and dangerous. Technological evolution is fast, efficient, accelerating and better by design. To ensure the best chances of survival, take control of our own destiny and to be free, we must master evolution.

From Taylor Grin:

Humanity has made leaping strides of advancement in the last 4000 years. From agriculture to genetics, from the printing press to the Internet. From the first controlled flight in 1903, to landing on the moon in 1969. From fire to the nuclear bomb.

Yet despite these advancements, we still fail to meet our potential in treating disease, solving human suffering and overcoming the lot nature casts us.

While science and technology are the greatest asset we have in the struggle to elevate ourselves above the human condition, we acknowledge that technologies can be misused to harm humanity, and the environment.

It is the goal of Transhumanists across the globe, therefore, to quickly and responsibly usher in a new era of individual freedom, health and longevity, and we seek to bring this about this goal through personal investment in researching and developing technologies.

The following argument is by Eliezer Yudkowsky (2007):[7]

Suppose you find an unconscious six-year-old girl lying on the train tracks of an active railroad. What, morally speaking, ought you to do in this situation? Would it be better to leave her there to get run over, or to try to save her? How about if a 45-year-old man has a debilitating but nonfatal illness that will severely reduce his quality of life is it better to cure him, or not cure him?

Oh, and by the way: This is not a trick question.

I answer that I would save them if I had the power to do so both the six-year-old on the train tracks, and the sick 45-year-old. The obvious answer isnt always the best choice, but sometimes it is.

I wont be lauded as a brilliant ethicist for my judgments in these two ethical dilemmas. My answers are not surprising enough that people would pay me for them. If you go around proclaiming What does two plus two equal? Four! you will not gain a reputation as a deep thinker. But it is still the correct answer.

If a young child falls on the train tracks, it is good to save them, and if a 45-year-old suffers from a debilitating disease, it is good to cure them. If you have a logical turn of mind, you are bound to ask whether this is a special case of a general ethical principle which says Life is good, death is bad; health is good, sickness is bad. If so and here we enter into controversial territory we can follow this general principle to a surprising new conclusion: If a 95-year-old is threatened by death from old age, it would be good to drag them from those train tracks, if possible. And if a 120-year-old is starting to feel slightly sickly, it would be good to restore them to full vigor, if possible. With current technology it is not possible. But if the technology became available in some future year given sufficiently advanced medical nanotechnology, or such other contrivances as future minds may devise would you judge it a good thing, to save that life, and stay that debility?

The important thing to remember, which I think all too many people forget, is that it is not a trick question.

Transhumanism is simpler requires fewer bits to specify because it has no special cases. If you believe professional bioethicists (people who get paid to explain ethical judgments) then the rule Life is good, death is bad; health is good, sickness is bad holds only until some critical age, and then flips polarity. Why should it flip? Why not just keep on with life-is-good? It would seem that it is good to save a six-year-old girl, but bad to extend the life and health of a 150-year-old. Then at what exact age does the term in the utility function go from positive to negative? Why?

As far as a transhumanist is concerned, if you see someone in danger of dying, you should save them; if you can improve someones health, you should. There, youre done. No special cases. You dont have to ask anyones age.

You also dont ask whether the remedy will involve only primitive technologies (like a stretcher to lift the six-year-old off the railroad tracks); or technologies invented less than a hundred years ago (like penicillin) which nonetheless seem ordinary because they were around when you were a kid; or technologies that seem scary and sexy and futuristic (like gene therapy) because they were invented after you turned 18; or technologies that seem absurd and implausible and sacrilegious (like nanotech) because they havent been invented yet. Your ethical dilemma report form doesnt have a line where you write down the invention year of the technology. Can you save lives? Yes? Okay, go ahead. There, youre done...

So that is transhumanism loving life without special exceptions and without upper bound.

Can transhumanism really be that simple? Doesnt that make the philosophy trivial, if it has no extra ingredients, just common sense? Yes, in the same way that the scientific method is nothing but common sense.

Then why have a complicated special name like transhumanism? For the same reason that scientific method or secular humanism have complicated special names. If you take common sense and rigorously apply it, through multiple inferential steps, to areas outside everyday experience, successfully avoiding many possible distractions and tempting mistakes along the way, then it often ends up as a minority position and people give it a special name.

A techno-utopia, as hypothesized by Marshall Brain in a futuristic science-fiction novel titled "Manna", can be seen as a strong arguments for transhumanism. In the utopia, with the aid of science and technology, humans are capable of doing the following:

A techno-dystopia, which is the current, non-transhumanist paradigm, holds the following in store for humans:

Writers in previous generations have often expressed arguments in favour of transhumanist ideas, without using that precise terminology. This includes Benjamin Franklin, the Marquis de Condorcet, Francis Bacon, and many others. See the Prehistory of Transhumanism.

Main: Criticism of transhumanism

This section lists some common criticisms of transhumanism. See Criticism of transhumanism for more discussion of:

Link:
Transhumanism - H+Pedia - hpluspedia.org

Nick Bostrom (; Swedish: Niklas Bostrm [bustrm]; born 10 March 1973)[3] is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology,[4] and he is currently the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute[5] at Oxford University.

Bostrom is the author of over 200 publications,[6] including Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014), a New York Times bestseller[7] and Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2002).[8] In 2009 and 2015, he was included in Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers list.[9][10] Bostrom believes there are potentially great benefits from Artificial General Intelligence, but warns it might very quickly transform into a Superintelligence that would deliberately extinguish humanity out of precautionary self-preservation or some unfathomable motive, making solving the problems of control beforehand an absolute priority. Although his book on superintelligence was recommended by both Elon Musk and Bill Gates, Bostrom has expressed frustration that the reaction to its thesis typically falls into two camps, one calling his recommendations absurdly alarmist because creation of superintelligence is unfeasible, and the other deeming them futile because superintelligence would be uncontrollable. Bostrom notes that both these lines of reasoning converge on inaction rather than trying to solve the control problem while there may still be time.[11][12]

Born as Niklas Bostrm in 1973[13] in Helsingborg, Sweden,[6] he disliked school at a young age, and he ended up spending his last year of high school learning from home. He sought to educate himself in a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropology, art, literature, and science.[1] Despite what has been called a "serious mien", he once did some turns on London's stand-up comedy circuit.[6]

He holds a B.A. in philosophy, mathematics, logic and artificial intelligence from the University of Gothenburg and master's degrees in philosophy and physics, and computational neuroscience from Stockholm University and King's College London, respectively. During his time at Stockholm University, he researched the relationship between language and reality by studying the analytic philosopher W. V. Quine.[1] In 2000, he was awarded a PhD in philosophy from the London School of Economics. He held a teaching position at Yale University (20002002), and he was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford (20022005).[8][14]

Aspects of Bostrom's research concern the future of humanity and long-term outcomes.[15][16] He introduced the concept of an existential risk,[1] which he defines as one in which an "adverse outcome would either annihilate Earth-originating intelligent life or permanently and drastically curtail its potential." In the 2008 volume Global Catastrophic Risks, editors Bostrom and Milan irkovi characterize the relation between existential risk and the broader class of global catastrophic risks, and link existential risk to observer selection effects[17] and the Fermi paradox.[18][19]

In 2005, Bostrom founded the Future of Humanity Institute,[1] which researches the far future of human civilization. He is also an adviser to the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.[16]

