Category Archives: Transhumanism

Many Americans subscribe to the annoying belief that our nation's military-industrial complex is the surest way to remain the wealthiest and leading superpower in the world. After all, it's worked for the last century, pro-military supporters love to point out.

However, America's dependence on warmongering may soon become a liability that is impossible to maintain. Transhumanism, globalization, and outright replacement of human soldiers with robots are redefining the county's military requirements, and they may eventually render defense budgets far smaller than those now. To compensate and keep America spending approximately 20 percent of the federal budget on defense (as we have for most of the last few years), we'll either have to manufacture wars to use all our newly-made bombs, or find another way to keep the American economy afloat.

It just so happens that there is another waya method that would satisfy liberals and conservatives alike, as well as other politically minded folks (Im a libertarian candidate for California Governer). Instead of always spending more on our military, we could transition our nation and its economy into a scientific-industrial complex.

There's compelling reason to do this beyond what meets the eye. Transhumanist technology is starting to radically change human life. Many experts expect to be able to stop aging and conquer death for human beings in the next 25 years. Others, like myself, see humans merging with machines and replacing our organs with bionic ones.

Such a new transhuman society will require many trillions of dollars to satisfy humans ever-growing desire for physical perfection (machine or biological) in the transhumanist age. We could keep our economy humming along for decades because of it.

Whatever happens, something is going to have to give in the future regarding military profiteering. Part of this is because in the past, the military-industrial complex operated off always keeping a few million US military members ready on a moment's notice to travel around the world and fight. But there's almost no scenario where we would need that kind of human-power (and infrastructure to support it) anymore.

Increasingly, small teams of special operation soldiers and uber-high tech are the way America fights its wars. We just don't need massive military bases anymore, nor the thousands of companies to support the constant maintenance of ground troops. Such a reality changes the economics of the military dramatically, and will eventually leave it a fraction of its size in terms of personnel and real estate.

The coming military age of automated drones, robot tanks, cyberwarfare, and artificial intelligence just doesn't require that many people

We'll still have the need for technology to fight the wars and conflicts we entangle ourselves in, but it'll be mostly engineers, programmers, and technicians who wear the uniform. The coming military age of automated drones, robot tanks, cyberwarfare, and artificial intelligence just doesn't require that many people. In fact, expect the military not just to shrink, but to mostly disappear into ones and zeroes.

Many people think that the beast of a military-industrial complexmade famous by President Dwight Eisenhower's warning against it in his farewell addressappeared only in the last 50 years. However, others persuasively argue that America has been at war 93 percent of the time since the US Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776so it's been with us from the beginning.

In liberal California where I live, such facts annoy just about everyone I knowexcept, of course, those who are shareholders and beneficiaries of the defense industry. Thankfully, despite Congress being led by mostly older white religious men, the younger generation clamors for an improved Americaone that can keep its economies running smoothly in a more peaceful way.

This is where the scientific-industrial complex comes in and could satisfy most everyone. And best of all, a society of science requires actual people. Lots of them: nurses, scientists, start-up CEOs, designers, technologists, and even lawyers. The advent of modern medicine to treat virtually every ailmentand the whole anti-aging movement, in generalaffects all 325 million Americans. Over half of us suffer from health issues that can be improved but often aren't, for a variety of reasons. For example, the US Census Bureau reports that 40 percent of people over the age of 65 suffer from a disabilityand for two thirds of them, it's mobility-related issues. And millions are already racking up the symptoms of heart disease that will kill them. And a younger generation is just waiting to explore bionics, chip implants, and how to upgrade their genes to avoid health problems in the future. All this means we have the fodder to reshape the American economy from a militaristic-based one to a type that thrives off scientific and medical innovation.

Instead of spending American money on sending our soldiers to risk their lives for the whims of war, we could be giving civilians the medicine and healthcare they need to live far better and longer. And living longer has unseen benefits, too. In the future, bonafide transhumans won't have to retire if they don't want to. Their bodies will be ageless and made so strong through technology that work and careers may continue indefinitelyand therefore, theyll be able to continue contributing to the economy indefinitely. Transhuman existence is a self-fulfilling economic-boom prophesy for both individual and country.

