WTA News 3 November 2006
CONTENTS
1. News from the Front
2. News of the WTA
3. Activism
4. Culture
5. Events
6. Affiliate News
7. Spotlight
WTA NEWS 3 November 2006
News of the World Transhumanist Association
===============================================
Editor: Mike LaTorra - mike99(at)lascruces.com
===============================================
WTA News is the newsletter of the World Transhumanist Association, a
non-profit organization dedicated to the ethical use of technology to
overcome the limitations of the human body.
To submit news about your WTA chapter or affiliate or about
transhumanism in general, please send it to Editor Mike LaTorra
====================================
SUBSCRIBE TO THE WTA RSS news feeds:
WTA News, Transhumanism in the News, Program News:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/rss_2.0/
News for WTA Members:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/memberrss_2.0/
==============================
CONTENTS
1. News from the Front
2. News of the WTA
3. Activism
4. Culture
5. Events
6. Affiliate News
7. Spotlight
==============================
1. NEWS FROM THE FRONT
Dear transhumanist friends
I became Executive Director of the WTA in the Spring of 2004. Since that
time I think we’ve accomplished quite a lot:
- doubled our active membership, which is currently around 3800 people in
more than one hundred countries.
- held three global conferences, leading to our plans for Transvision 2007
in Chicago which looks set to be the largest and most visible Transvision
yet.
- hired our first staff-person, Marcelo Rinesi, who has played an invaluable
and often invisible role in fielding day-to-day administrative issues, and
in building our extremely cost-effective communications and data-management
infrastructure.
- facilitated the growth of dozens of transhumanist organizations around the
world. Especially exciting has been the Trashumanist Student Network, which
has grown dramatically, and which promises to nurture the next generation of
transhumanist public intellectuals and activists.
- built relationships with allied organizations and prominent thinkers and
activists, from the secular and free-thought movement, to bioethicists, to
activists for cognitive liberty, reproductive rights and global security.
- adopted our three new programmatic priorities (see related article in this
newsletter)
- greatly expanded the recognition and understanding of transhumanist memes
among both intellectuals and the public. “Transhumanist” is now routinely
used in magazine and newspaper articles as an adjective that doesn’t need
explication.
However, there is a long list of projects that we have wanted to launch, but
which I have not been able to find the time to launch, and these have
weighed on my mind:
- a thorough, and professional, redesign of the website.
- recruitment and appointment of a Board of Advisors.
- fundraising, through grant-writing, appeals to philanthropists, and direct
mail solicitation.
- recruitment and coordination of volunteers and interns.
- incorporation of the WTA as an NGO with the United Nations.
- writing and production of leaflets, booklets and chapter project
materials.
- identification of activist projects, and coordination of activist
campaigns, to engage our members and chapters.
Part of our difficulty has been the challenge of recruting consistent and
sustained volunteer efforts when we are all so busy, and involved in so many
related important activities. In my case, since 2005 my attention has been
increasely drawn to the opportunities for the Institute for Ethics and
Emerging Technologies, of which I have also been the Executive Director, to
develop a high profile as a technoprogressive thinktank that can complement
WTA activism. Running two nonprofit organizations without salary - while
working a paying job, writing, producing a radio show, and raising a
family - has made it difficult to give the WTA as much energy and attention
as it deserves.
So I have offered the WTA Board my resignation as WTA Executive Director,
effective as of the installation of WTA Vice Chair Giulio Prisco as my
replacement. I intend to remain on the WTA Board, subject to
member-electoral approval of course, and I will continue to serve as Board
Secretary for as long as the Board allows. In that capacity I believe I can
continue to provide advice and information to Marcelo, Giulio and the Board
on the administrative intricacies of our work.
I am delighted that Giulio has agreed to assume the position of Executive
Director, as I have confidence that he has the administrative experience,
technical skills, dynamic imagination, and political acumen that it demands.
Giulio has been a member of the Board leadership since its inception, speaks
Spanish, English, Italian and Hungarian, and has pioneered the WTA’s growth
in new areas such as the virtual world Second Life.
In closing, I would like to say that, despite the tumultuous arguments that
have occasionally roiled the WTA Board, it has been an honor to serve as the
first WTA Executive Director. We’ve accomplished as much as organizations
with a hundred times our resources, and yet, because we are transhumanists,
we will always have a very long list of items that we have yet to
accomplish. After all, we intend to ensure a bright future for intelligent
life until, or beyond, the heat death of the universe. I expect that any
progress we make on that ambitious goal will be appreciated by future
generations.
