Editor's Blog

Giulio Prisco
09/01/2010 - 22:18

See Also: A Cosmist Manifesto (Excerpt)

The term Cosmism seems to have been introduced by Konstantin Tsiolokovsky and other Russian Cosmists around 1900.  Now, Ben Goertzel's Cosmist Manifesto (published by Humanity+ Press and available on Amazon) gives it new life and a new twist for the 21st century.  Cosmism, as Goertzel presents it, is a practical philosophy for the posthuman era.  Rooted in Western and Eastern philosophy as well as modern technology and science, it is a way of understanding ourselves and our universe that makes sense now, and will keep on making sense as advanced technology exerts its transformative impact in the unfolding future.  Goertzel weaves a philosophic tapestry using AI, nanotechnology, uploading, immortality, psychedelic drugs, meditation, future social structures, psi phenomena, alien and cetacean intelligence and the Singularity.  The Cosmist perspective is shown to make plain old common sense of even the wildest future possibilities.



Ben Goertzel
09/01/2010 - 22:17

This is an excerpt (chapter) from A Cosmist Manifeso: Practical Philosophy for the Posthuman Age by Ben Goertzel, published by Humanity+ Press.

See also: A Cosmist Manifesto: An Advocacy

Some Cosmist Principles  

If my take on Cosmism could be fully summarized in a list of bullet points, I wouldn't write a whole manifesto about it ̶ I'd just write a few bullet points. But, even so, it seems worthwhile to start with a few bullet points, just to whet your appetite for the more thorough and useful exposition to come. Some of these bullets are rather abstract and initially may come across fairly opaque. That is a risk of compressing things into bullet-point form. Read the full text of the Manifesto, think on it a bit, and hopefully you will see that all these ideas have simple, practical, everyday meanings.

Hannah Gilmartin
09/01/2010 - 13:11

An interview with Timothy Taylor in a recent issue of New Scientist highlights how, contrary to Darwin’s theory, human evolution is more complex than simply “survival of the fittest.”  In fact, many of contemporary humanity’s physical features are “weaker” than the earlier model due to the technologies used by our ancestor hominins (australopithecines) and early Homo sapiens.  Examples of accumulated biological deficits include soft nails, hairless bodies and weak jaws.  It is also now clear that the use of primitive tools to create slings (to carry young infants) may have been a key facilitator allowing for our big brains, as development could continue outside the space-restricting womb.

James Peyer
09/01/2010 - 07:50

Popular media coverage of biotechnology is saturated with talk of “revolution” — the time when genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and personalized medicine will change our lives in more ways than we can imagine.  These technologies, we are assured, are right around the corner.  But having heard such promises for well over a decade, I find myself asking:

Are we there yet?

In the past few decades, biology and medicine have overcome problems previously thought insurmountable. But in a world where we expect the exponential progress predicted by Moore's Law, is biotechnology living up to the name "revolution"?

I think it has a way to go.

R.U. Sirius
08/30/2010 - 21:36

Currently a professor at Xiamen Universty, where he teaches theoretical physics and computer science, Hugo de Garis is legendary in AI and futurist circles.  He’s been working on neural networks and “artificial brains” since the 1990s.  de Garis is also an advocate of Femtotechnology — the notion that we could operate technologically at a level a million times smaller than nanotech.  In 2005, de Garis published a controversial book called Artilect Wars that predicted an upcoming “gigadeath” war between Terrans (those who want to remain human) and “Cosmists” (those who want to unite with AIs and become posthuman and post-terrestrial).  

Teaser Image

Alex McKeown
08/30/2010 - 09:07

A Dutch physicist, Eindhoven-based Peter Meijer, has developed a device called vOICe that allows blind people to see, using the aural information entering their ears. The device converts visual information received by a camera into soundscapes, which then gives an aural representation of what the camera sees.

R.U. Sirius
08/25/2010 - 21:38

Film Review

A Hole in the Head, Spectacle Films

I have to make a confession.  I have a soft posterior fontanelle.  When I press on that spot, my head indents noticeably — enough that you can actually see it.  Furthermore, I frequently feel a sort of need to do this.  And when I do it, it seems to help me feel less sleepyheaded and more focussed.  If I'm feeling a bit woozy, it helps me feel less so.  And, indeed, sometimes I feel as though I'd like to drill right into it — as though there is some sort of psychic G spot hungering to be stimulated and satisfied.  Naturally, I've been intrigued by trepanning — the practice of intentionally drilling small holes in the skull.  

Douglas Spinks
08/24/2010 - 21:38

"Information" is one of those words (in English and other romance languages) that are blessed/cursed with a deliciously filigreed constellation of meanings.  It's not that it's lacking a definition, but rather that there exist any number of definitions, each context-dependent, that are largely mutually exclusive.  Information theoreticians will, from a technical perspective, think of Shannon's work — whilst mortal humans will recall aphorisms such as "information is power," and ponder on the relationship between information and wisdom. 

Irrespective of this, there's broad consensus across a variety of au courant academic and applied fields of research that "information" is an increasingly fundamental concept of study.  This is surely no news to fields whose very nomenclature encapsulates the term (viz., "information theory," "bioinformatics," etc.) — but is also equally true for fields as diverse as computer science, systems theory, synthetic biology, and linguistics. 

Brad Templeton
08/23/2010 - 19:06

Courts have a special power over us to compel testimony and force us to hand over evidence.  Through various methods, ranging from warrants and subpoenae to the "discovery" of civil cases, the court can demand evidence about you that is against your interests, and they can seize it by force if necessary.  In many cases, it would not be possible to convict or prevail without this power.

At the same time, we are wary of this power.  People have a presumption of innocence, and these actions are a major invasion if done against the innocent.  Most free nations don't force people to testify against themselves or their immediate family, but all will allow your possessions to be used as evidence against you.

Hank Hyena
08/22/2010 - 10:22

This interview was conducted with Lincoln Cannon, the co-founder, director and president of the Mormon Transhumanists.

H+:  How long has there been a 'Mormon Transhumanist' group, and how many members are there?

Lincoln Cannon: The 14 founding members of the Mormon Transhumanist Association adopted a constitution on 13 May 2006.  We incorporated in Utah of the United States on 4 August 2006, and received 501c3 nonprofit status, effective the same date. We affiliated with Humanity+ (formerly the World Transhumanist Association) on 6 July 2006, and remained affiliated until Humanity+ terminated all affiliations on 6 April 2010.  Today, the Mormon Transhumanist Association consists of 116 members, with approximately 41% living in Utah and 90% living in the United States.  The purpose of the Mormon Transhumanist Association is to promote the Transhumanist Declaration and the Mormon Transhumanist Affirmation (see reference below).

Join the h+ Community

OMG I missed the Singularity?