Comments on: The Transhumanist Reader is first overview of transhumanist thought

By: kevin

kevin — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:50:27 +0000

Your observations are totally correct,it makes no sense at all.

By: bcecil

bcecil — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:26:02 +0000

There have been 2782 official gods in the history of mankind but only one mankind. So who is the real god = mankind, who can do whatever it wants to the universe over time if we survive

By: GatorALLin

GatorALLin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 22:06:33 +0000

…hate to come off too negative, but anyone else irritated the paperback copy with prime shipping is $28 and the kindle edition electronic copy is $31.99. Something wrong with experts about the future/technology/etc asking us to pay more for electronic version that costs more….. just saying… FAIL. Please ask them to study up on Seth Godin first….

By: GatorALLin

GatorALLin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 22:03:31 +0000

..so as a clever take off from the End of the world Mayan Calendar silly fear stuff… there was this comment that indeed the end of the human race as we know it did actually end on 12/21/2012… they would look back in time and start the calendar from that date on the Human 2.0 when things first started to change or be available for change of the new human race or civilization as we know it to be for Human 2.0. When we first started to take control of our DNA and life extension, etc… silly but I still liked the clever twist to it…

By: Giulio Prisco

Giulio Prisco — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:25:15 +0000

The Kindle version of the book is available now!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Transhumanist-Reader-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B00BQZK6MU/

By: SmartAndSober

SmartAndSober — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 03:22:38 +0000

Also try AT (After Tranquility):
Wikipedia on Tranquility Calendar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquility_Calendar

Orion’s Arm SF on the Calendar
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48c6d4c3d54cf

By: C

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:43:03 +0000

I love ArXiv papers. Astrophysics my fav.

By: Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:28:44 +0000

0 AS (After Singularity)

By: Giulio Prisco

Giulio Prisco — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:51:28 +0000

I especially appreciated Max and Natasha’s affirmation of the bold, daring, visionary and politically incorrect spirit of early transhumanism. Current transhumanism, Max says at about minute 27 in the video, “is overly concerned with risks. And now it’s all existential risks and ‘Oh, we might cause the end of the world!’. Bill Joy has won, basically, a large part of Transhumanism is focused on that.” I totally agree, recently we see a very unhealthy obsession with caution and “existential risks,” whatever that means, which indicates a dangerous ossification. Let’s stop sounding like old people afraid of their own shadow, and let’s embrace again the fresh, solar, energetic, irreverent and optimistic spirit of early transhumanism.

In the same spirit, I resigned from the Board of Humanity+ (then WTA) in 2008 in protest against a trend toward “de-transhumanization”. Here is an excerpt from a letter that I sent to the Board in 2008: “Too much maturity, too much sobriety, too much ethics, too much responsibility, not enough vision, not enough experimentation, and last but not least not enough fun. Let’s not sound like advocates of the precautionary principle or, like Albert Einstein said, young whores who become old bigots. This interpretation of transhumanism is about as exciting as a 1000 page book of tax regulations. I have no doubts that it will permit attracting many more fat assed bureaucrats, nanny state advocates and persons afraid of their own shadow, but are those really the people we want to attract?”

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:40:55 +0000

Why is this only available as hardcopy- get into the 21st centuary here I want my ebook

By: SmartAndSober

SmartAndSober — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:56:36 +0000

That would involve having the “transhumanist thought leaders” themselves enhanced. A MOSH cannot just *negotiate* with an AI.
The only thing MOSHs can do with the AIs and the benevolent “leaders” (who strives to maintain the primitivist lifestyle of the MOSHs) would be blind trust. (As the “techno-gaians” want
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/technogaianism/ )
I personally cannot accept blind trust and will enhance/upload if I can.

By: Derek

Derek — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:18:16 +0000

So you’re saying A.I.s won’t want to jump into the MOSH pit? Well, then at least they’ll never replace rock stars….

By: beatriz valdes

beatriz valdes — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:48:02 +0000

Crossing my fingers many of the positive changes, i.e. in life extension and cures for illnesses, will reach lay people much sooner; given the rapidly exponential improvement of computers.

By: Kristoph77

Kristoph77 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:21:38 +0000

“…merging and blending so tightly that it will be impossible to say which is which, and nobody will care.” ….

People will care, a part (perhaps a significant part) of society will take issue with this, much like the Amish take issue with electricity. Tranhumanism thought leaders should be dealing with the aspect of cohabitation with the un-enhanced; being able to communiacate advancements effectively & reassurenly, could prevent conflict between the 2 parties.

By: Richard Steven Hack

Richard Steven Hack — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:16:21 +0000

I’m pretty sure this won’t cover MY line of RADICAL Transhuman thought! :-)

By: Giulio Prisco

Giulio Prisco — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:01:15 +0000

@SmartAndSober, do you take time to explain your very technical ArXiv papers to your doggy, or cat? I don’t think so. Similarly, I am afraid the AIs won’t take time to explain their discoveries to us (MOSHs, Mostly Original Substrate Humans), because it would be a waste of time — we wouldn’t be able to understand anything.

We have another option though: we can choose not to remain MOSHs and merge with the AIs.

Mind uploading will permit a fusion of organic and machine intelligences. Once uploading technology is developed humans and artificial intelligences will co-evolve, merging and blending so tightly that it will be impossible to say which is which, and nobody will care. Mind uploading will give us the means to join our mind children in their adventures.

By: SmartAndSober

SmartAndSober — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:42:14 +0000

RE Gorden Russell : There will be monumental scientific and technological breakthroughs every few nanoseconds.
Let’s hope the AIs release (and take time to explain) what they discover/invent, or else we (MOSHs) will live in constant confusion.
Do you read papers from the ArXiv? I do. I enjoy reading extremely technical papers.

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:28:40 +0000

People can spend a lot of time talking about it now, but the Singularity is still a black hole for the imagination. You can try to shine your ideas at it, but nothing comes back, the escape velocity is too great.

All you can be sure of, is that after A.D. 2046, things are going to start happening real fast. There will be monumental scientific and technological breakthroughs every few nanoseconds.

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:36:49 +0000

Ambitious.