Online magazine Jim Baen’s Universe teams with award-winning H+ podcast The Future And You
Press Release: Steven Euin Cobb’s Award winning transhumanist-friendly podcast, ”The Future and You” has become a regular feature of Jim Baen’s Universe magazine, and vice versa in an innovative partnering agreement between the unique online magazine and the highly listened-to podcast series.
The Future and You is an award-winning podcast about the future which you may download for free. Each episode contains several interviews with authors, scientists, celebrities and innovators about what they expect in the future. These forward-thinking people describe their widely differing ideas of the future and often go beyond what they expect into what they hope and what they fear. The podcast won the 2006 Parsec Award for “Best Speculative Fiction News”. Recent guests have included Mike Treder. Subjects have included: nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing, computers wired directly into the human brain, cryonics, exoplanets, faster-than-light travel, wormholes and black holes, cloning and stem cell research, global warming and the current interglacial period, genetic engineering of humans and other biotechnology, as well as transhumanism and the technology of living more-or-less forever. Stephen Euin Cobb is a Hard SF author, futurist and the host of the award-winning podcast “The Future And You.” He is also an artist, essayist and transhumanist.
I am now listening to the CC-licensed December 1 episode in streaming MP3. The quality of the MP3 stream is very good. In the December episode Cobb describes his views of the future, with more amazing things coming than he previously thought possible and a possible singularity in a few decades, and interviews, among others, Toni Weisskopf (the new head of Baen Books) on the singularity and technological immortality. I would describe “The Future and You” as a transhumanist-friendly and “moderately transhumanist” show, a less radical version of IEET’s Changesurfer Radio produced by James Hughes, targeted mainly to younger people and science fiction fans. This show is one more example of the penetration of transhumanist ideas into popular culture.
Posted by G.P. on 12/31 at 07:22 AM
Paddling my own canoe
My holidays changed to be psychologically much richer than what I planned some weeks ago when I told my friends, “this year I must stay home and work on proposals”. Instead, due to an unfortunate series of events on my friend’s side, my holidays were spent with one of the most can-do humans I know. Spending those days talking and walking and sharing (and helping when he’d let me) such a person was a knock-on-the-head for what humans can do when their life philosophy is No Limits. Therefore, I’d like to follow up Giulio’s book suggestion for teens and girls with another book suggestion of my own that encapsulates a No Limits philosophy. Teen years are often an angst-ridden time when the young person flounders and flails and despair that they ‘cannot do anything’. But, Au contraire! You CAN.
The book: Paddling my Own Canoe is about a woman, the author Audrey Sutherland, who has a goal to reach a a particular inaccessible beach on the island of Moloka’i in Hawai’i. Because of the cliffed terrain surrounding that particular beach, the only access point is by sea, which is the Moloka’i Channel, one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the Pacific Ocean, due to its strong undercurrents.
Starting her successful trials in 1958, she spent some days to a week every year improving her methods of travel to that beach, first swimming from one ocean-entry point on the island (after being dropped there by plane), and dragging her survival gear in waterproof containers that she built, and later by building small rafts/canoes and paddling there (hence the name of the book). As the years passed, and she became more skilled, she eventually upgraded her goal to build a small house on that beach, completeing that task, as well.
This 130 page monologue lets you listen while she talks to herself, trying to understand what went wrong on a particular action and how she might fix the problem so the action will work better next time. You hear how she breaks down a large task into many managable pieces and then tries and tests each of those pieces until she reaches success. You are with her when she is planning, trying, thinking, researching, and forever improving how to do something. This is a book that not only shows how to solve big problems by breaking them down into manageable pieces, but demonstrates thinking for oneself and how to live with grace and humor and courage and diligence. For example: much of her equipment she built or devised on her own because there didn’t exist the kind of expedition equipment (lightweight, sturdy, waterproof) that she needed at the time in the 1950s and 1960s. She is also very modest, often chiding herself, and she has a wonderfully funny sense of humor.
Some quotes from the book:
“I peeled down to the high-topped tennis shoes and clumped off to the river with the dirty dishes. Alone and content among the trees at the water’s edge, I stood like Daphne, bewitched there in the forest. Daphne, ha! Where’s Apollo, you dirty, salty female? I knelt by the pool and scrubbed, composing a derisive haiku, as did Basho and Issa in Japan long ago.
Goddess by the stream
Tall, bare, proud ... laughs at dreams, and
Squats to wash the pots. “
and
“What I really need is for some scientist to develop a dehydrated or freeze-dried wine. Please forgive such sacrilege, Monsieur Lichine and Mr. Balzer and you other connoisseurs, but I do enjoy wine with my meals, and seven half-bottles, a week’s supply, weigh ten pack-sagging pounds. Table wines are twelve percent alcohol and perhaps two percent grape residue. Perfect a dehydration method and I could carry a fifth of that lovely wine, Louis Martini’s Moscato Amabile, in a container holding four ounces. Develop further; freeze-dry the alchohol. Then I could buy foil packets of a powdered Beaulieu Cabernet Sauvignon, or, for Franco-oenophiles, a Chateau LaMission Haut Brion, add water, display the packet label with a flourish, and pour with a drip-stopping wrist twist- into a Sierra Club cup. “But listen, Aud”, say my scientific friends. “If you really want concentrated wine, it’s already been done. It’s called brandy.” “
and
“I had to go back again. To be that terrified of anything, that incompetent, survive by that small a margin - I’d better analyze, practice,then return and do it right. “
and (my favorite quote of the book):
“And why did I always come alone to Moloka’i? I know why, but the telling is hard. Daily we are on trial, to do a job, to make a marriage good, to find depth, serenity, and meaning in a complex, deterioating world of politics, false values, and trivia. But rarely are we deeply challenged physically or alone. We rely on friends, on family, on a committee, on community agencies outside ourselves. To have actual survival, living or dying, depends on our own ingenuity, skill, or stamina- this is a core question we seldom face. We rarely find out if we like having only our own mind as company for days or weeks at a time. How many people have ever been total isolated, ten miles from the nearest other human, for even two days?