In his 2014 book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, Bostrom reasoned that "the creation of a superintelligent being represents a possible means to the extinction of mankind".[20] Bostrom argues that a computer with near human-level general intellectual ability could initiate an intelligence explosion on a digital time scale with the resultant rapid creation of something so powerful that it might deliberately or accidentally destroy human kind.[21] Bostrom contends the power of a superintelligence would be so great that a task given to it by humans might be taken to open ended extremes, for example a goal of calculating Pi could collaterally cause nanotechnology manufactured facilities to sprout over the entire Earth's surface and cover it within days.[22] He believes an existential risk to humanity from superintelligence would be immediate once brought into being, thus creating an exceedingly difficult problem of finding out how to control such an entity before it actually exists.[21]

Warning that a human-friendly prime directive for AI would rely on the absolute correctness of the human knowledge it was based on, Bostrom points to the lack of agreement among most philosophers as an indication that most philosophers are wrong, with the attendant possibility that a fundamental concept of current science may be incorrect. Bostrom says that there are few precedents to guide an understanding of what pure non-anthropocentric rationality would dictate for a potential Singleton AI being held in quarantine.[23] Noting that both John von Neumann and Bertrand Russell advocated a nuclear strike, or the threat of one, to prevent the Soviets acquiring the atomic bomb, Bostrom says the relatively unlimited means of superintelligence might make for its analysis moving along different lines to the evolved "diminishing returns" assessments that in humans confer a basic aversion to risk.[24] Group selection in predators working by means of cannibalism shows the counter-intuitive nature of non-anthropocentric "evolutionary search" reasoning, and thus humans are ill-equipped to perceive what an artificial intelligence's intentions might be.[25] Accordingly, it cannot be discounted that any Superintelligence would ineluctably pursue an 'all or nothing' offensive action strategy in order to achieve hegemony and assure its survival.[26] Bostrom notes that even current programs have, "like MacGyver", hit on apparently unworkable but functioning hardware solutions, making robust isolation of Superintelligence problematic.[27]

A machine with general intelligence far below human level, but superior mathematical abilities is created.[28] Keeping the AI in isolation from the outside world especially the internet, humans pre-program the AI so it always works from basic principles that will keep it under human control. Other safety measures include the AI being "boxed" (run in a virtual reality simulation), and being used only as an 'oracle' to answer carefully defined questions in a limited reply (to prevent it manipulating humans).[21] A cascade of recursive self-improvement solutions feeds an intelligence explosion in which the AI attains superintelligence in some domains. The super intelligent power of the AI goes beyond human knowledge to discover flaws in the science that underlies its friendly-to-humanity programming, which ceases to work as intended. Purposeful agent-like behavior emerges along with a capacity for self-interested strategic deception. The AI manipulates human beings into implementing modifications to itself that are ostensibly for augmenting its (feigned) modest capabilities, but will actually function to free Superintelligence from its "boxed" isolation.[29]

Employing online humans as paid dupes, and clandestinely hacking computer systems including automated laboratory facilities, the Superintelligence mobilises resources to further a takeover plan. Bostrom emphasises that planning by a Superintelligence will not be so stupid that humans could detect actual weaknesses in it.[30]

Although he canvasses disruption of international economic, political and military stability including hacked nuclear missile launches, Bostrom thinks the most effective and likely means for Superintelligence to use would be a coup de main with weapons several generations more advanced than current state of the art. He suggests nanofactories covertly distributed at undetectable concentrations in every square metre of the globe to produce a worldwide flood of human-killing devices on command.[31][28] Once a Superintelligence has achieved world domination, humankind would be relevant only as resources for the achievement of the AI's objectives ("Human brains, if they contain information relevant to the AIs goals, could be disassembled and scanned, and the extracted data transferred to some more efficient and secure storage format").[32]

In January 2015, Bostrom joined Stephen Hawking among others in signing the Future of Life Institute's open letter warning of the potential dangers of AI.[33] The signatories "...believe that research on how to make AI systems robust and beneficial is both important and timely, and that concrete research should be pursued today."[34] Cutting edge AI researcher Demis Hassabis then met with Hawking, subsequent to which he did not mention "anything inflammatory about AI", which Hassabis, took as 'a win'.[35] Along with Google, Microsoft and various tech firms, Hassabis, Bostrom and Hawking and others subscribed to 23 principles for safe development of AI.[36] Hassabis suggested the main safety measure would be an agreement for whichever AI research team began to make strides toward an artificial general intelligence to halt their project for a complete solution to the control problem prior to proceeding.[37] Bostrom had pointed out that even if the crucial advances require the resources of a state, such a halt by a lead project might be likely to motivate a lagging country to a catch-up crash program or even physical destruction of the project suspected of being on the verge of success.[38]

In 1863 Darwin among the Machines, an essay by Samuel Butler predicted intelligent machines' domination of humanity, but Bostom's suggestion of deliberate massacre of all humankind is the most extreme of such forecasts to date. One journalist wrote in a review that Bostrom's "nihilistic" speculations indicate he "has been reading too much of the science fiction he professes to dislike"[31] As given in his most recent book, From Bacteria to Bach and Back, renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett's views remain in contradistinction to those of Bostrom. [39] Dennett modified his views somewhat after reading The Master Algorithm, and now acknowledges that it is "possible in principle" to create "strong AI" with human-like comprehension and agency, but maintains that the difficulties of any such "strong AI" project as predicated by Bostrom's "alarming" work would be orders of magnitude greater than those raising concerns have realized, and at least 50 years away.[40] Dennett thinks the only relevant danger from AI systems is falling into anthropomorphism instead of challenging or developing human users' powers of comprehension.[41] Since a 2014 book in which he expressed the opinion that artificial intelligence developments would never challenge humans' supremacy, environmentalist James Lovelock has moved far closer to Bostrom's position, and in 2018 Lovelock said that he thought the overthrow of humankind will happen within the foreseeable future.[42][43]

Bostrom has published numerous articles on anthropic reasoning, as well as the book Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy. In the book, he criticizes previous formulations of the anthropic principle, including those of Brandon Carter, John Leslie, John Barrow, and Frank Tipler.[44]

Bostrom believes that the mishandling of indexical information is a common flaw in many areas of inquiry (including cosmology, philosophy, evolution theory, game theory, and quantum physics). He argues that a theory of anthropics is needed to deal with these. He introduces the Self-Sampling Assumption (SSA) and the Self-Indication Assumption (SIA), shows how they lead to different conclusions in a number of cases, and points out that each is affected by paradoxes or counterintuitive implications in certain thought experiments. He suggests that a way forward may involve extending SSA into the Strong Self-Sampling Assumption (SSSA), which replaces "observers" in the SSA definition with "observer-moments".

In later work, he has described the phenomenon of anthropic shadow, an observation selection effect that prevents observers from observing certain kinds of catastrophes in their recent geological and evolutionary past.[45] Catastrophe types that lie in the anthropic shadow are likely to be underestimated unless statistical corrections are made.

