Download to read offline
Uploaded bySerendipity Seraph
What is transhumanism
The document discusses the goals and philosophy of transhumanism, which advocates using technology to enhance human capabilities and abolish involuntary suffering by achieving indefinite life extension, abundant resources through space exploration, and advancing intelligence through both biological and technological means. It outlines concerns about aging populations, resource shortages, and economic crises, and proposes focusing research on anti-aging, artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, and space exploitation to address these challenges. The document asks what individuals can do to help achieve this vision through funding research, building high-tech communities, and using their own skills to collaborate on advancing relevant technologies.
What is transhumanism
- 1. What is Transhumanism, Humanity + (whatever)?
- 2. An Agenda? (wewants..) We want Indefinite Life Extension We want Peace, Justice, Fairness and Liberty We want to abolish involuntary suffering We promote the advancement of intelligence Biological and otherwise We want space travel and exploration We want to do whatever we like to enhance and modify ourselves We want politicians to either help or get out of the way We accept taxation that helps our goals
- 3. My primary’s stabat it We advocate the end of aging We believe in and advocate the achievement of actual abundance We hold that all must be voluntary We support the exploitation of space resources All humans are free to attempt to improve themselves We strive to cure all disease and achieve indefinitely long healthspans We support free and open access to accumulated knowledge The rights of humans include their techological extensions.
- 4. What do youthink? What is transhumanism? Movement? Loose collection interest in common things? Definitive of parts of your life? What future do you want? What can you do toward achieving it? What are you willing and able to do?
- 5. Where Are We? Oversix billion people with majority well below our living standard Growing resource shortages even for status quo Including water Energy shortages are eminent Aging populations in all developed countries Much larger health care and retirement benefit costs Economic Crisis Economic Crisis Across almost all developed countries Possibly pushing edge of human decidable problem resolution speed and accuracy
- 6. Aging 25% - 40%of population over 65 Depending on country Most healthcare cost are post 65 > 80 year old segment growing rapidly Soon only two or three workers per retired person At best Ways this will resolve: Curing and/or greatly postponing aging Economic collapse and/or war leading to mass die off All the aged die especially as the government programs stop functioning through utterly impossible to pay costs Likely taking the countries with them
- 7. Health End to aging Fullmedical nanotech End of all diseases Curing of all physically based maladies What of psychological ones? Advocacy of mental health What of growth of consciousness / wisdom / enlightenment?
- 8. Tools for change Technology Economic dependency Political dependency New inventions and applications are crucial The old ways have been worked to near end of life Politics Political advocacy Keeping too much government from killing off future Freedom enough to innovate and seek alternatives Priority acknowledgement Wide understanding of what is important and why Private investing, Foundations, enterprise Especially as government can fund less and less.
- 9. Intelligence Augmentation Maximizing intelligenceis obviously essential for maximizing almost everything else All individual choices of means are legal R&D in IA Drugs Diet Training Physical brain augmentation Wearables Software systems BCI
- 10. Artificial Intelligence Essential to Robotics IA Going beyond human limitations Maximizing intelligence in universe Push for full AGI Intelligence unhinged from the evolved biological Software writing AI Personal decision support AI confidante
- 11. Immediate technology topush for Much better solar, especially thin film Best reactor designs Molten salt thorium reactor Anti-aging R & D Increased improvements in medicine Streamlining new drug/treatment time to market Exploitation of near earth asteroids Materials, opening frontier, space based solar Continued computational and communication improvement Wide dissemination of technology and knowledge
- 12. Space Exploitation Humanity andall our works limited to this one rock is not tenable Space is where vastly more resources and energy than on earth is Space and other stars/planets it the outer (physical) frontier Space may belong to non-humans, at least not to human 1.0 But many of our problems on earth cannot be solved without exploiting at least local space
- 13. So What CanWe Do? Raise lots of awareness? Funding Foundation? Gather lots of private funds from everyone, not just the rich. How many of the super tech parts are mostly matter of funding? Some have much fundamental science left which is not all that amenable to just lots of cash the money may need to be there for a while to attract a new generation of researchers (which implies it takes more time than we may have) Build high tech intentional communities to preserve what we value and wait out the storm? Do everything each of us can with our own skills. Collaborate where we can. All of the above? More?