J. Hughes
WTA Secretary
==================
2. NEWS OF THE WTA
Great news! Refocusing for what will perhaps be one of the most critical
years yet for the debate about transhumanist ideas, the WTA Board has passed
a resolution adopting three new action programs to replace those of 2004.
Nothing has changed in terms of the beliefs and goals of the association,
but new action programs -sharp, bold and practical- will help us coordinate
and give energy to worldwide activism and debate.
Below is the text of the new resolution. Take a look, choose an action and
move! Those who’d rather keep everybody in the 20th century forever are
moving, too.
The WTA will adopt three new action programs to replace the six programs
adopted in 2004:
[1] Campaign for the Rights of the Person
[2] Campaign for Longer Better Lives
[3] Campaign for Future Friendly Culture
----
[1] Campaign for the Rights of the Person
A campaign to modify national laws and international human rights
conventions to establish (a) that bodily autonomy, reproductive rights, and
cognitive liberty should be explicitly recognized and protected, (b) that
universal access to enabling technologies is a right in itself, and a
precondition for all other rights, and that (c) personhood, sentience, and
capacity for having morally relevant interests are the bases of
rights-bearing, not humanness or the human genome.
Specific goals:
(a) Expanded access to reproductive health technologies (contraception,
fertility, prenatal testing, abortion, and germinal choice).
(b) Liberalized psychoactive drug laws, and support for research into
cognitive enhancement technologies, vaccines and treatments for substance
dependence, and safer psychoactive substances.
(c) Extension of human-level rights protections to great apes.
Action items:
(a) Support and outreach to drug law reform efforts, reproductive rights
campaigns, transgender rights, access to treatment and assistive devices for
the disabled, and extending rights to great apes.
(b) A conference at the United Nations in New York in April 2007,
co-sponsored with the IEET and the IHEU Bioethics office at the United
Nations.
(c) Advertise and build the wta-disability list.
(d) Publish pamphlets on H+ and disability, transgender, repro rights, drug
law reform and great apes.
----
[2] Campaign for Longer Better Lives
A campaign for a multinational research program to develop therapies to
slow aging.
Specific Goals:
Have the National Institutes of Health in the United States, and parallel
agencies in the rest of the world, endorse and commit to anti-aging research
programs to secure the “Longevity Dividend.”
Action items:
(a) Letter writing, public forums, conferences in support of the Longevity
Dividend initiative, SENS and parallel initiatives, in coalition with
anti-aging and related groups.
----
[3] Campaign for a Future Friendly Culture
A campaign to encourage balanced and constructive portrayals of longevity,
human enhancement and emerging technologies in popular culture.
Specific goals:
(a) Solicit offensive and counterproductive portrayals of longevity, human
enhancement and emerging technologies, and encourage our membership,
chapters and allies to dialogue with the authors, producers and
distributors.
(b) Increase the sensitivity of culture creators and consumers to the
biopolitical messages and bioconservative tropes in popular culture.
(c) Arrange letter-writing, protests, and boycotts of especially offensive
films, television programs and books.
(d) Encoruage and promote transhumanist artists, authors, film-makers, game
designers and culture creators.
Action items:
(a) Advertise and build the wta-arts list and Transhumanist Arts Gallery.
(b) Encourage members and chapters to report positive and negative
portrayals of human enhancement, longevity, emerging technologies and
posthumanity to the wta-arts list.
(c) Post critiques of bioconservative popular culture on the WTA website,
and examples of more complex and constructive visions of the future.
(d) Send representatives to speak at appropriate meetings, such as
conferences on science fiction and popular culture, and organize panels at
SF cons on the need for more complex protrayals of a posthuman future.
(e) Arrange fora and meetings with authors, artists and culture creators to
discuss the biopolitical messages in popular culture, and heighten their
sensitivity to bioconservative tropes and biases.
========================
MEMBERSHIP GROWTH
NOTE: Some members have not named their country of residence,
so the total membership numbers categorized by region is higher
than the total number categorized by country.
