Second Life, toward the open distributed Metaverse

Things are going fast three weeks after the release of the Second Life client as open source code. The UM3D Lab of University of Michigan has brought Second Life one step closer to real life by developing stereoscopic support for the Second Life viewer. This recent addition allows visitors wearing special glasses to see the objects of Second Life pop out of the screen similar to watching a 3D movie (press release).

Even more interesting, users in the libsecondlife community have created the first instance of an open Second Life server, also released as open source code. The server has been built by by examining the client code (and/or reverse-engineering it) along with the information that is passed between client and server in order to get an idea of what the server code would need to look like. The server sounds fairly crude at the moment, with a number of functions yet to be implemented. But it can already handle much of what the official server does, and the number of hackers working on it is growing (3pointD). 

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The libsecondlife project is an effort directed at understanding how Second Life works from a technical perspective, and extending and integrating the metaverse with the rest of the web. This includes understanding how the official Second Life client operates and how it communicates with the Second Life simulator servers, as well as development of independent third party clients and tools. With all the media buzz on Second Life I am sure the project will attract more and more talented software engineers who will quickly (perhaps in only a few months) produce a fully operational open source version of the Second Life server code.

The server code discussion thread on the libsecondlife forum has more information. To be sure, the software is still a demonstrator, not fully operational and with very limited functionality. But it points the way to a fully functional open source server - It is a step toward a virtual world, solar system, galaxy or universe free from centralized corporate control, one that looks more like the World Wide Web of individually controlled sites than it does a contiguous grid such as exists in Second Life (3pointD).

In view of these development and others that will certainly follow soon, I think the smartest move for Linden Lab would be taking the lead in the development of open source Second Life server code, or supporting the libsecondlife project as de-facto code development central. In a recent Reuters interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Linden Lab chairman Mitch Kapor stated that Second Life server technology will eventually become available to third parties wishing to run their own servers - this will be a gradual process, but will enable a distributed Metaverse powered by SL technology.

Some current virtual land owners and early amateur SL pioneers have expressed fears that their property will devalue or even disappear as Second Life moves toward a professional distributed ecology. Though I understand some of their concerns I think this industry should evolve toward professionalism like the 2D web industry has, and that in the long run a solid Metaverse a la Stephenson will permit everyone finding his place.

If the server code will be licensed as open source software (or at least licensed commercially under suitable conditions including the right to modify it), then I think serious operators will be much more willing to invest in Second Life: they will know that they will be able to run their own modified versions of the server if they need to do so. I think Linden Lab should make an open commitment to making Second Life servers available and, perhaps, announce a tentative release date. It is, of course, important for Linden Lab to develop an alternative business model that can permit making profits after their current monopoly on Second Life server technology ends. The simplest way may be to license the server software for a lot of money - some massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) engines sell for millions. But perhaps the open source Second Life movement has already built too much momentum to be stopped. Open source projects are slow to take off as they must attract a critical mass of volunteer developers first, but when they are running at full speed they often produce software faster and better than commercial firms. However - I wish the best luck to Linden Lab for their search for alternative business models. The company that gave us Second Life deserves remaining profitable for many, many years to come.

The availability of the Second Life server code will open a niche for independent SL hosting providers. Perhaps Linden Lab will remain the main hosting provider for end users who take their first steps in the Metaverse in the SL “Mainland”, and an entry-level hosting provider for small projects (SL “islands"), and other operators will build and run other interlinked Metaverse regions for more demanding clients. I do not think corporate users can accept the risk of a neighbor building a giant pink dancing penis next to their virtual headquarters. On the contrary, I think most corporate users wishing to use the Metaverse as a business tool will lease space in managed regions with stricter policies, zoning laws, centrally developed and managed infrastructure such as roads and subways with a uniform, corporate look&feel, and 24/7 business quality customer service. I look forward to developing one such “VR Business Park” as soon as the option is available. In the meantime, I am recommending our clients to purchase land in SL by Surreal BT and Brautigan & Tuck. Their sims are a growing complex of Second Life islands (continent) running on high performance servers. The Surreal BT sims offer all the advantages of a developed, zoned and managed top class neighborhood in brickspace.

Posted by G.P. on 01/31 at 06:06 AM
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Seminar and debate on transhumanism, Lausanne

I gave a seminar and participated in a public debate on transhumanism at the University of Lausanne on January 24, 2007, with an audience of about 300 persons of mixed backgrounds.