Editor's Notes
- #3 This list came out of a survey on transhumanity.net because the old transhumanist agenda had no oomph to it at all.This one I have a few issues with starting with the “we want” lead. How about “We are committed to.. “ ?Peace Justice Fariness and Liberty are great but rather ambiguous in the particulars. The third one bothers me in its full form:“We Want Involuntary Suffering Abolished in All Sentient Creatures. We Want a Compassionate Planet, Devoid of Predation, Pain, and Emotional Anguish.”I don’t for a moment believe that this is possible. To be sentient at all is to experience some suffering even if only of frustrated desires. Pain, the opposite of pleasure being totally eliminated seems like saying we want only light and no dark. Some experiences are more pleasurable, some more painful, some more neutral. Are we really saying we would eliminate all painful experiences? Whatever for? Any system governed only by positive feedback will fluctuate out of control. We tend to do get a lot of our impetus to learn and grow from painful or less than satisfactory experiences. The one on space is worded like this:“We Want Outer Space. We Want to Travel, Explore and Visit the Universe.”Noticeably missing is that we want to colonize the universe and make use of its resources and exploit those resources for our benefit. It sounds like we are perpetual tourists.And of course I utterly despise the last one. I don’t believe that collecting money or anything else by force is actually helpful for achieving anything good.
- #4 http://transhumanity.net/news/entry/nail-biting-victory-a-champion-is-declared-in-transhumanist-declaration-2.01) We advocate the end of aging. We advocate serious research focus on finding a cure for all the deleterious effects of aging and ultimately the dissemination of the resulting treatment to all who care to avail themselves of it. 2) We believe in and advocate the achievement of actual abundance.We believe in and seek to bring into the being the technologies and practices, that will ensure such abundance that it is trivial to meet all the needs and many of the wants of all humans. This abundance includes abundant food, water, shelter, education, communication, computation, health care. This is to be achieved by means of advanced technology and whatever changes are necessary to actually experience abundance in ourselves and our institutions.3) We hold that all must be voluntary.None of our goals should be or in our view could successfully be achieved by force. No one should be forced directly or indirectly to support these goals. Force and oppression lead to hopelessness, anger, revenge, revolution. With the multiplication of consequences afforded by accelerating technology these cycles are even less survivable than ever before. 4) We support exploitation of near earth space resources.The future of humanity brightens considerably if we exploit near earth space resources. The right to do so should be available to any and all entities capable of improving or making productive use of any part of it. Any treaties that say no part of off planet resources can belong to anyone should be nullified and declared void.5) All humans are free to attempt to improve themselves.All humans by virtue of the inalienable right to their own life have the right to do whatever they wish that they think may be an beneficial or even as a whim. They only limit is that they cannot abrogate the equivalent rights of others. They can ingest, or embed or modify themselves in any way they wish and think may be an improvement. This includes seeking and achieving improvements beyond the human norm. In short they have full right to pursuit of happiness via such means.6) We strive to cure all disease and to achieve indefinitely long health lifespansWe seek to remove as many causes of suffering and lowered capacity and even of final irrevocable death as possible. 7) We support the free and open access to the accumulated knowledgeWe support the rights of the creators including to reward commensurate with the value granted their work by those who peruse or use it. But such rights and rewards do not require and should not include limiting the access and use of knowledge by others. Knowledge increases by sharing. It is one of the first and most obvious types of true abundance. If we do no affirm abundance here it is very unlikely we will ever affirm and enjoy abundance at all. Particularly as the maximization acceleration of knowledge and quality of knowledge maximizes our achievement of all our values and goals. 8) The rights that accrue to humans include their technological extensions.The technological extensions of human beings such as phones, smartphones, computers and so on are as sacrosanct as the actual physical brain of the person. It is not ethical and should never be permitted to take away parts of a person that are technological and use peruse the information therein against the person’s will or have it testify against them. It is not permitted to modify any part of another human being including the technological parts without their permission.
- #14 We can raise awareness of all these wonderful possibilities. But won’t that be a lot harder to sell when more and more people wonder where there rent and food is going to come from?Some say that a great hope and vision is actually easier to sell at such times. I am not sure of this. Assuming we can raise that kind of awareness don’t we also want to raise awareness of the problems?The problems after all are a large part of why these solutions truly are urgent and not just “nice to have some day when automatic accelerating change brings them”.Assuming the R&D must be done privately can we establish some kind of Foundation that can be contributed to by everyone of any means that allow the to at all?Can we make it so it benefits and thus we benefit by its successes and so that many many important initiatives that may be long term get and stay funded?Some initiatives are open to donations now but on a more piecemeal basis. Many are not set up to receive public funding but likely can receive Foundation grants.One problem may be that much basic science is needed that doesn’t happen just by adding money. It may be needed to train and focus a new generation of researchers to make much difference.If we can’t make the tech go faster or fast enough then what? What if we can’t avoid or slow down a real collapse or much too close enough collapse?Perhaps we who hold the dream fast should establish intentional communities to better ensure that we ourselves and more importantly the dream and the values survive.Our communities can enable us to be much more resilient if they can be done well and to preserve much knowledge if the worse should ensue.What can we, should we do and what will we do as individuals? We much do all we can with what skills we possess or can acquire for these values we hold so dear.We must learn to collaborate and work together if we are to reach that future we dream of or make it any more likely that those that follow us can reach it.