Becoming a transhumanist

Темы в форумах:

• http://transchelovek.ru/forum/6-9-1
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David Ish Shalom

Basically I dedicate most of my free time studying and reading about future visions and transhumanist materials, including the singularity. of course i have read all WTA website and links, David Pearce excellent hedweb.com and other writings, James Huges important book Cytizen cyborg and articles, Nick Bostrom website and articles, Rey Kurzweil books and his kurzweilAi.net excellent website, immortality websites and life extension, K. Eric Drexler Engines of Creation and Forsight. org website and ongoing email news, incipient transhuman website, Robert Etinger and much more. my last three years in India were also my exposure to this great vision of transhumanism. i am not a scientist nor even academic scholar so i not the most authorized figure.

I am now 56 years old but it seems to me that all my life i was kind of transhumanist seeker without even knowing it and my encounter with that wonderfull great visions gave meaning and confidence to my life, even though i may not reach myself the "promissed land" of the rapturous future. i have to add that i am kind of spiritual seeker and have faith in God - not religious dogma - but unlike many religious conservative i see in transhuman future the fulfilment of the rectification of humanity implied in many religions and spiritual paths. of course i reject the counter scientific dogmas of some religious trends and holds Darwinian evolution as primary scientific insight. i don't think there is inherent contradiction between science and spiritual mindset.

See Spiritual transhumanism.

Patricia Manney

I'm new among you. My name is Patricia Manney and I'm a film and TV writer, specializing in SF and Fantasy, whose taken a very big interest in transhumanism for a book I'm working on. Turns out I've been a transhumanist all my life and never even knew it! And that is the primary problem that I see transhumanism facing right now. Other than Kurzweil, who I had heard of in other contexts, but never got around to reading until recently (along with the rest of the transhumanist canon over the last few months), I had never heard of anyone of the other non-fiction writers, nor the cause they espouse, and I consider myself both well read and informed. Of course I had read novelists like John Wright, Dan Simmons, Greg Bear, etc., and was well aware of the concepts in fiction, but I never knew there was an existing movement. And when I Googled the movement, along with other related words, the outsider's perception was not very positive.

Michael LaTorra

Like David Shalom and Patricia Manney, when I discovered transhumanism I felt like I had come home because I had truly been a transhumanist all my life. This is a fairly common thing, actually. Many people have had transhumanist inclinations for years without knowing that there was a word to describe them. I think this fact is very important because it counterbalances the many negative comments about transhumanism that have been published online and on paper. We should not ignore those opposed to transhumanism. However, we should also recall that many people who would count as transhumanists by virtue of their beliefs are not even aware that there is an organized movement of people like themselves who are working toward a radiant future of freedom and benign, beyond-human possibilities. I suspect that as more and more of those possibilities become realities we will see many more self-identified transhumanists in the world. Of course, some people will always fear change and prefer the status quo. But given a choice between vastly longer, healthy lives in a world of nanotech-enabled abundance, and a world where lives are relatively nasty, brutish and short, don’t you think most folks will choose the longer, healthier life over the shorter, poorer one? I do.

Russell Rukin

I've also been absorbing everything I can for the past year & reading your groups and lists since finding out the singularity is not a far flung aspect of science fiction.

Transhumanism can be a revelelation for those who can get to its core values and see its future. I'm a privileged degree standard, information rich, white, early 30's man from the UK who has A-levels in physics and electronics but still it wasn't easy going for me!

Transhumanism has really effected my work as a contemporary artist over the past 5 years and now its got so bad that I've completely changed direction and even recently taken the decision to reengage with the hated gallery system as I see that it could benefit transhuman penetration into society.

Wbfrcu Iba Ubira (ROT-13)

Personally, I found it a very natural transition from Mormon to secular humanist, and then very soon to transhumanist. I sought transhumanism out before I knew it existed; I didn't just chance upon it. It just followed: we can accomplish transcendence through our own progress, rather than expect a deity to do it for us. So while I don't think we have yet a likely ally in mainstream Mormonism, I believe that transhumanism can find fertile ground in very liberal Mormons (including some of the biologists and neuroscientists) and former Mormons.

WillowPerson

http://willowperson.livejournal.com/95595.html#cutid1

When Corey and I started dating, living together, etc, I met his friends. I was taken into a Community. I liked the ideals. I liked the aesthetics. I liked the discussions and the possibilities. But as much as I liked it, I didn’t understand it. Lately I’ve been reading more on the subject. Lately I’ve had amazing conversations with Matt about it. Listened in on Geeking between Matt and Corey. And I started to understand. I started, just a little, to Believe.