Alone, you are more aware of surroundings, wary as an animal to danger, limp and relaxed when the sun, the brown earth, or the deep grass say, “Rest now.” Alone you stand at night, alert, poised, hearing through ears and open mouth and fingertips. Alone, you do not worry whether someone else is tired or hungry or needing. You push yourself hard or quit for the day, reveling in the luxury of solitude. And being unconcerned with human needs, you become as a fish, a boulder, a tree- a part of the world around you.
I stood once in midstream, balanced on a rock. A scarlet leaf fluttered, spiraled down. I watched it, became a wind-blown leaf, swayed, fell into the water with a giant human splash, then soddenly crawled out, laughing uproariously.
The process of daily living is often intense and whimsical. The joy of it, and the compassion, we can share, but in pain we are ultimately alone. The only real antidote is inside. The only real security is not insurance or money or a job, not a house and furniture paid for, or a retirement fund, and never is it another person. It is the skill and humor and courage within, the ability to build your own fires and find your own peace.
On a solo trip you may discover these, or try to build them, and life becomes simple and deeply satisfying. The confidence and strength remain and are brought back and applied to the rest of your life.”
Happy Holidays All!
Posted by amaragraps on 12/29 at 10:58 AM
Future-friendly YA novel: I Was A Teenage Popsicle
Anne Corwin’s Existence is Wonderful blog signals the novel I Was A Teenage Popsicle by Bev Katz Rosenbaum: ”I am no stranger to the subject of suspended animation - however, it is odd and strangely compelling to see this subject pop up in something so far removed from sci-fi as the bubblegum world of novels written for an audience of eighth-grade girls. Could it be that the cryonics meme is, in fact, propagating through mainstream culture?”.
The book has received very good reviews and has been featured by a lot of magazines for girls and teens. I think popular “light” literature with a positive approach to human enhancement and, even more, future-friendly TV serials and movies, can really achieve a deep penetration of transhumanist memes in popular culture.
The author Bev Katz Rosenbaum has a very nice, clean and professional website on her ”Fiction for Tweens and Teens”. See also her page on Myspace, where she introduces herself as a a former fiction and magazine editor, now working as a full time YA writer.
I Was A Teenage Popsicle (Floe Ryan was frozen--well, ‘vitrified’--when she was sixteen. She’s just been thawed, and guess what, it’s ten years in the future and she’s still a teenager. And her parents are still, shall we say, chilling out. Floe’s little sister is now her older sister (and guardian!), and payback’s a beyotch. On top of that, Floe has to get used to a new school, new technology, and a zillion other new things that happened while she was napping in the freezer. Luckily, she has Taz Taber--the hottie sk8er boy who used to make her melt before she was frozen--to reintegrate with. But now they’re trying to close the Venice Beach Cryonics Center-with Floe’s parents still in it! Now that’s cold. It’s up to Floe to save the clinic and her parents--so she can finally have a chance at a somewhat normal life…) has received very good reviews (check the Amazon page and the Press section of the author’s website) and was chosen as a Girl’s Life Magazine ‘Big Book Giveaway’ in September ‘06.
The sequel Beyond Cool (Floe Ryan was frozen (well, vitrified) for ten years because of a rare disease. Now she’s been thawed back to her normal self, but absolutely everything else has changed. Just when she starts warming up to this new scene, everything falls apart…. Her boyfriend is giving her the cold shoulder, and there are all these cliques she can’t fit into--high school can be a cold place. Worse yet, Dr. Dixon at the Cryonics Center tells her that those who were frozen are more susceptible to illnesses and the one doctor who can cure this immune system weakness has gone AWOL. Now it’s up to Floe and her brainy friend Sophie to find him. But they’re not the only ones looking for him--and this time, Floe could be iced for good…) will be published in 2007.
Posted by G.P. on 12/29 at 07:41 AM
El Club de los Astronautas: a transhumanist space agency founded by artists and musicians
El Club de los Astronautas, “the worlds first space agency founded by artists and musicians”, is a cultural, musical and artistic collective in Barcelona that was founded to promote and communicate the idea of a manned, interstellar voyage. For it’s implementation the Club suggests the construction of a space ship called Mare Nostrum. Its major task is to find and debate strategies that could lead into this final goal. The Club’s work is a very interesting mix of scientific ideas, artistic and musical experimentation. Following inspirations taken from Transhumanism and Second Life, the Mare Nostrum space ship is crewed by uploaded human personalities inhabiting a virtual reality simulation. Don’t miss Chapters 5 and 6 of the radio play, covering Transhumanism, Second Life, uvvy island, mind uploading, the Omega Point, Nick Bostrom’s simulation arguments, artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, brain-computer interfacing, and the possibility to “move” via uploading to VR simulations running on future supercomputers.