1975 N. America
1079 Europe
171 Oceania
148 Africa
145 S. America
125 S. Asia
51 Asia
50 Middle East
10 Caribbean
8 Unknown
3762 Total
1704 USA
267 UK
241 Canada
157 Finland
128 Australia
83 India
69 Unknown
67 Germany
67 Sweden
55 Nigeria
49 Italy
40 Netherlands
40 Spain
38 Kenya
37 Brazil
33 France
31 Belgium
29 Argentina
28 Israel
28 Mexico
27 Venezuela
26 Norway
24 Denmark
23 Poland
21 Pakistan
20 Philippines
18 New Zealand
18 Russia
17 Colombia
17 Hungary
16 Romania
15 Austria
14 China
14 Portugal
14 Singapore
14 South Africa
13 Ireland
12 Iran
12 Japan
12 Switzerland
12 Turkey
11 Ghana
11 Peru
11 Slovenia
10 Malaysia
10 Serbia & Montenegro
9 Chile
9 Uganda
8 Czech Republic
8 Ecuador
7 S. Korea
7 Ukraine
6 Greece
4 Estonia
4 Indonesia
4 Lithuania
4 Nepal
3 Cameroon
3 Egypt
3 Gambia
3 Latvia
3 Luxembourg
2 Bangladesh
2 Bolivia
2 Bosnia & Herzegovina
2 Botswana
2 Bulgaria
2 Costa Rica
2 Croatia
2 Lebanon
2 Malta
2 Oman
2 Sri Lanka
2 Thailand
2 Trinidad & Tobago
2 United Arab Emirates
2 Zimbabwe
1 Afganistan
1 Andorra
1 Antigua
1 Aruba
1 Azerbaijan
1 Bahrain1
1 Belarus
1 Brasil
1 Cote d’Ivoire
1 Cuba
1 Cyprus
1 Dominican Republic
1 El Salvador
1 Georgia
1 Haiti
1 Holland
1 Ivory Coast
1 Jamaica
1 Korea
1 Kosovo
1 Macedonia
1 Moldova
1 Morocco
1 Myanmar
1 New Caledonia
1 Paraguay
1 Pasto
1 Puerto Rico
1 San Marino
1 Saudi Arabia
1 Senegal
1 Serbia
1 Slovak Republic
1 St. Martin
1 Sudan
1 Suriname
1 Taiwan
1 Tanzania
1 Togo
1 UAE
1 Uruguay
1 Uzbekistan
2 Viet Nam
3762 Total
===========
3. ACTIVISM
HELP MAKE THE NEWS
The WTA is looking for web designers, editors and writers. If you know your
way around a website and want to help spread transhumanism, drop us a line
at: secretary@transhumanism.org
CRYONICS IN RUSSIA
Danila Medvedev reports:
“KrioRus has been contacted by a representative of one of the leading
political parties in Russia. Several people there are working on a cryonics
law. If they are successful, the law will be presented to the party
officials and may be proposed in State Duma (Russian parliament). The people
working on the law are pro-immortality, pro-enhancement and generally
transhumanist. We have discussed some of the particulars of the law and
provided references to relevant information during our meeting in Moscow. We
expect work on this to continue in the coming months. If this succeeds, it
will have huge implications for cryonics both in Russian and in the world.
Some of the Russian politicians have expressed positive views on cryonics in
the last year, when KrioRus was publicised in the Russian media. None have
been negative and overall cryonics was rather well received - not unlike
early in the US (and, sadly, the number of actual clients is also low).”
TRANSHUMANIST STUDENT NETWORK (TSN) UPDATE
* Russian Transhumanist Movement on Student and Youth Outreach
* Change of dates for U. of Chicago Conference
* TSN National Organizer for Ghana: David Safro
* Brand-New TSN National Organization Groups
(1) Russian Transhumanist Movement Student and Youth Outreach
The Russian Transhumanist Movement has been busy pursuing outreach targeting
students and youth.
The RTM had a good article on transhumanism published in the Moscow
newspaper ReAction. ReAction is a free youth newspaper distributed in coffee
shops and universities. Non-Russian speakers can use “Babelfish,” a free
online translation service, to access some of the content of the article:
http://reakcia.ru/article/?1267
On August 8th Danila Medvedev, Ph.D., spoke live as a futurologist on the
Moscow radio program “Moscow speaking” � which reaches many youths and
college students � for about 50 minutes on topics including transhumanism,
immortality and cryonics.
On October 12th Danila gave a presentation on biopolitics at a seminar in
Moscow State University (for the Deparment of Biology).
Over the next week the RTM gave three talks at a forum titled, “Projects of
the Future” on NBIC convergence, nanoassemblers and paradise-engineering.
An RTM member in Bryansk has organised a number of lectures in area schools
and universities. Fantastic lecture pictures are available at the following
link:
http://www.transhumanism.org/resources/Bryansk.pdf
RTM members in Omsk, including Master of Science and Ph.D students, as well
as teachers, are trying to promote transhumanism to area students.
