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| Future - the Lobby | Transhumanism | Singularity |
Anders
Transhuman Page - The definitive transhumanist resource site on the
Web! Check it out - throw away any limits your imagination might
have. You will never be able to think about the future in the same way
again! Excellent.
World Transhumanist Association
Meet the
Extropians - Wired Archive | 2.10 - Oct 1994
"There's
been nothing like this movement - nothing this wild and extravagant - since way
back in those bygone ages when people believed in things like progress,
knowledge, and - let's all shout it out, now - Growth!
by Ed Regis
This site's goal is to provide information on
websites, movies, books, etc, pertaining to Transhumanist/Extropian technologies
and/or concepts in some way, no matter how small, be it factual or fictional, or
represent a step toward such things.
There are many definitions of Transhumanism, but basically it is the philosophy that we can and should consciously evolve beyond our present human limitations, most usually through scientific means. Through advanced technology individuals will soon be able to transcend the present "human condition," and so become posthuman or transhuman entities. This may be sooner than you think, if the Singularitymeme has any factual merit to it.
THE
TRANSHUMANIST FAQ by Nick Bostrom et al.
Extropism is considered a subset of transhumanism but the boundaries distinguishing the two are rather blurred. In a broad sense, extropians being those who strive to overcoming limits to human possibility, both individually and socially. The word extropy itself means the opposite of entropy; it is thus the same as Edward Haskell’s ectropy and Arthur Koestler’s negentropy. In a narrower sense they are those individuals who specifically subscribe to the Extropian Principles
Max
More's Extropian
Principles Max More is director of the Extropy
Institute.
Anders
Sandberg's short definition of
transhumanism (also a few other definitions on this page as
well). Another
definition.
Joost Bonsen's
transhumanist & extropian principles
Curiously for philosophies that exhort the breaking free of boundaries and limitations, both transhumanism (in its present guise) and extropianism are too often based on rationalistic principles typical of 19th and 20th century materialistic philosophy. Dr Max More for example looks to Nietzche and Ayn Rand for inspiration. Many extropians and transhumanists also refer to themselves as athiests, a definition that only has relevence nowadays in relation to religious fundamentalism. Mark Dery presents a critique of extropian philosophy in his very readable book Escape Velocity. To be fair there are also extropians who expouse buddhist and other worldviews
PRIMITIVES &
EXTROPIANS, by HAKIM BEY "ANARCHY
#42" Anti-copyright 1995 by B.A.L. Press, New York - a somewhat heavy-going
essay. Love the title though!
see also
Gaians
and Extropians
Journal of
Transhumanism - A peer-reviewed electronic journal publishing
contemporary research into future science and philosophy
BLTC Research
was founded in 1995. "We are dedicated to a compassionate global
engineering project of previously unthinkable ambition. LTC campaign to
promote scientific research into eradicating the biological substrates of
aversive experience. Not just in humans, but in all sentient
life...." Think that's an overly ambitious goal? Well, check
em out!
The
Hedonistic Imperative - This manifesto outlines a
global strategy to get rid of suffering in all sentient life. Scrapping the
biological substrates of aversive experience is ambitious, wildly implausible,
but technically feasible. It is defended here on ethical utilitarian grounds. As
a long-term species-project, the biological program is both instrumentally
rational and ethically mandatory. Third-millennium nanotechnology, genetic
engineering, eugenics and therapeutic drugs can help us escape from the
poisonous legacy of our genetic past. Applied biomedical research will eliminate
the atrocious kinds of suffering which today's legacy wetware routinely entails.
(from the abstract). By David Pearce
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