Max More - Transhuman and the Singularity

Max More speaks about Transhumanism and the Singularity.

Founder of the Extropy Institute, Max More has written many articles espousing the philosophy of transhumanism and the transhumanist philosophy of extropy, most importantly his Principles of Extropy (currently version 3.11).

In a 1990 essay "Transhumanism: Toward a Futurist Philosophy", he introduced the term "transhumanism" in its modern sense.

Here is a link to the article mentioned in the interview "On Becoming Posthuman" - http://www.maxmore.com/becoming.htm

Quotes:
"We have achieved two of the three alchemists' dreams: We have transmuted the elements and learned to fly. Immortality is next." — Max More, On becoming posthuman.

"No more gods, no more faith, no more timid holding back. Let us blast out of our old forms, our ignorance, our weakness, and our mortality. The future belongs to posthumanity." — Max More, On becoming posthuman.

"People's freedom to innovate technologically is highly valuable, even critical, to humanity. This implies a range of responsibilities for those considering whether and how to develop, deploy, or restrict new technologies. Assess risks and opportunities using an objective, open, and comprehensive, yet simple decision process based on science rather than collective emotional reactions. Account for the costs of restrictions and lost opportunities as fully as direct effects. Favor measures that are proportionate to the probability and magnitude of impacts, and that have the highest payoff relative to their costs. Give a high priority to people's freedom to learn, innovate, and advance." — Max More, The Proactionary Principle.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Transhumanism
• technological singularity
• technology
• max more
• extropy
• singularity
• philosophy
• principles of extropy
• The Singularity Is Near
• Surge
• s curves
• precautionary principle
• On Becoming Posthuman

[KhanneaSuntzu]

Sounds all pretty solid what he says here, and increasingly subtle over his earlier statements. He even seems to quote me in two spots, but that might be my imagination. Still very little about the economic hurdles that lie squarely in the way of any rapid progress, but hey. Nice to see he also grabs 'the new elan' Giulio Prisco called for recently. We need this optimism, and for one thing Extropianism was always about optimism. Occupy the future!

[TheRationalFuture]

@KhanneaSuntzu What is the 'the new elan' Giulio Prisco talks about that you mentioned Max grabbed? I think I missed that part.

[KhanneaSuntzu]

@MrAdvancedAtheist - Eric Drexler wrote a book on assumptions XYZ. We are now two+ decades onwards and you, me, anyone (+ the proper science skills) cahn write a variant book on nanotechnology 2.0. Call it microform robotics. Call it hive miniature diverse robotics. Call it algorithmic pasticity engineering. It is accent differences. HIS version of nanotechnology didn't pan out, new forms of alchemy will. You know it, I know it, commercial applications are just years away.

[KhanneaSuntzu]

@MrAdvancedAtheist - Occupiers are only stage one. They are the rumbling in the ground for the approaching bison herd. Trust me on this. After stage one follow stage two, and that will be a wholelot more vicious. Then there will be stage three. But whatever you do - you should make sure stage four does not happen. It involves Guillotines and a lot of people dying.

[MrAdvancedAtheist]

@KhanneaSuntzu

I get the impression that about a decade ago the Extropy Institute announced that - poof! - Extropianism had ceased to exist. In the absence of progress towards these visions derived from science fiction, middle aged reality has a way of checking one's enthusiasm for this stuff. For example, Eric Drexler's "nanotechnology" continues to elude us because he apparently got the physics wrong. By contrast, genomics and connectomics exist in the here and now and get results.

[MrAdvancedAtheist]

@KhanneaSuntzu Ugh, you want to slum with the Occupiers? Someone on IEET's website compared them to parasites who demand that their hosts stop scratching at them.

[KhanneaSuntzu]

@TheRationalFuture - giulioprisco.blogspot.com/2011­/09/my-talk-at-humanity-commun­ity-event-in.html

[SingularityUtopia]

Surges are not the Singularity, but it is common for people misunderstand the Singularity. Consumer adoption regarding the future and economic factors are a fallacy based on *scarcity-bias*.

Increasing order isn't religious. People aren't drawn to great progress of heart transplants, or other examples of increasing order/control, due to yearning for religious or mystical events. Heart transplants are not religious and the Singularity isn't religious. People are drawn to order/control.

[wulai]

I really hope more people watch this.