Transumanar

Transhumanist renaissance in Second Life

About 20 transhumanists met in Second Life yesterday December 30 and agreed on a plan to relaunch and energize the transhumanist community in Second Life (and hopefully also in RL). Some very well known transhumanists were there, for example Natasha Vita-More, Riccardo Campa, Eugen Leitl (no known personal website, but you know who he is), Dave Pearce, and many others who I may have forgotten (sorry!). Extropia DaSilva (read her last essay) and transhumanist community builder in the metaverse Khannea Suntzu were there, and also the digital persons Sophrosyne Stenvaag and Galatea Gynoid, two of the main animators of the Extropia Core community where the meeting took place.

One of the first decisions was to use Extropia Core as transhumanist central meeting point in Second Life. My extropian parcel is of course available (I will assign it to the transhumanist group, see below), and we can reserve other meeting spaces in the forthcoming expansion of Extropia Core (the plan is to expand it to a block of many contiguous sims in 2008). Another decision emerged from the realization that we have far too many transhumanist large and small groups, subgroups, currents and factions in Second Life. Since we feel that we should not reproduce the fragmentation of transhumanism in RL (ask a question to two transhumanists and you get two different answers, including the question “what is transhumanism") also in the metaverse, we created the new group “SL-Transhumanists” in SL (join it in Second Life) as a replacement for all other groups. I will share the parcel at Extropia Core with the group. Join also the new mailing list SL-Transhumanists on Google Groups. All meeting chat logs and announcements will be posted to the mailing list, and often also to the Extropia Core website. We plan several talks (Charlie Stross, Aubrey De Gray, Dave Pearce, Natasha Vita-More, yours truly presenting a new not-so-secret project that will be announced soon), and regular office hours to introduce all interested avatars and their “primaries” to transhumanism.

While we are all happy to meet transhumanist friends in Second Life, it is only just, right and proper to honor dissenters. So, by consensual decision the managers of the SL-Transhumanists group (Khannea, Natasha, Eugen, Giulio and Mike-Intlibber so far) will proudly bear the label ”Robot God”, introduced by our good friend Dale. May The One, aka The Robot God, welcome his uploaded consciousness to an eternal angelic life of superlative bliss in whatever Second Life will become!

TRANSHUMANIST THINKING AND THE NECESSARY REJECTION OF THE BIG BANG: An essay by Extropia DaSilva.

Transhumanist thinking sometimes stands opposed to scientific orthodoxy. Nowhere is this more apparent than when questions regarding our importance in the grand scheme of things are raised. According to most scientific speculation, the sheer enormity of the cosmos on temporal and spatial scales makes our home planet seem like an insignificant speck and we humans are but transient patterns of matter and energy enjoying a temporary stability before inevitably decaying as entropy marches inexorably onward. Intelligence played no part in the aeons that preceded our evolution and it sure as hell won’t play a part in the vast expanses of time that lay ahead.

Transhumanist and extropian groups disagree that intelligence is an impotent force in the face of nature’s nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational energies. They argue that the gigantic technological leaps that have resulted from an understanding of the workings of nature will continue to grow, allowing our species to break free from its biological limitations and its Earthly origins, until via a sublime ability to command the laws of physics, we shall shape the cosmos to suit our purposes…

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New blog: metaXLR8 - acceleration in the metaverse

From now on I will use the new blog metaXLR8 - acceleration in the metaverse for blogging related to IT and VR. I will use this blog for transhumanist news and thoughts.

metaXLR8 - acceleration in the metaverse, is a blog dedicated to the new Internet 2.0 and 3.D, virtual reality, VR worlds and platforms, streaming media, the interpenetration of real and virtual worlds, and emerging metaverse technologies. It is associated to our metaXLR8 streaming media and game server.

Xmas 2007

OpenSim future - wishlist

We have installed OpenSim on a Linux server on an experimental basis. Since our server is an experimental machine, to show the capability of the OpenSim software in a production environment we have also purchased a region on Central Grid, an independent virtual world using the OpenSim development software. See our OpenSim Server Help pages at http://metaxlr8.com:81/.