Most of the people of the Club, including its founder David Apfel, come from an artistic background and were not trained as scientists and engineers. However, they have made an effort to understand and digest the complex scientific and technical concepts that may lead to transhumanity, as well as the philosophical and ethical foundations of transhumanism. Their artistic background will make it easier for them, I believe, communicating the transhumanist worldview in such a way as to appeal to artistic sensibilities beyond the geeky image, perhaps too cold and aseptic, that transhumanism still has. I would not go as far as saying that they *are* transhumanists, but certainly they take transhumanism seriously and can help us to communicate better.
I was first in touch with ”El Club of the Astronautas” in April, when they invited me to give a talk on transhumanism at their festival “26 000 años luz” in Barcelona. I could not travel to Barcelona on that day, so I proposed to give the talk from the virtual reality of Second Life. My talk was one the first live “mixed-reality” presentations given from virtual reality to the live audience of a festival in brickspace, and the first presentation on transhumanism given in Second Life.
David Apfel came to see me in Second Life, and I gave a power point -like presentation with audio via Skype. I had a few interesting questions - the most interesting were “haven’t you any curiosity to experience death?”, to which I replied “about as much as to visit the dentist next week”, and about the concept of “living in VR”: uploading to a VR world and living there. The guy in the picture below is asking about the possibility of virtual life after death.
They are planning another, more ambitious festival in 2007, and I look forward to continuing the collaboration with them.
Posted by G.P. on 12/25 at 08:32 AM
Digital Life: E’ l’ora del post-human
Digital Life: E’ l’ora del post-human - Una lunga intervista condotta da Alex Roggero del Sole 24 ore a Riccardo Campa, direttore della World Transhumanist Association (l’ associazione mondiale dei transumanisti), spiega cos’è il Transumanesimo e perché per alcuni è auspicabile un’umanità 2.0.
Si tratta di un’ ottima intervista che offre una spiegazione chiara ed esauriente della visione del mondo transumanista.
Interessante la spiegazione di Riccardo delle tendenze politiche principali all’ interno del movimento transumanista: estropici, tecnoprogressisti (transumanisti democratici), neofuturisti (o sovrumanisti), e “upwinger”.
Il “manifesto” di Riccardo: “Sogniamo una nuova fase eroica per la specie superumana, l’apertura di una nuova frontiera… noi abbiamo un progetto. Qui non si tratta di vivere squallidamente una vita un po’ più lunga. Si tratta appunto di dare alla specie umana una scossa, uno scopo eroico, titanico, prometeico. Espandiamo la vita cosciente nell’universo ed eleviamone il livello per rispondere alle domande fondamentali dell’uomo”.
L’ Italia e il mondo: “In soli otto o nove anni le città cinesi sono diventate metropoli avveniristiche, mentre Palermo è sempre la stessa, Vicenza è sempre la stessa. Non si può cambiare nulla senza chiedere mille autorizzazioni. Abbiamo paura di cambiare, perché crediamo di essere il centro del mondo. Recentemente, il presidente indiano Abdul Kalam, in occasione dell’evento inaugurale della costruzione del International Institute of Information Technology a Bhubaneswar, ha pronunciato un discorso sulla “Convergenza Tecnologica” in cui abbraccia apertamente alcune idee transumaniste. Quando arriveranno i transumani cinesi e indiani alla frontiera, anche solo per commerciare, capiremo che siamo noi il terzo mondo. Loro potenziati a livello di intelligenza, forza e longevità, noi sempre gli stessi. Non potremo che lavorare per loro”.
Posted by G.P. on 12/24 at 01:13 PM
The Sigma Scan: a database of future issues and trends
The Sigma Scan is a collection of future issues and trends developed by the Outsights-Ipsos MORI partnership, commissioned by the UK Government’s Horizon Scanning Centre at the DTI Office of Science and Innovation. The database containis a number of trends, emerging issues and developments which may influence the course of events over the next 50 years and thereby shape the future of the UK and the world at large. The basic unit of the Sigma Scan is the Issue Paper. Each of these 146 Issue Papers provides a brief description of a particular trend or development and a projection of how, given a range of possible conditions, it may unfold in the future. The topic areas represented in the Scan are diverse, spanning the classic futures PESTE categories: Politics, Economics, Society, Science/Technology and the Environment.
An example that has made the headlines is the Issue Paper on ”Robo-rights: Utopian dream or rise of the machines?”, covered as ”Robots could demand legal rights” by BBC News and flamed by Wesley J. Smith as ”Transhumanism on the March”. Two Issue Papers that mention transhumanism are ”The Extended Self: better than well”: ”Technological development has tended to focus on altering and improving our external physical environment. However, over the next 50 years, the opportunities to focus innovation inwardly and remake our minds and bodies in fundamental ways look likely to increase. These opportunities will arise from advances in biotechnology, neuroscience, information technology, and robotics - and the synergisms between them. The potential to extend the mental and physical hand that nature has dealt us has developed into a more extreme view of the future: “transhumanism,” the idea that our descendants could be quite different from us, even, to an extent, by 2050”, and ”Technology for the Body and Mind”: ”The formidable forces of computation, genetics, molecular biology, imaging and nanotechnology look likely to combine to transform our understanding of the body and brain. The increasingly profound understanding of the human genome, for example, could open up multiple new ways of both repairing and enhancing the body”. This is especially interesting in view of the mainstream nature of this database commissioned by the UK Government.
