Category Archives: Transhumanist

Bilderberg #39;s Transhumanist Art
It #39;s ironic that the gardens at the Grove, site of Bilderberg 2013, feature a transhumanist statue given that Bilderberg is now merging with Eric Schmidt #39;s G...

By: PrisonPlanetLive

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Bilderberg's Transhumanist Art - Video

Martin Heidegger wasnt the only one who believed that we are approaching a boundary of reciprocal man-machine relationships; a boundary which will ultimately put our conceptions of man and machine into question. Some of todays leading thinkers Colin McGill, Adam Keiper, Nick Bostrom, Kevin Warwick, Steven Pinker, and Bill Joy have been fascinated by it as well. So what is all the fuss about?

Technological changes have turned discussions about human self-perception from a peripheral topic into a substantive one. Our conditio humana, that which we have thus far embraced as the essence of human identity, is being put into question. For example, neurotechnologies of the newest generation aim to increase human freedom by transcending established boundaries of human capability. They do so by entering into our own flesh and blood: Brain implants have made it possible to link man and machine at the neural level and have produced simple patterns of neural-technological interaction. Some advocates harbor the ultimate hope of constructing a system of interactivity on a global level: It promises universal agency without the need to even get up from our chair.

Already, some of those technologies have reached the stage of mass adoption. Sensors can be implanted under our skin to measure blood pressure and hormone levels. Military scientists experiment with technologies that can increase soldiers performance and stress resistance or simply replace human warriors with drones.

While we can measure the degree to which technologies transcend physical and physiological boundaries, we can merely speculate about the ethical consequences of these developments and about their effect on human self-perception. The merging of human consciousness and technology changes not only the latter, but also the former. And the question is whether technology will become more human in the long run, or whether humans will become more technical.

The human body sits squarely at the center of this debate. Until today, we have largely conceived of technology as a collection of external objects. Now, technology enters the body, merges with it, becomes a constitutive part of its host. This presents us with a unique moment in evolutionary history. The biggest drivers of change can be found in the military and the pharmaceutical sectors of the economy. And the big unknown is whether we will be able to put the new possibilities to good use.

New ideologies have emerged that frame the techno-narrative and justify its propagation. The most influential among them is the ideology of transhumanism, a worldview predicated on the notion of transcendence. By merging man and machine, transhumanists hope to open up new avenues of human development. A core group of transhumanist thinkers has found a home at Oxford University, from where they fight against the humanist desire to protect and examine humanity in its current form.

While transhumanists want to transcend our current human existence as quickly as possible, humanists proceed at a more leisurely pace. They argue that we must first understand the constitutive factors of humanity: Despite centuries of scientific inquiry, we know remarkably little about what makes us human. For example, the examination of human consciousness and conscious self-perception is still in its early stages.

However, transhumanism has a strange and attractive pull. After all, transhumanists justify the merger of man and machine by pointing to widespread suffering and despair, and by offering a technological remedy. According to scientists like Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford, a hybrid creature with artificial implants or prosthetic limbs would have higher cognitive capacities, better information processing mechanisms and better motor skills. Genetic manipulation or selection could help to prevent diseases or aging processes.

According to transhumanists, this would finally solve a problem that has plagued humans for hundreds of thousands of years. Over the 200,000 years of the existence of homo sapiens, we have remained slaves to our natural abilities. Only in the last hundred years have we pushed into the airspace above us and, ultimately, into space. Only in the last fifty years have we significantly increased our average life expectancy.

Many people put high hopes into these developments. But just as many are justifiably frightened of the transhumanist vision. It would result in decreasing respect for contemporary culture. Literature, art, religion, and philosophy would come to be regarded as remnants from the era of natural men, unworthy of the attention of the New Man. Culture would become replaced by technology. The early stages of that development already unfold all around us: Communication technologies are increasingly unified and global, and they have also led to the abandonment of ethical traditions and established forms of human interaction.

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The Transhumanist Delusion - The European

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While I personally loved the first half of The Transhumanist Wagerand disliked much of the second, I am convinced that the novel is a must read for anyone interested in the future of our civilization.

In my view the novel is full of interesting and controversial contradictions. For example, on the one hand Zoltan Istvan is a philosophically sophisticated author using elements from Platos Republic, Nietzsches Overman (bermensch), Thomas Moores Utopia, Zen Buddhism and other eastern and western philosophies. On the other hand Zoltan has chosen to give us a kind of simplistic, Atlas Shrugged-style of a plot in its black-and-white depiction of an evil government and the lone hero who dares to stand up to it. Regardless of my personal views, however, I enjoyed reading the book and believe that it does a good job of mapping out the dangerous period that our civilization will have to navigate in the next several decades.