OpenSim is a BSD Licensed Open Source project to develop a functioning virtual worlds server platform capable of supporting multiple clients and servers in a heterogeneous grid structure. OpenSim is written in C#, and can run under Mono or the Microsoft .NET runtimes. In other words: an open source version of the Second Life server, designed and developed on a modern software engineering platform, and accessible by standard Second Life clients. At this moment the project has produced the 0.4.5 version (0.5 expected soon), so it is not yet operational and still far from offering the complete set of features available in the proprietary Second Life server (no voice, no permissions, no groups, no money...). However, the project has been steadily gaining momentum over the last few months, there are already a few alternative grids based on OpenSim (most notably Central Grid) and I believe it may reach operational maturity (version 1.0) in 2008 and become a serious competitor to Second Life soon after.

At that moment, we will have a standard metaverse system candidate with open source server and client (the Second Life client has been open sourced at the beginning of 2007 and there are already stable alternative clients). The OpenSim system will then a serious candidate to becoming the foundation of a metaverse based on open standard and code. Think of Compuserve and AOL before the web, and Apache and Netscape after the web. Of course other systems under development have the same ambition (most notably Open Croquet), and it will be very interesting to see how things will develop in 2008. I am not betting my money on either, and at metafuturing we will definitely follow, work on and try to contribute to both in 2008.

This is open source software. This means that if you think of a nice new feature, you are free to try implementing it and proposing it for integration in the system. A couple of months ago there was an interesting question posted to Linkedin: “What features in OpenSim would you like to see worked on for your business or entertainment? Web 2.0, 3D environments, whatever you want to call it, is coming! In the next few years there will be a migration from the internet as we know it and into an avatar-based virtual world used for many purposes. There is a project going on now (OpenSim) that is an open-source venture to create simulator applications that should be able to link into this world. What features for business, education, anything you can think of, would you like to see being worked on?”.

My answer was: “Well, all features available in the Second Life server software, of which OpenSim is meant as a clone. Plus (specifically for business applications): import documents from a popular office format (MS, OO...), use webcam feed for videoconferencing, in-world web browser with Flash support, video streams linkable to any suitable surface”. I would now add that OpenSim should not simply copy the features of the Second Life server, but try to make something better in view of the lessons learned in Second Life.

There are two major improvements that I can think of. One is a better and much more professional permission system. Every developer knows that the Second Life permission system, developed to protect the creations of individual designers, creates big problems to professional B2B projects and is frequently the main source of major problems in large projects. I think the permission system should be redesigned conceptually before implementing a clone of the Second Life permission system, and with the requirements and workflows of professional projects in mind.

Then I think in this Web 2.0 age of mashups, there is no need of reinventing the wheel. If a features needed is already available in an existing system with a large user base and some degrees of openness, often the smartest thing to do is providing the feature via an interface to that system. So, I think the social network module of OpenSim (or other candidate metaverse platforms) should be based on existing social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Orkut or Linkedin. NetworkS - there is no reason to choose a social network when it is possible to implement support for all using the Facebook platform for Facebook and Opensocial for all the others. The same consideration should apply to another important system module: the money system. Second Life implemented an alternative in-world currency, the Linden dollar, but there are alternative currencies with growing user bases such as E-gold, Pecunix, and eCache and a network of independent exchanges like Vertoro (see also here). I think the smartest way to implement a money system in OpenSim would be via appropriate interfaces to a growing list of electronic currency operators and exchange providers.

Happy Birthday Sir Arthur!

Happy Birthday Sir Arthur!

And now, out among the stars, evolution was driving toward new goals. The first explorers of Earth had long since come to the limits of flesh and blood; as soon as their machines were better than their bodies, it was time to move. First their brains, and then their thoughts alone, they transferred into shining new homes of metal and of plastic.

But the age of the Machine-entities swiftly passed. In their ceaseless experimenting, they had learned to store knowledge in the structure of space itself, and to preserve their thoughts for eternity in frozen lattices of light. They could become creatures of radiation, free at last from the tyranny of matter.