Currently, the US Constitution (which I personally think needs a significant rewrite for the 21st century) is overly concerned with protection of national sovereigntywhich is one major reason why the military-industrial complex is allowed to grow undeterred. If the US Constitution was endowed with precise wording to also protect an individual's health, well-being, and longevity, then a scientific-industrial complex could rise. This new cultural and legal reform would help to provide the most modern medicine, technology, and science possible to its people. And since I believe interpretation of the non-aggression principle should include harmful natural phenomenalike aging, existential risk, and diseaseI believe minarchist values could support limited government to help people overcome these things.

Shamefully, the Iraq War will cost the US approximately $6 trillion dollars by the time we're actually done paying all our billsdespite the fact that it's highly questionable whether Iraq was ever even a serious national security issue. However, our country undeniably faces a serious national security issue todayin fact, I'd call it a full blown crisis. Nearly 7,000 Americans will die in the next 24 hours from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, aging, and other issues. And the same amount of people will die tomorrow and the day after.

Overcoming disease and aging in the transhuman age will inevitably occur. The question is not if, but when? The answer lies in how much our nation is willing to spend on scientific and medical researchand how soon. But so long as it continues to spend money on the military instead of citizen's health, human beings will diewhich is ironic since it's the military that is supposed to protect us (and not inadvertently sabotage us by swallowing funding for bombs instead of medicine). All we need do as a country is change the direction of our spending, from defense to science. If we can transform America into a scientific-industrial complex, we'll still be able to keep our economy chugging along. Let America's new wars be fought against cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and aging itself. It's a win-win, except for body bag and casket makers.

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Let's Turn America's Military-Industrial Complex into a Science-Industrial Complex - HuffPost

social and philosophical movement

Transhumanism, social and philosophical movement devoted to promoting the research and development of robust human-enhancement technologies. Such technologies would augment or increase human sensory reception, emotive ability, or cognitive capacity as well as radically improve human health and extend human life spans. Such modifications resulting from the addition of biological or physical technologies would be more or less permanent and integrated into the human body.

The term transhumanism was originally coined by English biologist and philosopher Julian Huxley in his 1957 essay of the same name. Huxley refered principally to improving the human condition through social and cultural change, but the essay and the name have been adopted as seminal by the transhumanism movement, which emphasizes material technology. Huxley held that, although humanity had naturally evolved, it was now possible for social institutions to supplant evolution in refining and improving the species. The ethos of Huxleys essayif not its lettercan be located in transhumanisms commitment to assuming the work of evolution, but through technology rather than society.

The movements adherents tend to be libertarian and employed in high technology or in academia. Its principal proponents have been prominent technologists like American computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil and scientists like Austrian-born Canadian computer scientist and roboticist Hans Moravec and American nanotechnology researcher Eric Drexler, with the addition of a small but influential contingent of thinkers such as American philosopher James Hughes and Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. The movement has evolved since its beginnings as a loose association of groups dedicated to extropianism (a philosophy devoted to the transcendence of human limits). Transhumanism is principally divided between adherents of two visions of post-humanityone in which technological and genetic improvements have created a distinct species of radically enhanced humans and the other in which greater-than-human machine intelligence emerges.

The membership of the transhumanist movement tends to split in an additional way. One prominent strain of transhumanism argues that social and cultural institutionsincluding national and international governmental organizationswill be largely irrelevant to the trajectory of technological development. Market forces and the nature of technological progress will drive humanity to approximately the same end point regardless of social and cultural influences. That end point is often referred to as the singularity, a metaphor drawn from astrophysics and referring to the point of hyperdense material at the centre of a black hole which generates its intense gravitational pull. Among transhumanists, the singularity is understood as the point at which artificial intelligence surpasses that of humanity, which will allow the convergence of human and machine consciousness. That convergence will herald the increase in human consciousness, physical strength, emotional well-being, and overall health and greatly extend the length of human lifetimes.