Posted by G.P. on 12/22 at 09:17 AM
Robot rights: Transhumanism on the March
In sober and matter-of-factly language, the Financial Times reports that “Far from being extracts from the extreme end of science fiction, the idea that we may one day give sentient machines the kind of rights traditionally reserved for humans is raised in a British government-commissioned report which claims to be an extensive look into the future”.
“Robots and machines are now classed as inanimate objects without rights or duties but if artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous, the report argues, there may be calls for humans’ rights to be extended to them”. What is interesting is the assumption that artificial intelligence will probably become ubiquitous, and produce sentient machines, and the conclusion that once we have created sentient machines the only reasonable course of action will be considering them fully human and giving them humans’ rights. If granted full rights, states will be obligated to provide full social benefits to them including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time. The report argues that if ‘correctly managed’, this new world of robots’ rights could lead to increased labour output and greater prosperity. Very transhumanist statements, coming from UK government officers. What I always admired of the Brits is that they are very pragmatic people, and do not often let whishful thinking blind their eyes to facts.
This is VERY good news and means that transhumanist ideas are definitely moving from the realm of science fiction to mainstream policy making. Of course it is very bad news for those who wish to keep us un the middle ages, and (of course), Wesley J. Smith has already stated that “we are out of our minds to follow this course” in an article aptly titled ”Transhumanism on the March”: “Third, and most importantly, this is the kind of speculation that the transhumanists want us to pursue. Because if machines can have “human” rights, it means that there is nothing particularly exceptional about being human”.
Smith has found his luddite niche and must be true to his image, but I am sure he understands that similar words have already been said and forgotten, e.g. “if women can have “manly” rights, it means that there is nothing particularly exceptional about being a man”.
Posted by G.P. on 12/20 at 08:14 AM
Considerazioni sullo sviluppo del movimento transumanista
Pensieri sciolti che spero di elaborare in qualcosa di piu’ organico, da sottomettere alla WTA come documento di riflessione. Commenti benvenuti.
La parola T sta penetrando lentamente ma inesorabilmente nella coscienza collettiva, e le dichiarazioni di Fukuyama sul transumanismo come idea piu’ pericolosa del mondo, o le dichiarazioni di esponenti della chiesa, meno sofisticate culturalmente e intellettualmente ma forse piu’ pubblicizzate, fanno in modo che sempre piu’ persone cerchino di capire di che si tratta risalendo alle fonti. Penso che il transumanismo sia ancora nella fase in cui ogni tipo di pubblicita’ e’ utile ("there is no such a thing as bad press"), quindi accolgo gli attacchi, anche quelli farneticanti, con un certo piacere. Oltretutto, a volte gli antagonisti possono essere utili direttamente: penso che la definizione di transumanismo di Fukuyama - “uno strano movimento di liberazione” i cui “sostenitori mirano molto più in alto degli attivisti per i diritti umani, delle femministe, o dei sostenitori dei diritti dei gay”. Questo movimento desidera “nientemeno che la liberazione della la razza umana dai propri vincoli biologici.” - sia una delle migliori (traduzione di Estropico).
Voglio che le nostre idee arrivino a quanta piu’ gente possibile e in maniera comprensibile a tutti. Perche’? Ma perche’ 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 e ideologie monolitiche 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. Non bisogna dimenticare che queste sono ancora una minoranza, ma la tendenza e’ chiara.
Ci sono due cose che trovo molto frustranti. Una e’ che ci sono pochi transumanisti convinti e dichiarati (la WTA ha poco piu’ di cento membri paganti), e l’ altra e’ che non abbiamo soldi (il budget della WTA e’ attualmente inferiore a 20.000 dollari). Facendo un paragone con, per esempio, i Raeliani, che hanno decine di migliaia di membri paganti e un budget enorme, e’ chiaro che qualcosa non funziona come dovrebbe. E’ importante notare che il messaggio Raeliano e’ molto simile a quello transumanista, con uno strato supplementare a “valore aggiunto” (direi ridotto), di str… stupidaggini sugli extraterrestri. Forse e’ proprio la presenza di questo strato a “catturare” l’ attenzione? C’ e’ una lezione da imparare? Senza scomodare gli extraterrestri, ci sono tanti gruppi neoludditi e fondamentalisti (taliban di tutte le religioni, inclusa la cristiana) con le tasche piene di soldi donati da membri e benefattori.
Per esempio, il Center for Genetics and Society ha un budget annuale di quasi un milione di dollari e una decina di dirigenti e collaboratori a tempo pieno (pagati). Immaginate i risultati che un organizzazione transumanista potrebbe raggiungere con queste risorse! Si, ci sono meno ricchi illuminati che ricchi taliban, ma qualcuno c’ e’. Io personalmente conosco alcune persone molto ricche che prendono sul serio alcune delle idee transumaniste e che certamente prenderebbero in considerazione una richiesta di fondi ben motivata, per programmi specifici, presentata in modo serio e professionale.