Finally, the RTM has been developing new WTA introductory transhumanist
brochures that it hopes to soon make available in other languages with the
assistance of WTA volunteers.
(2) Change of dates for U. of Chicago conference
The dates of the “Emerging Technologies” conference held at the University
of Chicago by the U. of C. Democratic Transhumanists have been moved back
one week by university administrators to Friday, Nov 17 (5pm-8pm) and
Saturday, November 18th (9am-6pm).
Again, it will be held in the Biological Sciences Learning Center (BSLC)
Auditorium.
Keynote Speakers include:
- Ken Gumbs, Director of futurist film, �Building Gods�
- Nicholos Hatsopolous, Co-Inventor of “BrainGate” Computer-Brain
Interface
- Milan Mrksich, Leading Researcher in Microelectronics and Biology
- Bruce Lahn, World-renown Researcher in Neuroscience, Genetics and
the Evolution of Intelligence - Leonid Gavrilov, Life-Extension
Researcher at the Center on Aging
- Natalia Gavrilova, Life-Extension Researcher at the Center on Aging
For additional information contact U. of Chicago DemTrans President Parijata
Mackey at:
parijata �at- gmail.com
(3) TSN National Organizer for Ghana: David Safro
David Safro, President of the TSN-Affiliated campus group “African Youth
Partnership,” at the University of Cape Coast, now serves as the TSN
National Organizer for Ghana.
(4) Brand-New TSN National Organization Groups
Nation-specific groups have been created as a means of jump-starting
organized TSN outreach and support efforts at the national level. These
groups are to be managed by the TSN National Organizer for each respective
country.
The national TSN groups will offer a virtual space for members to congregate
and organize with the assistance of TSN transnational leaders.
National-level groups appear to be crucial in the effort to gain traction in
campus outreach efforts throughout the world and offer
adequate support to local student organizers. The TSN Regional Committees,
in turn, will help the national TSN groups plan and coordinate regional
campaigns and develop region-tailored activist resources (e.g. translations,
modified organizing guides, etc.).
The new organizational infrastructure of the TSN provides an approximate
model for a more organized, efficient and effective network of WTA chapters.
It is hoped that the TSN and WTA infrastructure can function symbiotically
to strengthen the grassroots transhumanist movement throughout the world.
Feel free to join the groups below to offer your support - especially if the
group uses a language other than English.
Brand-New TSN National Organization group links:
North America
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TSNNA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-CAN
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-USA
Europe
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETSN
http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-FRA
http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-ESP
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-UK
Finnish TSN page:
http://users.utu.fi/jsvalo/TSN/TSN.html
Latin America
http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/RETIA
http://br.groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-BRA
Africa
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASTNET
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-GHA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-KEN
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-NGR
Russia and Central Asia
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RCATSN
Russian Transhumanist Movement Special Project:
http://www.transhumanism-russia.ru/content/view/120/123
Australia and Oceania
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AOTSN
(We could use a TSN National Organizer for Australia)
http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/TSN-AUS
==========
4. CULTURE
THE STEM CELL POLITICAL WAR HEATS UP
Watch Michael J. Fox’s passionate and moving plea:
http://tinyurl.com/yztgze
Rush Limbaugh went for the low blow…
http://tinyurl.com/yx6kzj
... Something that didn’t sit well with most people:
http://tinyurl.com/sdcp2
This is transhumanism where it matters most: trying to make people’s
lives better.
=========
5. EVENTS
KURZWEIL ON C-SPAN2 SUNDAY NOV. 5
Ray Kurzweil will be interviewed live for three hours this Sunday on C-SPAN2
�Book TV,� on their monthly show �In Depth.� The show will air live this
Sunday, November 5th from noon to 3 pm ET.
The show will feature a two-part profile of Ray, an interview with him about
his life, career, and ideas, and will include questions from Book TV viewers
via telephone and email. Ray will be speaking about his inventions and
books, including “The Singularity is Near.”
See the following link for further information:
http://tinyurl.com/yxnfy8
8TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ETHICS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire
November 16-19, 2006
Call for Papers
Theme: Brave New World: Genetics, Computers, and Nanotechnology
The Society picks conference themes in order to encourage faculty from
the relevant areas to submit papers, papers, or other standard forms of
presentation, but submissions may speak to any issue regarding ethics
across the curriculum. Questions about possible submissions should be
sent to the directors.