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I gave a simple and non threatening introduction to transhumanism trying to present clear concepts with simple language and without too many big words. Shortly after the beginning I wore my glasses and said that glasses are an example of “transhumanist” technology invented centuries ago. Glasses are, indeed, a simple means to overcome a typical human limitation. In Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose”, monks react to the recently invented eyeglasses as to an invention of the devil and a means to cheat god’s will (nothing new under the sun).

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I discussed the meaning of “human dignity”, a concept frequently used (in a badly distorted sense) by bioluddites against human enhancement. According to their distorted concept of human dignity, used for example against embryonic stem cell research , a microscopic lump of cells has the same dignity as a thinking and feeling person. Actually, it has more: protecting the dignity of the embryo justifies, in their absurd opinion, refusing to develop therapies that could improve our lives.

So I showed a slide with Christopher Reeve before his accident (playing Superman) and after the accident (in a wheelchair), and asked the audience to consider whether abstract “ethical” arguments against biotechnology can justify condemning *real* people to unhappiness.

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Sometimes I think that they love their abstract “human dignity” but hate actual persons. This is not surprising, as they are the intellectual descendants of those who burned Giordano Bruno and so many other persons for their ideas. Should we accept moral lessons from them? I don’t think so. When abstract concepts are seen as equally or more important than real persons, they can be used to justify torture and murder. I think 3rd millennium’s ethics must give priority to persons over abstract ideas and big words. Of course, a person cannot be defined in terms of biology: sooner or later there will be uploaded humans who do not posses even a molecule of original human genetic material, and the only reasonable definition of person will then be based on mentality.

Then I presented some basic transhumanist concepts including age and death as diseases, the prospect of immortality, conscious artificial intelligences of (more than) human level, identity as a computational pattern, and the future technology of mind uploading. I stated on many occasions that transhumanists are not blind to the fact that emerging transhumanist technologies will have a very deep social and political impact but, on the contrary, think we should discuss and study options to manage their impact.

There were the usual questions, e.g. why live forever (answer: why not), why don’t we think of starving children (answer: we do), why do we live (answer: because). Many people came to me with more questions after the debate. I do not think I “converted” the audience, not even half of it, but I do think I persuaded some people to at least develop an interest in transhumanism. I was interviewed by the press and TV.

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The seminar was available on real time webcast and is still available at the URL given here. The direct URL of the Quick Time streaming file is this. The pictures above have been extracted from the video stream. I placed the PPT presentation in the Second Life meeting hall.

Posted by G.P. on 01/30 at 04:02 PM
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Evolution of this blog

I am discontinuing my other blogs due to technical problems, so this will be my only blog. I will write on transhumanism, futures studies, emerging technologies, virtual reality, the metaverse, MMOGs, Second Life, and all other things that cross my head. See also my virtual reality site uvvy.com and my company’s website metafuturing.com.

Posted by G.P. on 01/30 at 03:33 PM
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Español

Transumanar solo es en italiano y inglés. Tengo 2 blogs en español en la revista online Tendencias 21.

Tendencias 21 es una publicación electrónica independiente que recoge los principales avances estratégicos en ciencia, tecnología, sociedad y cultura - una fórmula de periodismo inteligente aplicado al conocimiento y la divulgación de la ciencia en su más amplio significado, ya que ofrece una visión interdisciplinar que integra no sólo las más diversas ramas de la investigación científica, sino también los avances más significativos en los esquemas del pensamiento y la organización social. Formo parte del Consejo Editorial de Tendencias 21, de carácter asesor y consultivo, que contribuye con evaluaciones, artículos, entrevistas y propuestas temáticas al desarrollo de sus contenidos de divulgación científica

Mis blogs:

Horizontes - Un blog transhumanista : ¿Qué es el transhumanismo, esta idea peligrosa que tanto asusta a respetados profesores y intelectuales? En palabras muy simples, el transhumanismo se puede definir como el reconocimiento del hecho de que se puede utilizar la tecnología para mejorar radicalmente a los seres humanos (como individuos, como sociedades, y como especie), así como pensar que hacerlo es bueno. A pesar de que hoy en dia los expertos no tienen muchas dudas sobre el primer punto (se puede), el debate sobre el segundo punto (se debe), se acalora siempre más.