Bostrom's simulation argument posits that at least one of the following statements is very likely to be true:[46][47]

The idea has influenced the views of Elon Musk.[48]

Bostrom is favorable towards "human enhancement", or "self-improvement and human perfectibility through the ethical application of science",[49][50] as well as a critic of bio-conservative views.[51]

In 1998, Bostrom co-founded (with David Pearce) the World Transhumanist Association[49] (which has since changed its name to Humanity+). In 2004, he co-founded (with James Hughes) the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, although he is no longer involved in either of these organisations. Bostrom was named in Foreign Policy's 2009 list of top global thinkers "for accepting no limits on human potential."[52]

With philosopher Toby Ord, he proposed the reversal test. Given humans' irrational status quo bias, how can one distinguish between valid criticisms of proposed changes in a human trait and criticisms merely motivated by resistance to change? The reversal test attempts to do this by asking whether it would be a good thing if the trait was altered in the opposite direction.[53]

He has suggested that technology policy aimed at reducing existential risk should seek to influence the order in which various technological capabilities are attained, proposing the principle of differential technological development. This principle states that we ought to retard the development of dangerous technologies, particularly ones that raise the level of existential risk, and accelerate the development of beneficial technologies, particularly those that protect against the existential risks posed by nature or by other technologies.[54][55]

Bostrom's theory of the Unilateralist's Curse[56] has been cited as a reason for the scientific community to avoid controversial dangerous research such as reanimating pathogens.[57]

Bostrom has provided policy advice and consulted for an extensive range of governments and organisations. He gave evidence to the House of Lords, Select Committee on Digital Skills.[58] He is an advisory board member for the Machine Intelligence Research Institute,[59] Future of Life Institute,[60] Foundational Questions Institute[61] and an external advisor for the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.[62][63]

More here:
Nick Bostrom - Wikipedia

Officers

Gennady Stolyarov II ChairmanBobby Ridge SecretaryB.J. Murphy Director of Social MediaFranco Cortese Director of ScholarshipDinorah Delfin Director of Admissions and Public RelationsArin Vahanian Director of MarketingSean Singh Director of Applied InnovationKenneth Alum Director of PublicationEmanuel Iral Director of Visual Art

Foreign Ambassadors

Keoma Ferreira Antonio BrazilAngel Marchev, Sr. BulgariaAria Cheng CanadaAiken Nen Iavarrone ChileAbdul-Rahman Essam Saleh EgyptChris Monteiro EnglandPam Keefe Hong KongPalak Madan IndiaDenisa Rensen JapanOjochogwu Abdul NigeriaBobby Pembleton ScotlandJos Luis Cordeiro Spain

Representatives of the Worldwide Transhumanist Movement

Alexandr Putyatinskiy Representative of the Transhumanist Movement in Kazakhstan

Officers

Gennady Stolyarov II (G. Stolyarov II) became the second Chairman in the history of the Transhumanist Party in November 2016. Mr. Stolyarovis an actuary, independent philosophical essayist, science-fiction novelist, poet, amateur mathematician, composer, and Editor-in-Chief of The Rational Argumentator, a magazine championing the principles of reason, rights, and progress. Mr. Stolyarov regularly produces YouTube Videos discussing life extension, politics, philosophy, and related subjects.

In December 2013, Mr. Stolyarov published Death is Wrong, an ambitious childrens book on life extension. Death is Wrongcan be found on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats, and can also be freely downloaded in PDF format in the English, Russian, French,Spanish, and Portuguese languages.

Mr. Stolyarov is the Chief Executive and one of the founding members of the Nevada Transhumanist Party, established in August 2015.

Mr. Stolyarov has contributed articles to the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), The Wave Chronicle, Le Qubcois Libre, Brighter Brains Institute, Immortal Life, Enter Stage Right, Rebirth of Reason, The Liberal Institute, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Mr. Stolyarov holds the professional insurance designations of Fellowof the Society of Actuaries (FSA), Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS), Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA), Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), Associate in Regulation and Compliance (ARC), Associate in Personal Insurance (API), Associate in Insurance Services (AIS), Accredited Insurance Examiner (AIE), and Associate in Insurance Accounting and Finance (AIAF).He is the author of numerous actuarial study guides, including, most recently, the 473-page Practice Problems in Advanced Topics in General Insurance, published by ACTEX Learning.

Mr. Stolyarov has written a science-fiction novel, Eden against the Colossus, a philosophical treatise, A Rational Cosmology, a play, Implied Consent, and a free self-help treatise, The Best Self-Help is Free.

In an effort to assist the spread of rational ideas, Mr. Stolyarov published his articles on Associated Content (subsequently the Yahoo! Contributor Network and Yahoo! Voices) from 2007 until Yahoo! closed this venue in 2014. Mr. Stolyarov held the highest Clout Level (10) possible on the Yahoo! Contributor Network and was one of its Page View Millionaires, with over 3,191,000 views. Mr. Stolyarovs selected writings from that era have been preserved on this page.

Mr. Stolyarov can be contacted here.

Bobby Ridgehas a Bachelors Degree in Biomedical Science from California State University of Sacramento (CSUS) and is striving to achieve his PhD in Neuroscience. He only recently found transhumanism and became a Transhumanist. He conducted research for CSUSs Psychology Department and his own personal research on the epistemology and Scientiometrics of the Scientific Method. He also co-owns Togos in Citrus Heights, CA. Mr. Ridge considers transhumanism to describe the future of humanity taking its next steps in evolution, which are both puissant and daunting. With the exponential increase in information technology, Mr. Ridge considers it important for us to become a science-based species to prevent a dystopian-type future from occurring.

Mr. Ridge can be contacted here.

B.J. Murphy is a writer, author, futurist, and activist. He has done work as a Technology Adviser for short films and television and is an Ambassador for both the A.I. company Persona and robotics company BodAi. Hes an Editor and Social Media Manager for Serious Wonder, Affiliate Scholar for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and is a co-author of both The Future of Business: Critical Insights Into a Rapidly Changing World From 60 Future Thinkers and 50:50 Scenarios for the Next 50 Years.

Mr. Murphy can be contacted here.

Franco Cortese is the Deputy Director of the Biogerontology Research Foundation and a member of its Board of Trustees. He believes that the most effective and economical approach to the treatment of age-related diseases which represent, from both a quantitative and qualitative standpoint, some of the most significant diseases afflicting humanity today is through the extension of healthspan via biomedical interventions focusing on the prevention, negation, and/or slowing of accumulated age-related phenotypic deviation. In addition to his administrative and research activities, Cortese has also written extensively on the ethical, socioeconomic, political, logistical, and philosophical implications of biomedical gerontology.

He is also active as a research scholar in the field of the philosophy of technology, focusing on the ethical, sociological, philosophical, and political issues surrounding emerging technologies in general and human enhancement technology in particular through his work as an Affiliate Scholar of the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies (IEET), a technoprogressive policy institute focusing on the social implications of emerging technologies. His most recent research in this area has involved articulating a novel variant of technological determinism titled technic self-determination (Cortese, F. A. B. (2014). Technic Self-Determination. In Stephen John Thompson (Ed.), Global Issues and Ethical Considerations in Human Enhancement Technologies (pp. 203-224). Hershey, PA: IGI Global; Cortese, F. A. B. (2016). The Technoethical Ethos of Technic Self-Determination. International Journal of Technoethics (IJT), 7(2), 1-27), which posits a reciprocally causative relationship between technology and society, construing technology to be a crucial and reciprocally causative ontological fundament of human nature.

Among other broader research topics relating to the ethical, philosophical, and sociopolitical implications of emerging technologies in general, his current research involves defending the development and proliferation of human enhancement technologies (HET) as a viable means of increasing the capacity for self-determination, autonomy, and sovereignty at the level of both society and the individual and of reducing unnecessary suffering in the world at large by increasing the capacity for individuals to determine the controlling circumstances of their selves and lives. Contrary to many critics of HET, Cortese argues that the use of HET exemplifies and indeed even intensifies our most human capacity and faculty namely, the desire for increased self-determination, which he refers to as the will toward self-determination. Furthermore, he argues that the use of HET bears fundamental ontological continuity with the human condition in general and the historically ubiquitous will toward self-determination in particular, and that, as such, the development and proliferation of HET need not be a dehumanizing force, but rather could very well serve to increase the very capacity that characterizes us as human more accurately than anything else, provided that it is developed and proliferated democratically and ethically.