OpenSim server

Today i installed an OpenSim server on the metaXLR8 streaming media and game server. OpenSim is a BSD Licensed Open Source project to develop a functioning virtual worlds server platform capable of supporting multiple clients and servers in a heterogeneous grid structure.OpenSim is written in C#, and can run under Mono or the Microsoft .NET runtimes.

I have been following the project for some time and I think that, while OpenSim is still very far from the maturity of the proprietary Second Life server, it is advancing in the good direction. It has already some very interesting features like the possibility of using C# for scripting, and I think it will achieve maturity by the end of 2008. There are already alternative grid initiatives like Central Grid.

To access the OpenSim server, launch the standard Second Life client from the command line with the string “-loginuri http://metaxlr8.com:9000/” (don’t click the link, use the string as an argument) and any user name and password. More explanations on the metaXLR8 website. I took the image above during the first multiuser test (Thanks Peer). I will do more experiments and upgrade to the next beta releases of OpenSim.

Beautiful deserts in Second Life

Second Life is full of interesting things. In the image below my avatar, in a NASA astronaut attire, watches the realistic movement of a Mars airbag descending a Martian hill. The Mars recreation is on Explorer Island, near NASA Colab. From the paper Astronomy in Second Life: A User’s Perspective: “The Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) at Caltech has a strong and growing presence in SL and based on Explorer Island with amazing model building of past, present, and future space technology. In one area it appears they are experimenting with stereoscopic images of the lunar and Martian surfaces. One corner of their sim is dedicated to recreating portions of Mars. Avatars should watch for dust devils, rovers, and bouncing Mars airbags”. I just spent 10 minutes there and went away with a good visual understanding of airbags and dust devils.

The image shows a desert not only because Mars looks like a desert but also because, unfortunately, the most interesting simulations in Second Life are often (actually, almost always) empty of avatarian life. While, as we all know, many Second Life sims with sexual content and camping chairs are always packed full. But you don’t even need sex and camping to attract visitors. The sim “Parioli” of my friend Bruno (CEO of Virtual Italian Parks) is always full of avatars chatting in the main square.

One possible conclusion is that Second Life users are a bunch of idiots. As a Second Life user, I am not too happy with this conclusion. Another possible conclusion is the operators of edutainment sims in Second Life are doing something wrong. I am happier with this conclusion, because it is more constructive and give us the opportunity to achieve some improvement by understanding better why users spend time in Second Life. In the NASA sims, the “edu” part of “edutainment” is evidently there. What about the “(enter)tainment” part?

I think the “(enter)tainment” part is also there, and their edutainment objective would be achieved IF ONLY there were more people around. My company has contributed to the development of many cultural sims in Second Life (for example this, this and a couple more coming), very good examples of mature content with evident cultural value, and always empty except for scheduled events every month or so. We have other clients who, without high profile cultural content, always have visitors on their sims. Someone is doing something wrong. What?

It is important to understand the differences between a Second Life sim and a website. The keywords are socializing with other users, and creating content. Second Life is different from the 2D web because it offers more and better possibilities to socialize with other users, and it is different from (most) other VR worlds because it offers more and better possibilities to express one’s creativity. These are the two features of Second Life that must be exploited for success. Many sims spontaneously and chaotically created by users are always full, and many sims carefully planned and expensively implemented by large companies and institutions are always empty. A lesson learned is that no company or institution can have the flexibility and resources to keep creating fresh interesting content to attract users - the only way is creating a community of users (fans of a football club, a faculty club, senior citizens, people passionately committed to some common interest...) and give them the means to make and keep the sim interesting for other users.

Second Life users visit a new place because it is new (typically, an opening event), but they go back to socialize with people with similar interests. The measure of success in Second Life is seeing avatars doing or discussing things together. Interesting exhibitions and lectures, even very interesting ones, is not enough. They are a way to get things started, but cannot replace a vibrant creative community of activists who organize things spontaneously.

If I had to manage the NASA sims, I would try to bootstrap a strong community of Second Life users interested in space by organizing very frequent events (twice a week or more) for a couple of months, then give management rights to 5-10 committed and dependable people and encourage them to organize their own events and spread the word. This should permit achieving a critical mass for self-ignition in a few months. Relinquishing control over a beautifully planned sim is a difficult decision, but in virtual reality crowdsourcing is the way to go. I think a good example is the Extropia Core community in Second Life.

