TechnoCalyps The Movie Part 2/3...

This is part two of the series on TechnoCalyps.  Today we cover preparing for transhumanism.
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THE FILM

Robert Anton Wilson, novelist, philospher, futurist, playwright, polymath, civil libertarian, psychologist.  Recently passed away in 2007. 

 "Mind" is a tool invented by the universe to see itself; but it can never see all of itself, for much the same reason that you can’t see your own back (without mirrors).***

Here is a collection of his online writings.  This is a long video which is a collage of his thoughts over time and events.

Terrence McKenna  (1946-2000) Enough cannot be said about this man.  He was many things.  He was a philosopher, anthropologist, metaphysician, psychonaut, ethnobotanist, art historian, environmentalist, feminist and skeptic.

It is accompanied by a related phenomenon which is technology, or the historical momentum of things, is creating such a bewildering social milieu that the monkey mind cannot find a simple story, a simple creation myth or redemption myth to lay over the crazy contradictory patchwork of profane techno-consumerist post-McLuhanist electronic pre-apocalyptic existence.****

This is a classic online video that is snippet from a lecture he gave.

Hugo De Garis Ph.D., a reasearcher in artificial intelligence, 


Here is a quote from this book, The Artilect War on the future of technological singularity:

It is predicated on the rise of the “artilect,” i.e., machines that use 21st century technologies such as 1 bit per atom storage, reversible, heatless, nano-teched, self assembling, (topological, i.e. robust) quantum computers, that will have capacities zillions of times above human levels. I foresee humanity then splitting into 2 (arguably 3) major philosophical groups, a) the Cosmists (in favor of building artilects), b) the Terrans (opposed), and c) the Cyborgists (who want to convert themselves into artilects by adding components to themselves, i.e. by becoming “cyborgs” (cybernetic organisms)).The Cosmists will view artilect building as something magnificent, almost a “scientist’s religion” in the form of “god building.” The Terrans will fear being exterminated by the artilects, who might look on humanity as a grossly inferior pest. The Cyborgists will argue that the Cosmist-Terran conflict can be avoided by having human beings themselves become artilects. I see the Terrans being horrified at the idea of having their children cyborged and thus made totally alien. The Terrans will fear the idea of artilect building and hence will fear the Cosmists (and their artilects) and advanced cyborgs. (For a Terran, there is little difference between an advanced cyborg and an artilect, such is the astronomic computing capacity of nano-teched matter.)The Terrans know that they cannot wait too long if they are to act, because if they do, then the artilects and cyborgs will become vastly superior to them and could easily defeat them, if needed. So the Terrans will have to “first strike” if the Cosmists are serious about building artilects. The Cosmists will anticipate such a strike and be prepared.Since all this will be playing out in the second half of the century, a major war in that time would be using late 21st century weapons, and hence probably billions (not millions) of people will be killed. What is even gloomier is that most individuals are split more or less evenly in their sympathies towards Cosmism and Terranism, i.e., awed by Cosmism, and terrified at the prospect of gigadeath. So if we have a global state (world government) by mid century (as my second book predicts) the Artilect War would then be a global civil war, and very bitter, because the artilect issue so evenly divides people.*****

This is an film which include an interview with him and others.

David F. Noble critical historian of Technology, Professor of Social and Political Thought at York University, Toronto, Canada.

Kirkpatrick Sale

Richard Seed, Nuclear Physicist

Harvard graduate Richard Seed announced that he planned to clone a human being before any federal laws could be enacted to ban the process. Seed's announcement added fuel to the raging ethical debate on human cloning that had been sparked by Ian Wilmut's creation of Dolly the sheep, the first clone obtained from adult cells. Seed’s plans were to use the same technique used by the Scottish team. Seed's announcement went against President Clinton's 1997 proposal for a voluntary private moratorium against human cloning."God made man in his own image," he told National Public Radio correspondent Joe Palca in December 1997 . "God intended for man to become one with God. Cloning, is the first serious step in becoming one with God." In a later interview on CNN, Seed elaborated: "Man," he said, "will develop the technology and the science and the capability to have an indefinite life span." *****

Marvin Minsky American Cognitive Scientist in artificial intelligence, co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Lab.

L. Stephen Coles M.D., Ph.D. Co-Founder Gerontology Research Group, visiting Scholar in the computer science department at the University of California, Los Angeles, United States.[5] ; and an Assistant Researcher in the Department of Surgery, at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, in Los Angeles, California.

Here is a video of Dr. Coles speaking at the 2009 Longevity Summit about achieving almost total immortality.  It starts a little slow but there is some fascinating information about a presentation that was made to President Obama at the beginning of his term concerning "disruptive technologies" the first one being "interventions in anti-aging."


Here is part two of Dr. Coles lecture at this 2009 Summit.


Here is part three.


Here is TechnoCalyps Part Two:

We will continue with Part Three of TechnoCalyps in another upcoming post.