Transhumanist FAQ The Transhumanist FAQ was developed in 1998 and authored into a formal FAQ in 1999 through the inspirational work of transhumanists, including Alexander Chislenko, Max More, Anders Sandberg, Natasha Vita-More, James Hughes, and Nick Bostrom. Several people contributed to the definition of transhumanism, which was originated by Max More. Greg Burch, David Pearce, Kathryn Aegis, and Anders Sandberg kindly offered extensive editorial comments. Over the years, this FAQ has been updated to provide a substantial account of transhumanism. The Transhumanist FAQ 3.0, as revised by the continued efforts of many transhumanists, will continue to be updated and modified as we develop new knowledge and better ways of accounting for old knowledge which directly and indirectly relate to transhumanism. Thank you to all who have contributed in the past and to those who offer new insights to this FAQ! GeneralWhat is transhumanism? PracticalitiesWhat are the reasons to expect all these changes? References:
Is Google Making Us Stupid? Illustration by Guy Billout "Dave, stop. Stop, will you? I can feel it, too. I think I know what’s going on. For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. I’m not the only one. Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. Anecdotes alone don’t prove much. It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the Internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice. Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings.
JET 14(1) - April 2005 - Bostrom - Transhumanist Thought Nick Bostrom Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University Journal of Evolution and Technology - Vol. 14 Issue 1 - April 2005 PDF Version Abstract This paper traces the cultural and philosophical roots of transhumanist thought and describes some of the influences and contributions that led to the development of contemporary transhumanism. 1. The human desire to acquire new capacities is as ancient as our species itself. Ceremonial burial and preserved fragments of religious writings show that prehistoric man and woman were deeply disturbed by the death of loved ones. The quest to transcend our natural confines, however, has long been viewed with ambivalence. Medieval Christianity had similarly conflicted views about the pursuits of the alchemists, who tried to transmute substances, create homunculi in test tubes, and invent a panacea. Benjamin Franklin longed wistfully for suspended animation, foreshadowing the cryonics movement: 2. 3.
The Blog: Humanism & Posthumanism One's views about digital technology and "digital people"--even what one identifies as questions, problems, issues, advantages, worries, etc.--will depend upon one's other assumptions and values. Here, I want to talk about two different philosophical systems or stances: humanism and posthumanism. Humanism Humanism comes from the Enlightenment (The idea of the "human" changed significantly with the turn to secular science and the increased emphasis on "reason.") In addition to human exceptionalism, humanism entails other values and assumptions. Though most of our commonsense, everyday mainstream ideas, ideals, and values in the global North are fundamentally, if not largely informed by humanism, there are many, many problems with humanism. Humanism can be problematized on other grounds as well.
The Politics of Transhumanism The Politics of Transhumanism Version 2.0 (March 2002) James J. Hughes, Ph.D. Originally Presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science Cambridge, MA November 1-4, 2001 For more information please contact: James Hughes Ph.D. Transhumanism is an emergent philosophical movement which says that humans can and should become more than human through technological enhancements. When it comes to political memes, transhumanism in its purest form doesn't have any fixed niche. Since the advent of the Enlightenment, the idea that the human condition can be improved through reason, science and technology has been mated with all varieties of political ideology. With the emergence of cyberculture, the technoutopian meme-plex has found a natural medium, and has been furiously mutating and crossbreeding with political ideologies. In early issues of Extropy magazine More began to publish successive versions and expositions of his “Extropian Principles.” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 5.
Democratic Transhumanism James Hughes Ph.D. Public Policy Studies 71 Vernon St. Hartford, CT 06106 james.hughes@trincoll.edu An earlier, but substantially different, version of this essay was published in Transhumanity, April 28, 2002 version française Abstract Biopolitics is emerging as an axis of modern politics alongside economic politics and cultural politics. But biopolitics only complicates the preexisting political landscape, they doesn’t supplant it. Democratic transhumanism stems from the assertion that human beings will generally be happier when they take rational control of the natural and social forces that control their lives. Politics of the 21st Century Political movements in the industrialized world in the 20th century have been defined by two broad axes, economic politics and cultural politics. In Table One below, movements and parties can be parsed into one corner or another of the terrain, or the many points in between. Democratic Transhumanism Technoutopianism and the Left
Better Living through Transhumanism www.betterhumans.com Abstract A growing number of people are turning to transhumanism, which aims to promote and encourage human enhancement through the application of science and technology. They maintain that this is a good thing, and that we should encourage and work towards the attainment of a posthuman condition. Not ones to dwell on the future while passively waiting for it to happen, trashumanists engage in foresight, activist and promotional activities. Just as significantly, the day-to-day lifestyle choices of transhumanists reflect anticipated change. More than just a philosophy and social movement, transhumanism is for many a way of life. Researchers suspect that the development of strong nanotechnology in the coming decades will result in molecular assemblers that effectively function like Star Trek replicators. These predictions are nontrivial to say the least. Just as significantly, the day-to-day lifestyle choices of transhumanists such as me reflect anticipated change.