New transhumanist meeting place at Extropia Core in Second Life

I have purchased some land in Extropia Core, the home of a new community of Second Life residents sharing a common desire to build a positive, beautiful, empowering future for all.  Unlike other land options, Extropia is a place where residents are encouraged to work and play together, and to govern their own affairs to the greatest extent possible. I will start organizing transhumanist events here at Extropia: many Extropia residents are declared transhumanists, and most of the others have a transhumanist friendly attitude. The next events will be two very interesting talks: science fiction author Charlie Stross, and SENS leader Aubrey de Grey.

Critical mass is a problem in Second Life: most sims run by small groups are always empty except when a scheduled event is taking place. I hope joining forces with a larger team of motivated people with compatible interests can help solving the empty sim problem: with a critical mass and many different groups organizing talks and events, on this sim (and the others that will follow) there will be always something to do.

These are two screenshots of the building I have quickly assembled at SL-Transhumanists @ extropia core - I am trying to optimize the lights for Windlight (the new atmospheric renderer in SL, currently in beta).

First test - webcasting from Second Life

Live webcasting from Second Life will be a killer application: it will permit distributing live video coverage of events in Second Life also to the majority of Web users who are not Second Life users, to those without PCs with sufficient power to run Second Life, and to SL users away from their computers. If the format is compatible with QuickTime, live webcasting from Second Life also permits distributing live video coverage of events in Second Life to other locations in Second Life. Showing Second Life live events on the web, to thousands (or even much more, depending on the streaming servers used) of persons besides the more or less 100 avatars that can fit in a sim, will also permit answering to one of the most common question of marketers.

This is a screenshot of my first experiment, (started as a proof-of-concept for a client): In the picture, Sophrosyne Stenvaag and I are watching ourselves broadcast live in Second Life, with a delay of a few seconds. See also this video on blip.tv.

Setup used: QuickTime Broadcaster (Mac only), CamTwist (Mac only), Darwin Streaming Server 5.5.5 running on a Linux server, IShowU (Mac only) to record the video offline, and of course the Second Life client. Workflow: CamTwist defines a resizable desktop area as a new video source fro QuickTime Broadcaster - QuickTime Broadcaster streams to the Darwin Streaming Server, which in turn streams to the web. The stream url (RTSP) can be used as media url in Second Life.

Settings used: a small broadcasting area on the screen and a small Second Life window (see the video, 480x360 pixels). In QuickTime Broadcaster: Source CamTwist, width 300x225 pixels (I got an error with larger sizes) compression H264, 16 frames per second, key frame every 48 frames, limit data rate 240 kbits/sec. I will contact the author of CamTwist to find out how to do better. Due to these low quality settings I did not record the movie on disk with QuickTime Broadcaster, but used the separate applications IShowU. Even if my Mac is quite good (MacBook Pro 17 inches, 2.33 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM), having all these programs running in parallel decreases the performance a lot. Without recording on disk, the performance is almost acceptable for live webcasting. I will do more experiments and set up an operational system.

Of course this technique does not only work for Second Life, but permits webcasting whatever happens on the desktop.

SNOWCRASHING INTO THE DIAMOND AGE 2 (PART ONE) BY EXTROPIA DASILVA

In part one of this essay, we examined that most infamous of dystopian nanotech outcomes, the ‘grey goo’ of self-replicating machines. In this second part the view shall be widened as we examine how molecular manufacturing might affect society as a whole. I am obviously not the first person to attempt such a thing. In fact, ever since Drexler established the field with his books ‘Engines Of Creation’, ‘Unbounding The Future’ and ‘Nanosystems’, there have been no end of speculations regarding how society will adapt to this paradigm shift in engineering. Some of these speculations are decidedly dystopian, others defiantly utopian but if there’s anything their authors share in common it’s the fact that none of them have had first-hand experience of a society built on widespread access to molecular manufacturing. This is simply because the technology is still very much in the theoretical stage of development and no practical nanosystems currently exist.

