Lifeboat Foundation

A nice long feature on #transhumanism in The Irish Times, one of Ireland’s largest papers. It focuses on the book To Be A Machine: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/who-wants-to-live-fo…-1.3010223 Separately, The New York Times ran a rather somber view of a few transhumanism books, two of the books (The Body Builders & To Be a Machine) which I’m quoted in: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/books/review/gene-machine.…html?_r=0

Mark O’Connell has spent several years talking to people who want to live through robots and technology, and he admits it stems from his own obsession with death.

3 Christian articles/sites w/ #transhumanism in it: http://www.christianpost.com/news/google-directors-hope-for-…in-177809/ & http://straightoutthegate.com/tech-savings-gate/zoltan-istva…has-to-go/ & https://blogs.lcms.org/2017/storming-gates-paradise

Google’s director of engineering is saying implanting computers “inside our brains” is upon us, words theologians and Christian bioethicists consider a “slap in the face” to Christ and would result in horrific human rights violations.

According to the Daily Mail, Ray Kurzweil, a futurist who works on Google’s machine learning project, said at the South by Southwest conference taking place this week in Austin, Texas, that by the year 2029, technological “singularity” will be achieved, the complete merging of human and computer intelligence.

Continue reading “Google Director’s Push for Computers Inside Human Brains Is ‘Anti-Christ,’ ‘Human Rights Abuse,’ Theologians Explain” »

Futurist event Moogfest’s line-up in these stories, including a cover pic of the transhumanist Immortality Bus on Cool Hunting:

http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/moogfest-2017 &

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/michael-stipe-premiering-first-…-moogfest/ & https://thump.vice.com/en_ca/article/moogfest-keynote-speakers-announcement #futurist

Continue reading “Moogfest 2017’s Futurist Line-Up” »

I’ll be speaking on #transhumanism and the Immortality Bus at Moogfest this year in N. Carolina, May 18–21. My talk is currently schedued for Saturday, the 20th. Come hear about my journey across America in a 90 minute presentation, full of anecdotes and descriptions of the wild adventure:

My new 10-min interview on one of Ireland’s largest talk shows (120,000 listeners). Some of the questions are tough to answer as I strive to protect those in hardship, promote equality, and still remain true to my #libertarian values. Lots of core #transhumanism in this interview.

Zoltan Istvan is a transhumanist who is running for Governor of California. He spoke to Sean about his beliefs that centre around technology and science helping humans.

Show: Moncrieff

Continue reading “Should death be treated as a disease?” »

My new article for Psychology Today on my federal audit and the coming day of eliminating taxes because of technology.

With all that in mind—and the $7500 they say I owe them—they know I wouldn’t hire an accountant at $150 an hour to deal with the thousand-plus receipts, payments, and supposed car log entries I made last year—since the amount I’d spend on an accountant in the San Francisco Bay Area might easily end up more than $7500. They also surely know I won’t do it myself, since it’s definitely not worth my own time.

They have me in a pickle—even though it’s more than obvious my busy self probably has far more in write-offs than I even bothered to report in the first place. In fact—given how perturbed I feel at the IRS and its 82,000 full time employees this moment, if it was just economical, I’d re-file to get more of my earnings back. But in the twisted game they created in their 74,000+ page tax code, it’s not worth it.

Continue reading “A Libertarian Transhumanist’s Take on the Future of Taxes” »

More news on the new #transhumanism book just out: To Be a Machine. http://www.signature-reads.com/2017/03/7-best-books-artificial-intelligence/ & https://undark.org/article/30154-2/ & http://bookforum.com/blog/17478

Decades ago, if you were writing about robots, it was probably in one of two forms: either a science fiction narrative, or something short about the handful of robots that could be purchased for home or recreational use. Now things have changed. Home devices can recognize and respond to speech, prosthetic technology has been dramatically advanced, and our very understanding of what constitutes a robot has significantly changed.

With these advances in technology have come other questions, some pertaining to the nature of intelligence, some relating to the lines between humanity and machines, and still more that use our research into robotics to explore what makes us human. So, with that in mind, here’s a look at a handful of the best books on artificial intelligence, dealing with questions of robots, body modification, the Singularity, and more. Crank up Flight of the Conchords’s song set after a robot uprising and dig in.

Continue reading “Thinking Machines: 7 of the Best Books on Artificial Intelligence” »

Transhumanism appearing in the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) magazine: Science…

Modern technology and modern medical practice have evolved over the past decades, enabling us to enhance and extend human life to an unprecedented degree. The two books under review examine this phenomenon from remarkably different perspectives.

Mark O’Connell’s To Be a Machine is an examination of transhumanism, a movement characterized by technologies that seek to transform the human condition and extend life spans indefinitely. O’Connell, a journalist, makes his own prejudices clear: “I am not now, nor have I ever been, a transhumanist,” he writes. However, this does not stop him from thoughtfully surveying the movement.

Continue reading “Life and death: When the end arrives, should we upgrade or shut down?” »

A new feature on one of my favorite sites, Big Think, on #transhumanism and my #libertarian Governor campaign, via Elise Bohan:

Libertarian transhumanist Zoltan Istvan is running for Governor of California in 2018 and, among other things, he wants to conquer aging and death for all!