The second strain of transhumanism holds a contrasting view, that social institutions (such as religion, traditional notions of marriage and child rearing, and Western perspectives of freedom) not only can influence the trajectory of technological development but could ultimately retard or halt it. Bostrom and American philosopher David Pearce founded the World Transhumanist Association in 1998 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with those social institutions to promote and guide the development of human-enhancement technologies and to combat those social forces seemingly dedicated to halting such technological progress.

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Tomasz Pierscionek is a doctor specialising in psychiatry. He was previously on the board of the charity Medact, is editor of the London Progressive Journal and has appeared as a guest on RTs Sputnik and Al-Mayadeens Kalima Horra.

The dream that we may one day transcend our physical and intellectual barriers through advancements in cybernetics and nanotechnology could became a reality during this century. But would this be a blessing or a curse?

As science expands its frontiers and technology continues to evolve, ideas once deemed fanciful or considered part of science fiction find themselves within the realm of possibility. New discoveries may give rise to unique potential and perils, as the field of ethics struggles to keep pace with the latest technological advancements. The dream that one day we humans may eclipse our physical and mental fetters through augmentation by cybernetics or nanotechnology could become a reality. Although transhumanism and posthumanism are considered modern concepts, the idea of improving or transcending the human condition has been explored in philosophy and literature since at least the mid-19th century.

In his bookThus Spoke Zarathustra, 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche introduced the concept of the bermensch (overman or superman) as a goal towards which humans ought to strive, whereby they take control of their own destinies, work collectively towards the betterment of humanity and create a higher set of ideals to give their existence greater meaning. Nietzsche wrote Man is something that shall be overcome. (The notion of bermensch was later corrupted by the Nazis, who integrated it into their perverse racial theories).

Samuel Becketts playEndgame (1957) suggests some possible outcomes from refining the human body with technology, before rejecting transhumanism as a sinister concept: the very technology which keeps Becketts characters alive, after they have exceeded their natural lifespans, also entraps them and makes them over-reliant upon it. Even as far back as 1839, American writer Edgar Allan Poe made reference to unnatural life extension in a satirical short story The Man That Was Used Up where a mysterious and eulogized war hero, whose body parts have been replaced with prosthetics, needs to be assembled piece by piece each day by his African American valet.

Artificial limbs, mechanical heart valves, and devices such as pacemakers already exist to reduce disability and improve, or extend, an individuals quality of life. British engineer Professor Kevin Warwick and his wife took things to another level in 2002 when they had microchips and sensors implanted into their arms, and connected to their nervous systems, enabling them to feel each others sensations. Professor Warwick could reportedly feel the same sensations as his wife from a different location.

Some might dismiss this project as a curious gimmick, but Warwick has voiced plans to expand the project and develop a community of fellow cyborgs connected via their chip implants to superintelligent machines, creating, in effect, superhumans.

He hopes such future technology might greatly enhance human potential, commenting Being linked to another persons nervous system opens up a whole world of possibilities.

The prospect of attaining superior intelligence or physical attributes may be tempting or appear liberating, but cybernetic enhancement could, theoretically, also be used as a means of control. Whoever manufactures the technologies that augment humans would be in a very powerful position and wield an immense degree of control over their human customers (or subjects). Moreover, cybernetically enhanced humans could see their microchips hacked, have their sensations detected by unwanted parties and stored in a database, or be at risk of receiving unsolicited or unpleasant impulses. Might we evolve from homo sapiens to homo servus?

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Ray Kurzweil, American author and advocate for transhumanism, predicted in his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near that within a few decades time the human organism will become upgraded, due to mindboggling advancements in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics, to create, in effect, a new species with superior skills and intelligence, virtually immortal lifespans, and unforeseen capabilities. Kurzweil predicts the Singularity will occur by the middle of this century and realize the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality.

While considering the possibly that augmented humans might exist within our lifespans, it becomes clear that the technology to transcend our bog-standard homo sapiens existence would not be available to all simultaneously. The wealthy, or otherwise privileged, could become yet more powerful and emotionally distant from those they rule, or over whom they exert economic control. Would the elites use bermensch making technologies to forever establish themselves as a ruling class with God like powers to laud over the Untermensch poor and oppressed who toil until their comparatively short and expendable lifespans give out?