Per quanto riguarda il fundraising, le success story piu’ notevoli nel mondo transumanista sono i progetti di Aubrey de Grey, con 8 milioni di dollari distribuiti tra Mprize e SENS. Questo e’ certamente dovuto al fatto che Aubrey e i suoi collaboratori propongono progetti molto ben definiti e focalizzati sulla riduzione ed eliminazione dell’ invecchiamento, con risultati misurabili. Ma ci sono molti altri progetti transumanisti di questo tipo: intelligenza artificiale cosciente di livello umano, ricerche preliminari sull’ uploading, formulazione della piattaforma etica e filosofica, etc., che dovrebbero disporre di molte piu’ risorse.
Senza risorse non si puo’ fare un cazzo. Le risorse possono essere di due tipi: umane o finanziarie. Finora la crescita del movimento transumanista si e’ basata principalmente su lavoro volontario di attivisti, ma ci sono limiti a quello che i volontari possono fare, specialmente considerando che devono anche guadagnarsi da vivere. Per i compiti piu’ di routine (probabilmente il 90% del lavoro totale: scrivere e rispondere a lettere, mantenere i websites, individuare e analizzare le notizie importanti, produrre grafica ed elementi multimedia di livello professionale, individuare possibili donatori, scrivere lettere e commenti ai giornali, etc.) ci vogliono dipendenti e collaboratori pagati.
Quindi penso che il fundraising sia la priorita’ numero uno. Stiamo creando la filiale europea dell’ IEET, un think tank che, spero, potra’ funzionare come centrale europea di fundraising. E’ importante dotare IEET Europe di programmi solidi, visionari ma realistici e con obiettivi misurabili, e presentarli in modo professionale e attrattivo a possibili donatori. Spero ci sia una crescita a spirale: i soldi daranno la possibilita’ di retribuire i collaboratori, ed il lavoro di questi rendera’ possibile raggiungere gli obiettivi dei programmi, iniziare nuovi programmi, raggiungere piu’ gente ed avere piu’ soldi, e cosi’ via con un effetto valanga. Se l’ iniziativa avra’ successo IEET Europe potra’ anche finanziare la WTA, l’ AIT, un eventuale centro crionico europeo, e altre iniziative meritevoli.
Il transumanismo sta entrando in pieno nel dibattito politico. Questo e’ particolarmente visibile in Italia, anche grazie alle condanne e anatemi della chiesa. Il meme centrale transumanista puo’, come e’ ben noto, contagiare uno spettro molto ampio di piattaforme filosofiche e politiche di destra, di centro, di sinistra, globaliste, localiste, materialiste, spirituali etc. Sara’ possibile quindi (facendo le cose per bene e tirandosi su le maniche) creare gruppi transumanisti e “correnti” all’ interno di quasi tutti i partiti politici e movimenti di opinione. Questo, in una certa misura e specialmente in Italia, e’ gia’ in atto. Bisogna continuare ed esportare il modello.
Ma e’ anche necessario riflettere sul perche’ non riusciamo a far recepire il messaggio transumanista alle “masse”. Questo e’ stato, in parte, dovuto all’ insufficiente esposizione mediatica, e dopo il recente documentario su RAI 3 abbiamo visto i “miracoli” che puo’ fare la televisione. Ma forse i passati insuccessi non sono stati dovuti soltanto alla poca esposizione mediatica, ma anche a una certa incapacita’ di comunicare in modo efficace. C’ e’ un thread molto interessante sul blog di Michael Anassimov, dove inizialmente ci si chiede perche’ ci siano poche donne transumaniste, per arrivare alla “capacita’ di comunicare”. Ed e’ molto interessante il commento “The problem with most H+ers is that none of you spend much time with people outside of the intellectual/hi-tech world”. Questa critica e’ stata certamente piu’ che fondata in passato, ma lo sara’ molto meno con l’ arrivo nel movimento transumaniste di una new wave di partecipanti molto piu’ diversificati, in miglior sintonia con lo zeitgeist, e su scala mondiale piuttosto che nordamericana. Spero che questa new wave ci dia la capacita’ di raggiungere “le masse”.
Non si puo’ negare che le grandi religioni siano riuscite, e molto bene, a raggiungere le masse. 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 una “religione transumanista”, fondata sulla scienza, ma capace di offrire la speranza in un’ “altra vita”. Alcune informazioni su questi tentativi sono nel mio articolo ”Engineering Transcendence”, che progetto di aggiornare ed espandere forse perfino in forma di libro.
Posted by G.P. on 12/17 at 11:13 AM
Transhumanism on the Air (Wesley Smith)
From Wesley Smith’s blog: I was interviewed for an hour by Derek Gilbert yesterday on KSSZ about transhumanism, post humanity, and genetic enhancement of our progeny. We discuss transhumanism as religion, its obsession with control, and its threat to human exceptionalism. If you are interested, check it out. My comments below.
