05.28.07
Posted in Transhumanism at 6:57 am by rheil
Giulio Prisco (Transhumanar): Soft Tiplerianism
(»This is a summary of my recent arguments on some transhumanist mailing lists in support of the idea that transhumanism might be, or become, a suitable alternative to religion. For lack of a better term, I am using “Soft Tiplerianism” to indicate a general, high level, conceptual appreciation of some ideas proposed by Fedorov, Teilhard, Tipler, Kurzweil, Perry and Clarke, without any specific proposal for their actual implementation. [...]«)
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05.27.07
Posted in AI / Singularity, Transhumanism at 6:09 am by rheil
Wisdom [Meta-Knowledge] through AGI / Neural Macrosensing
Natasha Vita-More, 2006
(»‛I believe that the creation of greater than human intelligence will occur during the next thirty years,‛ claims Vernor Vinge (1993: 1), mathematician, computer scientist and Hugo award-winning novelist. But what is the point of having more neural transmitters firing off connections if those connections do not promote wisdom?
Profound understanding, good judgment and deep insight, the elements of wisdom, are thought to be humanity’s noblest goals. Western film icon and humorist Will Rogers wisely claimed that ‚Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.‛ This insight gives credence to Buddha‛s rumination that ‚We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.‛ (Brossman: 31)
Throughout my adult years, I have thought that the promising goal in life is to achieve wisdom, and that no matter how long or trying the pursuit, wisdom would be the accumulative reward. This may be true, but it is highly likely that there is a more direct route. [...]«)
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05.10.07
Posted in Transhumanism, Transhumanists at 6:45 am by rheil
For updates see: http://www.operatingthetan.com/
R.U. Sirius (10 ZenMonkeys):
(»On April 26, 2001, Keith Henson was convicted of interfering with a religion — a misdemeanor under California law — for picketing outside Scientology’s heavily armed, razor wire-enforced base, outside Hemet California. He split for Canada, becoming the world’s first “Scientology fugitive,” and he’s back in the U.S. dealing with a variety of court cases related to Scientology.
Henson was just thrown back in jail. As best as I can make out from the limited information currently available, Henson and his lawyers were scheduled for a hearing at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, May 8th. They were apparently unaware that warrants had recently been signed by the Governors of California and Arizona, and after the hearing, Henson was handed over to the Yavapai County Sheriff Department for incarceration until a hearing on Wednesday May 9th at 9 a.m. (A note received this afternoon — May 9th — from Henson’s wife, Arel Lucas, says that he will remain in the lockup at least until Monday, May 13th. She invites people to write to him at: Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, Howard Keith Henson, 255 E. Gurley St. Prescott, AZ 86301. She also reminds you that the prison authorities read the letters before passing them on.) [...]«)
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Posted in Transhumanism, Transhumanists at 6:41 am by rheil
Article in May Issue of “Crisis” Magazine (from PostHumanityRising)
(»Last year one Eric Pavlat approached me about the possibility of doing an email interview on the subject of Transhumanism for a Catholic magazine called “Crisis”. I agreed, got a somewhat lengthy list of questions, and gave an even lengthier assortment of answers. Well, the article finally appeared in this month’s issue of the magazine, and unfortunately my responses were radically truncated by virtue of the writing and editing process. The article is still well worth reading, however.
For the edification of those who might be curious, however, I am publishing below the original questions and my answers as originally sent. (I checked with Eric and he encouraged me to do so.) The only modifications I made are cosmetic, to make it clearer what were his questions and my responses. [...]«)
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05.07.07
Posted in Critics, Transhumanism at 6:25 am by rheil
Transhumanism and I: some reckonings…
(»The Transhumanist movment has been a significant part of my life for the past year or so. I have considered myself a Transhumanist, read a lot of the popular Transhumanist literature, participated in Transhumanist discussions, and accepted a lot of the prominent Transhumanist themes and concepts–in fact was very enthusiastic about them. It was one of the things that filled in the gap created when I left a religion that had been a huge part of my life.
However, there were some things, even before I could exactly put my finger on them, that have bugged me about a lot of prevalent Transhumanist views and ideas, or views and ideas, whether or not they are explicitly Transhumanist, that are so common to the Transhumanist community that they seem inseparably intertwined with the movement itself. That has been the source of quite a bit of anxiety and confusion for quite a while, especially at times when I felt my own worldview was partially shaped by things that were bothering me. [...]«)
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Posted in AI / Singularity, Future, Human Enhancement, Transhumanism at 6:18 am by rheil
Superhuman Imagination – Vernor Vinge on science fiction, the Singularity, and the state
Mike Godwin | Reason Magazin
(»A few decades ago, the most popular science fiction epics were works like Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy or Frank Herbert’s Dune series—stories that were set thousands or even tens of thousands of years in the future but involved human beings more or less like us and societies more or less like our own, but with more advanced technology. Today, by contrast, many of the genre’s top writers are unwilling to speculate more than 20 years ahead. The acceleration of technological advance, they argue, has begun to make traditional visions of far-future humanity look increasingly myopic and parochial.
One increasingly popular vision of that rapidly accelerating progress is called the Technological Singularity (or, sometimes, just the Singularity)—a concept evoked not just in science fiction novels by the likes of Charles Stross and Bruce Sterling but in works of speculative nonfiction, such as the futurist Ray Kurzweil’s popular 2005 book The Singularity Is Near. No name is linked more tightly to the idea of the Singularity than that of Vernor Vinge, 63, who for four decades has written stories about the ways humanity and its technologies are building a future that may be impossible for us even to imagine. “It seems plausible,” Vinge says, “that with technology we can, in the fairly near future, create or become creatures who surpass humans in every intellectual and creative dimension. Events beyond such a singular event are as unimaginable to us as opera is to a flatworm.” [...]«)
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