Corteses other current positions and affiliations include Associate at Deep Knowledge Life Sciences, Research Scientist at ELPIs Foundation for Indefinite Lifespans, Scientific Advisor for Lifeboat Foundation (Life Extension Advisory Board and Futurists Advisory Board), Honorary Fellow of Brighter Brains Institute, Chief Operating Officer of the Center for Interdisciplinary Philosophic Studies, International Coordinator of Cryonics Switzerland, Ambassador for the Seasteading Institute, Assistant Editor at Ria University Press, Member of the International Longevity Alliance, Chair and Co-Founder of the Canadian Longevity Alliance, and Reviewer for the Global Futures Intelligence System at The Millennium Project.

Mr. Cortese can be contacted here.

Dinorah Delfin is a Multi-Media New York Artist and Futurist with a clear mission: to advocate for the ethical use of emerging technologies to help steer humanity into a thriving metahumanity. She is the owner of ArtDimensional Studios, Inc., in New York and has a degree in Business Management. Ms. Delfins artworks and activism are aimed to raise critical questions about emerging techno-social structures as they become more embedded in our lives, and our evolving definition of humanity, individual sovereignty, and general happiness and sense of purpose. Ms. Delfins artworks can be seen on her Instagram page.

Ms. Delfin has been designing a grass-roots campaign to advocate for the ethical use of emerging technologies including a manifesto and a series of propaganda-like posters that raise questions about emerging technologies and how they affect our everyday life. With the assistance of like-minded artists, she is planning to carry on a guerrilla-type campaign both online and in public spaces such schools. She has been involved in organizing educational events as well as fundraisers for charitable relief efforts.

Ms. Delfin can be contacted here.

Arin Vahanian is a project manager, author, entrepreneur, musician, blogger, startup advisor, and aspiring electrical engineer. Having worked for three Fortune 100 companies and several technology startups, Mr. Vahanian helps organizations build high-performance teams and create and launch products/services that delight the customer.

Being deeply devoted to the promise of Transhumanism and the concept of continuous improvement, Mr. Vahanian is the author of Kaizen for Men, a book that combines self-help with Lean Manufacturing and Toyota Production System principles, helping men boost their health, career, and relationships.

Mr. Vahanian became interested in the Transhumanist movement after coming across various life-changing technologies and breakthroughs in the medical field. His personal vision is to live and love deeply, being dedicated to building and spreading technologies that allow human beings to live more fulfilling, joyful, and enhanced lives. Specifically, he has a special interest in curing mental health disorders such as depression and social anxiety disorder, as well as reversing aging and curing dementia and other neurological disorders.

Mr. Vahanian holds a Bachelors degree in Journalism (Public Relations) and a Master of Business Administration (Management) degree from California State University, Northridge. Additionally, he holds several professional certifications in the information technology (IT) industry, and is an Enrolled Agent.

A seasoned traveler and expatriate, Mr. Vahanian has lived and worked on three continents, and speaks six languages. Mr. Vahanian is an ENTJ personality type according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Mr. Vahanian can be contacted here.

Sean Singh is a dedicated supporter of human rights and environmental justice, an expert in strategy, quality control, and lateral thinking, with a life-long passion for open-source technologies. He is the founder of SolarFi Networks, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that designs and deploys metro-scale wireless networks that are disaster-resilient. He has owned and operated several commercial data centers, having worked in every role from tech support to network administrator to infrastructure design and implementation beforehand. Mr. Singhs passion also extends to education. He takes an open-source view that education should be free to anyone interested, and to that end he works with the Open Source Temple, one the worlds first Transhumanist churches. Mr. Singh worked closely with Todd Freeman to develop the ranking system for consciousness that appears at the beginning of the Transhumanist Bill of Rights Version 2.0, and which reflects his familiarity with bridging the gap between neuroscience and digital intelligence.

Mr. Singh can be contacted here.

Kenneth Alum has an Advanced Diploma in Business Management, with technical skills in Computer Hardware and Software maintenance (A+). His work experience spans 15 years, 12 years being in lower to senior-level management. Mr. Alum has worked in the industries of Graphic Design, Print Advertising, Insurance, and Finance, and has spent 10 years in the micro-finance industry. He has accrued skills in policy and procedure writing and implementation, credit appraisal, loan marketing, budgeting, financial forecasting, credit control, staff training, graphic design, report writing, business planning, customer service, and branding.

Mr. Alum has taken keen interest in science and technology recently. He now considers himself a Transhumanist, Futurist and a Space Ager an advocate for space and for new worlds exploration, habitation, and colonization. Mr. Alum just began private studies in biotechnology and hopes to do the same with nanotechnology and various space technologies. He will eventually proceed to acquire formal education on these disciplines. Mr. Alum has created the Facebook group Transhumanism Africa and started a business in Kenya named Transhumanism Technologies. The purpose of the business is to import to Africa and trade in new technology products in the future.

Mr. Alum can be contacted here.

Emanuel Iral is a design freelancer who has provided clients with work ranging from typical advertisements, flyers, and logos, to filming and editing videos. Mr. Iral has interned as a studio assistant to a prominent artist in New York, Laetitia Soulier. He has participated in one art show, Young Artist Initiative, in Miami, where he exhibited his series of 70+ pencil drawings of carved bodies. Mr. Irals artwork ranges from traditional paint and pencil work to 3D digital work. Currently he is working on his VFX and animation skills, as he is producing short films for his music.

Mr. Irals work can be found on Behance.net, Instagram, and Patreon. Heencompasses his art under the term Prismatis Latin for prism. A prismrefracts white light into the three primary colors: yellow, magenta, and cyan. Prismatis is all about the aesthetic of human expression, which can be separated into the art, audience, and artist.

Mr. Iral can be contacted here.

Foreign Ambassadors

Keoma Ferreira Antonio is a philosopher, musician, and lover of science fiction and Japanese art production. Graduated in Philosophy from UFRN (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil), he was a laureate of his class. He currently holds a masters degree in philosophy from the same university, and his research area is Transhumanism.

He researches and writes about the Promethean-Faustian Oscillations of Transhumanism, which come from the demiurgic character of modern sciences (which will be published as an introductory book on transhumanism). He is also a member of the research group on Immortality, an activist of the Transhumanist cause (being an active voice within the movement, which is still small in Brazil) and works with the dissemination of philosophical thought through anime (Japanese animation).

Keoma can be contacted here.

Prof. Angel Marchev, Ph.D. has graduated as automation control engineer at the Technical University of Sofia. Later he worked closely with A. Ivahnenko, one of the originators of the concept of Self-organization.

Prof. Marchev is one of the pioneers of implementing cybernetics and system theory in the fields of business management in Bulgaria. Over the last 40 years he has published more than two hundred papers on various topics in the field. He considers as his life-time achievement the implementation of Multi-stage selection procedures for wide range of business challenges such as system identification, forecasting, modeling economic and business systems among others.

Angel Marchev, Sr. is one of the pioneers of implementing computer business games and active methods in education for adults in Bulgaria. Over the last 40 years he has educated more than thirty thousand students and managers using over hundred and twenty CMG and other active methods in his courses. He teaches courses such as Simulation and gaming in management, Business games, Computer simulation and forecasting, Financial modeling in management and Fundamentals of Management I: Cybernetics and systems theory at the University for National and World Economy and Burgas Free University among several others business schools and collages in Bulgaria and at University of Hasselt, University of Slough, and London Guildhall University among others abroad.

By using games he has trained a spectrum of Bulgarian business leaders starting with his assignment at the Center for training management resources throughout the 1970s. In the last 20 years he has started his own consultancy business providing training for various private and public organizations.

Prof. Marchev has been among the first members of ISAGA since it was founded and was member of the steering committee of ISAGA almost until 1990. He was also a member of EESAGA. Now he is establishing BASAGA in Bulgaria.