Alternatively, if the means to augment humans became widely available, would there be pressure to convert to a transhuman state? Would those who transcend, or those who refuse to do so, be discriminated against? While many barriers presently divide humans (economic, religious, cultural, political, ethnic), is it wise to introduce what could become yet another excuse for division and antipathy?

Of course, military applications of human enhancing technologies would soon be found. Armed forces across the globe would want to give their soldiers an edge over the enemy. Soldiers having no physical, physiological, or cognitive limitation will be key to survival and operational dominance in the future, says Michael Goldblatt, former director of the Defense Sciences Office (DSO), part of the US Department of Defense's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). DSOs scientists have reportedly sought ways to make soldiers remain active on the battlefield for up to seven days with little or no sleep, and have considered how neural implants might improve cognitive function or allow future soldiers [to] communicate by thought alone.

Whilst we humans spend much time feuding and fighting, is it wise to give ourselves superhuman abilities before we have developed the ethical reasoning, moral compass, and maturity to wield such power? Upgrading ourselves by way of advances in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics could usher in a new era of ultimate freedom, where even the most oppressed are liberated from their drudgery, or condemn the human race to permanent slavery. Although new technologies can be used for either laudable or nefarious purposes, they are typically used for whatever purpose creates the most profit.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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Would human enhancement create Supermen or super tyrants? - RT

Theological Reflections on Technology and Human Enhancement

Technology has changed our world dramatically over the past century and promises to change it more rapidly in coming years. Emerging computer and biomedical technologies have the potential to revolutionize our bodies and perhaps our understanding of human nature. Transhumanism is the name for the movement that enthusiastically embraces the opportunity to transcend bodily limits with new technology, especially the possibility of extending the human lifespan and increasing mental and physical abilities. Its most optimistic advocates predict a future where death has been defeated through the power to reverse biological processes or offload mental states onto computers. What should be the response of the church to Transhumanism and the technological possibilities for human enhancement that are on the horizon?

In September 2015, the Samford Center for Science and Religion held a conference on Transhumanism and the Church as a way to promote critical reflection and public understanding on an issue that will become increasingly important in future decades. The keynote lectures for the conference can be found in the video player and playlist at the top of this page.

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Editor of Transhumanism and Transcendence: Christian Hope in an Age of Technological Enhancement

The College of New Jersey Author of Cyborg Selves: A Theological Anthropology of the Posthuman

Arizona State University Author of Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodiesand What It Means to be Human

Samford University Author of Dimensions of Faith: Understanding Faith Through the Lens of Science and Religion (forthcoming)

Oxford University Author of Eschatology and the Technological Future

St. Louis University Co-Author of Chasing After Virtue: Neuroscience, Economics, and the Biopolitics of Morality (forthcoming)

Emory University Author of Biblical Theology: Problems and Prospects

Wheaton College

Author of Prophets of the Posthuman: American Literature, Biotechnology, and the Ethics of Personhood

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Transhumanism Conference at Samford University

Nothing you can make that can't be made. No one you can save that can't be saved. Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time. It's easy. All you need is love.

The Beatles

Transhumanism is all the rage among the nouveau riche of Silicon Valley, who are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into research they expect will launch The Singularity. What is that, you ask? The Singularity is an anticipated pointas important to transhumanists as the Rapture is to Evangelical Christiansat which the cascade of scientific advances will become unstoppable, allowing transhumanists to recreate themselves as post-humans.

The transhumanist quest has two primary goals: radical life extensionwhich we will not discuss hereand the exponential increase of human intelligence (perhaps because it would better enable them to achieve the first goal). Transhumanists are obsessed with increasing cognitive functioning. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla Inc., has started a company dedicated to developing neural technologies to cure disease and increase human intelligence by way of a direct cortical interfaceessentially a layer of artificial intelligence inside the brain. The company is also reported to be exploring cosmetic brain surgeries to make us smarter.