Smith acknowledged that the transhumanist movement is not a fringe movement, that it is growing fast and becoming well known, with “influential thinkers” engaging in “serious scholarship” on posthumanity.
Then of course he criticized the “value system” of transhumanists.
Both Smith and the interviewer kept laughing frequently, like they could not believe the words they were about to say. Quite cheap trick if you ask me, like the style of some Fox News anchors. Needless to say, to me the effect was the opposite, like hearing a postman laughing at the Internet.
Smith said “transhumanists scout the internet, and if you say something about them you will end up on their website, and probably also this radio program will be mentioned on their website at some point”. Here it is Wesley!
When asked how how influential the transhumanist movement is, Smith answered that it is definitely not fringe though not yet mainstream, mentioned the conference at Stanford, and remarked that while transhumanists will not influence the Bush administration, some of them teach in prestigious universities and are in a good position to influence the government leaders of tomorrow.
Concerning “designer babies”, Smith thinks parents should “accept with unconditional love” their children. Even, apparently, when accepting their birth defects means condemning them to a lifetime of unhappiness. His main criticism is that transhumanist think that “being merely human is not enough”. He keeps referring to empty cliches, impossible to defend rationally, like the “joy we get from being merely human”, and that “knowing that we are going to die is a powerful stimulation to live full lives”. Even with frequent quotations from the WTA website, Smith keeps misunderstanding the transhumanist message, e.g. “transhumanists never talk of improving human capacity for love”. We do talk about it of course, and a lot, but it is difficult to expain things to those who do not wish to understand.
The basic premise of transhumanism, according to Smith, is that “being human has no intrinsic value”. He believes, instead, in human exceptionalism: humans are special, and being human has value. I agree, but prefer defining “human” based not on our current biological makeup, but rather on our capacity to think, feel, love, hope and improve ourselves and our world. Smith thinks that then “everything becomes possible” and refers to Nazi eugenics which in this context is, I believe, just smoke in the eyes.
Transhumanism, according to Smith, is a materialist religion that “reflects obsession with control”. But some minutes later he says that he wishes to see human cloning research, even therapeutic, completely outlawed regardless of its potential to save lives and reduce suffering. So I wonder who is really obsessed with control. Even if Smith’s objections seem based on humanitarian and social considerations, I still sense the old “will of god” argument against progress (at the very beginning the interviewer refers to “Transhumanism: the idea that we can be more than our God-given physical limitations"). Of course Smith is too intelligent to mention it explicitely.
Posted by G.P. on 12/13 at 06:11 PM
Transumanismo in Second Life
All’ inizio degli anni 90 i transumanisti furono tra i primi a rendersi conto del fenomeno Internet e creare siti web e liste di discussione online. Adesso c’ e’ un nuovo fenomeno che sta irrompendo con forza: la realta’ virtuale online, e i transumanisti continuano ad essere tra i pionieri.
Second Life e’ un mondo virtuale online dove puoi costruirti un personaggio (avatar) che ti assomiglia, oppure che non ti assomiglia per niente, e muoverti nell’ universo virtuale incontrandoti con gli altri partecipanti. Second Life non e’ ne’ il mondo virtuale piu’ frequentato (il record spetta a World of Warcraft), ne’ quello con maggior qualita’ grafica (Entropia Universe e molti videogiochi online moderatamente multi-utenti hanno grafica migliore), ma e’ certamente quello in crescita piu’ rapida e di cui parlano di piu’ la stampa e i media.
Molti appassionati di fantascienza considerano Second Life come il primo abbozzo di realizzazione pratica del “Metaverso” descritto da Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash, e molti analisti considerano Second Life come un fenomeno di massa emergente di importanza simile al Web dei primi anni 90 e destinato ad assumere le stesse proporzioni. IBM, che ha appena annunciato importanti investimenti in Second Life, parla di “v-business” e nel mondo anglosassone molte ditte e brand importanti (Reuters, Vodafone, Toyota, Nissan, Adidas-Rebook, Sony, Dell...) sono entrate in Second Life. L’ arrivo dell’ onda in Italia e altri paesi dell’ Europa del sud non puo’ tardare molto.
Il successo di Second Life si puo’ spiegare con il fatto, confermato dalla maggior parte degli utenti, che il sistema supera una certa “soglia” di realismo e immersione al di la’ della quale l’ utente puo’ sospendere lo scetticismo e l’ incredulita’ (suspension of disbelief) e pensa di “esserci”. Questo permette di organizzare riunioni di lavoro, seminari, conferenze ed eventi di ogni tipo in Second Life.
Per piu’ informazione su Second Life e altri mondi virtuali vedasi per esempio il mio sito dedicato alla realta’ virtuale uvvy.com. Certo, la tecnologia di oggi e’ ancora primitiva rispetto a quella immaginata da Stephenson e sara’ rapidamente superata da nuove piattaforme tecnologiche, e Second Life potrebbe perdere, e probabilmente perdera’, l’ attuale leadership a beneficio di nuove piattaforme basate su standard aperti (vedasi ad esempio multiverse.net). Ma, che si chiami Second Life o con un altro nome, il Metaverso e’ gia’ qui e destinato ad assumere un ruolo sempre piu’ importante.
