Current events
From Translook
Presentation and Q/A by Lincoln Cannon (Mormon Transhumanist Association) - - March 30
Abstract: Transhumanism is compatible with at least some religious forms, as illustrated by parallels between basic Transhumanist ideas and an authentic interpretation of Mormon metaphysics, theodicy, eschatology and soteriology. These parallels also provide a basis from which to judge the relative compatibility of other religious forms, such as Christianity, with Transhumanism.
Video clip (4 min) with parts of Lincoln’s presentation and Q/A
Full audio recording of Lincoln’s presentation and Q/A (47M, right click to download)
Transumanar: David Pearce in Second Life on Utopian Neuroscience, March 23
Video clip of parts of Dave’s talk and Q/A
David Pearce, co-founder of the WTA and creator of HedWeb (The Hedonistic Imperative), gave a talk and a Q/A session in Second Life on March 23, 10am SLT, on Utopian Neuroscience. A summary of David’s talk is on his website Superhappiness.
David promotes nothing less than the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. He argues that the abolition of suffering can be accomplished through Paradise Engineering (The Hedonistic Imperative). David will try to distinguish between the Abolitionist Project -i.e. getting rid of suffering, from a much more controversial claim: “I predict that our superintelligent descendants will be animated by gradients of bliss orders of magnitude richer than anything physiologically accessible today”.
About 35 transhumanists attended the presentation and asked many question on utopian neuroscience, the meaning of happiness, the place of superhappiness among transhumanist goals, existing and available ways to enhance mood and happiness, future developments, and transhumanism in general. There was no time to answer all questions but Dave promised to show up at one of the next SL-Transhumanists office hours to discuss more.
Wikipedia: “David Pearce is a British philosopher and negative utilitarian. He promotes the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. His book-length internet manifesto The Hedonistic Imperative[1] details how he believes the abolition of suffering can be accomplished through “paradise engineering”. A transhumanist vegan, Pearce also calls for the elimination of cruelty to animals. Among his websites, there are many devoted to the plight of animals”.
SL-Transhumanists @ Extropia Core
March 9, 12:00-13:30 SLT (noon PST, 3pm EST, 9pm EU, 8pm UK) - seminar on Morphological Freedom in Second Life, by Natasha Vita-More & Anders Sandberg: Do individual humans have a natural right to Morphological Freedom - the right to seek augmentation and enhancement - and the right not to be coerced to augment and enhance?
Natasha and Anders are two of the principal transhumanist thinkers. Natasha has given a good definition of transhumanism in a recent interview: “Transhumanism is a set of ideas which represents a worldview to improve the current situation that we as humanity are facing, which includes short lifespan, limited cognitive abilities, limited sensoral abilities, erratic emotions…starvation, lack of housing, or lack of, basically, getting any of the necessary fundamental needs met. We look ardently at how technologies, including the NBIC technologies—nanoscience, bioscience, information science, and cognitive science – can possibly be used to help solve some of the problems in the world that address humans being stuck in a state of stasis.” See also Anders’ recent list of top genetic enhancements that have already been done in mammals (and hence could presumbaly be done in humans).
See the seminar report on Transumanar
Natasha Vita More in Second Life on “Design Wars: Humanish vs. Postbiologicals (Singularity)”
Great talk of Natasha Vita-More in Second Life yesterday February 3rd, on “Design Wars: Humanish vs. Postbiologicals (Singularity)”. I am sure more pictures and transcripts will be posted soon to one of the SL-Transhumanists sites. See also this short video clip.
Natasha’s own announcement: This event is an open discussion. All SL-transhumanist participants’ ideas and/or humor will be credited/mentioned at the LABoral Industrial Design Institute conference in Spain. In the summer of 2008, LABoral Industrial Design Institute is hosting the “Homo Ludens Ludens” conference.
SL-Transhumanists are invited to have FUN with the content and context of the “Design Wars” of humanish vs. postbiologicals. A key consideration is the issue of species hierarchy and whether humanity ought to look biological as we merge with smarter-than-human intelligence. “In a perfect world, all species would learn to get along. Due to the Singularity, humanity learns they are not the only life form with consciousness and aesthetic taste”.
In this short video clip you can see the variety of body design styles of SL-Transhumanists, which was considered by Natasha as an example of things to come in brick-biospace. I was very pleased to see that the SL-Transhumanists group in Second Life has almost 100 members.