Metaverso - blog de la empresa metafuturing en Tendencias 21: El concepto de Metaverso, creado por Neal Stephenson en su novela Snow Crash en el año 1992, surgió como una evolución del término de “realidad virtual” que existía anteriormente. El Metaverso es un entorno inmersivo, tridimensional y virtual en el cual las personas pueden relacionarse entre sí, social y económicamente, independientemente de su localización física. A grandes rasgos, puede considerarse a Internet como una expresión primitiva de este concepto. La realidad de un Metaverso ha sido explorada en profundidad por algunos de los mejores escritores de ciencia ficción, desde Neal Stephenson hasta William Gibson, autor de la novela Neuromante y considerado como el padre del género Cyberpunk. En la actualidad, nos encontramos en un punto en el cual las tecnologías necesarias para crear un auténtico Metaverso alcanzan su madurez tecnológica. Los próximos años auguran un punto de inflexión en el cual los conceptos que hasta ahora han sido una fantasía comenzarán a plasmarse en implementaciones reales y tangibles, con una influencia medible sobre la sociedad, la economía, el ocio y la política.

Posted by G.P. on 01/16 at 08:09 AM
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The PBS show 22nd Century takes you to the forefront of technology

KurzweilAI: 22nd Century is an innovative new PBS series about technological advances taking place today that within our lifetimes will significantly change the way humans live and interact.

I think it is very important to communicate realistic visions of possible future scenarios based on scientific speculations to television audiences, with a future-friendly or at least not unfriendly attitude. Unfortunately I cannot watch PBS from Europe but the 22nd Century websites has long streaming videoclips. On Youtube there is a 22nd Century group of videoclips contributed by users. The 22nd Century websites has interesting polls - at this moment 50% of participants answer the question “What would you rather see a show about?” with “The potential of living forever”. The KurzweilAI website is one of the futurist resources they list.

In an interview Ramez Naam, the author of More Than Human, discusses the implications of technically enhancing the human body: “We have always, as long as we have existed as humanity, we’ve always looked for ways to make ourselves smarter, make ourselves live longer, give ourselves more physical abilities.  That’s why we invented writing.  That’s why we picked up sticks.  That’s why we invented the use of fire.  We’re always looking for these ways to improve our lives, and improve our control over who we are, and our environment. That’s what it means to be human… The future is about gaining control over our genes, gaining control over our bodies, gaining control over our brains and minds, and being able to alter them so we can look the way we want to, so we can be stronger, and faster, so that we can work for decades, or maybe centuries more, so we can restore youth to people who are aged, and so we can alter our thoughts, change our personalities, become smarter, communicate things back and forth, from brain to brain”.

From the website:

Ever wonder what the world is going to be like in the future? Will people routinely live to see their 250th birthdays? Will personal computers be smarter than us?  (Or more personable?) Will machines shrink so small they can make repairs inside a human cell? Science fantasy or futuristic nightmare? The PBS show 22nd Century takes you to the forefront of technology and hears from people on the cusp of a scientific revolution.

In the first episode we will meet a young man who was rendered unable to communicate with the outside world due to a devastating automobile accident. Surgeons implanted an electrode in his brain and it has allowed him to break out of his isolation and communicate just by thinking about what he wants to say. In another segment a leading neurophysicist tells how he has developed bundles of wires thinner than spider webs that can be inserted into the blood vessels of human brains.

The series is hosted by Robin Robinson, a Chicago-based journalist, who is joined by two virtual co-hosts, each with insightful and often conflicting viewpoints about the merits of this new technology. One is an actor playing Aldous Huxley, the late author of Brave New World, who worried about the dehumanizing consequences of scientific discoveries. The other is Orlanda Bell, a time-traveling visitor from the future, who represents the best-case scenario of these technological advancements. Is this a future that will benefit the human race? Or will we lose all sense of individuality? Find out on the premiere episode of the 22nd Century.

The program is one of three science pilots airing on PBS in January; only one pilot will move forward to become a series. Watch online or on-air and then tell us what you think of the program using the feedback form below. [Perhaps if enough people write they will choose 22nd Century. My comment on the feedback form: I just watched the videoclips and read the intervews. Great show! This is a good example of “using the power of noncommercial television, the Internet and other media to enrich the lives of all Americans through quality programs and education services that inform, inspire and delight” as in PBS’ mission statement].

