YES! to Transhumanism

From Order of Cosmic Engineers

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Transhumanism is both a reason-based worldview and a cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability, for those who choose it, of fundamentally improving the human condition by means of science and technology. Transhumanists seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values.

Visionary, bold and fun. That is what transhumanism has always been.

Transhumanists have always sought personal improvement; to free themselves from all the limitations of biology; to radically upgrade their mental and physical faculties; and to beat a path to the stars.

This is what transhumanism is. What it has always been. This is what transhumanism ought to continue to be.

With due concern, we fully and deeply realize that there are, have always been and will continue to be complex scientific, technical, cultural, moral, societal and political challenges to deal with. They require careful assessment, planning, and leadership. These challenges need to be met head on with due courage, forbearance, focused attention, rationality, compassion, empathy and wisdom.

We must and will continue to do our best to overcome them. We will persevere to mitigate their potential and actual dangers, while safeguarding the maximizing of their potential and actual benefits.

Some however are advancing that transhumanists should abandon their efforts at realizing -or even promoting- their radical futurist worldview... in favor of exclusively -or at least primarily- focusing on today's world issues. Transhumanist organizations should, in their view, become nothing more than nice, soft spoken, moderate, ethical, responsible and politically correct quasi-mainstream social clubs.

To such suggestions and proposals, we unequivocally say: NO!

As citizens, we have to and will do our best to play an active and positive role in today's world.

But that is not what transhumanism at its origin and core is about. There are numerous suitable organizations within which transhumanist citizens can and should play an active and positive role in today's world, including organizations in the environmental movement, political parties and movements, philanthropic organizations, research institutes, commercial enterprises.

We however categorically refuse to abandon our core original transhumanist vision of a radically better future for our species and ourselves.

We say YES to transhumanism. To the undiluted, unadulterated, uncompromising original core of transhumanism, that is.

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This Position Statement YES! to Transhumanism was collaboratively authored by members of the Order of Cosmic Engineers - http://cosmeng.org/.

Cyborg

So what am I, Cyborg, Transhuman, or human?  Call me whatever you want, I just take ideas from all over the place and use whatever I find useful.

... we shall be cyborgs not in the merely superficial sense of combining flesh and wires but in the more profound sense of being human-technology symbionts: thinking and reasoning systems whose minds and selves are spread across biological brain and nonbiological circuitry.

As technology becomes portable, pervasive, reliable, flexible, and increasingly personalized, so our tools become more and more a part of who and what we are.

 - Natural-Born Cyborgs - Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence - Andy Clark

I use computers, cell phone, and various other technologies, therefore I am cyborg.  Humans have been using technology since the beginning.  Of course it depends on what you define as the beginning, so in order to avoid regressing back to the organic molecule stage of evolution, lets use a circular definition, by saying we became human when we started to use technology.  I will define technology as the process of using something as a tool, or making a tool. If I studied Anthropology and was witting scientific papers, I would be a little more precise, but the details are irrelevant here. So cyborg is just another word for human.

So why call myself a cyborg?  Because it focuses my attention on how I use technology to enhance my abilities, and quality of life.  In effect, modifying who I am.  Since reading NBC(Andy Clark), I have become more conscious of and more active in seeking out technologies to improve my life and the life of others.  If it was all about me there would be no purpose in blogging about it.

If you don't want to be borg, throw away all your technology right now, including your clothes, and move out into the woods.  Since you are still reading, you have accepted that you are part of the borg collective.  Now, nothing has changed in your life as a result of being labeled as part of the borg collective, but hopefully you will start to think more about how you use technology and how it affects your life.  Also realize that the capability of technology is growing exponentially.  The more you ignore, fear, or become disgusted by technology, the more you will have to operate on the fringes of society.  My solution is to embrace the technology, use it to enhance our abilities and bring every single person on the planet closer together.  So lets create, party, and use technology to include every human on the planet as part of the family.

There are many problems to be solved, but that is where science, engineering, reason and technology come in.  These are the best tools we have for solving problems, and like any tool, the more you use it, the more you learn about how to improve it.  It is time we stop making decision for political, and emotional reasons, and figure out what works best for all concerned, while protecting individual rights.

