Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: education – Page 170

https://paper.li/e-1437691924…

The term “transhumanism” was coined by Aldous Huxley’s brother, Julian, the evolutionary biologist and First Director-General of UNESCO founded 1954 London, now in Paris, Julian Huxley (1887–1975): “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 from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.” (“Transhumanism.” Julian Huxley. In New Bottles for New Wine, pp 13–17. London: Chatto & Windus, 1957). https://www.newstatesman.com/2017/10/heritage-wars-politics-…out-unesco

The idea was developed by futurist FM 2030 was formerly known as F M Esfandiary, who taught in NY from 1966. “The contemporary meaning of the term “transhumanism” was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught “new concepts of the human” at The New School in the 1960s, when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and worldviews “transitional” to posthumanity as “transhuman”. The Transhuman phase began with the Industrial Revolution, and in the Anthopocene era of today, many of us (especially in the West) have already progressed beyond the human (agricultural) stage, past the ‘transhuman’ Industrial era, to enjoy our current C21st posthuman post-industrial lifestyles.

The Posthuman Movement (posthuman.org) was announced by Steve Nichols in 1988, and has since become an influential idea in academia and the wider world. The Yahoo posthuman list ran through the 1990’s and has now been joined by various FB groups, the Posthuman Daily, and Posthuman Buddhism. See http://posthuman.TV for more information. MVT (Primal Eye) Theory of Mind is distinctively posthuman, see http::extropia.net and forthcoming http://posthuman.GURU site for MVT awareness generating engines, mind uploading and more.

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3D bioprinting company Allevi has teamed up with California-based 3D printing and space technology firm Made In Space to develop the Allevi ZeroG – the first 3D bioprinter capable of working in low-gravity conditions.

Allevi (formerly BioBots) was founded in 2014 by University of Pennsylvania graduates Ricardo Solorzano and Daniel Cabrera. At the time, the ambitious duo set out to develop an accessible desktop bioprinting system which could be used for a wide variety of research and educational applications.

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Giant technology companies in the US, which include some of the world’s most profitable firms, have been pledged at least $9.3bn in state and local subsidies over the last five years – much of it coming from the coffers of cities and states with failing infrastructure, struggling schools and broken budgets.

Fostering local hi-tech success doesn’t have to mean offering huge tax breaks to companies like Apple and Amazon. Here are some alternative strategies.

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“The Future: A Very Short Introduction” (OUP, 2017) by Dr. Jennifer M Gidley.


Oxford University Press has just released a wonderful little animation video centring on my book “The Future: A Very Short Introduction” published in 2017. In an entertaining way it shows how the concept of the future or futures is central to so many other concepts — many of which are the subject of other OUP Very Short Introductions. The VSI Series now has well over 500 titles, with ‘The Future’ being number 516.

To watch the video click here.

You can read a full sample chapter of the Introduction. The abstracts can be read for all of the other chapters at the links below.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction

1 Three Thousand Years of Futures

2 The Future Multiplied

3 The Evolving Scholarship of Futures Studies

4 Crystal Balls, Flying Cars and Robots

5 Technotopian or Human-Centred Futures?

6 Grand Global Futures Challenges

Conclusion

References

Further Reading & Websites

Appendix: Global Futures Timeline

Index

The book is available to purchase at OUP.

‘The Future’ has been very well received globally and an Arabic translation has recently been released by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquity.

The Arabic translation of ‘The Future’ will be available in all book fairs in the Arab region and the distributor covers the important libraries in all Arab countries and Saqi books/UK and Jarir book store/USA . It can also be purchased through the following:

www.neelwafurat.com

www.jamalon.com

www.alfurat.com

A Chinese translation has been licensed and is underway, and discussions are in process for translations into German, Turkish, Italian and French.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Former NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin was noticeably absent from a gala kicking off a yearlong celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the first moon landing, even though his nonprofit space education foundation is a sponsor and he typically is the star attraction.

The black-tie Apollo Celebration Gala held under a Saturn V rocket at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday evening featured a panel discussion by astronauts, an awards ceremony and an auction of space memorabilia.

Hundreds of people attended the sold-out event, including British physicist Brian Cox, who presented Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson with the ShareSpace Foundation’s Innovation award.

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Transhumanist Declaration VirtualTranshumanism Virtual is the viewpoint that sapient society, corporeal, digital, and virtual should embrace, wisely, thoughtfully, and compassionately, the radical transformational potential of technology. The Transhumanist Party Virtual calls for: — Projects to take full advantage of accelerating technology. — Economic and personal liberation of all sapient beings — An inclusive new social contract for all sapient and sentient beings in the light of technological disruption — A evolutionary regulatory system to fast-track innovative breakthroughs — Reform of democratic processes with new tools — Education transformed in readiness for a radically different future — A transhumanist rights agenda for all sapient and sentient beings in the coming transhumanist age — An affirmative new perspective on existential risks.

Transhumanist Party Virtual

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Most likely, this is the best-known picture of a flag ever taken: Buzz Aldrin standing next to the first U.S. flag planted on the Moon. For those who knew their world history, it also rang some alarm bells. Only less than a century ago, back on Earth, planting a national flag in another part of the world still amounted to claiming that territory for the fatherland. Did the Stars and Stripes on the moon signify the establishment of an American colony?

When people hear for the first time that I am a lawyer practicing and teaching something called “,” the question they ask most frequently, often with a big smile or a twinkle in the eye, is: “So tell me, who owns the moon?”