In the premiere episode, guests arrive from the future, past and present to guide you through a quirky tour of the “World Wide Mind,” an intriguing theory that proposes that in the future our brains will be wired up so that we can communicate with the world effortlessly and instantly. Science fantasy or futuristic nightmare? Watch the show and decide for yourself!

Posted by G.P. on 01/10 at 03:11 PM
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Extropia DaSilva, transhumanist avatar

As a transhumanist interested in the Metaverse and active in Second Life, I am an avid reader of Extropia DaSilva’s essays. I should not refer to Extropia as “she” or “he”: in a message posted to the MindX Forum on KurzweilAI, Extropia wrote: ”I’m not gonna tell you my real gender, since I could be lying or telling the truth and you won’t know. Besides which, we should all get used to thinking of each other as ‘people’ since terms like ‘gender’ or ‘human’ should become pretty confused as bio, nano, robotic and IT tech ramps up”. So I should refer to Extropia using Greg Egan‘s gender-neutral “ve, vis, ver” that, according to the sentence quoted, may enter everyday’s language soon. But I will say “she” because that is the gender she has *chosen*, which, for transhumanists, is much more important than the accidental biological birth gender.

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Extropia does not have a blog or website of her own (at least none that I was able to find) but is a frequent guest writer on Gwyneth Llewelyn’s blog (one of the best blogs about Second Life, perhaps the best). She is also active in Second Life—her avatar was created in June 2005, which is *very* old in Second Life (SL). I will respect Extropia’s wish to hide her brickspace identity and refrain from speculating on who she might be in Real Life (RL). From her writings, Extropia appears as a hardcore transhumanist who understands the radical implications of exponentially advancing technology. From her Second Life profile: ”the way fantasy and reality combine in SL is reflective of our future when the Net will have guided all consciousness that has been converted to software towards coalescing, and standalone individuals are converted to data to the extent that they can form unique components of a larger complex”.

In her last essay on Gwyneth Llewelyn’s blog titled CTRL-Q: Quantum Time Extropia makes interesting considerations on the simulated reality of the Metaverse and the physical reality of the Universe and observes that these two realities are not so fundamentally different: ”the grand illusion that humans live under is that RL exists out there in physical space… SL appears to be separate from RL by being contained within the confines of a monitor. In fact, both co-exist as information gathered by our senses and interpreted into a model of reality by our brains”. This is, I think, a very useful concept to bear in mind. Soon we will develop the capability to create virtual worlds indistinguishable from physical reality that users will access through direct neural interfaces feeding realistic perceptions to their brains. We will populate virtual worlds with conscious artificial intelligences. Our physical reality itself behaves like a computational process and may well be a simulation running on some powerful supercomputer “elsewhere”. Is physical reality really more “fundamental” than others? From the point of view of conscious observers in a simulated reality, their world is the real world.

Extropia subscribes to the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics: ”the tangle of wave functions are not unreal until an observation picks out one alternative, they are ALL as real as each other. But the reason why we don’t see anything in two states at once is because each wave function corresponds to its own reality” and thinks, as I do, that the concept of “reality” is much more complex and rich of nuances than we usually think. My own thoughts, that I wish to further elaborate, are here.

Extropia thinks that the evolution of technology and the explorations of new modes of being in simulated realities that are beginning, with baby steps, in Second Life and other virtual worlds will result in a ”singular consciousness, in which machine intelligences run billions of human-level intelligences embedded in avatars living in hyper-real cyberspaces”.

In one of her previous essays titled The Metaverse Reloaded, Extropia places Second Life in the context of the social Web, observes that in only a decade the Web has had an explosive growth and evolved from a “library” of information to a powerful many-to-many socialization tool, and makes interesting considerations on the primary purpose of virtual reality: ”it is a tool for communication, providing the means to connect and collaborate with people around the world, forming social groups through shared interests rather than geographical location. This, not escapism, is the chief reason why the growth of online worlds rivals that of Email 15 years ago”. She describes forthcoming computing technologies --fully-realistic synthetic humans in fully-immersive VR worlds; augmented reality, where computer-generated images are blended with reality, as opposed to replacing it (which is what full-immersion VR promises); real-life becoming as connected and efficient at retrieving information as cyberspace; artificial intelligence; computation based on emergent properties like in the biological world-- and observes that eventually this will lead to ”nothing less than a vast intelligence running on a global brain. Billions of human minds entangled in a worldwide network that itself constitutes a computer with a distributed ‘chip’ of a billion PCs, each of which contains approximately a billion transistors”.