I have this class: Religion, Ethics, and Medicine. And we’ve spent the last week and will spend next week on Transhumanism. We just sit, and talk, for two hours twice a week about our views. I do not personally believe in god, but if there is one as the Christian ideal, he/she/it is offering a state of the Garden before the Fall from Grace. And I’m happy to argue my case from your viewpoint, if that will help.

This is the point in class where it dawned on me that I believe in this enough to have Conviction.

We were discussing a return to Grace through technology. The loss of the Tree of Life when the Tree of Knowledge was tasted from, etc. (I can fill out details on this if you’d like).

And I turned around to the class, and I asked.

“You, as Christians, strive for a return to Grace. An immortality without your body, a symbol and cause of sin. As created co-creators, we are achieving the possibility of this. It will, I believe, be offered to YOU, in THIS lifetime.” I held up a piece of paper. “Here. This. What you’ve been looking for. What you’ve always wanted. What your religion has taught you to strive for. All the guilt you've had to carry for generations has paid off. Your promised reward. H.E.R.E. You can have it. Will you take it?”

I’m confounded that I Believe so much in something again.

I feel like I have Purpose.

Bart Lawless

Can't really recall exactly how it happen. At one point I was in a wicca coven, but questioning the people I thought to be authorities gave no or really lame answers, the more that continued, the more I drifted away. I brushed socialism lightly, but a trip to socialism 98 (I think) left me feeling it was unflexible; once an certain idea had been accepted as socialist by the group, it was right, and any other view was stamped (sometimes without an answer at all, simply a character assination of the person who had spoke). This was in every area you can imagine, even the genetic working of the fruitfly. Certianly something not fitting the socailist agenda where ever it was, must be wrong (with the implication of also being bad, prehaps evil!), seemed to be the concensus. After that I move on quickly (though I still lean to the left). Got into humanism from there. And finally, one day when I was searching humanism stuff on the internet, I came across transhumanism. I was impressed by the credentials of the people involved, which is what allowed me to look at it seriously. I prefered the science and tech orientation, as opposed to the political orientation of the humanist groups I was in. And that is that really.

from wta-talk

chartom_shel_tehom

I first encountered Transhumanism when I was surfing the web last summer and finding myself on Wikipedia. The feature article that day was on Transhumanism, which was something that I had never heard of before, and I was intrigued, thinking that it was some sort of new age movement. After reading the article, I was somewhat disgusted by the notions of it, thinking that it is a new religious movement that is focused around using science as a basis for their mysticism.

...

After joining facebook, I have made a friend who had an interest in Transhumanism. I was fascinated by her, seeing that she had so much on her profile that deemed her to be cool, so I messaged her and friended her, excited that I had fun friends at the U of C. I started classes, yet I never saw her on campus, which discouraged me from further looking into Transhumanism.

...

Gradually, working with her and another Transhumanist friend who graduated from Northwestern in 2005, I took more of Transhumanism and slowly digested it. I was still skeptical, of course, because it seemed to me that the movement took too much on faith. First of all, I argued, any long-term predictions regarding the future are extremely imprecise, usually inaccurate, and always a long shot. Second of all, Transhumanism seemed to have this utopian dream of paradise brought on by diverging technological development. Of course paradigm shifts can always change the outlook, but that in itself defies prediction, which would discount any Transhumanist theory in the first place. I kept this attitude well into this summer and considered Transhumanism somewhat of a crazy-people movement, which I was quite interested in, but never fully devoted myself to.

...

I was met by a group of diverse opinions who have read texts in neuroscience, philosophy, and evolutionary biology far beyond anything I've encountered, and they were ready to tear my misconceptions about Transhumanists apart. Philosophers, artists, biologists, mathematicians, and sociologists all came to debate the future of evolutionary trends, and this was just the group of volunteers! As the event went on, speakers gave their talks while attendees and volenteers had intense conversations that resonated something inside my core... we were all reaching for that same level of intellectualism that leaves most people behind, paddling along on driftwood.

...

I am now also an active Transhumanist.