Musk is not alone in putting his money where his futuristic dreams are. Last year, the New Scientist reported:

The company,Kernel, was launched earlier this year by entrepreneur Bryan Johnson. He says he has spent many years wondering how best to contribute to humanity. I arrived at intelligence. I think its the most precious and powerful resource in existence, says Johnson.

Johnsons belief exemplifies why I find transhumanismessentially neo-eugenicsboth morally deficient and philosophically sterile. Theres nothing wrong with intelligence, of course. It is one of the attributes that make humans exceptional. Indeed, our speciess extraordinary intelligence enabled us to leave the caves.

But intelligence is hardly the most precious and powerful resource in existencenot even close. That place of honor belongs to love. And I find it striking how rarely transhumanists speak about love or how to enhance our capacity to express itexcept, perhaps, in the most carnal sense.

Many animals love, of course. Some birds mate for life. A mare will mourn the death of her foal. A mother bear will kill without hesitation if she thinks her cub is endangered. A dog may sacrifice his own life to save his master. But only humans have the inherent capacity to giveand apprehendLove with a capital L.

Perhaps transhumanists have little interest in the human capacity to love because its full expression transcends carbon molecules and the firing of neurons. It is no coincidence that a deeply faithful theist gave us perhaps the most profound description of loves boundless scope:

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.Love never fails.

The purer the love, the less the regard for self. And lack of self-regard conflicts with materialistic transhumanism, which is steeped in solipsism and hyper-individuality.

Heres the tragically ironic thing: The people among us who are most innately capable of loveat least, in the full sense described by St. Paulare those with Down syndrome. Every person I have ever met with that genetic condition is better than I am because of his or her greater capacity to love.

But they are not intelligent, at least not in the particular ways that transhumanists value. And sad to say, we are in the midst of a pogrom to wipe these beautiful and gentle people off the face of the earth. Denmark has the stated goal of becoming Down syndrome free. Ninety percent of fetuses diagnosed with Down in the U.S. are aborted, while Iceland brags that its abortionists dispense with 100 percent of diagnosed fetuses. France recently prevented Down syndrome associations from running TV advertisements about the joys of parenting Down children, because they could make those who aborted their Down babies feel guilty. These awful statistics indict us for lack of love.

Besides, love is not a quantifiable quality, as many consider intelligence to be. There is no quick fix for the love-challenged. Our hearts cannot be enhanced through brain implants or other futuristic tinkering. On the contrary, learning how to love usually requires being loved. It expands through unquantifiable human connections. Transhumanism, on the other hand, is all about effortless improvements. Its adherents seek to become extraordinarylonger life, smarter brains, superhuman capacitieswithout having to really work at it.

Heres the bottom line: No matter how much we strive to engineer ourselves into post-humanity, no matter the fortunes invested by transhumanist venture capitalists in increasing our intelligence, exponentially expanding our capacity to love is the only way we will ever truly enhance the human species.

Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institutes Center on Human Exceptionalism. His most recent book isCulture of Death: The Age of Do Harm Medicine.

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What's Love Got to Do with Transhumanism? - First Things

Will we see a woolly mammoth within our lifetimes? If PayPal founder and CEO Peter Thiel has anything to say about it, we will.

According to Ben Mezrichs upcoming book Woolly, the notoriously future-obsessed Thiel has quietly been funding an ongoing project by geneticist George Church and his team of researchers at Harvard University to bring back the woolly mammoth.

Thats right: The same Thiel whose financial support of wrestler Hulk Hogans lawsuit against Gawker Media that effectively bankrupted the company is trying to help resurface the woolly mammoth from extinction.

The Harvard researchers led by Church are using the groundbreaking gene editing technique called CRISPR to insert woolly mammoth genes into the DNA of Asian elephants. According to Mezrich, Thiel gave $100,000 to the project in 2015.

Proponents of this project say that bringing back the prehistoric animal could help turn back climate change. Part of the logic behind this argument is that large herbivores trampling permafrost could help slow the loss of this slow-to-replenish environmental resource. In the last century, permafrost loss has been a self-reinforcing feedback loop the more the climate warms, the more permafrost is lost, and the more permafrost thats lost, the faster the climate warms.