Posted by G.P. on 01/10 at 08:45 AM
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Open Second Life client

The Second Life client source code has been released yesterday 8 January under the GPL free software license. The announcement on the official Linden blog is titled Embracing the Inevitable: “Releasing the source now is our next invitation to the world to help build this global space for communication, business, and entertainment. We are eager to work with the community and businesses to further our vision of our space”.

Inevitable in the sense that this was the only survival strategy for Second Life. It enjoys market leadership at this moment, but there are competitors on the horizon completing the development of more open systems e.g. Open Croquet and Multiverse that will eventually permit users developing and running their own virtual worlds on their servers, which is, I think, what most serious operators (game developers, large companies and organizations wishing to host virtual intranets for employees and virtual extranets for partners and clients, media groups) really want.

The open-sourcing of the Second Life client is of course discussed everywhere in the blogosphere. Cory Doctorow says: “This is HUGE… by opening up the source code for Second Life, Linden is inviting a competitive marketplace for Second Life hosters. Indeed, they describe a “Second Life grid” of multiple Second Life hosters who interconnect—the way that today’s Web consists of a single Web with millions of servers that are all linked together by their users”.

Only the client (for Windows, Linux and Mac) has been released as open source software at this moment, and Linden retain the ownership of the server software. This means that users can study the client source code and propose modifications and improvements, but cannot run their own private virtual world on their own servers. But CNN Money reports that the company’s eventual intention is to release an open source version of that software as well, once it has improved security and other core functions.

The Second Life Open Source developer website has all information on how to participate in the further development of the platform and a wiki editable by registered users.

As an avid Second Life user, consultant and “serious” application developer I have made a significant investment of money and time in Second Life, and in the last few months I have often been afraid of losing (part of) my investment. In fact, I was persuaded that if Linden did not start opening the platform very soon, Second Life would fade out with the arrival on the scene of open platforms more suitable for business applications, but I did not think they would start opening the platform so soon. If, as we hope, opening the client software is the first step towards opening the entire platform (or at least licensing the server code under suitable conditions including the right to modify it), then I think serious operators will be much more willing to invest in Second Life: they will know that they will be able to run their own modified versions of the server if they need to do so. If I could run a Second Life server, the first two changes I would do are: permitting users choosing freely their own SL name, and in particular using their real name; and integrating a real-time voice system.

So now I think the push of serious operators in Second Life will continue. The most ambitious large company in Second Life that I am aware of at the moment is IBM. One of the things they will do on their megasim (12 islands arranged on a 2x6 grid) is to facilitate connections between current and former IBM people in the “Greater IBM Connection”. My understanding is that they also want to explore ways for Second Life (and Virtual Reality in general I believe) to add value to real business. Evidently they are using SL themselves as internal workspace (social networking, meetings, presentations etc.) and my understanding is that they want to find out how it can be used effectively in different industries. MIT Technology Review reports that “IBM, with its worldwide operations, needs a chat medium with which employees can confer with one another. While instant-messaging programs and video conferencing have been available for many years, the creative freedom offered by Second Life has not. Software programmers often go into the Second Life world and outline their projects in a three-dimensional format. Some of the programmers’ work is done in their private Second Life facilities, but much of it is open to the public. Ultimately, IBM hopes to lower programmers’ travel expenses by conducting meetings and training sessions at the Second Life islands”.

On a less ambitious scale, the Second Life chapter of the World Transhumanist Association has just passed 100 members. In 2006 the WTA was among the pioneers to start using Second Life for major educational events and conferences, including the mixed-reality Transvision 2006 conference on uvvy island. So far Second Life has been a very useful workspace and outreach tool for transhumanists. With the beginning of the open sourcing process, we are now more confident in continuing our investment in Second Life and plan more ambitious activities for 2007, including, of course, a mixed-reality event for our conference Transvision 2007 in Chicago.

Posted by G.P. on 01/09 at 06:32 AM
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Top Canadian science-fiction writers and futurists on transhumanism

Sun Media reporter Vivian Song speaks with top science-fiction writers, astrologists and futurists to explore what the next 50 years may hold for our newest Capricorns. Yes, Capricorns, and astrology - the article is very interested, but futurism is mixed with astrology. I suppose this is how they manage to sell newspapers these days. However, I think some horoscopes are a price worth paying for informing the public on what the future will bring.