In Italia l’ alfiere di Second Life e’ il mio amico e collega Bruno Cerboni, un imprenditore romano che ha costruito una Roma virtuale - ”I Parioli” - molto frequentata da italiani e sede di eventi culturali e musicali. Domani 14 Dicembre ai Parioli avra’ luogo il primo concerto di un cantante italiano (Luca Nesti) in Second Life.
Il movimento transumanista e’ stato, ancora una volta, tra i pionieri di questo nuovo fenomeno online, cominciando ad organizzare eventi transumanisti da giugno 2006. La conferenza annuale della WTA, TransVision 2006 (Helsinki), ha avuto una sessione parallela in Second Life che ha permesso a una quarantina di persone di telepartecipare in una sala di conferenze virtuale dove veniva proiettato il webcast da Helsinki. A loro volta, le conversazioni nella sala di conferenze virtuale venivano proiettate su uno schermo nella sala di conferenze reale, il che ha permesso ai participanti virtuali di fare domande e ricevere risposte in tempo reale. Una formula molto efficace, che sara’ usata anche per le prossime TransVision.
L’ ultimo evento e’ stato il seminario di Waldemar Ingdahl, Direttore di Eudoxa, su “La nuova frontiera virtuale”. L’ evento e’ stato ampiamente discusso e commentato dalla stampa svedese. Il prossimo evento, lunedi’ 18, sara’ il seminario del conosciutissimo transumanista “storico” Anders Sandberg sull’ estensione della vita nei suoi aspetti scientifici ed etici (???). Spero di vedere alcuni transumanisti italiani lunedi’ sera, non ne ho ancora visto nessuno in Second Life tranne una rapida apparizione di Fabio a TransVision.
Il Chapter della WTA in Second Life, creato recentemente, ha gia’ piu’ di cento iscritti e organizzera’ eventi mensili con la partecipazione di transumanisti di rilievo. Penso che Second Life, e il Metaverso in cui questa e altri mondi virtuali evolveranno, costituisca un terreno ideale per la crescita del movimento transumanista. In un articolo su ”Virtual Potential: Second Life As A Transhumanist Meetinghouse”, Anne Corwin scrive:
Second Life is an experimental creative space, a primitive holodeck, an art gallery, and a highly flexible meeting space. In terms of applicability to transhumanism, Second Life can provide a means for people to interact in real-time, discussing strategy and sharing ideas and memes regardless of physical geographical separation…
Posted by G.P. on 12/13 at 10:14 AM
Un Presidente transumanista?
Mike Treder segnala un recente discorso del Presidente Indiano Abdul Kalam in occasione dell’ evento inaugurale della costruzione del International Institute of Information Technology a Bhubaneswar.
Il discorso, su “Convergenza Tecnologica”, e’ disponibile online. Mike pensa che questo discorso faccia di Kalam il primo uomo politico di alta statura mondiale ad abbracciare apertamente alcune idee transumaniste.
Treder: “E’ degno di nota vedere una persona della statura di Kalam parlare apertamente di un’ umanita’ libera dalle malattie, felice e piu’ intelligente, con longevita’ e maggiori capacita’ - oltre a nano-robots nel flusso sanguigno e trasporto interplanetario. Potrebbe non essere esagerato descrivere Kalam come il primo leader mondiale transumanista”.
Mike invita i lettori a leggere tutto il discorso. Alcuni lettori si chiedono quando ci sara’ anche negli USA un Presidente come Kalam. Potremmo chiedercelo anche per l’ Italia - quando, e chi.
Posted by G.P. on 12/12 at 08:17 AM
Arizona State University course on Transhumanism
A forward thinking professor at Arizona State University, Dr. Paul Michael Privateer, has just finished teaching the first course on the subject at ASU titled “Transhuman: Genetics, Robotics, Information Technology, Nanosciences, Biopolitics, and the Human Future.”. The focus of teaching was on the critically engaging the topic of ‘what is human’ as a means to then understand what exactly is being ‘trans’ed by transhumanism. The reading list was extensive and included both supports and opposition. The students of the class have begun posting critiques of advancing technologies and transhumanism in a blog as a means to initiate intelligent debate.
Please, visit the blog, and if you wish, request an invitation to write in the blog.
Note: the blog is quite active at this moment.
Studies in the Transhuman: Genetics, Robotics, Information Technology, Nanosciences Biopolitics and the Human Future (s).
This course performs a rigorous critique of the human/transhuman, exploring both in terms of their profound historical, scientific, economic, political and ideological implications. The course has two focal points: one, predominantly historical, anthropological and philosophical in nature; the second, a cultural studies focus on the ideological parameters of contemporary transhuman bioinformatic sciences.
Posted by editor on 12/11 at 05:15 PM
Neural Internet:Web Surfing with Brain Potentials
The full title of this Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair article is ”Neural Internet: Web Surfing with Brain Potentials for the Completely Paralyzed”, but it is clear this same technology, once fully developed, will be more generally applicable and permit operating the worldwide datasphere by thinking.
Neural Internet is a new technological advancement in brain-computer interface research, which enables locked-in patients to operate a Web browser directly with their brain potentials. Neural Internet was successfully tested with a locked-in patient diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis rendering him the first paralyzed person to surf the Internet solely by regulating his electrical brain activity.
