History of Transhumanism

1
History of Transhumanism

• Matthew Goodman

2
Overview

• Early roots-
• Root of skepticism
• Scientific Revolution
• Info-tech Revolution
• Confluence

3
Early Vestiges

• 14th and 15th century
• Renaissance Humanism
• studia humanitatis
• Increasing awareness of value of the individual
• Large tie to Christian Humanism

4
Renaissance Humanists

• Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 1500
• Oration on the Dignity of Man
• Sculpt your own statue
• Large conflict with the papacy
• Rene Decartes 1500
• Mind-Body Dualism
• Father's of Scientific Revolution

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Roots of skepticism

• Deep seated concept of hubris
• NB Gilgamesh, Icarus, Aquinas
• Take home message Hubris
• Ancient Greek sin
• Arrogance before the fall
• Direct opposition to Transhumanist thought

6
Scientific Revolution

• Notable Philosophers/Scientists
• Marquis de Condorcet
• Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov
• Russian Cosmism
• Increase in Materialist thought

7
Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794)

• Perfectibility of Society
• Big ideas about Human Progress
• Unity disregards race, religion, culture,
  ethnicity or sex
• Equality as a barrier to utopia

8
Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov (1829-1903)?

• First Russian Cosmist
• Evolutionary progress directed toward increased
  intelligence
• Foundational Transhumanist ideas
• Immortality
• Revival of the dead
• Space and Ocean Colonization

9
Russian Cosmism (1850 - present)?

• Draws ideas of Eastern and Western Philosophy
• Vladimir Vernadsky Ideas of Space Colonization
• Idea of the noosphere
• Origin of strong Transhumanist presence in Russia?

10
Neitzsche

• Übermensch (The Overman) 1909
• Idea of transcendence clearly implied
• Humanity should be more than it is today.
• Concept that man was to transcend and or become
  Godly
• Beginning of schism within Transhumanist thought
• Über - superiority, transcendence, excessiveness,
  or intensity

11
Modern Transhumanism

• First use of Transhumanism as a word
• Unclear Disputed b/t
• Nietzsche der Übermensch
• Julian Huxley in a biology related text
  1957/1927?
• Related ideas were already clearly explored . . .

12
Role of 1900's Sci-Fi

• Many precursor works between 1600-1900
• Genre proper began in the late 1800's
• Beginning of systematic examination of the
  possibilities of the future
• Sci-Fi utopia and dystopia symbols of ideas to
  come

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Sci-Fi Writers

• Arthur C. Clarke
• Isaac Asimov
• Robert Heinlein
• Stanislaw Ulam

14
Info-tech Revolution

• IT introduced many of the ideas that are
  currently discussed in contemporary literature
• New Ideas
• New Integrated Disciplines
• Enabled the communication of many people about
  obscure topics

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Info-Tech New Ideas

• J. B. S. Haldane
• Science and the Future
• Advance of science as a tool
• There is no great invention, from fire to
  flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to
  some god.

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Explosion of IT TH Thinkers

• Freemon Dyson - Experimental Physicist
• Marvin Minsky One of the earliest CS
• Hans Moravec Roboticist
• Alan Turing
• Gordon E. Moore
• John von Neumann
• Gordon E. Moore
• I. J. Good

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FM-2030

• Taught new concepts of the Human
• First organized talking about TH topics
• "transitory human"
• posthumanity
• Published many books
• Upwingers Manifesto 1973
• Man into Superman 1974
• Are you a transhuman? 1989

18
The Extropy Institute

• Founded by Max More 1988 (Natasha Vita-More)?
• Online discussion of hundreds of TH related
  topics
• Extropy Mailing List
• Breeding Ground for TH ideas
• artificial intelligence, nanotechnology
• genetic engineering, mind uploading
• space exploration, memetics

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Extropy Buds All of the Modern

• Alcor Life Extension Foundation 1972
• Cryonics Institute 1976
• Transhumanist Arts Culture 1982
• World Transhumanist Association 1998
• Nick Bostrom
• IEET
• TSN
• H Club )

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Ethics

• I'm Sorry this is a bit foolish
• bioethics
• infoethics
• nanoethics
• neuroethics
• roboethics
• technoethics

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Modern Resultant Standpoints

• Democratic Transhumanism
• Immortalism
• Technogaianism
• Libertarian Transhumanism
• Techno-progressivism
• Bioconservatism
• Singularitarianism
• Abolitionism