Some interesting excerpts:

Given the rate of change during the past 40 years, ventures into space and computer-dependent immortality shouldn’t come as a shock, said Robert Sawyer, a futurist and frequent commentator for Discovery Channel Canada.

In their lifetime, children of the year 2007 will be forced to confront dilemmas their ancestors were able to evade. How do you reconcile immortality with the natural world, for instance? How will the human species respond to climate change that their predecessors set in motion? According to Sawyer, a prolific award-winning writer—he’s one of seven writers in history to win all three of science-fiction’s top honours for best novel of the year—by the time the child is 50, they will have the option of downloading their brain into an artificial android body and of living forever.

2028 - According to futurist consultant Richard Worzel, people can choose to have a personal computer embedded in their body, most likely under the arm, activated by body heat or drawing power from their blood supply. A microphone will be embedded in their tooth powered by bone conduction. Contact lenses will act as a computer monitor and users will be able to overlay reality with computer images.

2057 - Though their biological bodies may have worn out, the rich will be able to buy more time in an android body, Sawyer said. “Transhumanism. For a person born Jan. 1, 2007, they will have a choice at that point.”

Indeterminate life expectancies will also mean more people will draw more heavily and longer on the country’s health plan. How long will people be allowed to work? “You’re opening up social questions that have never had to be asked before . . . to which there’s been no need. The answers become urgent to which there are no precedents and people will fight for what they think they’re entitled to.” At the same time, Sawyer offered a sunny view of immortality, saying the potential to achieve unrivalled human brilliance and creativity is no longer hindered by the pesky passage of time.

Oh, I had forgotten. The ruling colours of Capricorn babies born in 2007 will be blue and black.

Posted by G.P. on 01/06 at 04:32 PM
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Quotes from Seligman’s “The First Coming”

In his Edge article on The First Coming, University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin E.P. Seligman defends the notion of a natural (as opposed to supernatural) God evolving with and within the universe. He bases his ideas on the general principle that evolution always favors complexity (described in Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright).

Excerpts:

I am optimistic that God may come at the end. I’ve never been able to choke down the idea of a supernatural God who stands outside of time, a God who designs and creates the Universe. There is, however, an alternate notion of God relevant to the secular community, the skeptical, evidence-minded community that believes only in nature.

The invisible hand of biological and cultural evolution ineluctably select for the complex over the simple because positive sum games have the survival and reproductive edge over zero sum games.  A process that selects for more complexity is ultimately aimed at nothing less than omniscience, omnipotence, and goodness.

A God who is not supernatural, but who ultimately acquires omnipotence, omniscience and goodness. Perhaps, just perhaps, God comes at the end.

So I am optimistic that there may be in the fullness of time a First Coming. I am optimistic that this is the door through which meaning may enter our lives. A meaningful life is a life that joins with something larger than the self and the larger that something is, the more meaning. I am optimistic that as individuals we can choose to be a tiny part of this process. Partaking of a process that has as it ultimate end the bringing of a God, who is endowed with omniscience, omnipotence, and goodness joins our tiny, accidental lives to something enormously larger.

Posted by G.P. on 01/06 at 08:17 AM
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Ingegneria Trascendente

Allora, ho finalmente cominciato a scrivere il mio libro, Ingegneria Trascendente, che spero di terminare per la fine del 2007. Nel libro cerchero’ di far vedere come le idee e i valori transumanisti possano essere usati per offrire un’ alternativa alla religione.

La decisione di scrivere questo libro e’ il risultato di anni di discussioni con molte persone che condividono pensieri simili, e molte persone che non li condividono, in conversazioni private e su mailing list di Internet. Siccome non voglio perdere tempo ed essere costretto ad accettare modifiche editoriali, ho deciso di pubblicare il libro con Lulu. Ma penso che i commenti e le critiche editoriali siano molto importanti per un autore, specialmente per uno che non scrive nella sua madrelingua, quindi chiedero’ ad alcuni amici fidati di fare la parte dell’ editore severo e inflessibile.

Le nostre idee possono dare un senso alla vita, una visione del nostro posto nell’ universo, e una grande pace e felicita’ interiore. Questa e’ stata la funzione storica delle grandi religioni che pero’, adesso, stanno finalmente cominciando a dare segni di stanchezza e presto saranno completamente incapaci di convincere persone sempre piu’ sofisticate culturalmente e abituate alla visione scientifica del mondo.