On a more conceptual level, though, bringing back the woolly mammoth would call into question the very notion of extinction. As Inverse previously reported on this project, the same techniques used to bring back the woolly mammoth could be used for other, more contemporary animals.

This isnt the first time Thiel has aimed to disrupt death. The libertarian venture capitalist has put his money behind some pretty weird projects throughout his career. Among these are bioprinted meats, transhumanism via cryopreservation, and perhaps most famously, blood transfusions to prolong life. Thats what makes this revelation perhaps not as much of one: A billionaire whos obsessed with immortality is helping to fund a project intended to turn back geological time.

With such a varied resume of funding bizarre and ambitious scientific efforts, it should come as little surprise that Thiel wants to help bring back the woolly mammoth. Also, lets be real: For a man whose net worth is $2.7 billion, a $100,000 gift to a research laboratory is not a huge sacrifice. And while there are significant technological hurdles to overcome before we see a baby woolly mammoth take its first steps using CRISPR on embryonic stem cells and growing the fetuses in an artificial womb, just to name a couple it looks like Peter Thiel is betting the woolly mammoth will be stumbling alongside us soon.

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Peter Thiel is Funding the Comeback of the Woolly Mammoth - Inverse

German publisher and developer Daedalic Entertainment has released 15 minutes of new gameplay footage via IGN of its upcoming futuristic thriller,State of Mind,which is poised to release on PC, Mac, Linux, Switch, Xbox One, and PS4 sometime in Q4 2017.

For those that dont know:State of Mindis a futuristic thriller game that delves deep into transhumanism. According to Daedalic, the games main themes are separation, disjuncture and reunification: all set in a world that is torn between a dystopian material reality and a utopian virtual reality.

It is said in the game you will employ multiple playabable characters in two separate game worlds; however, it appears the main character of the game is Richard Nolan, a father and journalist from Berlin who discovers that he has been subject to an accident. As a result, he is still living with incomplete memories.

From there, Richard sets out on a search for salvation, aiming to reunite with his family and his lost memories. On his way though, he realizes his journey is not just about him, but the future of mankind.

Its currently unclear how muchState of Mindwill cost. Below, you can check out the new gameplay footage:

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Futuristic Thriller State of Mind Gets 15 Minutes of New Gameplay Footage - DualShockers

In a time of worldwide rebellion against the political norms, it can seem impossible to keep up with the onslaught of movements set to change the course of world history.

Thankfully, Jamie Bartletts Radicals Chasing Utopia: Inside the Rogue Movements Trying to Change World(Nation Books, June 13, 2017), seeks to connect readers to a handful of those movements. Bartlett brings readers deep inside the libertarian movement as they attempt to create a perfect libertarian utopia, filled with imaginary Bitcoins and so much freedom youll die because you cant afford healthcare, to the pits of the far-right as Bartlett spends time with the former English Defense Leagues Tommy Robinson.

When it comes to current events, the Robinson chapter that resonates the most as around the globe far-right, anti-immigration groups attempt to pass themselves off not as racist, but rationals. Bartlett embedded with Robinson through his attempt to launch Pegida-UK, an anti-Islam action group that Robinson hoped would be less controversial than his previous stint with EDL.

Bartlett paints the group, and Robinson with far too kind a brush, but does an excellent job of spelling out their beliefs, especially how they see themselves. Even venturing as far to claim they are not the fascists the world thinks they are.

Unfortunately for the reader, Bartlett seems slightly unaware of the history of the anti-fascist movement and doesnt paint their interaction with Robinson in a favorable light. Instead, he paints the group as ignorant to Robinsons positions and makes them out to be the antagonist against a man marching to remove rights from human beings.

While the reader can appreciate the honest reporting on working with Robinson, the book lacks a real leftist rebellion perspective and instead opens by telling readers other books have been written doing such. However, if this is the only book a reader opens on radical movements happening around the world, they are going to leave a slight sense of sympathy for Robinson, even when finding his views abhorrent, and will know nothing about the worldwide anti-fascist movement to stop him and those like him.

