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May 28, 2013

4 ways Google Glass makes us Transhuman

Posted by in categories: evolution, futurism, media & arts, philosophy, robotics/AI, singularity

swiss_army_knife_Google_glass

Transhumanism is all about the creative and ethical use of technology to better the human condition. Futurists, when discussing topics related to transhumanism, tend to look at nano-tech, bio-mechanical augmentation and related technology that, for the most part, is beyond the comprehension of lay-people.

If Transhumanism as a movement is to succeed, we have to explain it’s goals and benefits to humanity by addressing the common-man. After all, transhumanism is not the exclusive domain, nor restricted to the literati, academia or the rich. The more the common man realizes that (s)he is indeed already transhuman in a way — the lesser the taboo associated with the movement and the faster the law of accelerating returns will kick in, leading to eventual Tech Singularity.

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May 25, 2013

“Radical Life Extension: Are You Ready to Live 1,000 Years?” — Public Speaking Event in Washington D.C. 09/13

Posted by in categories: events, life extension

1inftri

Immortal Life is presenting a public event in Washington D.C., titled “Radical Life Extension: are you ready to live 1,000 years?”

It will take place in the historic Friends Meeting House on September 22 (Sunday). The event will be from 5:30–7:30.

We will have 10–12 speakers discussing Immortality / Life Extension from a wide variety of perspectives: scientific, political, social, poetic, religious, atheistic, economic, demographic, moral, etc.

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May 24, 2013

Dirrogate Singularity — A Transhumanism Journey

Posted by in categories: ethics, evolution, futurism, homo sapiens, media & arts, philosophy, robotics/AI, singularity

dirrogate_background_website

A widely accepted definition of Transhumanism is: The ethical use of all kinds of technology for the betterment of the human condition.

This all encompassing summation is a good start as an elevator pitch to laypersons, were they to ask for an explanation. Practitioners and contributors to the movement, of course, know how to branch this out into specific streams: science, philosophy, politics and more.

- This article was originally published on ImmortalLife.info

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May 24, 2013

Why does Science Fiction gravitate towards Dystopia and not the Utopia that Transhumanism promises?

Posted by in categories: ethics, futurism, lifeboat, media & arts, philosophy, singularity

Memories_with_maya_dystopia_Dirrogate_small front_cover_Mwm

Of the two images above, as a typical Science Fiction reader, which would you gravitate towards? In designing the cover for my book I ran about 80 iterations of 14 unique designs through a group of beta readers, and the majority chose the one with the Green tint. (design credit: Dmggzz)

No one could come up with a satisfying reason on why they preferred it over the other, except that it “looked more sci-fi” I settled for the design on the right, though it was a very hard decision to make. I was throwing away one of the biggest draws to a book — An inviting Dystopian book cover.

As an Author (and not a scientist) myself, I’ve noticed that scifi readers seem to want dystopian fiction –exclusively. A quick glance at reader preferences in scifi on sites such as GoodReads shows this. Yet, from noticing Vampire themed fiction rule the best seller lists, and from box office blockbusters, we can assume, the common man and woman is also intrigued by Longevity and Immortality.

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May 23, 2013

Comic: Rationality Matters

Posted by in categories: education, existential risks, fun, humor


May 19, 2013

Who Wants To Live Forever?

Posted by in categories: business, ethics, existential risks, futurism, homo sapiens, human trajectories, life extension, philosophy, sustainability

Medical science has changed humanity. It changed what it means to be human, what it means to live a human life. So many of us reading this (and at least one person writing it) owe their lives to medical advances, without which we would have died.

Live expectancy is now well over double what it was for the Medieval Briton, and knocking hard on triple’s door.

What for the future? Extreme life extension is no more inherently ridiculous than human flight or the ability to speak to a person on the other side of the world. Science isn’t magic – and ageing has proven to be a very knotty problem – but science has overcome knotty problems before.

A genuine way to eliminate or severely curtail the influence of ageing on the human body is not in any sense inherently ridiculous. It is, in practice, extremely difficult, but difficult has a tendency to fall before the march of progress. So let us consider what implications a true and seismic advance in this area would have on the nature of human life.

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May 19, 2013

Electronic Music as Emerging Tech. Embryo of Art’s Entire Future — Part One

Posted by in categories: human trajectories, media & arts, neuroscience

Artifacts, Artifictions, Artifutures 0.5

It’s not a physical landscape. It’s a term reserved for the new technologies. It’s a landscape in the future. It’s as though you used technology to take you off the ground and go like Alice through the looking glass.
John Cage, in reference to his 1939 Imagined Landscape [1].