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In memory of Peter Houghton

Peter Houghton died on December 2, 2007, at the age of 68. From the IEET website: Peter was a strong supporter of the British Labour Party, the World Transhumanist Association, and the IEET. He lived well past the projected life expectancy that had been predicted for him after he received his heart assist device, and worked tirelessly on behalf of Britons with heart disease and those needing artificial organs, through the Heart Failure Foundation and Extra Life Foundation.

From the BBC website: The first man in the world to be fitted with a permanent artificial heart has died at the age of 68. Peter Houghton, from Edgbaston, Birmingham, was fitted with the artificial pump in June 2000. Before the operation he had been given only weeks to live as his own heart was working at 10% of normal capacity. The revolutionary pump which was given to Mr Houghton, the Jarvik 2000, used a turbine to increase the power of each heartbeat. He called the last seven years his ‘extra time’ and really made the most of it by showing people what a difference it had made to him and what the treatment could do for others.

I extracted the pictures above, where Peter is smiling, from a video that I took on April 16-18 2004 in Oxford, where Peter had organized and funded a very productive weekend of brainstorming of the Board of Directors of the World Transhumanist Association. I have now placed the video on blip.tv, where it can be watched online in streaming mode and also downloaded in the original format. Peter had to leave a few times during the meeting to go back to his room to “recharge his heart”!. I have never met Peter again in person after 2004, but we exchanged frequent emails.

Peter was a transhumanist who believed that with science and technology we can achieve extra time, extra life, extra health, and extra hope, and supported the development of new, advanced technologies to achieve even more extras. He was also a socially and politically engaged citizen, and a profoundly religious person. Searching in my email archives for the last message from Peter, I have found this text: “As we partake of the body and blood the lamb of God a sense of the pesence of God somehow comes to us.  We become one with the infinite.  What that does or means I am not sure, but something changes most times”.

Holy Sausages (one of Peter’s favorite expressions) Peter, you have been a complex, unusual and wonderful person. We will miss you.

Bill Bainbridge’s “Religions for a Galactic Civilization”

Religions for a Galactic Civilization is an old (1981) article by William Sims Bainbridge. See also Bill’s bio on the IEET site and my article on the Spanish magazine “Muy Interesante”, adapted from an interview with Bill recorded at Transvision 2006, where he talks about NBIC, life extension and mind uploading.

One of my first impressions after reading “Religions for a Galactic Civilization” today for the first time is that it is dated (well, it was written 26 years ago). If Bill were to write the same article today, he would probably mention NBIC technologies (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences) besides space travel and colonization. I hope he would give less space to Scientology, and I am sure he would discuss the works of transhumanist thinkers in great detail. I think the first sentence quoted below could be written, today, as “We need a new transhumanist social movement capable of giving a sense of transcendent purpose to dominant sectors of the society”.

Actually I am very curious to know how Bill would write this paper today. I will ask him and I hope he will comment.

Some quotes from “Religions for a Galactic Civilization”:

To become fully interplanetary, let alone interstellar, our society would need another leap—and it needs that leap very soon before world culture ossifies into secure uniformity. We need a new spaceflight social movement capable of giving a sense of transcendent purpose to dominant sectors of the society. It also should be capable of holding the society in an expansionist phase for the longest possible time, without permitting divergence from its great plan. In short, we need a galactic religion, a Church of God Galactic…

Thus it is wrong to feel that irrational religion must always be a hindrance to progress. I have suggested that only a transcendent, impractical, radical religion can take us to the stars. The alternative is one or another form of ugly death. A successful outcome depends on a kind of lucky insanity, and it is quite unlikely. But for our species, at least it is still possible.

Cranks and (deleted)

Dale Carrico, the chivalrous champion of lost causes who likes to criticize others but does not like to be criticized by others, has just informed us that all transhumanists are cranks.

A transhumanist, you should know, is not the Wright Brothers or Thomas Edison, but “the dot-eyed crank in the basement” who believes in “genetic and prosthetic medical techniques or brain scanning and modeling techniques that will transform some of us into imperishable robots and end human mortality” (now, this is really disgusting!). Our “hopes are essentially faithful and not scientific and the hysteria and false certainties Superlativity mistakes and peddles as hope are worse, essentially fundamentalist”. And, of course, he does not need to discuss “with those incapable of grasping that “uploading” is Robot Cult nonsense”.