Perhaps the books most eye-opening moment comes when Bartlett brings the reader on a journey through the eyes of someone who leaves the comfort of their home to join ISIS or other radical Islamic movements.

This may be one of the hardest things for a Westerner to understand. How does someone become radicalized online? In their community? How are they convinced to leave it all behind to what may seem like an imminent death?

While politicians and famed atheists argue about the dangers of faith versus an aggressive foreign policy, young people are packing their bags and sneaking around the globe to fight for these extremist groups.

Few books and even fewer authors have the opportunity to bring you this close to those decisions and bring the reader right into the moment.

While the book may fall slightly short for its lack of the biggest leftist movements fighting for change, choosing instead to showcase fringe movements such as transhumanism, the book is enlightening in many ways.

It is said one of the best ways to fight your enemy is to know them, and reading about Robinson, Pegida-UK and getting to know the libertarian movement in a little more depth certainly prepares the reader to combat such dangerous ideologies.

If youre looking to expand your knowledge of the right, or even just some out of the ordinary movements looking to change the world as we know it, Bartletts Radicals Chasing Utopia will deliver.

This review originally appeared on http://www.danarel.com

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Radicals Chasing Utopia Sets out to Be Your User Guide to Radical Movements - HuffPost

Cutting-edge technologies and innovations are changing the way we live on our planet.

Our world is changing fast. Its sometimes hard to keep up with all the industrial and scientific breakthroughs that are surfacing every day. Here is our pick for cutting-edge technologies and innovations that could change the way we live on our planet:

This is another brainwave from Elon Musk and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (better known as SpaceX), that hopes to improve and ultimately change the face of transportation. The design is surprisingly elegant in its simplicity. There are specifically designed pods or capsules upheld in a near vacuum that are floating on 0.05 inches of pressurized air, which are then sent at high speed through a steel tube.

This passenger capsule is expected to travel at an average speed of approximately 600 miles per hour, with a potential maximum speed of up to 760 miles per hour. Energy efficient and wicked fast, this innovation could change the way people get from place to place.

Energy efficient and wicked fast, this innovation could change the way people get from place to place forever. (Source)

More of an intellectual movement than an invention, transhumanism is the belief that humans can still evolve. Its that final evolution linking our minds and bodies with advanced technology, a subject thats been popularized by sci-fi films and books for years.

In fact, the term transhumanism was coined by Julian Huxley, the brother of Brave New World author Aldous Huxley. The idea is to ultimately bring forth a post-human state of being. While the concept is unnerving at its best for many, for those who embrace the idea there has never been a more exciting time to be alive, even if that life may be linked to a hard drive.

Transhumanism is the belief that humans can still evolve. (Source)

This is the name given to the design of a method of advanced space propulsion technology, also known as a radio frequency or RF resonant cavity thruster. This electromagnetic thruster uses pent up electromagnetic radiation to achieve momentum without discharging propellant.

SEE ALSO Why space startups focus on sales research before actual production

The conservation of momentum implied in Newtons laws of motion says it should be impossible, and therefore there are many skeptical scientists whove given it the nickname the impossible drive. However, if they do get it to work, it would completely change how we could lift off, making space exploration and defense missions that much simpler.

The EM drive uses pent up electromagnetic radiation to achieve impetus and momentum without discharging propellant. (Source)

Samsung bought the company back in 2014 and the concept is basically in the name. The idea is to produce a smart home using an open platform where your appliances and devices all interact with one another. Using the internet of things, the system would work on a hub connected straight into the houses internet router, connecting devices to one another via the cloud.

Compatible things could consist of locks, lights, electrical outlets, motion sensors, speakers, thermostats, and more. Like most innovations that lurk on the border of sci-fi and reality, this sounds like it could either be amazing or a hackers paradise.

Using the internet of things the system would work on a hub connected straight into the houses internet router. (Source)

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4 life-changing emerging technologies to get excited about - Born2Invest

Balancing science and belief

Ancient belief systems are like ancient maps. They have some historical value, but they are useless when navigating the world today.