Of course, claiming new national territories had been very much a European habit, applied to non-European parts of the world. In particular the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Dutch, the French and the English created huge colonial empires. But while their attitude was very Europe-centric, the legal notion that planting a flag was an act of establishing sovereignty quickly stuck and became accepted worldwide as part and parcel of the law of nations.

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Transhumanists aim to do just that: to transcend the limits of the human body through the use of technology. Swiss photographer Matthieu Gafsou’s new book, H+ (Kehrer Verlag), documents Transhumanism through portraiture, still lifes and documentary photographs of Tranhumanist people, facilities, tools and technology. In photographing surgical procedures, laboratories, conferences and the like, Gafsou employed a hard flash to add a “clinical aspect” to his pictures. “This was important to me because I think [Transhumanism] is quite cold and [it] is about, not necessarily killing death but working on living longer,” he tells PDN. “But we are forgetting the body, we are forgetting the flesh, we are forgetting desire.”

In “H+,” Gafsou uses the visual language of science and technology to explore Transhumanism, the belief that the human body needs to be enhanced, perhaps even overcome.

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For millennia, our planet has sustained a robust ecosystem; healing each deforestation, algae bloom, pollution or imbalance caused by natural events. Before the arrival of an industrialized, destructive and dominant global species, it could pretty much deal with anything short of a major meteor impact. In the big picture, even these cataclysmic events haven’t destroyed the environment—they just changed the course of evolution and rearranged the alpha animal.

But with industrialization, the race for personal wealth, nations fighting nations, and modern comforts, we have recognized that our planet is not invincible. This is why Lifeboat Foundation exists. We are all about recognizing the limits to growth and protecting our fragile environment.

Check out this April news article on the US president’s forthcoming appointment of Jim Bridenstine, a vocal climate denier, as head of NASA. NASA is one of the biggest agencies on earth. Despite a lack of training or experience—without literacy in science, technology or astrophysics—he was handed an enormous responsibility, a staff of 17,000 and a budget of $19 billion.

In 2013, Bridenstine criticized former president Obama for wasting taxpayer money on climate research, and claimed that global temperatures stopped rising 15 years ago.

The Vox News headline states “Next NASA administrator is a Republican congressman with no background in science”. It points out that Jim Bridenstine’s confirmation has been controversial — even among members of his own party.

Sometimes, flip-flopping is a good thing

In less than one month, Jim Bridenstine has changed—he has changed a lot!

After less then a month as head of NASA, he is convinced that climate change is real, that human activity is the significant cause and that it presents an existential threat. He has changed from climate denier to a passionate advocate for doing whatever is needed to reverse our impact and protect the environment.

What changed?

Bridenstine acknowledges that he was a denier, but feels that exposure to the evidence and science is overwhelming and convincing—even in with just a few weeks exposure to world class scientists and engineers.

For anyone who still claims that there is no global warming or that the evidence is ‘iffy’, it is worth noting that Bridenstine was a hand-picked goon. His appointment was recommended by right wing conservatives and rubber stamped by the current administration. He was a Denier—but had a sufficiently open mind to listen to experts and review the evidence.

Do you suppose that the US president is listening? Do you suppose that he will grasp the most important issues of this century? What about other world leaders, legislative bodies and rock stars? Will they use their powers or influence to do the right thing? For the sake of our existence, let us hope they follow the lead of Jim Bridenstine, former climate denier!

Philip Raymond co-chairs CRYPSA, hosts the New York Bitcoin Event and is keynote speaker at Cryptocurrency Conferences. He sits on the New Money Systems board of Lifeboat Foundation. Book a presentation or consulting engagement.

Today we have a report from Open Longevity School: Summer Camp 2018, an initiative in Russia focused on developing a personal health and longevity strategy, Elena Milova went to investigate.

When we ask researchers when, in their opinion, the cures for aging will be ready, we often hear an optimistic answer: 20–25 years. As a well-informed optimist, I add another 10 years to this number, because wherever the therapies appear, it will take time for them to be distributed to other countries and become affordable. I will be happy if it takes less time, but what if it doesn’t? I am nearly 40, and when I add 35 years to my current age, I vividly imagine how my reflection in the mirror will show a 75-year-old lady. Honestly, I don’t want to see my body change, and it can explain why I aspire to get first-hand information about any means to slow down aging as soon as possible. Evidence-based information, of course.

Before I tell you my story of discovering how to control my aging, I must provide a disclaimer. This article does not contain any medical recommendations. The websites of the projects I will tell you about, once again, do not contain medical recommendations and cannot be independently used to make health decisions. The experience I will share, and the activities of the projects I will tell you about, are aimed at teaching you about the existing scientific knowledge about aging and interventions that have the potential to change the way we age. Whatever you decide to implement in your everyday life, please talk to your medical advisor first.

I am always looking for the means to keep myself as young as possible. Luckily for me, in Russia, there is a project focused on collecting this kind of information and making it publicly available. It is Nestarenie.ru (translation: “not aging”), an online encyclopedia created by professional sports trainer, valeologist and citizen scientist Dmitry Veremeenko. The amount of information that Dmitry has managed to process is hard to imagine; it consists of more than 70,000 scientific papers. The development of this database took him several years of work. Each article of his encyclopedia summarizes a specific drug, food or lifestyle element that can slow down or even reverse age-related changes, with a deep explanation of the underlying mechanisms. Each of his information-dense articles has lots of internal links to actual scientific papers (including the freshest meta-analyses) and finishes with a list of additional references.

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