I just received the video of the Eureka! comedy show I was on, which focuses on science. The 90-minute show was on #transhumanism (and a bit on my Governor run). This may be the first (or one of the first) live comedy shows that focused entirely on transhumanism. Check it out!
Interested in becoming post-Human? What if it promised you eternal six-packs? Still on the fence?
We are at a critical point today in research into human futures. Two divergent streams show up in the human futures conversations. Which direction we choose will also decide the fate of earth futures in the sense of Earth’s dual role as home for humans, and habitat for life. I choose to deliberately oversimplify here to make a vital point.
The two approaches I discuss here are informed by Oliver Markley and Willis Harman’s two contrasting future images of human development: ‘evolutionary transformational’ and ‘technological extrapolationist’ in Changing Images of Man (Markley & Harman, 1982). This has historical precedents in two types of utopian human futures distinguished by Fred Polak in The Image of the Future (Polak, 1973) and C. P. Snow’s ‘Two Cultures’ (the humanities and the sciences) (Snow, 1959).
What I call ‘human-centred futures’ is humanitarian, philosophical, and ecological. It is based on a view of humans as kind, fair, consciously evolving, peaceful agents of change with a responsibility to maintain the ecological balance between humans, Earth, and cosmos. This is an active path of conscious evolution involving ongoing psychological, socio-cultural, aesthetic, and spiritual development, and a commitment to the betterment of earthly conditions for all humanity through education, cultural diversity, greater economic and resource parity, and respect for future generations.
Continue reading “Contrasting Human Futures: Technotopian or Human-Centred?*” »
This week, Neill Blomkamp, the Academy Award-nominated director of District 9, unveiled a short film that he made with the Unity Technologies game engine. At Unity’s event in Austin, Texas, Blomkamp’s Oats Studios showed off Adam: The Mirror, a 6-minute film that was a sequel to Adam, a short film that Unity built as an internally produced showcase demo last year.
Evoking the theme of transhumanism, or the notion that we can live beyond our physical bodies, the film shows an android coming to life and realizing that it was a human trapped in a robot’s body. The film was meant to show off the power of the Unity engine when it comes to making high-quality 3D graphics. But to Blomkamp, it’s also an example of how a game engine can help democratize film, making life easier for independent film makers just as Unity has done for indie game developers.
Continue reading “District 9 director Neill Blomkamp hopes game engines can democratize film” »
New SomeFuture podcast out. My 45-min interview starts at 55 min and is on #transhumanism:
Introduction: (0:11–1:29)
A great initiative by Laura Katrin Weston one of our amazing volunteers. She is supporting research fundraising using the wonderful artwork she produces at Black Cat Studios.
Black Cat Studios is a small private recording, music production and art studio in Leicestershire, UK, providing a range of services for musicians, broadcasters, and game developers. It is really great to see the community starting to use their talents and passions outside of longevity to help support research. All proceeds will go to Lifespan.io and we will use them to support cutting-edge medical research projects such as MouseAge.
Laura will be producing artwork based on 31 themes all with a longevity or transhumanist flavor to them based on this list:
More on this #transhumanism AI religion story, w/ some of my quotes in it. This article has 5500 comments on it!
Former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski is emerging from the shadow of a self-driving lawsuit to create a robot god.
The present continues to take inspiration from science-fiction author Isaac Asimov’s visions of the future. In “The Last Question,” Asimov conceived of an artificial intelligence project known as Multivac. Its purpose was to solve for the inevitable heat death of the universe, but in the end, it becomes that answer.
Continue reading “Former Google Employee Engineering His Own A.I. Religion” »
Some of my work in this new funny story on AI and politics: http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/28/6-reasons-why-robots-would-mak…s-6924685/ #transhumanism
A quarter of people in the UK believe robots would be better than human politicians.
Well, I’m here to persuade the other three-quarters that having a robot in Parliament would be better than having Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson.
Continue reading “6 Reasons Why Robots Would be Better Rulers Than Politicians” »
Interesting story in The Guardian today. Quotes from multiple transhumanists, including myself:
Intranet service? Check. Autonomous motorcycle? Check. Driverless car technology? Check. Obviously the next logical project for a successful Silicon Valley engineer is to set up an AI-worshipping religious organization.
Anthony Levandowski, who is at the center of a legal battle between Uber and Google’s Waymo, has established a nonprofit religious corporation called Way of the Future, according to state filings first uncovered by Wired’s Backchannel. Way of the Future’s startling mission: “To develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society.”
Continue reading “Deus ex machina: former Google engineer is developing an AI god” »
I did a new interview on #transhumanism for some journalism students at Germany’s Technical University of Dortmund. It’s in English:
Mechanical bodyparts are very common nowadays – a lot of humans have a hip replacement or a pacemaker. Technology helps saving our lives rather often. Some people want to take this a lot further – a philosophical and scientific movement called Transhumanism. Zoltan Istvan Gyurko is one of the most famous Transhumanists, he even ran for president in 2016. In this interview, he talks about his first experiences with Transhumanism, immortality and the future of humanity.
By Marie-Louise Timcke und Paul Klur
It’s a bionic leaf that could revolutionize everything we thought we knew about clean energy.
Harvard scientists open the door to an energetic revolution that has allowed them to test successfully a system that converts sunlight into liquid fuel.
Continue reading “Scientists have created a BACTERIUM that inhales CO2 producing Energy” »