Well, I have always appreciated Dale for saying what he thinks. Too bad that he does not bother to offer us a scientific explanation of exactly why “uploading is Robot Cult nonsense”. It is nonsense, of course, because Dale says so. The brain, of course, is not a computer but a gland, and the mystical and ethereal mind essence that it produces will never be amenable to corporate-militarist (???) engineering analysis.

By the way, a very interesting article appeared last week on Technology Review (the TR of MIT, not the TR of the Robot God Cult), titled ”A Working Brain Model - A computer simulation could eventually allow neuroscience to be carried out in silico”, has some interesting news: “An ambitious project to create an accurate computer model of the brain has reached an impressive milestone. Scientists in Switzerland working with IBM researchers have shown that their computer simulation of the neocortical column, arguably the most complex part of a mammal’s brain, appears to behave like its biological counterpart. By demonstrating that their simulation is realistic, the researchers say, these results suggest that an entire mammal brain could be completely modeled within three years, and a human brain within the next decade”.

BBC on Everett - Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

In 1957, the young and brilliant physicist Hugh Everett III published a paper which used some heavy duty mathematics to predict the existence of parallel universes. Although the concept of parallel universes seeped into popular culture, it was considered too way-out for mainstream physicists; and for many years, it remained in the scientific wilderness. Now, 50 years on, Hugh Everett’s son has travelled across America for a BBC Four documentary to find out more about his father’s theory, and why it has now been accepted by many physicists as the work of a scientific genius. Mark Oliver Everett’s own career path couldn’t have been more different from that of his father. Mark Everett is the creative force behind the successful American cult rock band Eels.

I think that, while Everett‘s Relative State formulation of quantum mechanics makes a lot of sense, its popular interpretation as “Many Worlds” (MWI) should be taken only as a simple pictorial device useful for a first understanding of the theory. Today’s physicists are still arguing over what Everett exactly meant but many think that, within the limits of current knowledge (which, of course, can and certainly will be improved), Everett’s is the more logical and elegant interpretation.

The BBC story Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives blends scientific interest and human interest. It was broadcast on BBC Four on Monday, 26 November, 2007, at 2100 GMT. Those who missed it can download the .torrent given in this page (746M, requires registration). I am downloading it now, at slow but reasonable speed.

NEW - I have finished downloading it. About 1 hour of video at 672 x 384 pixels, 1800 kbits/s, almost good enough for full screen. The direct link to the .torrent is here. It is a very good and professional documentary. The MWI is well explained at a very introductory level until the double slit experiment and the Schroedinger cat, without going into more advanced topics like entanglement, EPR etc. The background music (Mark’s of course) is very good. The merged and mixed stories of Hugh and Mark are very interesting.

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World Transhumanist Association

Associazione Italiana Transumanisti

Transumanar is a transhumanist blog - online magazine on science, technology, politics and culture, edited by Giulio Prisco. See About (English) and Introduzione (Italiano).

Transumanar e' un blog - rivista online transumanista di scienza, tecnologia, politica e cultura, curato da Giulio Prisco. Vedi Introduzione (Italiano) e About (English).

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SL-Transhumanists, a group for transhumanists in Second Life

metaXLR8 - acceleration in the metaverse

Most recent entries

• First Scientific Conference in World of Warcraft
• Digital Civilizations and their challenges
• Lincoln Cannon of the Mormon Transhumanist Association in Second Life, March 30
• Test Your Techno Tolerance!
• David Pearce in Second Life on Utopian Neuroscience, March 23
• Thank you, Sir Arthur
• Religion, Spirituality and the Avatar
• Next interesting events in Second Life
• Today: Natasha Vita-More & Anders Sandberg on Morphological Freedom in Second Life
• We The Poopers?
• Review of Stefano Vaj’s Biopolitica
• Translook: new SL-Transhumanists website
• More on Digital Persons, Immersionism vs. Augmentationism
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