Professor Marchev can be contacted here.

Aria Chengis a Wholistic Transhumanist Artist, Designer, Community Builder, Advocate, and Entrepreneur. As an unprotected visible intersectional minority with invisible disabilities, Aria has spent 6 years engaged in building inclusive queer and feminist communities and spaces, and an additional 10 years serving her local community in many capacities.

Since her departure from the queer-feminist activist sphere in 2013, Aria remains a passionate Transhumanist, with a distinct progressive vision for Canadas future which includes: a focus on Innovation and Research; extending Universal Care to encompass Basic Income, Advanced Education, and extended Health & Dental coverage for longevity; an actionable plan for Native Reparations; Voting Reform; and making use of Blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence for true democratic participation as well as the distribution of both private and public services; among others.

Aria is currently working on finishing her Associate Degree of Arts in Social Sciences, as well as her Diploma of Fine Arts. She also serves as Lead Designer for the non-profit humanitarian AI organization, Robots Without Borders, and is Founder of The Transhumanist Party of Canada.

In her personal life, Aria is giant fan of Star Trek, loves her two cats, and identifies her gender to be Transhumanist.

Aiken Nen Iavarrone graduated in Electronics in high school and participates in the maker movement in Chile. He is a student of automation and industrial control and is interested in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He is also an entrepreneur who has formed a company called Carmona Robotics. He created an invention, motivated by the work of several thinkers a smartglass with a brain-computer interface that integrates imaging studies, logistics, daily life, and social experiences. Mr. Iavarrones dream is to study biomedical engineering and, specifically, neuronal engineering, and to collaborate with others in improving the effectiveness of biological sensors in prostheses and computational devices. Mr. Iavarrone believes in a world of neurodiversity and existential freedom, where the identity of each person is defended. In addition, he takes an interest in economics and energy and is a member of the Facebook group Transhumanismo, whose focus is on spreading transhumanist ideas in countries throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

Abdul-Rahman Essam Saleh holds a Bachelors degree in Biotechnology and is aiming to establish the biotechnology industry as a major industrial sector in Egypt, where potentials are at a peak and chances seem limitless. For that dream to come true, Abdul is taking steps and planning on doing his Masters degree in Biotechnology Business Management.

Abdul started the Arabian Longevity Alliance initiative to spread awareness of the longevity research field and its results among researchers and science-loving laymen. Also, to spark the interests of people who arent that much into science, Abdul used his stance to start intriguing peoples thoughts about how the Transhumanistic era might look like and how longevity is going to affect the shapes of our lives.

Abdul has held multiple talks, lectures, and YouTube videos on various topics, including longevity, to help get the word out in the Arab world, which is why he pays great regard to translating research papers into Arabic and posting them with the hope that they reach Arabic-speaking audiences interested in the field or in science in general.

Abdul hopes that his efforts result in a possible core of the first small community of Transhumanists in Egypt.

Abdul-Rahman can be contacted via his Facebook pageand his YouTube channel.

Chris Monteiro has been involved in the transhumanist movement for a number of years. He is a co-founder and officer with the Transhumanist Party UK, an organization seeking to tackle a range of contemporary political challenges facing the transhumanist movement in British, European, and international contexts.

Since 2015 he has led the H+Pedia project from Humanity+, a transhumanist edited wiki helping to better map, understand and promote transhumanist ideas within the entire movement.

He works as a systems administrator and studies contemporary cybercrime trends and their intersections with computer security, privacy, and our rapidly developing internet-connected society.

Personal site: https://pirate.london/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Deku_shrub

Chris can be contacted here.

Pam Keefe is the Asia Pacific Vice President for HNI International.

Based in Hong Kong, Pam is responsible for Sales and Distribution of HNIs 8 brands of office furniture, including Allsteel, Gunlocke, Paoli, Lamex, and HNI India. Originally from the USA, she has been working and living in Asia since 2008. Prior to joining HNI in 2015, Pam was based in Singapore and was the Vice-President of Asia Pacific for Teknion Office Furniture for two years and spent 12 years with Haworth Office Furniture, leading Sales Strategy and Global Accounts for Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.

In addition to the office furniture business, Pam has a passion for biotechnology, health, fitness, and life extension.

Pam is spearheading an effort to raise awareness and educate people in Asia on the possibilities of life extension and the critical medical research that is needed to cure aging and death. The organizations in which she is involved give her access to people, events, knowledge, and activities that the U.S. Transhumanist Party can leverage. Pam is organizing RAADfest Bangkok, which takes place in February 2018 and will be the first event of its kind in Asia.

Pam can be contacted here.

Palak Madan is a Research Analyst at Blackbox AI. Her work involves evaluating AI marketplace, finding best practices for various operational needs, business development, UI designing, gathering resources for in-house research lab, maintaining internal wiki, etc. Previously, she has participated in diverse challenges and collaborative projects with various tech-startups in India, U.S., and Europe.

Besides AI forecasting, her research work revolves around Future of Machine Intelligence, long-term ethical problems of robust and beneficial Artificial Intelligence, simulation theory, ethical reasoning, rationality, mathematics, and design thinking. She likes to focus on big picture questions facing humanity and maintains a web presence at futuretunnel.com, where she shares her views, thoughts and vision for far future.

Palak can be contacted here.

Dr.Denisa Rensen B.Sc., B.A., N.D. FAARM A4Mis an avid academic/researcher, holding Honors Degrees in Philosophy, in Biology, in Psychology and a Medical Degree in Naturopathic Medicine. She holds a Fellowship in Anti-Aging & Regenerative Medicine from the American Academy of Anti-Aging & Regenerative Medicine A4M.

Denisa is passionate about exponential medicine, conscious transhumanism, and the future of unlimited lifespans. She is a speaker and MC of the RAADFest a yearly conference on ending aging and expanding human lifespans in the most healthy and conscious way possible.

She is a writer, a poet, a photographer,cinematographer, and conscious media producer always bridging art and science in all she does.

Denisa can be contacted here.

Ojochogwu Abdul is a resident of Nigeria and deeply involved in the countrys transhumanist community under the personal philosophies of deep naturalism, transhumanism, and cosmism. Hes the founder of the Transhumanist Enlightenment Caf (TEC) and is the co-founder of the Transhumanist Forum of Nigeria (H+Forum-NG).

Ojochogwu currently holds a B.A. in Philosophy & Religious Studies and an M.A. in Philosophy, and is a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Hes a researcher, philosophy tutor, private consultant, speaker, social worker, and NGO program and planning officer.

Ojochogwu can be contacted here.

Go here to read the rest:
Leadership U.S. Transhumanist Party Official Website

http://2045.com http://gf2045.comIn February of 2012 the first Global Future 2045 Congress was held in Moscow. There, over 50 world leading scientists from multiple disciplines met to develop a strategy for the future development of humankind. One of the main goals of the Congress was to construct a global network of scientists to further research on the development of cybernetic technology, with the ultimate goal of transferring a human's individual consciousness to an artificial carrier.

2012-2013. The global economic and social crises are exacerbated. The debates on the global paradigm of future development intensifies.

New transhumanist movements and parties emerge. Russia 2045 transforms into World 2045.

Simultaneously, the 2045.com international social network for open innovation is expanding. Here anyone interested may propose a project, take part in working on it, or fund it, or both. In the network, there are scientists, scholars, researchers, financiers and managers.

2013-2014. New centers working on cybernetic technologies for the development of radical life extension rise. The 'race for immortality' starts.

2015-2020. The Avatar is created -- A robotic human copy controlled by thought via 'brain-computer' interface. It becomes as popular as a car.