It's a bit of a gamble, I admit, to associate myself with a fringe group of thinkers. Although you have mainstream people like William Shatner or Ray Kurzweil (although some might argue against my standards of mainstream), Transhumanism really is an extreme paradigm that will undoubtedly shock the general public. However, regardless of whether or not Transhumanists' specific predictiions come true, it is inevitable that great changes due to social, technological, and biological evolution are always in front of us. Therefore, I too have jumped the bandwagon. These issues are real. These issues are relevant. These issues will decide whether or not we as intelligent life will survive. I think it is time to take action.

http://posthumanthis.blogspot.com/2007/07/ray-kurzweil-posthuman-this.html

Zakal

Одна моя особенность в том, что я не люблю уходить из каких либо мест первым. Я всегда боюсь, что без меня будет всё самое интересное. Когда я был маленьким это проявлялось буквально, я старался досидеть до последнего на всех праздниках. Затем это трансформировалось в желание жить вечно, я же не могу пропустить всё самое интересное в развитие человечества. А этого интересного я не мог увидеть в текущем времени.

В возрасте 12-13 лет, я впервые узнал о том, что наша галактика имеет размер 100 000 световых лет. Учитывая скорость света равную 300 тыс. км/сек., я посчитал это расстояние в километрах. Это меня очень сильно оглушило. Однако первым же делом я просчитал на своём старом ZX Spectrum какая скорость нужна космическому короблю, чтобы пролететь это расстояние за 1 год, за 1 мес., 1 неделю и 1 день. Порядок этих скоростей, я думаю, вы представляете и сами. И я стал ждать, когда появятся такие двигатели.

Следующим этапом было открытие существования теории относительности примерно в том же возрасте. Перерыл всю энциклопедию (БЭС) на эту тему, достал учебник по физике. И какой же был облом – Эйнштейн сказал: «с-максимальная скорость распространения сигнала во вселенной». Оказалось, что, скорее всего мне не полететь за пределы галактики, а я так мечтал. Спасительной соломинкой для моей мечты оказался эффект замедления времени в движущейся системе отсчёта.

Однажды по телевизору, в том же возрасте, я увидел передачу про крионику. И озвученные цифры 200 000 $ за сохранение тела и вроде 50 000 за голову. Я начал думать, что мне нужно скопить 200 000 к нужному сроку. Ведь это так просто заморозить и разморозить, а затем улучшить человеческое тело. Мне эта мысль казалась просто банальной. Оставалось одно заработать денег.

Кстати возникла ещё одна угроза на горизонте, тепловая смерть вселенной или какая-либо другая. Но возникал быстро ответ, когда станем бессмертными тогда и разберёмся.

Я рос, но желание быть бессмертным не угасало. Хотя многие считают это детской уверенностью в силы человека и невозможность смерти.

В 1998 году, когда я был студентом в 10 классе, поспорил, что до 30 лет я полечу в космос. Спор был на 10 кг пельменей. Мне о нём до сих пор напоминают. Но я спорил, уверенный в своих силах, зная, что в следующем десятилетие Берт Рутан запустит свой первый космоплан по 200 000 $ за билет. Кстати эти 200 000 баксов волшебная сумма, она везде меня преследует. На крайний случай уже за 20 000 000 слетал первый турист в космос. Осталось опять же просто раздобыть небольшую сумму денег. Молодой, горячий – хочу быть миллионером до 30 лет.

Уже тогда начал знакомиться с творчеством Никитина Ю.А. Святой Грааль был просто хитом нашего общежития. Когда читал его книги, то всегда ловил себя на мысли, что что-то смутное - подобное приходит и ко мне. Многие непривычные вещи вообще не мог принять. Потом большую часть принял.

И самое главное, если ты не двигаешься вперёд – ты скатываешься назад, ну или просто другие идут.

В конце 2005 я прочитал, чтобы быстро читать, надо быстро соображать, хорошо запоминать и ещё быть здоровым. Хочу стать качком – но недостаточно просто упорно заниматься, надо быть здоровым. Стал искать материалы не тему обучения, памяти и здоровья. Короче мне надоело быть больным, туго соображающим (по сравнению с некоторыми) и ещё много чего надоело. Опять же поспорил на кабриолет вроде.

И вот я увидел «ТрансЧеловека» в магазине. Прочитал не сразу, читал несколько месяцев, около 4 наверное. Почему так долго не скажу. Так вот, когда увидел книгу, а прочесть её не мог, то поискал в инете. И нашёл не её, а целую гору материалов. И первый сайт был РТД.

Вот тогда я получил супер дозу поддержки всех свои мечтаний и идей. А прочтение трансчеловека меня укрепило в правильности курса.

Зачем умирать ведь впереди всего столько интересного, а мы к этому пока плетёмся маленькими шажочками. И после всех откровений, уйти, не попробовав самого вкусного, это просто безумие.

http://transchelovek.ru/forum/6-9-1