Submissions should be formatted for blind review and sent by September
15th to the Secretary-Treasurer of the Society, Donna Werner, at
DWerner@stlcc.edu or by hard copy to Dr. Donna Werner, Department of
Philosophy, St. Louis Community College, Meramec, 11333 Big Bend
Boulevard, St. Louis MO 63122-5799. Phone: 314.984.7934.
The Society publishes Teaching Ethics, and papers for conferences may be
considered for publication.
http://www.rit.edu/~692awww/seac/conferences.html
More events at the WTA Calendar:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/events/ )
=============
6. AFFILIATES
INSTITUTE FOR ETHICS AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
and the Journal of Evolution and Technology
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (ieet.org) was
founded in 2004 by Nick Bostrom and James J. Hughes to support and promote
thinkers examining the social implications of scientific and technological
advances, especially human enhancement technologies. The IEET publishes the
Journal of Evolution and Technology (jetpress.org).
IEET-related podcasts:
George Dvorsky: Sentient Development podcasts
http://feeds.feedburner.com/PodcastSentDev
James Hughes: Human Nature and Human-Racism
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=17403
Nick Bostrom: Transhumanism: The next stage in human evolution?
http://www.thersa.org/audio/lecture220306.mp3
Cory Doctorow: Defending Our Digital Rights
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=16905
Pablo Stafforini: The Abolition of Suffering
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=16815
Ken MacLeod: The Early Days of a Better Nation
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=16776
============
7. SPOTLIGHT
“Wikipedia and the Transhumanist Meaning of Life”
http://tinyurl.com/ydn2er
[The following is excerpted from the “Meaning of Life” topic on Wikipedia, 3
November 2006.]
“Transhumanism is an outgrowth of Posthumanism, which is an extension of
Humanism. Like its ideological ancestors, it proposes that we should seek
the advancement of humanity and of all life to the greatest degree of
differed feasible equation. Although transhumanism makes no distinctions
regarding anything as grandiose as “the meaning of life”, it is different
from humanism and posthumanism in it’s emphasis on the proposition that
science should take the foremost role in the improvement of life. To the
transhumanist, the meaning of life is necessarily indefinite and ambiguous,
and should be left to the philosophical inclinations of the individual.
Nevertheless, whatsoever an individual chooses to believe, transhumanism
insists that there does exist a moral imperative common to all intelligent
agents to improve their lives and, moreover, to advocate for the universal
recognition of certain freedoms regarding an individual’s choice of life
enhancement methods. All living things should be free to choose, to the
extent of their capacities, to improve themselves or not in any way they so
desire, and no living thing should ever be given the opportunity to
interfere in the personal development of any other living thing unless for
it’s own good (such as if the being’s ignorance of some otherwise well
understood principle or fact were driving it to unwitting self-injury).
To transhumanists, these principles extend beyond more conventional
lifestyle choices and freedom of thought, and encompass such experimental
and highly controversial subjects as morphological freedom and procreative
beneficence. These are, respectively, the freedom to choose the shape and
function of one’s body and mind, and the freedom to do the same for one’s
descendants excepting when to do so would in some way injure the descendants
or the descendants’ freedom to make the same choices. Transhumanists
therefore advocate that all life forms have the freedom to access the tools
and knowledge necessary to improve their lives however they see fit (and
that these things must be made universally available), whether this be in
simple manifestations such as the options of meeting basic medical and
dietetic requirements, or more complex examples such as the options of
genetic engineering or cybernetic augmentation. Transhumanists argue that
improved people will necessarily have improved capabilities to seek out and
answer questions regarding “the meaning of life” as they see it, more so
than even humans do currently. The transhumanist programme, then, is
essentially the programme that insists that all living things be granted the
basic option to inquire after any and all “great questions” (including
questions human beings are currently incompetent to comprehend) as much as
it is physically possible to do so, and no less.”
==============
ABOUT THE WTA
==============
The World Transhumanist Association is a nonprofit membership organization,
which works to promote discussion of the possibilities for radical
improvement of human capacities using genetic, cybernetic and
nanotechnologies. The WTA is growing quickly, and we invite you to join us
in this important work. You may also enroll in one of our discussion lists
and join one of our local WTA chapters, which can be found in countries and
languages all over the world. The WTA speakers bureau can provide someone to
answer questions on the transhumanist perspective to the media or to your
group.
Join us in working for a brighter future!
http://transhumanism.org