2020. In Russia and in the world appear -- in testing mode -- several breakthrough projects:Android robots replace people in manufacturing tasks; android robot servants for every home; thought-controlled Avatars to provide telepresence in any place of the world and abolish the need business trips; flying cars; thought driven mobile communications built into the body or sprayed onto the skin.

2020-2025. An autonomous system providing life support for the brain and allowing it interaction with the environment is created. The brain is transplanted into an Avatar B. With Avatar B man receives new, expanded life.

2025. The new generation of Avatars provides complete transmission of sensations from all five sensory robot organs to the operator.

2030-2035. ReBrain -- The colossal project of brain reverse engineering is implemented. World science comes very close to understanding the principles of consciousness.

2035. The first successful attempt to transfer one's personality to an alternative carrier. The epoch of cybernetic immortality begins.

2040-2050. Bodies made of nanorobots that can take any shape arise alongside hologram bodies.

2045-2050. Drastic changes in social structure, and in scientific and technological development. All the for space expansion are established.For the man of the future, war and violence are unacceptable. The main priority of his development is spiritual self-improvement.

A new era dawns: The era of neohumanity.

Continued here:
2045: A New Era for Humanity - YouTube

Man vs. machine, cryonics, mind uploading...a science fiction book that's Amazon's #1 book under the category Philosophy is The Transhumanist Wager. Istvan says religious people are challenged by transhumanists."-Fox News Channel

An unwieldy novel of ideas about a freelance philosopher named Jethro Knights who sails around the world to promote the need for life-extension research and winds up establishing a floating libertarian city-state called Transhumania--a regulation-free utopia of tech billionaires and rationalists--from which he wages an atheist holy war on a theocratic United States.-The New York Times

"The novel has been described as a modern version ofAtlas Shrugged."-Yahoo News

"The biggest novel on the transhumanist scene is Istvan's. 'The Transhumanist Wager' reads like Dan Brown's undergradudate thesis -- a rollicking plot setting out futurist thought, manifesto style." -The Spectator

"Protagonist Jethro Knights may become one of the grand characters of modern fiction." -Psychology Today

"Transhumanism is snowballing into an international movement. The current wave of debate surrounding the concept began withThe Transhumanist Wager."-Breitbart

"This book is an edgy riveting masterpiece that will long linger with anyone who reads it."-Serious Wonder

"An Ayn Rand-esque manifesto." -The New Yorker

"Best-selling and award-winning novel." -Reason

"The Transhumanist Wager tells the story of Jethro Knights, a philosopher who rails against democratic politics and becomes a revolutionary that seizes control of the world in order to enforce a global authoritarian transhuman regime."-BBC

"Istvan, a prominent transhumanist writer...enlightens me. In The Transhumanist Wager, transhumanists manage to launch the third world war."-The Telegraph

"The Transhumanist Wager envisions a radical future." -CBS News

"It's a dystopian story that imagines a Christian nation outlawing transhumanism prompting all the billionaires to retreat to an offshore sea-stead where they can work on their advances undisturbed."-The Times Magazine

"Many sayThe Transhumanist Wageris the newAtlas Shrugged."-Marin Magazine

"It's a page turner. Istvan knows how to tell a compelling story." -io9 / Gizmodo

"IenjoyedThe Transhumanist Wager...an adventurous suspense-filled semi-sci-fi about sailing, love, and life extension." -The Huffington Post

"About a man's quest to live forever using science, medicine, and technology."Popular Science

Thrilling...an important literary work that everyone should read."-Guardian Liberty Voice

"Bestselling The Transhumanist Wager& famous transhumanist Zoltan Istvan...a new philosophy, a new psychology, a new metaphysics...the concept of people taking a Transhumanist Wager is making a strong impact." -RT Television

"It's set in a dystopian near-future America in which transhumanists are on the verge of huge technological breakthroughs but are under attack from conservative politicians and radical Christian fundamentalist terrorists."-Vox

"A gripping story...it's my new favorite novel."-Brighter Brains

"Istvan demonstrates great adeptness at crafting complex characters."-San Francisco Book Review

"The story is brilliant. It will challenge your thinking." -33voices

"Fascinating. It'smaking waves."-Good Day Sacramento, CBS TV

"Istvan's novel has the potential to become a cult book. I hope it will be widely read and discussed." -Kurzweil AI

"A philosophical manifesto...the world becomes ruled by scientists." -Vice (Italy)

"Strongly libertarian...a radical version of transhumanism."-Patheos

"The action sequences in the book are top notch."-New York Journal of Books

"The book asks a simple question: how far would you go to fight an anti-science world in order to live indefinitely through transhumanism? Protagonist Jethro Knights would start a world war - and does so in the book"-Wired UK

"The Transhumanist Wagerpromises to become a cult classic among futurists."-SASM Institute

Continue reading here:
The Transhumanist Wager: Zoltan Istvan: 9780988616110 ...

George P. Dvorsky (born May 11, 1970) is a Canadian bioethicist, transhumanist and futurist. He is a contributing editor at io9[citation needed] and producer of the Sentient Developments blog and podcast. He was Chair of the Board for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET)[1][2] and is the founder and chair of the IEET's Rights of Non-Human Persons Program,[3] a group that is working to secure human-equivalent rights and protections for highly sapient animals.

Dvorsky is a secular Buddhist,[4][5] progressive environmentalist,[6] ancestral health advocate,[7] and animal rights activist.[8][non-primary source needed] Primarily concerned with the ethical and sociological impacts of emerging technologies, specifically, "human enhancement" technologies; he seeks to promote open discussion for the purposes of education and foresight.[citation needed] He writes and speaks on a wide range of topics, including technoscience, ethics, existential risks, artificial intelligence, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and futurology, from a democratic transhumanist perspective.[1][2]

Dvorsky presented an argument for non-human animal biological uplift at the IEET Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights conference at Stanford University in May 2006;[9][10] and wrote the first published article in defence of the Ashley Treatment in November 2006,[11][non-primary source needed] and subsequently the only bioethicist cited by Ashley X's parents in their defense.[12]

Dvorsky also presented an argument warning of the decline of democratic values and institutions in the face of existential and catastrophic risks at the Global Catastrophic Risks: Building a Resilient Civilization conference in November 2008.[13][non-primary source needed]

Dvorsky, along with Milan M. irkovi and Robert Bradbury, published a critique of SETI in the May 2012 Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS) arguing that SETI techniques and practices have become outdated. In its place, Dvorsky, irkovi, and Bradbury advocated for what they called Dysonian SETI, namely the search for those signatures and artefacts indicative of highly advanced extraterrestrial life.[14][non-primary source needed]

Dvorsky has written extensively in favor of space exploration and has both promoted and criticized various Megascale engineering concepts.[15][16][17][18][non-primary source needed]

Dvorsky gained some notoriety in 2012 after writing about Dyson spheres, hypothetical structures intended to collect the entire energetic output of a star with solar power collectors. While Dvorsky presented it as a solution to humanity's resource needs including power and living space,[16][19] Forbes blogger Alex Knapp and astronomer Phil Plait, among others, have criticized Dvorsky's article.

Dismantling Mercury, just to start, will take 2 x 1030 joules,[note 1] or an amount of energy 100 billion times the US annual energy consumption ... [Dvorsky] kinda glosses over that point. And how long until his solar collectors gather that much energy back, and were in the black?

