Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: transhumanism – Page 88

Kurzweil is one of the world’s leading minds on artificial intelligence, technology and futurism. He is the author of five national best-selling books, including “The Singularity is Near” and “How to Create a Mind.”

Raymond “Ray” Kurzweil is an American author, computer scientist, inventor and futurist. Aside from futurology, he is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements, and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.

Kurzweil admits that he cared little for his health until age 35, when he was found to suffer from a glucose intolerance, an early form of type II diabetes (a major risk factor for heart disease). Kurzweil then found a doctor (Terry Grossman, M.D.) who shares his non-conventional beliefs to develop an extreme regimen involving hundreds of pills, chemical intravenous treatments, red wine, and various other methods to attempt to live longer. Kurzweil was ingesting “250 supplements, eight to 10 glasses of alkaline water and 10 cups of green tea” every day and drinking several glasses of red wine a week in an effort to “reprogram” his biochemistry. Lately, he has cut down the number of supplement pills to 90.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agingreversed
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aging_Reversed

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Article out by Ron Bailey at Reason Magazine that discusses #transhumanism and #libertarianism:

Kai Weiss, a researcher at the Austrian Economics Center and Hayek Institute in Vienna, Austria, swiftly denounced the piece. “Transhumanism should be rejected by libertarians as an abomination of human evolution,” he wrote.

Clearly there is some disagreement.

Weiss is correct that Istvan doesn’t expend much intellectual effort linking transhumanism with libertarian thinking. Istvan largely assumes that people seeking to flourish should have the freedom to enhance their bodies and minds and those of their children without much government interference. So what abominable transhumanist technologies does Weiss denounce?

Weiss includes defeating death, robotic hearts, virtual reality sex, telepathy via mind-reading headsets, brain implants, ectogenesis, artificial intelligence, exoskeleton suits, designer babies, and gene editing tech. “At no point [does Istvan] wonder if we should even strive for these technologies,” Weiss thunders.

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Who woulda thunk it — Putin is a fellow transhumanist. And that is absolutely TERRIFYING.

“…Speaking to students during a national “open lesson” from the city of Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country that takes the lead in the sphere of computer-based artificial intelligence (AI) will rule.

Speaking to students during a national “open lesson” from the city of Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country that takes the lead in the sphere of computer-based artificial intelligence (AI) will rule.

“Artificial intelligence is the future not only of Russia but of all of mankind,” said Putin. “There are huge opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to foresee today.”

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London-based AI start-up REZIINE has published the entire explanation and framework design for the creation of consciousness in machines.

“Consciousness Illuminated and the Reckoning of Physics” – a 525-page document – features:

  • The full explanation of consciousness and the AGI framework, including all designs, components, and algorithms;
  • The roadmap to Artificial Super Intelligence;
  • The AI genome for self-evolution; and
  • A full-scale physics framework, complete with experiments and explanations.

Describing the compact definition of consciousness as “the ability to make illogical decisions based on personal values”, founder, Corey Reaux-Savonte, goes on to say:

If consciousness is the ability to make illogical decisions based on personal values, …

Read the full story at LinkedIN

Fantastic momentum so far on the MouseAge campaign, which raised over 10% of its goal on the first day! To learn more about how we are speeding up research and helping reduce animal suffering vist the campaign page:

https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/mouseage-photographic-aging-clock-in-mice

A big thanks to Elena Milova, Thomas Klauset Aurdal, Jim Mellon (Juvenescence), James Joyce, Emanuele Ascani, Louie Helm, Martin Kleman, William DeVore, John D Gauchat, Peter Svensson, Poly Mamoshina, Felix Weimer, Reason (Fight Aging), Gennady Stolyarov (US Transhumanist Party). Alexey Strygin, Aleksandr Popov, Lars Christensen, Matthew Clarke and our Anonymous donors!

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I recently did a 50-min interview with Pratik Chougule on transhumanism:

#105 — What is Transhumanism? ** August 23, 2017 Guest // Zoltan Istvan ** Host // Pratik Chougule, JD

Look around and you’ll see humanity not just engaged with technology but integrated in ways that are unexpected, sophisticated, fascinating, and for many of us, fundamentally alarming. There’s a nostalgia for the simplicity of the pre-internet past… for the time that my teenage kids call “ye olden days.”

It’s pretty clear, however, that we aren’t stuffing tech back into the box anytime soon. And humanity is beset with all sorts of problems. Development of these technologies is accelerating and impacting human intelligence and physiology in ways that might transform what it means to be… human.

How do we wrap our heads around these ideas? How can we explore, plan, and lead responsibly? Join co-host Pratik Chougule and guest Zoltan Istvan as they discuss:

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I’m excited to see Mark O’Connell’s book “To Be a Machine” (about # transhumanism ) get shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize, one the biggest science book prizes in the world. The final chapter of “To Be a Machine” is about my Immortality Bus journey and presidential campaign (a version of that chapter appeared in The New York Times Magazine after Mark rode with me on the bus). The book also has a wikipedia page now. Winner to be announced on September 19. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Be_a_Machine

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My new Op-Ed for The San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Chip-im…003194.php #transhumanism

Wisconsin company Three Square Market recently announced it will become the first U.S. company to offer its employees chip implants that can be scanned at security entrances, carry medical information and even purchase candy in some vending machines. A company in Europe already did this last year.

For many people, it sounds crazy to electively have a piece of technology embedded in their body simply for convenience’s sake. But a growing number of Americans are doing it, including me.

I got my RFID implant two years ago, and now I use it to send text messages, bypass security codes on my computer, and open my front door. Soon I’ll get the software to start my car, and then my life will be totally keyless.

The type of chip implants in humans varies depending on the manufacturer or purpose of the device. A few hundred thousand people around the world have cochlear implants, which allow deaf people to hear. Others have implants to help with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or even depression. A growing number of transhumanists — people who want to use radical technology in their bodies — have the $60 implant I have. It’s tiny, about the size of a grain of rice, and is injected into the body by a syringe. The injection process — usually in the hand near the thumb — is often bloodless and takes seconds to complete.

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