Wired 8.02: Cyborg 1.0 Cyborg 1.0 Kevin Warwick outlines his plan to become one with his computer. I was born human. But this was an accident of fate - a condition merely of time and place. I believe it's something we have the power to change. In August 1998, a silicon chip was implanted in my arm, allowing a computer to monitor me as I moved through the halls and offices of the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, just west of London, where I've been a professor since 1988. Eighteen months from now, or possibly sooner, I will conduct a follow-up experiment with a new implant that will send signals back and forth between my nervous system and a computer. We are in discussions with Dr. My first implant was inserted by Dr. While we ultimately may need to place implants nearer to the brain - into the spinal cord or onto the optic nerve, where there is a more powerful setup for transmitting and receiving specific complex sensory signals - the arm is an ideal halfway point. Page 2 >>
Immortality 2.0: A Silicon Valley Insider Looks at California’s Transhumanist Movement | ce399 | research archive (eugenics_transhumanism) Immortality 2.0: A Silicon Valley Insider Looks at California’s Transhumanist Movement. by Gelles, David Publication: The Futurist Date: Thursday, January 1 2009 One afternoon in late 2007, a Yahoo executive named Salim Ismail stepped up to a podium at company headquarters to talk about what some call “the world’s most dangerous idea.” An intense man from India, Ismail faced a conference room packed with computer whizzes from the likes of Google, Apple, and Intel and launched into a tirade about the far frontiers of digital technology and the big battle that lay ahead. “The current system is flawed,” he said, pacing the stage. He went on to talk about routers and interrupt systems, hardly exotic material to his audience. Our brains are poorly programmed, according to Ismail. Ismail’s talk, “The Need to Reengineer the Human Brain,” wasn’t the most ambitious at the conference, a meeting of a local think tank called the Foresight Nanotech Institute. JULIAN HUXLEY and GORDON MOORE
DARPA's New Biotech Division Wants To Create A Transhuman Future They do realize that Blade Runner is NOT a future to aspire to, right? I don't believe in a sentient sapient life form - whether synthetic or organic or even a hybrid - EVER being property or purpose built for a position. If its built by humans or made from our genome they are our children if they can attain the level of awareness and sapience the least of us have. They should have all the rights and privileges we do, otherwise they are slaves. This is wrong, it must NEVER happen, otherwise we'll be falling down the road of every single science fiction that has shown what happens when you enslave a species and think you have complete control over it. And if you doubt that they intend to enslave anything they create, why else would you add a kill switch? It's sort of like Leo Szilard's letter to Roosevelt. And afterward Einstein said, about that fateful letter and the results of it in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, "If I had known they were going to do this, I would have become a shoemaker."
The underground world of neuroenhancing drugs A young man I’ll call Alex recently graduated from Harvard. As a history major, Alex wrote about a dozen papers a semester. He also ran a student organization, for which he often worked more than forty hours a week; when he wasn’t on the job, he had classes. Weeknights were devoted to all the schoolwork that he couldn’t finish during the day, and weekend nights were spent drinking with friends and going to dance parties. “Trite as it sounds,” he told me, it seemed important to “maybe appreciate my own youth.” Since, in essence, this life was impossible, Alex began taking Adderall to make it possible. Adderall, a stimulant composed of mixed amphetamine salts, is commonly prescribed for children and adults who have been given a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Alex recalled one week during his junior year when he had four term papers due. I met Alex one evening last summer, at an appealingly scruffy bar in the New England city where he lives. “Yes,” Zack said.