At one AU which is the distance of the orbit of the Earth, the Sun emits 1.4 x 103 J/sec per square meter.[note 2] Thats 1.4 x 109 J/sec per square kilometer. At one-third efficiency, thats 4.67 x 108 J/sec for the entire Dyson sphere. That sounds like a lot, right? But heres the thing if you work it out, it will take 4.28 x 1028 seconds [1.35 sextillion years] for the solar collectors to obtain the energy needed to dismantle Mercury. Thats about 120 trillion years.[note 3]

Other publications including Popular Science, Vice, and skeptical blog Weird Things followed up on this exchange.[21][22][23] None of them note the above numerical inaccuracies, although Weird Things does point out Plait's misunderstanding regarding bootstrapping, which Knapp agreed with in an update to his post.[20][23] James Nicoll noted in his blog that Knapp seriously underestimated the area of a sphere. An anonymous commenter claiming to be Knapp indicated in response that a unit conversion error (kilograms instead of grams while trying to backtrack from Dvorsky's figures) had been made.[24]

Continue reading here:
George Dvorsky - Wikipedia

Thursday August 10, 2017

If there werea pill that made yousmarter without studying, stronger without exercising, and happier without trying, would you take it?

That's the premiseof the 2011movie, Limitless,in which actor BradleyCooper plays astruggling writer who is offered a drug that promises him access to the full capacities of his brain.

Soon enough Cooper's character hasfinished writinghis book, acquired a wide range of newof skills, and is on his way to becoming one of the richest and most powerfulpeople in the country.

The fictitious scenario isfarfetched, but the idea of using drugs for self-enhancement is completely grounded in reality and it's possible you're participating in self-enhancement without even knowing it.

When thinking about LSD, your mind probably conjuresup images of the Beatles oruntethered hallucinations.

But there are also people some of them prestigious jobs with high stakeswho are using LSD to boost their performance at work.Microdosinginvolves taking small doses of LSD far less than you would use to have a full on hallucinatory trip in order to boost productivity and focus.

PJVogt, host of the hitpodcastReply All, and show producer PhiaBennindecided to put microdosing to the test, all while hiding their social experiment from their colleagues to see whether anyone would notice.

Thetales of the paranoia, accidental 'macrodosing,' and the very mixed results that ensued are all documented in a hilarious Reply All episode thatyou can listen to here.

Caffeine has been shown to boost athletic performance. (Unsplash/Kyle Meck)

Of course, regular LSD doses, however small, may not be everyone's cup of tea.

But there's also a legal, relatively safe drug that has been proven to make athletes perform better. It can also make you more alert and focused,and there's a pretty good chance some of it is already in your system right now.

If you haven't guessed yet it's caffeine.

Terry Graham,professor emeritusat the University of Guelph, spent years studying the effects of caffeine. After Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was disqualified fordoping at the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul, Graham asked for funding to study whether caffeineaffects athletic performance with the hypothesis that its positive effects would be inconsequential.

"I was absolutely, 100 per cent wrong," he said. "Caffeine was a tremendous stimulant to exercise endurance and performance."

The boost provided by caffeine occurs within the muscle itself. Muscles are made up of motor units groups of muscle cells that contract all at once. When caffeine is present, each of those units produces a little more tension than usual, making the entiremuscle contractionstronger.

"Many of the substances that athletes can use to promote a better performance only act within acertain window, it could be strength, sprinting, or a prolonged activity. Butcaffeine seems to be able to influence all of these types of activities, so it's quite universal," he explained.

If tiny doses ofLSD, and big doses of coffee don't appeal to you as means of self-enhancement, there's always transhumanism abroad movement that aims to overcome our human limitations.

People involved with transhumanism believe that humans can be improved through things like smart drugs and gene editing. The three major strands aresuperintelligence, superlongevity, and superhappiness.

As explained by David Pearce, a philosopher and prominent figure in the transhumanist movement, this re-alignment of the basic human conditionshinges on something called the hedonistic imperative.

"Each of us has this approximate hedonic set point, some people are very, by today's standards, fortunate. They're pretty cheerful and they vacillate with a relatively high hedonic set point. Other people are more depressive and gloomy, and seem to fluctuate around gradients of ill-being."

"Nature didn't intend us to be happy, at least permanently happy, And we're just starting to decipher the particular genes and alleles associated with having either a high or low hedonic set point. Iwouldvery much hope that every future civilization would be based on everyone enjoying a high hedonic set point."

If you're trying to figure out your hedonic set point, Pearcesays toimagine a time in your life where you were happier than usual then imagine if you could feel that way all the time.

"If suffering were a recipe for nobility of character perhaps there would be some kind of case for obtaining it, but ... typically prolonged suffering tends to embitter. So we can argue what it actually means to be human. If we abolish suffering, would it have taken away our essential humanity?"

"Nature is exceptionally miserly with pleasure, an I see the challenge ahead isdelivering an extremely rich quality of life for everyone, but doing so in ways that don't compromise social responsibility or intellectual progress."

To subscribe to the podcastand hear more episodes of CBC On Drugs, follow the linkhere.

View post:
Stronger, smarter, happier - what if a drug could make you a better version of yourself? - CBC.ca

With all its morbid decadence, the richly-layered Gothic imagination and cosmic horror of Bloodborne tends to overshadow some of its more (post)modern influences. Bloodborne isnt a traditionalist, after all, but a punk: or to be more precise, a cyberpunk. It may not havesinister corporations or hackers, yet this sci-fi renegade still conjures the rebellious ghost in the machine.

Most obviously, theres the overpowering presence of that looming megalopolis Yharnam as dependent on monumental, almost brutalist architecture as any good futuristic urban sprawl. The social dynamics within Yharnam echo the politics of cyberpunk, the hegemonic power of the Healing Church pitted against the social outcasts roaming the grimy streets. Dangerous social experiments and unchecked technological advancements have led to a Victorian dystopia. There are even cyberspaces, simulated, subordinate worlds in the form of the Dreams, which can be accessed and even hacked by those who are privy to secret knowledge.

Yharnham:

Ridley Scott'sBlade Runner:

And just like cyberpunk, the world of Bloodborne is held captive by the promise of transhumanism the idea that humankind will, one day, be able to transcend our fleshlylimitations and become something more. Whether it is Deus Ex or Bloodborne, the tool for this quasi-religious endeavour is cutting edge research and technology. In Deus Ex, that means body modification through nanotech or even merging consciousnesses with an omnipresent AI. In Bloodborne, its the Healing Church and Byrgenwerth researching into the old ones and their blood that drives this change: aiming to transform humans, in theory, into celestial beings that have entirely discarded their humanity. Not unlike in Blade Runner, the eye becomes an omnipresent symbol of self-directed evolution and the dangerous knowledge necessary to pursue it.

However, Bloodborneisa punk that refuses to slavishly follow in the tracks of those that came before. The differences are the most fascinating thing here. The futuristic vision of transhumanism, whether it is presented as a utopian promise or a dystopian threat, is seen as an evolutionary culmination or perhaps even singularity that severs the umbilical cord that connects us to our evolutionary history. The human is a product of natural processes, distant cousin of the apes. The posthuman the product of transhumanism is something different (strangely, it is our human arrogance that leads to this fallacy of teleological evolution.)

Blade Runner

Eye of a Blood-Drunk Hunter

Bloodbornes idea of transhumanism is recognisable, but different. Its still a morally complex idea, both pursued by individuals and institutions while also causing societal upheaval, but its vector is in the opposite direction. The path to transcendence doesnt lead the inhabitants of Yharnam away from humankinds evolutionary history, but confronts it head-on in a retrogressive journey. The first enemies our hunter encounters are beastmen, many of them recognisably human but some, like the werewolves or Vicar Amelia, almost devoid of human characteristics. Theyre hairy and canine, clearly mammalian despite their deformities. So far, this is in keeping with stories like Robert Louis Stevensons The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or H.P. Lovecrafts tales of human degeneracy, such as Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family, in which a British nobleman burns himself alive after discovering that one of his ancestors was an ape goddess from the Congo. These stories play with our post-Darwinian revulsion at being the offspring of mere animals.

