The Transhumanist Reader

Max More, PhD is President of Alcor Life Extension Foundation Natasha Vita-More, PhD is a Professor at the University of Advancing Technology

Contributor Biographies ix

Part I Roots and Core Themes 1

1 The Philosophy of Transhumanism 3
Max More

2 Aesthetics: Bringing the Arts & Design into the Discussion of Transhumanism 18
Natasha Vita-More

3 Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up 28
Nick Bostrom

4 Transhumanist Declaration (2012) 54
Various

5 Morphological Freedom – Why We Not Just Want It, but Need It 56
Anders Sandberg

Part II Human Enhancement: The Somatic Sphere 65

6 Welcome to the Future of Medicine 67
Robert A. Freitas Jr.

7 Life Expansion Media 73
Natasha Vita-More

8 The Hybronaut Affair: A Ménage of Art, Technology, and Science 83
Laura Beloff

9 Transavatars 91
William Sims Bainbridge

10 Alternative Biologies 100
Rachel Armstrong

Part III Human Enhancement: The Cognitive Sphere 111

11 Re-Inventing Ourselves: The Plasticity of Embodiment, Sensing, and Mind 113
Andy Clark

12 Artificial General Intelligence and the Future of Humanity 128
Ben Goertzel

13 Intelligent Information Filters and Enhanced Reality 138
Alexander “Sasha” Chislenko

14 Uploading to Substrate-Independent Minds 146
Randal A. Koene

15 Uploading 157
Ralph C. Merkle

Part IV Core Technologies 165

16 Why Freud Was the First Good AI Theorist 167
Marvin Minsky

17 Pigs in Cyberspace 177
Hans Moravec

18 Nanocomputers 182
J. Storrs Hall

19 Immortalist Fictions and Strategies 196
Michael R. Rose

20 Dialogue between Ray Kurzweil and Eric Drexler 205

Part V Engines of Life: Identity and Beyond Death 213

21 The Curate’s Egg of Anti-Anti-Aging Bioethics 215
Aubrey de Grey

22 Medical Time Travel 220
Brian Wowk

23 Transhumanism and Personal Identity 227
James Hughes

24 Transcendent Engineering 234
Giulio Prisco

Part VI Enhanced Decision-Making 241

25 Idea Futures: Encouraging an Honest Consensus 243
Robin Hanson

26 The Proactionary Principle: Optimizing Technological Outcomes 258
Max More

27 The Open Society and Its Media 268
Mark S. Miller, with E. Dean Tribble, Ravi Pandya, and Marc Stiegler

Part VII Biopolitics and Policy 279

28 Performance Enhancement and Legal Theory: An Interview with
Professor Michael H. Shapiro 281

29 Justifying Human Enhancement: The Accumulation of Biocultural Capital 291
Andy Miah

30 The Battle for the Future 302
Gregory Stock

31 Mind is Deeper Than Matter: Transgenderism, Transhumanism, and the Freedom of Form 317
Martine Rothblatt

32 For Enhancing People 327
Ronald Bailey

33 Is Enhancement Worthy of Being a Right? 345
Patrick D. Hopkins

34 Freedom by Design: Transhumanist Values and Cognitive Liberty 355
Wrye Sententia

Part VIII Future Trajectories: Singularity 361

35 Technological Singularity 365
Vernor Vinge

36 An Overview of Models of Technological Singularity 376
Anders Sandberg

37 A Critical Discussion of Vinge’s Singularity Concept 395
David Brin, Damien Broderick, Nick Bostrom, Alexander “Sasha” Chislenko, Robin Hanson, Max More, Michael Nielsen, and Anders Sandberg

Part IX The World’s Most Dangerous Idea 419

38 The Great Transition: Ideas and Anxieties 421
Russell Blackford

39 Trans and Post 430
Damien Broderick

40 Back to Nature II: Art and Technology in the Twenty-First Century 438
Roy Ascott

41 A Letter to Mother Nature 449
Max More

42 Progress and Relinquishment 451
Ray Kurzweil

Index 454