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Category: transhumanism – Page 101

It’s really the first widely reviewed book by a prominent writer that specifically covers modern #transhumanism. While it’s done from a non-transhumanist perspective, it’s great reading and a BIG step forward for transhumanism and life extension (we need books about the movement that target laypeople). The last chapter is dedicated to the Immortality Bus and my presidential campaign. Additionally, many transhumanists and their work are covered in this comprehensive book. Grab a copy! https://www.amazon.com/Be-Machine-Adventures-Utopians-Futuri…sr=8-1

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Slate book columnist Mark O’Connell’s new book To Be a Machine, which is specifically about #transhumanism, is out tomorrow. So there’s a ton of reviews out in major media. The last chapter in the book is about my work. Here are 3 reviews just out on the book. ALSO, I highly encourage you to BUY the book to help transhumanism grow. Mark’s book is the first book specifically on the movement with this kind of international attention, and the better the book does the first week, the more people will know about transhumanism: http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/25/14730958/transhumanism-mar…biohackers &

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-rev…e34127614/ &

Mark O’Connell Doesn’t Want to Be a Cyborg: The Millions Interview

The strangest place writer Mark O’Connell has ever been to is the Alcor Life Extension Foundation — where dead bodies are preserved in tanks filled with nitrogen, in case they can be revived with future technology. “There was a floor with the stainless steel cylinders and all these bodies contained within them and corpses and severed heads,” he tells The Verge. “That imagery is something that I will take with me to a grave, whether that’s a refrigerated cylinder or an actual grave.”

O’Connell, 37, visited Alcor while writing To Be a Machine, which comes out February 28th. The nonfiction book delves into the world of transhumanists, or people who want to transcend the limits of the human body using technology. Transhumanists want to be stronger and faster; they want to be cyborgs. And they want to solve the problem of death, whether by freezing their bodies through cryonics or uploading their consciousnesses. Transhumanists have been around since at least the 1980s, but have become more visible in the past decade as technology advances have made these ideas seem more feasible and less like sci-fi.

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Some #transhumanism futurist stuff midway down the article:

This weekend, the party hosts its big winter meeting in Atlanta with a heavy to-do list and much interest. The big doings drew so many attendees that organizers moved the event from a local hotel to a major trade center.

Dominating the agenda is the election of a Democratic National Committee chairman Saturday; seven hopefuls are in the running. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota is considered the front-runner since he has the endorsements of Sens. Charles E. Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren, among others.

At a candidates debate this week hosted by CNN, Mr. Ellison had this to say: “I think that Donald Trump has already done a number of things which legitimately raise the question of impeachment.” In follow-up coverage, several news organizations declared that the lawmaker had uttered “the I word.”

Naturally, Republicans are taking a keen interest in the outcome of the chairmanship election. Will it send the Democratic Party into progressive territory — or to some comfy spot in the center? Will the new chair unite the energetic far left with entrenched establishment Democrats?

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A new and extensive interview I did at New Atlas, including ideas about my #libertarian California Governor run. Libertarianism has many good ideas, but two core concepts are the non-aggression principle (NAP) and protection of private property rights—both of which I believe can be philosophically applied to the human body (and the body’s inevitable transhuman destiny of overcoming disease and decay with science and technology):

Zoltan Istvan is a transhumanist, journalist, politician, writer and libertarian. He is also running for Governor of California for the Libertarian Party on a platform pushing science and technology to the forefront of political discourse. In recent years, the movement of transhumanism has moved from a niche collection of philosophical ideals and anarcho-punk gestures into a mainstream political movement. Istvan has become the popular face of this movement after running for president in 2016 on a dedicated transhumanist platform.

We caught up with Istvan to chat about how transhumanist ideals can translate into politics, how technology is going to change us as humans and the dangers in not keeping up with new innovations, such as genetic editing.

New Atlas: How does transhumanism intersect with politics?

Istvan: For me you can never make any headway in the universe, or on planet Earth, if you don’t involve politics because so much money for innovation or research and development comes from the government and so many laws about what you can do. Genetic editing, chip implants, can you get a brain implant that makes you smarter than other people? These things are often directed by the government determining whether it’s illegal or not. You can either be thrown in jail or not thrown in jail – so you must have a political footprint, you must have attorneys on the ground, you must have that kind of legal position that can explain things in terms that a government will understand.

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