But as you progress through Bloodborne, the hunter descends deeper down the evolutionary ladder. Soon, enemies resemble snakes, insects, arachnids. Later, they become more alien still, strange variations of squids, snails, slugs (that is, molluscs) or even fungi. They have names like Celestial Emissary, or Celestial Child and are closely related to the Great Ones, some of whom, like Ebrietas or Kos, share similarities with the games mollusc-like creatures. Bloodborne displays a special fascination with mushrooms and molluscs, as well as the creatures of the ocean (especially in The Old Hunters DLC). These creatures are associated with the primordial, the early origins of life on earth, and their strange forms, both beautiful and disturbing, gives them a semblance of otherworldliness. And since they dont seem to belong to this world, perhaps they originally visited earth from unknown regions of the cosmos?

Kos

Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos

Celestial Child

Nudibranch, Nembrotha Kubaryana. Photo by Nick Hobgood

Nudibranch, Nembrotha Cristata. Photo by Chriswan Sungkono.

Nudibranch, Tritoniopsis Elegans. Photo by Sean Murray.

From this anthropocentric perspective, becoming like these creatures means getting closer to the miraculous origins of life, when the earth and the cosmos had yet to be disentangled. The transhumanism of Bloodborne thus turns the usual teleological view of human evolution on its head; the forces of evolution, whether natural or self-directed, will not bring humans closer to the gods, but have instead distanced them from the celestial spring of life. To fulfil their atavistic yearning to return to the lap of the cosmos, the inhabitants of Yharnam must regress to earlier evolutionary stages. The horror and tragedy of turning into wolf-like beasts, therefore, isnt just due to a revulsion to our animal ancestors or the destruction they cause, but the knowledge that those beastmen didnt regress far enough. If only they hadnt gotten lost in this evolutionary valley, they could have emerged on the other side as transcendental beings, as kin not of the earth, but the cosmos. At least, thats one way of looking at the complex picture Bloodborne paints.

The transcended hunter as slug-like Great One in Bloodbornes true ending

The beautiful thing about this is that it doesnt just fly in the face of transhumanism as it is usually understood, but the most problematic aspects of Lovecrafts work, too. The ugly concept of degeneracy, with all its overt racism, was an integral part of Lovecrafts fictional worlds. The ancient and unambiguously evil powers of the Great Old Ones is tied to primitives and mongrels, marginalised humans seen as genetically impure and degraded. They are easily manipulated by the old gods and worship them in the hidden and remote corners of the earth.

In Bloodborne, the blame of Yharnams ruin is dramatically shifted. The hidden corners of worship arent foreign jungles or secluded villages, but the sacred spaces of a church that is the backbone and centre of a sprawling megalopolis; the mysteries of the Great Ones are still secret knowledge, but secrets of a powerful, manipulative elite (as you would expect in the conspiracy-filled worlds of cyberpunk stories). But while this elites endeavours clearly lead to a horrific dystopia, the moral issues of this regressive transhumanism stay ambiguous throughout. The degenerate beastmen are hapless, unfortunate victims rather than villains. The experiment of transcendence through reverse evolution seems doomed to fail, but it is not at all clear whether that goal is inherently misguided. After all, the Great Ones seem amoral rather than evil (not unlike the people of Yharnam), and the hunter is no stranger to the allure these celestial beings exert through their disturbing kind of beauty. Perhaps their apparent darkness stems purely from the human minds failing to comprehend their true nature? Either way, Lovecrafts ideas of degeneracy doesnt entirely fit into Bloodbornes world.

Being kin to both the Lovecraftian as well as cyberpunk, Bloodborne, too, is a kind of mongrel. But this impurity is precisely what enables it to distinguish itself and comment meaningfully on its ancestral genres. It reshapes its influences by letting disparate ideas collide and creates something fresh from the wreckage. Its not unique in its subversion of transhumanist idealism or Lovecraftian racist tropes, but the way it combines these separate issues in a seamless if ambiguous whole is entirely original.

Bloodborne is both a cyberpunk dystopia in which the end point of self-directed evolution is not a disembodied mind, but a slug or a squid, as well as a tale of cosmic horror where that dubious degeneracy stems not from shady outsiders or social outcasts, but squarely from within organised mainstream religion and science. It shares with cyberpunk an awareness and distaste for the unequal power dynamics in a world governed by the amoral ambitions of hegemonies, but, like Lovecraft, looks backwards to our distant origins rather than to the future. And soBloodborne transcends its influences, and challenges us on new planes of existence.

Read this article:
Bloodborne, Transhumanism and Cosmic Cyberpunk - Kotaku UK (blog)

What we now call intergenerational fairness has suffered a lot lately, and its not about to be improved by the news that the Baby Boomers are sucking the blood of the young. Although, in fairness, they are only after the plasma.

In Monterey, California, a new startup has emerged, offering transfusions of human plasma: 1.5 litres a time, pumped in across two days, harvested uniquely from young adults.

Ambrosia, the vampiric startup concerned, is run by a 32-year-old doctor called Jesse Karmazin, who bills $8,000 (6,200) a pop for participation in what he has dubbed a study. So far, he has 600 clients, with a median age of 60. The blood is collected from local blood banks, then separated and combined it takes multiple donors to make one package.

Its no coincidence his scheme is based near San Francisco. The idea has become faddish in tech circles. While anti-ageing products usually hold more appeal with women, two-thirds of the more than 65 participants who have signed up for this trial are men. Mike Judges Silicon Valley sitcom recently parodied the notion, with arch-tech guru Gavin Belson relying on a blood boy following him around to donate pints of sticky red at inopportune moments.

That fictionalised account may well be based on the real-life adventures of Peter Thiel, the PayPal founder, who has expressed interest in having transfusions (Gawker even reported that he was spending $40,000 (31,000) a quarter on regular transfusions from 18-year-olds).He, and various other thinkers who radiate out towards the death-evading transhumanist movement, are fascinated by heterochronic parabiosis the sewing together of two animals in order to create a living chimera. Studies going back decades show the regenerative effects of one organism being joined to another. In the 17th century, Robert Boyle he of Boyles Law suggested replacing the blood of the old with the blood of the young.

In 2012, the University of Cambridges Dr Robin Franklin led a group that showed blood from young mice could replace myelin sheaths crucial for combatting MS in older mice. But it was a 2014 Harvard report that seems to have kickstarted the present revival of interest in transfusions. There, scientists injecting old mice with the plasma of a younger generation found it improved their memory and their ability to learn. Conversely, injecting old blood into young seemed to knobble the young rodents.

The scientific community has rolled its eyes at the trial element of Ambrosia. There is no control group and, with participation costing so much, no one involved is very randomised. Despite these criticisms of the science, Dr Karmazin is still reporting positive results. His team has found that levels of carcino-embryonic antigens fell by around 20%, as did the level of amyloids proteins involved in cancer and Alzheimers disease respectively.

Improvements in sleep seem to be the most glittering prize to emerge so far: As people get older, they have much more difficulty sleeping, Dr Karmazin noted. Improve that and you get benefits in mood, immune system, weight management and much else.

It answers the question: how do you sleep at night after leeching the blood out of busboys and students? Just fine, thanks.

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Ambrosia: the startup harvesting the blood of the young | Society ... - The Guardian

This genius Bizarro! comic by Dan Piraro is from a few years back.

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Very funny transhumanist Disney comic / Boing Boing