Il successo delle religioni e’ dovuto al fatto che queste offrono una risposta all’ incubo della morte. Si, i tuoi cari sono morti, e prima o poi morirai anche tu, ma vi rivedrete in paradiso. Questo e’ un meme *molto* potente come dimostra il successo delle religioni. Con l’ avvento, che tutti auspichiamo, di una visione del mondo laica e fondata sulla scienza, sembra impossibile continuare a prendere sul serio queste cose.

Ma e’ proprio cosi’? Forse no. Penso che tra gli esperimenti piu’ interessanti in atto nel movimento transumanista ci siano i tentativi di formulare “religioni transumaniste”, fondate sulla scienza, ma capaci di offrire la speranza in un’ “altra vita” perfino per quelli che sono gia’ morti. Alcune informazioni su questi tentativi sono nel mio articolo Engineering Transcendence, sul quale il libro e’ basato.

Pur considerandomi un razionalista scientifico “duro”, la mia visione scientifica del mondo e la mia fiducia nella nostra capacita’ di espansione tecnologica senza limiti mi spingono a considerare come plausibili alcuni scenari futuri nei quali la scienza, e solo la scienza, puo’ resuscitare i morti. Naturalmente simili scenari non possono, e non devono, essere considerati come certezze, ma solo come speranze basate su speculazioni che considero ragionevoli.

Posted by G.P. on 01/04 at 05:17 PM
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Transcendent Engineering

So, I have finally started writing my book, Transcendent Engineering, which I hope to complete by the end of 2007. In the book I will try to show how transhumanist ideas and values can be used to offer an alternative to religion.

The decision to write this book is the result of years of discussions with many people who share similar thoughts, and many people who do not share them, in private conversations and on Internet mailing lists. Since I do not wish wasting time and being forced to accept editorial changes, I have decided to publish the book with Lulu. But I think criticism and editorial feedback are very important for an author, especially for one who is not writing in his mother language, so I will ask many trusted friends to act as severe and unforgiving reviewers.

The transhumanist worldview can give a sense of meaning of life, a vision of our place in the universe, peace and happiness. This has been the historic function of the world’s great religions that, on the other hand, are now finally beginning to show some fatigue and soon will be completely unable to persuade people more and more culturally sophisticated and used to the scientific worldview.

Religions’ success is due to the fact that they offer an answer to the nightmare of death. Yes, your loved one are dead, and sooner or later you will also die, but you will meet again in heaven. This is a *very* powerful meme as the penetration of religion demonstrates. With the coming of a secular worldview based on science, it seems impossible to continue taking religion seriously.

But is it really so? Perhaps not. I am very interested in the current experimental activities to create “transhumanist religions”, based on science, but still able to offer hope in “another life” even for those who are already dead. Some information on these experiments, links and my own thoughts can be found in my article Engineering Transcendence, on which the book is based.

While I consider myself as a a hard-core scientific rationalist, my scientific worldview and my belief in our potential for boundless expansion enabled by technology make me appreciate the plausibility of future scenarios where science, and science alone, can resurrect the dead. Of course such scenarios cannot, and should not, be taken as certainties but only as hopes based on, I think, reasonable speculations.

Posted by G.P. on 01/04 at 03:56 PM
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Comments on the debate between Robin Hanson and James Hughes on the social implications of uploads

I have been invited to comment on the debate between Robin Hanson and James Hughes on the social implications of uploads. I am happy to do so as I often think about mind uploading technology and its impact once it is developed. Please read Robin Hanson’s paper ”If uploads come first” for a background.

I hope brain scanning technology of sufficient quality and resolution for future uploading will become available during my lifetime. If this does not happen, I hope to transport myself to a future time where mind uploading technology exists through cryonics. I want to see what interesting things will happen in the future, and one point on which I completely agree with both Robin Hanson and James Hughes is that operational uploading technology will have a huge impact on our world, including of course economics and politics.

So suppose you have a complete brain scan before you die, and you wake up in sometime in the future. You could wake up in another biologic body, in a robotic body, or as a conscious personality in a virtual world running on some future supercomputer. You may now be thinking of a virtual heaven, but you should think also of a virtual hell: you have been restored to be a slave in a future data processing farm - you are chained to a virtual metal chair that glows white hot as soon as you slow down - errors are punished with virtual torture. Or perhaps you are just tortured for fun. And this may be happening simultaneously to millions of parallel copies of you. Science fiction writer Richard K. Morgan has some particularly vivid descriptions of uploads tortured in virtual hells.