Duringmy interview with Zoltan Istvan we cover a variety of topics such as: what is the Transhumanist Wager; how and why he got interested in transhumanism; his protagonist Jethro Knightsand some autobiographical elements of the novel; the potential for conflict between transhumanists and anti-transhumanists; Ayn Rand, objectivism and their impact on the Transhumanist Wager; competition, human nature and death; transhumanism and thetechnological singularity; the ideal state of Transhumania and the price we have to pay to accomplish it

My favorite quote that I will take away from Zoltan Istvan is Morality is often defined by the amount of time we have left.

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.If you want tohelp me produce more episodespleasemake a donation)

About the Author:

At the age of 21, American-HungarianZoltan Istvanbegan a solo, multi-year sailing journey around the world. His main cargo was 500 handpicked books, mostly classics. Hes explored over 100 countriesmany as a journalist for the National Geographic Channelwriting, filming, and appearing in dozens of television stories, articles, and webcasts.

His work has also been featured by The New York Times Syndicate, Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Radio, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Animal Planet, and the Travel Channel. In addition to his award-winning coverage of the war in Kashmir, he gained worldwide attention for pioneering and popularizing the extreme sport of volcano boarding. Zoltan later became a director for the international conservation group WildAid, leading armed patrol units to stop the billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. Back in America, he started various successful businesses, from real estate development to filmmaking to viticulture, joining them under ZI Ventures. He is a philosophy and religious studies graduate of Columbia University and resides in San Francisco with his daughter and physician wife.

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The Transhumanist Wager Is A Choice We'll All Have To Make

ROBOT ALCHEMY: A look into the Transhumanist death trap, with Texe Marrs.
All of Transhumanism is the work of charlatans. It works like all earthly utopias: it promises you a palace, but what it will deliver will be an acre of mud ...

By: ThinkFeelExist

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ROBOT ALCHEMY: A look into the Transhumanist death trap, with Texe Marrs. - Video

Maschinery - Transhumanist

By: Thrash Masch

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Maschinery - Transhumanist - Video

PZ Myers - Hacking Evolution: Transhumanist Fantasies, Biological Realities

By: Joshua Brose

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PZ Myers - Hacking Evolution: Transhumanist Fantasies, Biological Realities - Video

Backlash Against Transhumanist Cyborgs Begins
Backlash Against Transhumanst Cyborgs Begins. Growing opposition against Google Glass is a good sign Subscribe to http://www.YouTube.com/MarkDice http://www....

By: Mark Dice

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Backlash Against Transhumanist Cyborgs Begins - Video

The Mormon Transhumanist Association Barbershop Quartet
The Mormon Transhumanist Association Barbershop Quartet. Uploaded by transfigurism on Mar 14 2013. This is a practice track made by Carl Youngblood for a number we will be performing at our upcoming conference on April 5 2013uploaded in HD at httpwwwtunestotubecom.

By: transfigurism

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The Mormon Transhumanist Association Barbershop Quartet - Video

Chimeras Transhumanist Desires
I thought they were whiskers...but it is a pig nose mask...transhumanism and animal/human combos are already here in secret labs all over the world...thanks for watching and God Bless You!

By: ortegablue

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Chimeras

Transhumanist Agenda AS SEEN IN Dead Space 3
The third video of my social engineering playlist. Again I #39;m going to talk about transhumanism and its connection to the Convergence (singularity in other words merging in to cyber consciousness/ hive mind in DS) in the Dead Space series in general. Gameplay footage is from the Dead Space 3 demo on PS3 and SPOILER ALERT! the cutscene is from the plot twist in chapter 15 from the original game. Dead Space 3 is a EA/Visceral games title and should be acknowledged as such. They hold the copyright and this video in accord with FAIR USE of copyrighted material ie for educational purposes FAIR USE NOTICE: This Video may contain copyrighted ( ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a #39;fair use #39; of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu Information concerning my channel: Read my blog: finnballwizard.blogspot.com Follow me on Twitter twitter.com or twitter.com Feel free to subscribe at any time Watch my videos ...

By: FinnballWizard

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Transhumanist Agenda AS SEEN IN Dead Space 3 - Video