Uploading ourselves We transcend limitations Increasing their scope - samantha Transhumanism: "We put the 'pursuit' back into the 'pursuit of happiness'" Mike Lorrey "I tell you, as long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it. This is the law of my life. That is the working within me of Life's incessant aspiration to higher organization, wider, deeper, intense self-consciousness and clearer self-understanding." -- George Bernard Shaw ('Man and Superman') It's now more important to learn boring algebra than to practice fun rock throwing. So you take your choice. If you choose happiness over survival too consistently--well, then you die happy. Or else, you thrive grumpily. It's the tragedy of the human condition. About time we changed it, in my humble opinion. -Hans Moravec I'll get the implanted cellphone. With an answering machine for when I'm out of my head. -David Malcolm Willy Wonka: If the good Lord had intended us to walk he wouldn't have invented roller-skates. We all must work and strive If we expect to thrive We've not that long to be alive This isn't forever But if it isn't forever, Then what's it for? And if it isn't forever, Then how is it worth dying for? Rebuild me, remake me, refit me, reshape me My flawed and failing body Refit me and rebuild me Strip my flesh, wire mesh Machinery to heal me Because eyes of glass and silver will not cry I spread my plastic wings and fly One thousand million years have shaped this form Man made messiah In my own image I am reborn! Eyes of glass and silver will not cry I spread my plastic wings and fly One thousand million years have shaped this form Hand made messiah Withdrawn from nature, I am reformed In my own image I am reborn! - The Land Canaan, Alive Luddites, go home! Just Say No to the Stone Age! Corwyn J. Alambar Mankind is a catalysing enzyme for the transition from a carbon-based to a silicon based intelligence. But the scientific and technological advances with which we are concerned here are in many respects unprecedented. Genetic engineering, nanotechnology and AI not only promise quantitative increases in power, but also qualitative changes in the KIND of power humans and their institutions will have. One thing that marks transhumanist thinking is the extent to which we see these advances as marking a phase-shift in human history. For better or worse, this realization is increasingly sinking into the comprehension of a wider and wider realm of commentators and actors. Those who want to turn back from the brink of this qualitative change are coming to agree with us about how momentous the leap we face will be. Greg Burch TRABAR -- Transcend beyond all recognition Mikael Johansson We love humanity We love technology We embrace sanity With no apology --AFB "There before him, a glittering toy no Star-Child could resist, floated the planet Earth with all its peoples. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something." - Sir Arthur Clarke, 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY "Man would be otherwise. That is the essence of the specifically human." - ANTONIO MACHADO, Juan de Mairena "Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable." - Samuel Johnson "May you live in eternity's sunrise, on the seashore of endless worlds." William Blake & Rabindranath Togore combined by J.R. Molloy Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age. Energy is the only life and is from the Body; and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy Energy is Eternal Delight -- William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1793 +Frank.Prengel@munich.netsurf.de+ > +To err is human ... do you want to err forever?+ Forward Ever Backwards Never Love Parade "When it becomes fashionable to discredit man" and to proclaim the felicity of a nature freed from his presence, we insult nature and man both. We are part of nature, but we seek that which nature cannot yet deliver: equity, compassion, the work of the mind. Part of the technology of transcendence is the action of homo faber: when need be, such action must define a neonature, a "divine" component to an albeit astonishing process, the evolving cosmos." Paolo Soleri On a visible but distant shore a new image of man, The shape of his own future, now in his own hands. | Johnny Clegg | Hara Ra | | Box 8334 SantaCruz, CA 95061 | | | | Death is for animals; | | immortality for gods. | | Technology is the means by | | which we make the transition. | O-------------------------------O Our place in the universe is basically accidental. We are weak and mortal, but it's not the holy will of the gods; it's just the way things happen to be at the moment. And this is radically unsatisfactory; not because we direly miss the shelter of the Deity, but because, looked at objectively, the vale of human suffering is basically a dump. The human condition can be changed, and it will be changed, and is changing; the only real questions are how, and to what end. Bruce Sterling, Cyberpunk in the 90's http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPgraf/Manifestos/CPInThe90s.html Human life as we know it in history is a wretched makeshift, rooted in ignorance; and....it could be transcended by a state of existence based on the illumination of knowledge and comprehension..... The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself--not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps _transhumanism_ will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature. Julian Huxley God made man, but v. 3.2 is better Jean-François Lyotard : There is no way back. The sciences offer us the inhuman. We cannot oppose it with the human, we must progress and accept the 'inhuman' (that which will take us further than man as he exists now) and try to push these developments in a positive direction. We have long since taken responsibility for the management of our planets -- for the survival of their ecologies. Why, now, should we not take responsibility for our own long term survival as a species? Stephen Baxter, Ring There's a universe of potential, Lindsay, think of that. No rules, no limits. Bruce Sterling, Schismatrix The paradox of man resolves itself by passing beyond measure. Teilhard de Chardin Increased power for increased action. But, finally and above all, increased action for increased being. Teilhard de Chardin The whole point of transhumanist movements is to do away with deterministic thinking. There is no 'grand scheme of things' into which each individual has her/his 'place' or 'task' to fulfill. A rejection of a pre-determined 'destiny' lies at the very core of our movements. Wether that destiny for the individual has been set by natures genetic codes, or by some 'higher being' makes no difference IMO. J. de Lyser Being human just isn't enough fun. There is no a priori reason why a human being should not combine the qualities, say, of Einstein, Shakespeare, Mozart, Darwin, J.M.W. Turner, a nuthatch and a pocket calculator. Indeed, there is no a priori reason why such a paragon should not be considered ordinary. -- Colin Tudge, TH is a commitment to overcoming human limits in all their forms including extending lifespan, augmenting intelligence, perpetually increasing knowledge, achieving complete control over our personalities and identities and gaining the ability to leave the planet. Transhumanists seek to achieve these goals through reason, science and technology. Extropianism isn't about taking over the world, or wiping out the human race. Extropianism is about this: I want to be a polymath, which is Greek for "know it all". Dying spontaneously will put a crimp in this plan. Damien Sullivan (twirlip) on Thu, 15 Aug 96 15:08 PDT Extropianism is the Enlightenment on steroids Damien R. Sullivan Transhumanism What could be more human? Transhomo est. Transhumani nihil a me alienum puto. --Transterence. (c. 190-159 B.C.) Transheautontimoroumenos >The goal of transhumanism is to make gods that can pun. A Sandberg May your future grasp outreach the past. Exovivo! "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing "small" does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure about you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Nelson Mandela I DONT KNOW HOW I GOT SIGNED UP FOR THIS BUT I WANT TO BE DESIGNED!!!! Kenneth Walter Hahn Ecce >Homo!