Meghan OGieblyns article on faith (Technologys answer to the God question, 12 May) clearly derives from her religious upbringing. Having been led into an ancient belief system, she has been troubled by its paradoxes and inconsistencies ever since. Then, flying from one extreme to another, she has turned to ideas of futuristic fantasies and found them equally troublesome. But people have been downloading their minds onto hard copy since the invention of books. There is no cause for alarm as we switch from paper to computer.

OGieblyn should apportion her beliefs to the evidence. Ancient tales of the supernatural and their futuristic equivalents lose their power to enthral when subjected to that test. Then, hopefully, she will contribute to the enlightenment of others, rather than adding to the present unnecessary confusion. Les Reid Edinburgh, UK

Meghan OGieblyn offers a fascinating journey into the interface between science and faith. Will computer science achieve the eschatological (future) hope of resurrection the Gospel offers?

Her thesis could be seen as even closer to Christian orthodoxy than she outlines. She begins with a refreshingly clear description of the dispensational school of eschatology she was taught. Not all theologians would be emphatic about eschatology, though the terrestrial understanding she later describes from Pastor Christopher Benek is more common among some orthodox schools than she appears to have assumed. She also refers to arguments about whether the body or just the soul will be raised the dualism that denies bodily resurrection is not really biblical.

She then touches on humility, which I think is the nub of what she is looking for. She mentions the certitude of modern science. I believe most scientists are humble enough to know that science is about the search for truth. One question is how vulnerable we software human beings will be to cyber-attack. She mentions the history of attempts to realise the promises of resurrection through human endeavour is transhumanism an extension of the Enlightenment myth of progress that current atrocities show for what it is?

The real difference between faith and atheism is whether the future can be trusted to human progress, or whether all we can rely on in the end is the grace of God. Martin Jewitt Folkestone, UK

Meghan OGieblyns article may be no more than a new attempt to avoid old death anxiety. Does transhumanism promise an uploading (resurrection) to an afterlife of virtual paradise? If so, same-same ... but no different! Stewart Stubbs Wentworth Falls, NSW, Australia

Technologys answer to the God question and the later Discovery article about extreme altruism should have been reversed to better serve the readership. The world needs more selfless people to donate organs, and less emphasis on the self-indulgent. Stephen Banks Birmingham, UK

HR McMaster, US national security adviser, said that president Donald Trumps disclosure to the Russians of sensitive intelligence information was appropriate in the context of the conversation (Trump reportedly shared classified information with Russia, 19 May). Is this a cover-up for White House duplicity?

Surely it is time to bring forward a noun rarely used in the Americas. Trumpery (OED): practices or beliefs that are superficially or visually appealing but have little real value or worth. An appropriate word for the next four years, or less please, much less! William Emigh Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Nicky Jenner provides a fascinating explanation of why we must not give up on Mars (12 May). The main reasons seem to be that we have loved Mars for centuries and there is scientific curiosity. A few pages prior, in World roundup, we read that in Yemen only 3 million people out of the 7 million people who were starving had been fed last month. It is hard for liberals. We care. But we live too comfortably with our inconsistencies. Not easy to reconcile, but we owe it to our principles to try. Bob Walsh Wilton, Connecticut, US

I noted the slump in the sales of ebooks (5 May) but can tell you that they have a place. They are a lifesaver for people with limited vision (adjustable font size and backlit) and for arthritic hands (easy to hold). You can take several books on a long trip. Here in New Zealand they have the advantage of price and availability. Their disadvantages: they are useless for diagrams; do not show photographs to advantage; the batteries need recharging; and, of course, you cant pass them on. Kitty Monk Auckland, New Zealand

I was taken aback by Andrew Rawnsley (28 April) on the UK general election and the notion that its election time and the fibbin is easy. Telling fibs to the electorate is all right. Do we agree with this? If so, there is no doubt in my mind as to why people are voting for so-called populist non-politicians. George Hanna Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand

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Continued here:

Guardian Weekly letters, 26 May 2017 - The Guardian