Transumanar

Max More in Second Life on “Unsolved Problems in Transhumanism”

Unsolved Problems in Transhumanism
Sunday June 8, 2008, SL-Transhumanists @ Extropia Core

Max More‘s talk was a key milestone, not only for transhumanism in VR worlds, but for transhumanism in general. We want to see much More of Max, and I hope this has been only the first of many appearances of Max in SL and other VR worlds, webcasts etc. I and other SL-Transhumanists are honored to have contributed to the organization of this event. As always, Max is a really excellent public speaker able to convey his message simply, clearly and effectively.

In his first public appearance in Second Life, the founder of contemporary transhumanism gave to his audience of more than 50 avatars a monster talk of two hours and discussed unsolved problems within the movement:
- Communication Strategy: How can we communicate ideas most effectively and rationally, overcoming the typical tension between the two? How does this relate to constrained and unconstrained visions of transhumanism (in Thomas Sowell’s terms)?
- Visionary Horizon: How far should we focus on offering solutions to current problems vs. envisioning longer-term solutions and visions?
- Visionary vs. Practical: To what extent should transhumanists try to be a movement that is organized, integrated, and directed? Should the movement or transhumanist activity concern itself primarily with ideas or practice or both, and should it include a major component that is a practical guide to self-transformation?
- Bridging the Knowing-doing Gap: Both as movement and as individuals, how can be do better to practice what we espouse?
- Organizing: How can we better organize and converse, using the best available knowledge to do so?
- Historical Accuracy and Continuing Honesty: Establishing and maintaining an accurate history of transhumanism; combating Orwellian rewriting of the past.

Max took questions after each point, which is a good technique that certainly helps reducing the questions clutter in a SL event and ensuring that each question is answered or at least noticed. A short videoclip with sound track is available here. Unfortunately both official volunteers could not record the full audio track as planned due to technical problems. The punishment, which will consist of encrypting their upload mindfiles with a one-time-pad that will be immediately thrown away, will be administered in due time. ~~I hope someone recorded the audio of this great talk, please get in touch with us if you did.~~ Breaking news: thanks to Danila (see the comment thread below) we have the

Full (well, almost) audio recording of the talk - right click to download.

On the last point, Max expressed a certain disappointment due to his impression that his work, and the work of other Extropians, is not acknowledged as it deserves. Without commenting on the infighting between different transhumanist factions that, I hope, is a thing of the past, I wish to ensure Max that I, and as far as I am aware a vast majority of transhumanists, do consider him as the founder of modern transhumanism. Max’ writings were my first introduction to transhumanism, and they immediately put my mind on fire. Of course the Web is open to everyone and nobody can, or should, be prevented from publishing her or his own account of the history of the transhumanist movement, but I hope Max himself, who has been sort of MIA in the last few years, will resume his level of activity and public writing of ten years ago to make his points loud and clear. If this Second Life event will mark the beginning of the full return of Max to the transhumanist scene, I and all other transhumanist organizers in virtual realities will think that our time has been _very_ well spent and rewarded.

The unedited text chat log follows. See above for the voice recording.

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Posted by G.P. on 06/08 at 02:18 PM
English • News • hplus • VR • (5) Comments • Permalink • Print