Unfortunately we have a history of practicing slavery for economic advantage whenever we can do so without consequences. Even in today’s world, there would be widespread slavery if we did not have anti-slavery laws and the means to enforce them. Actually, in today’s world there *is* slavery. I do not believe this basic fact - that there are always many people ready to do the most horrible things for money, and even a few people ready to do the most horrible things just for fun - may change anytime soon. So, it is clear that we will need laws and technologies to make sure uploads are not used as slaves. Perhaps the required technologies will be developed as an evolution of today’s Digital Rights Management technologies. But of course, there will be crackers who will find ways to work around DRM protections for uploads. This will be a *very* important and complex issue.

Leaving virtual hells aside, one central point in the debate between Robin Hanson and James Hughes on the social implications of uploads is how to modify economical and political systems to permit coping with a society split between “original humans” and uploads.

But I do not think future societies will be split between pure original humans and pure uploads (and, I should add, pure artificial intelligences). On the contrary, I think that with the development and deployment of mind copy/cut/paste technologies, the pure modes of existence for conscious minds will blend and merge. I imagine a typical person in such a world as a computational construct, spending most of ver (a blend of his and her - the notion of gender will become obsolete) time in virtual reality, using one or more physical bodies on a need basis, augmenting verself with AI subsystems, merging with others, spawning multiple copies, and copying/pasting ver memories and mental subsystems in all sorts of ways that we cannot even begin to imagine. Within the limits of our current imagination, a possible advanced future society is described in Greg Egan‘s Diaspora. The detailed fabric of economy and politics in such societies is probably completely beyond our understanding at this time.

But the first successful experiments in uploading may well take place before the end of this century, in a society relatively similar to ours. So current economic and political models will still apply during and after the initial deployment wave of uploading technology, and it is very important to start thinking of how we can cope with this very disruptive change.

Posted by G.P. on 01/04 at 06:17 AM
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My reply to WJ Smith’s “Give Me That New Transhumanist Religion”

I had the honor to be quoted by Wesley J. Smith in a blog post titled ”Give Me That New Transhumanist Religion”, where he comments my ”Considerations on the development of the transhumanist movement”.  This is only fair, as I quoted him. However, he tries using my post in support of his view of transhumanism as “a branch of scientism, that is, a quasi religion that seeks to use science in ways for which the great method is not meant”. So I left the comment below on his blog.

Dear Wesley,

I wish to thank you for quoting me, but also wish to reply to your comments which may give, I fear, a distorted view of what I try to say.

I have the highest respect for religion as search for meaning and wish to live a “good” life.

At the same time, and based not only on my scientific training but also on my common sense, I am just unable to *believe* in any religion.

I think, as you quote, that the success of religions is due to the fact that they offer an answer to the nightmare of death.

For previous generations, death was just something you cannot escape, so it is not surprising that so many persons have accepted supernatural answers in absence of scientific ones.

But today we are beginning to see how science and technology may be able, someday and perhaps soon, to defeat death. I prefer this practical engineering approach to blind belief in something that cannot be proven.

Of course, for most people, the scientific possibility of engineering immortality for future generation is not enough. I am one of these people. Many of my loved ones are dead and I wish to think that, perhaps, I will see them again.

This is just human. But I cannot blind my eyes to the fact that, according to the scientific worldview to which I subscribe, they are just gone.

Gone forever? Perhaps. And perhaps future science and technology may find a way to bring them back. I do not *believe* this: I do not believe in anything that I cannot prove. But I allow myself to contemplate this possibility because it is not, in my opinion, incompatible with the scientific worldview.

This is what I mean by offering hope to those who, like me, are unable to find hope in religion.

It is, I think, unfair to quote “[The] Raelian message is very similar to the transhumanist one” without the rest of my sentence: “with an extra layer of UFO nonsense”. Indeed, I think the Raelian message has the same weakness of religion: it requires blind faith in things that cannot be proven.

I prefer, on the contrary, to believe in ourselves and in our capability to improve our own condition. On the basis of our current understanding of reality, I am confident that someday we will achieve immortality through engineering. And later, perhaps, we will be able to do things even more amazing.

Posted by G.P. on 01/03 at 09:09 AM
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