In the last installment (see here, here and here) I argued that the increasing prominence and frequency of futuristic aesthetics and themes of empowerment-through-technology in EDM-based mainstream music videos, as well as the increasing predominance of EDM foundations in mainstream music over the past 3 years, helps promote general awareness of emerging-technology-grounded and NBIC-driven concepts, causes and potential-crises while simultaneously presenting a sexy and self-empowering vision of technology and the future to mainstream audiences. The only reason this is mentionable in the first place is the fact that these are mainstream artists and labels reaching very large audiences.

In this installment, I will be analyzing a number of music videos for tracks by “real EDM” artists, released by exclusively-EDM record labels, to show that these futuristic themes aren’t just a consequence of EDM’s adoption by mainstream music over the past few years, and that there is long history of futuristic aesthetics and gestalts in electronic music, as well as recurrent themes of self-empowerment through technology.

In this part I will discuss some of these recurrent themes, which can be seen to derive from a number of aspects shared by Virtual Art (any art created without the use of physical instruments), of which contemporary electronic music is an example because it is created using software. I argue that this will become the predominant means of art production — via software — for all artistic mediums, from auditory to visual to eventual olfactory, somatosensory and proprioceptual artistic mediums. The interface between artist and art will become progressively thinner and more transparent, culminating in a time where Brain-Computer-Interface technology can sense neural operation and translate this directly into an informational form to be played by physical systems (e.g. speakers) at first, but eventually into a form that can be read by given person’s own BCI instantiated phenomenologically via high-precision technological neuromodulation (of which deep brain stimulation is an early form).

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May 19, 2013

If you want to live longer, do nothing

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

By Avi Roy, University of Buckingham

I want to live longer and help others do the same. I assumed the most effective way to do that is by understanding the science of aging and then engineering solutions to extend human lifespan. That is why I became a biomedical researcher and over the past several years I have pursued this goal almost single-mindedly.

When a 2004 study showed that reducing the calorie intake in mice extended their life by 42%, I enthusiastically embraced the results and even put myself on a calorie restricted diet. But, subsequently, a 2012 study showed that long-term calorie restriction may not have the promised benefits. On the contrary, fewer calories without the required nutrients might actually cause harm.

Calorie restriction is not the first such “promising” route that eventually did not live up to the promise, and it will not be the last. Antioxidants showed promise in holding back diseases caused by aging, but now we know that antioxidant supplements are more likely to shorten your life.

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May 16, 2013

“Proposal for a Constitution of Information” from the Asia Institute

Posted by in categories: complex systems, cybercrime/malcode, transparency

AI logo small

Asia Institute Report

Proposal for a Constitution of Information
March 3, 2013
Emanuel Pastreich

Introduction

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May 11, 2013

Gravitoelectromagnetic Theories and their Applications to Advanced Science & Technology

Posted by in categories: cosmology, education, engineering, general relativity, physics, space

Congratulations Drs. Musha, Pinheiro & Valone on their soon to be published new book.

For those who are interested T. Musha, M.J. Pinheiro and T. Valone (Advanced Science Technology Research Organization, Yokohama, Japan, and others) have a new book that will be published soon:

Book Description: The purpose in writing this book is to give an historical overview of a new challenging field of research, and equip the readers with the mathematical basis of gravitoelectromagnetic theories and their applications to advanced science and technology.
The first chapter introduces the historical background of electrogravity, especially on the Biefeld-Brown effect. The second chapter gives several explanations on the Biefeld-Brown effect and other related phenomena, with a concern on the Einstein’s Unified Field Theory of Gravitation and electromagnetism and gravitational anomaly induced by the massive electrostatic charges of planets. The third chapter is concerned with the electrogravitic effect related to the zero point energy fluctuation in the vacuum, introduced from the standpoint of quantum electrodynamics.
The fourth chapter discusses other electromagnetic gravity control devices including the Heim theory and their applications for space flight. The fifth chapter has shown that the Abraham force is the analogue of the Magnus force, and it thus represents the formation of vortex structures, of electromagnetic nature, in the physical vacuum: the electromagnetotoroid which can generate gravitational field. The sixth chapter deals with the plasma theory of the Universe and the role played by the gravitoelectromagnetic forces generated by the plasma permeating the space between planets. And the last chapter shows the application on advanced aviation systems and future prospects of these technologies.

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