I have no training as a scientist, engineer, or philosopher, but 40 years of self study has convinced me of the capability of these tools.

I didn't discuss transhumanism, not directly anyway, but there is always next time.

The Point

"All the practices -- sitting, Big Mind, and so on -- are skillful means, all for the purpose of building character, consciousness, and awareness so that our functioning is truly coming from wisdom and compassion."

"This is really the point. It's the point of Zen, it's the point of Buddhism, it's the point of all the great religious and wisdom traditions I know, and it's the point of this book. If more and more of us are not functioning with wisdom and compassion toward all beings -- and all beings means all non-living as well as all living beings, in other words, rocks, mountains, the whole earth -- if we're not seeing that everything is really oneself or an extension or manifestation of Big Mind, then we fall into fear, jealousy, greed, and hatred, all based on this illusion of separateness. Seeing ourselves as separate and apart from the great earth, from the mountains, rivers and oceans, we tend to abuse one another and the planet itself. So I think it's really critical at this point in time that we wake up and we function with wisdom, compassion and awareness."
- Big Mind, Big Heart, Finding Your Way - by Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel

This is also the point of being atheist. The reason atheist have become so outspoken recently, is because we see so many have forgotten about wisdom and compassion.

Ray Kurzweil - Our Bodies, Our Technologies

If you haven't read "The Singularity Is Near" by Ray Kurzweil, you should watch this video, which is an excellent summary of the material covered in the book.

Buddhism and Science

Here is an interesting bit from Chapter 1 in the book Train Your Mind Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley.

Buddhism and science share the goal of seeking the truth, with a lowercase t. For science, truth is always tentative, always subject to refutation by the next experiment; for Buddhism--at least, as the Dalai Lama sees it--even core teachings can and must be overturned if science proves them wrong. Perhaps most important, Buddhist training emphasizes the value of investigating reality and finding the truth of the outside world as well as the contents of one's mind. "Four themes are common to Buddhism at its best: rationality, empiricism, skepticism, and pragmatism," says Alan Wallace, who spent years as a Buddhist monk in Dharamsala and elsewhere before turning in his robes to become a Buddhist scholar and who is a longtime participant in the dialogues between scientists and the Dalai Lama. "His Holiness embodies these. He often says with delight that if there is empirical evidence that contradicts something in Buddhism, 'Into the garbage!' He is quite adamant that Buddhism has to yield to rational argument and empiricism."

Life & Times of a Pumpkin

The Web Is About People

A while back I talked about an essay I was writing for a course I am taking. I received the materials for the course about a month ahead of time, so I started working on it, but easily got distracted. Since the start date for the course is Dec 1, maybe I should get serious.

Here is the essay I mentioned in my first blog entry:

The Web Is About People

The web is bringing people together locally and globally. In computing when a radically new type of application comes along it is referred to as a killer application. In a recent talk about modes of communication, Tim Bray mentioned that the latest killer app is people. In the last few years many websites have appeared which have changed the way the web is used. Originally the web consisted of static web pages, created by the originator of the website. Now many websites have content created by the user and have a social networking aspect. The collection of this new style of websites is often referred to as Web 2.0. Three examples, of the new style of website are Flickr, Facebook, and Blogger. Flickr, a popular photo sharing site brings amateur and professional photographers from around the world together, to discuss photography and the subject matter of their photos. Facebook is an online application for organizing your contacts and planning events. Blogging on sites like Blogger, lets you easily publish your thoughts or creative works. Blogging software typically has a feedback and discussion mechanism following each post. These websites often lead to offline socializing. In the past your friends and contacts, consisted of the people you worked with, did business with or met through local organizations. Using the web, you friends and contacts, can be anywhere in the world, and you find each other because of your common interests.


I typed my essay in Word then copied it to the clipboard in Word and pasted it into Blogger. It looks, like Word is messing with the format. I just wanted the text, I didn't want all the extra formatting from Word to tag along. Next time I will try Open Office to see how it works.