Category OpEd
This piece is part of a series exploring salient aspects of the philosophy known as “Social Futurism” (a term coined and idea developed by myself from 2011-2018). For more full and systematic exploration of these ideas, see http://socialfuturist.party & http://socialfuture.institute…. Continue Reading →
Sing The Body Electric “Mind Uploading” is the idea that the pattern of information which constitutes your perceptual awareness, memories, personality, and all other cognitive functions can be abstracted from the brain it developed in, and “run” on a different… Continue Reading →
Beyond Smart Cities The concept of “Smart Cities” has been around for the better part of a decade, referring to a city which uses sensors and other data collection methods to better manage its assets and resources. From a Transhumanist… Continue Reading →
The Central Meme of Transhumanism “I believe in Transhumanism: once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is… Continue Reading →
Steven Spielberg’s new blockbuster, “Ready Player One” (RP1) is a return to form which trades on around a million (very knowing) 1980s pop-culture references, while also managing to connect those references to a larger narrative about future society and how… Continue Reading →
…in the absence of minds to appreciate its benefits. Futurism is therefore not only about technology, but also about people. More to the point, it is about the effects of technology on ourselves and our communities. The Process Technology is… Continue Reading →
What is Futurism? What isn’t? When people hear the word “Futurism”, a number of possible associations may spring to mind. One may be prognostication, which is to say secular oracles telling us what they think will or will not happen… Continue Reading →
Blockchain technology is currently deep into the “ridiculous hype” phase of its development, but it does have the potential to be incredibly powerful. The ideas of Smart Contracts and AI Negotiation Assistants are similarly not new, but with a convergence… Continue Reading →
Here at AGI Laboratory we explore the intersection of technology and society, where AI, VR, and Big Data (among other things) come crashing into our cultures, social traditions, economies and political institutions. Looking at the world today, it is increasingly… Continue Reading →
Transhumanism is a philosophy of lofty aspirations and universally applicable substance. Yet, when articulated at its usual level of abstraction, it is often misunderstood, especially if commonplace cultural connotations, myths, and fears from popular fiction inject nefarious undertones into what… Continue Reading →
(Seattle, Wa) I was talking to my wife on my last trip to Seattle and found that she and my children had picked up a new hobby. ‘Free Stuff’ that is, there is this new project called the ‘buy nothing… Continue Reading →
Back in the distant, hazy days of 1998, Futurist Douglas Rushkoff published a book called “Playing the Future” (published in the UK as “Children of Chaos”). The book’s central thesis was that people born in the late 20th Century and early… Continue Reading →
Debate over the risk and promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies can be depressingly simplistic, often polarised into two camps with views that are extreme to the point of caricature. On the one hand we have those whose… Continue Reading →
Note: Do NOT try this at home. This is not a “how-to”. Building these could (hopefully) get you arrested . . . . . . but it’s only a matter of time before they WILL be abused. Our saving grace… Continue Reading →
In the right hands, can AI be used as a tool to engender empathy? Can algorithms learn what makes us feel more empathic toward people who are different from us? And if so, can they help convince us to act… Continue Reading →
Recently the venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, founder, and CEO of Social Capital created a huge stir by calling IBM’s Watson a joke. Frankly, as a computer scientist that is focused on ‘real’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) I am not able to… Continue Reading →
Author David Louis Edelman wondered why mass killings didn’t happen in the past. See his 2 Oct 2017 Facebook post. His “pet theory” is modern communication regarding “instant fame and notoriety” make perpetrators more likely to express their “inherent craziness.” Speculation… Continue Reading →
One of the most interesting trends I’ve seen in our sort of post-industrial world is a move to a more self-driven world where manufacturing and services and just about everything that used to be driven by governments, corporations, and large economic factors are… Continue Reading →
Introduction Throughout the European and wider western world, tribalism is once again emerging, through the lens of mainstream xenophobic parties, CounterJihad activism, the emergent Alt-Right and outright militant neo-Nazis. This phenomenon is however not only confined to the western world… Continue Reading →
Zoltan Istvan was a 2016 Presidential transhumanist candidate who actually ran as an individual (not as the Transhumanist Party candidate, because TP was never registered with the FEC – Federal Election Committee.) Despite the fraudulent past of the Transhumanist Party,… Continue Reading →
Paranoid fear of #artificialintelligence will historically been seen in the same light as the house arrest of Galileo. Historic Catholic Church repression (suppression of the heliocentric solar system model) is identical in essence to the fear of AI. In fact,… Continue Reading →
Newton Lee in partnership with Springer is working on an upcoming book covering transhumanist topics, one of the chapters covers IVA (Intelligence Value Argument) which is summary of the chapter titled: “The Intelligence Value Argument and Effects on Regulating Autonomous… Continue Reading →
Last MTA meeting I went to I was speaking with Lincoln Cannon about his new company “Thrivious” and their Nootropic stack. I have been taking a Nootropic stack for some time and have read a lot of material on them…. Continue Reading →
When I first learned of Transhumanism, I agreed with it almost reflexively. To me it seemed obvious that “we” needed to build a future in which the humanity could overcome its natural enemies: disease, poverty, and political corruption/mismanagement. I say… Continue Reading →
Overall, the kind of thinking behind the aforementioned document released by IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has a negative impact on the industry leading to increased fear and potentially slowing the development of critical technology that should be… Continue Reading →
Timothy Killian authored a critique of the New God Argument (NGA). Entitled “An Analytic Review of Lincoln Cannon’s ‘The New God Argument’“, the critique includes some interesting thoughts about NGA’s assumptions. The critique also includes numerous mischaracterizations of NGA, the… Continue Reading →
“A Logical Argument for Faith In God” The New God Argument [1] (NGA) purports to be a logical argument for faith in God. It was created by Lincoln Cannon, the founder of The Mormon Transhumanist Association. The NGA owes much to a… Continue Reading →
Open access to Tools and Technology by Gabriel Licina presented by the Extreme Futures Tech Fest – Winter 2016. Open access to tool and advancing technology is key to moving technology forward. the Restrictions we have in the industry currently… Continue Reading →
Now you don’t normally see ‘book’ reviews on Transhumanity.net and further probably not ‘children’s’ book reviews and in fact now that I think about it this is only the second time ever. What is cool is that now there is… Continue Reading →
“The burning desire to press forward in the face of all opposition, limitless curiosity for learning, the ability to adapt, and the will to shape the world for the better— these are the essential traits of the entrepreneur. In our… Continue Reading →
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