[The performance of the brain-computer communication systems is still very limited - even trained patients still need a very long time to surf the web and write emails. However, research is ongoing and it is evident where this R&D process will lead: operating the worldwide datasphere by thought]. In general, it can be assumed that if a patient can achieve reliable control of any brain signal, which can be used as a binary or even as a multidimensional input signal for a BCI system, Neural Internet can be implemented based on this signal.
If future BCI research can overcome the mentioned constraints of the current brain-computer communication systems, then the following scenario could be reality in the not too distant future: is sitting paralyzed in his wheelchair but can chat with a relative in another city, play chess with a friend in another country, search the World Wide Web for information, and even buy or sell articles. And all that without any voluntary muscle control, solely by the power of his thoughts. Cogito ergo sum.
Posted by G.P. on 12/11 at 04:02 PM
Prisco on transhumanism, Lausanne, January 24
World Transhumanist Association Executive Director Giulio Prisco will debate transhumanism at the University of Lausanne on January 24, 2007.
Université de Lausanne
Cours Public
Mercredi 24 janvier
18h00 - Amphimax, auditoire Erna Hamburger
L’espèce humaine est-elle perfectible ? A l’heure de la montée du créationnisme aux Etats-Unis, le darwinisme est-il la seule explication de la réussite de certaines espèces aux dépens d’autres ? A l’image du mouvement “transhumaniste”, peut-on tirer des enseignements de l’évolution pour améliorer l’espèce humaine ? Jusqu’à quelles limites ? Celles qui ont déjà été explorées par la science-fiction et la littérature ? Autant de questions qui seront notamment abordées le 24 janvier.
Are humans perfectible? With creationist ideas and “intelligent design” rising in the US, is Darwinism the only explanation of the success of some species against others? Following the “transhumanist” movement, can we draw useful lessons to improve the human species? What are the limits? Those already explored by science fiction and literature? These issues will be explored on january 24.
Posted by G.P. on 12/09 at 07:56 AM
Technophobia! Dreams of Techno-heaven – Nightmares of Techno-hell
”Technophobia! Dreams of Techno-heaven – Nightmares of Techno-hell” e’ stato appena segnalato sul blog dell’ IEET. Vari possibili futuri postumani descritti dalla letteratura di fantascienza.
Il Tecno-Paradiso ti aspetta. Sarai resuscitato ad un’ immortalita’ postumana quando lascerai indietro il tuo corpo, digitalizzerai la tua mente e trasferirai la tua identita’ nel cervello artificiale di un computer. Vivendo una ciber-vita in una realta’ virtuale, vivrai per sempre in una perfetta simulazione dell’ estasi. Questo tecno-paradiso e’ auspicato da un culto di tecno-sacerdoti – scienziati e apostoli - la cui fede religiosa e’ che il dio tecnologia eliminera’ il dolore e la sofferenza degli uomini eliminando gli uomini. Questi tecno-utopisti credono fervidamente che il progresso tecnologico portera’ alla perfezione ed all’ immortalita’ per i postumani, discendenti cyborg di un’ imperfetta umanita’ inevitabilmente destinata all’ estinzione. E’ un sogno felice o un incubo da brividi?
In contrasto a queste visioni luminose di un tecno-paradiso postumano liberato dal dolore, la letteratura di fantascienza spesso propone una visione piu’ fosca della tecnologia…
Trasferire la mente umana in robots liberi dalla morte, secondo l’ esperto di intelligenza artificiale Raymond Kurzweil, produrra’ la prossima fase dell’ evoluzione –- una sintesi immortale uomo/macchina: Robosapiens. Anche se questo sembra fantascienza, Kurzweil - nel suo libro del 1999 The Age of Spiritual Machines- lo considera un fatto scientifico inevitabile. Indicando questa trasformazione evolutiva come “Singolarita’”, il matematico e autore di fantascienza Vernor Vinge pensa che il suo risultato potrebbe essere l’ “estinzione fisica della specie umana”. Echeggiando Vinge e Kurzweil, ilpioniere delal robotica Hans Moravec predice un futuro utopico e postbiologico, dominato dai robot, nel suo libro Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind (1999). Da una prospettiva biotecnologica Gregory Stock, in Metaman: The Merging of Humans and Machines into a Global Superorganism (1993) predice la re-ingegnerizzazione della nostra specie per la perfezione postumana.
Cominciamo male… dal tono dell’ introduzione mi sembra una facile distopia. Ma sto per ordinare il libro che sembra comunque molto interessante e potrebbe offrire qualche utile idea su come formulare il messaggio transumanista in modo da non spaventare (troppo) la gente. Dal risssunto di un lettore su Amazon:
Organized into chapters devoted to robotics, bionics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and other significant scientific advancements, this book summarizes the current state of each technology, while presenting corresponding reactions in science fiction. Dinello draws on a rich range of material, including films, television, books, and computer games, and argues that science fiction functions as a valuable corrective to technological domination, countering techno-hype and reflecting the “weaponized, religiously rationalized, profit-fueled” motives of such science. By imaging a disastrous future of posthuman techno-totalitarianism, science fiction encourages us to construct ways to contain new technology, and asks its audience perhaps the most important question of the twenty-first century: is technology out of control?
Posted by G.P. on 12/08 at 05:17 PM