NEWS OF THE
WORLD TRANSHUMANIST ASSOCIATION

April 4, 2003

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Editor in Chief: J. Hughes –
Managing Editor: Christopher Camp - CCamp@OMM.com
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WTA News is a monthly e-newsletter of the World 
Transhumanist Association, a non-profit organization
dedicated to the study of and advocacy for the use 
of technology to overcome the limitations of the 
human body.

To submit news about your chapter or affiliate, 
or about transhumanism in general, please send 
it to Managing Editor Christopher Camp <CCamp@OMM.com>.
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CONTENTS:

Events
1st Global Conference Visions of Humanity 
in Cyberculture, Cyberpunk and Science Fiction
Transvision Conference Building Quickly: Register Now

WTA News
WTA is Now Tax Exempt
Volunteer Posts for TV03USA

News from the Field
Transhumanist News in Spanish
Venezuelan Transhumanist Association (VTA) has First Meeting
Toronto Transhumanist Association
For a Better Future, Nigerians Turn to Transhumanism
New Jersey Transhumanists Organize

News from Affiliates and Friends
Betterhumans: Looking for New Staff and Volunteers
New Technology for Transhumanity Magazine
Transhumanity Volunteers Wanted

Things to Read and Watch
New in Transhumanity 
New in Betterhumans

EVENTS

1st Global Conference Visions of Humanity in Cyberculture, Cyberpunk and Science Fiction

11 to 13 August 2003, Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers

Marking the launch of a new annual conference, research and publication series, this inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project aims to explore what it is to be human and the nature of human community in cyberculture, cyberspace and science fiction. In particular, the project will explore the possibilities offered by these contexts for creative thinking about persons and the challenges posed to the nature and future of national, international, and global communities.

Papers, short papers, and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

* the relationship between cyberculture, cyberspace and science fiction
* science fiction and cyberpunk as a medium for exploring the nature of persons
* humans and cyborgs; the synergy of humans and technology; changing views of the body
* human and post-human politics; cyborg citizenship and rights; influence of political technologies
* bodies in cyberculture; from apes to androids - electronic evolution; biotechnical advances and the impact of life, death, and social existence; the impact on individuality
* gender and cyberspace: new feminisms, new masculinities
* electronic persons, community and identity; cyberspace, cybercommunities, virtual worlds, and home worlds
* nature, enhancing nature, and artificial intelligence; artificial life, life and information systems, networked living
* Cyberpolitics, cyberdemocracy, cyberterror; old conflicts, new spaces: elections, protest and war in cyberspace; nationality and nationalism in cyberculture; the state and cyberspace: repression vs. resistance
* cybercultures: the transnational and the local
* boundaries, frontiers and taboos in cyberculture
* cyberculture and orientalism
* religion and spirituality in cyberculture, science fiction and cyberpunk
* old messages, new medium: cyberspace and mass communication
* cyberculture, cyberpunk and the near future: utopias vs. dystopias
* technology vs. the natural? cyberculture and the green movement

Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Joint Organising Chairs by Friday 9th May 2003. Full draft papers should be submitted by Friday 11th July 2003. Send proposals to:

Christopher Macallister, University of Kent at Canterbury <cjm23@ukc.ac.uk>
and Rob Fisher, Inter-Disciplinary.net <rf@inter-disciplinary.net>

Further details and information about the Cyberworlds, Virtual Reality
series of projects can be found at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/cwvr.htm


Transvision Conference Building Rapidly

The Transvision conference (Yale University, New Haven Connecticut, June 27-29, 2003) is well on its way to filling up its 150 seats. Pre-register today!: http://www.transhumanism.org/tv/2003usa/


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WTA NEWS 

WTA IS NOW TAX EXEMPT

US citizens who contribute to the WTA can claim a tax deduction of up to 50% of income. We also accept bequests, but since none of you plan to die, I guess we can forget that opportunity.

To make a contribution to the WTA or join, and thereby contribute to the lifting up of all intelligent life throughout the known universe, please visit: http://www.transhumanism.org/join.htm.

VOLUNTEER POSTS FOR TV03USA:

WTA is looking for a few volunteers interested in helping with the
following: 

- Arranging Haldane award dinner
- Manning registration table (2 hour stints)
- Taping talks 
- Managing the video/performance space

If you have an interest in helping with any of these contact James Hughes at <mailto:>

NEWS FROM THE FIELD

Transhumanist News in Spanish

Thanks to an international effort from transhumanists in Costa Rica, Spain and Venezuela, you are now able to get news in Spanish.
Some of the content is translations from Betterhumans.com, Transhumanism.com and KurzweilAi.net, but some content is original like Tendencias21.net. You can get the newsfeeds for free distribution at:
<http://www.transhumanism.com/noticias.php>

Venezuelan Transhumanist Association (VTA) has First Meeting

Venezeulan Transhumanists had a successful first meeting on Feb. 27th. They outlined an approach for growth and stated their immediate goal was to spread the concept of Transhumanism among the Venezuelan people, especially the younger people and scientists who know about some of the technologies involved. We look forward to hearing more from the VTA in coming months. For more information visit the VTA website at:
<http://www.transhumanismo.org>

Toronto Transhumanist Association

On Friday, March 21, 2003 the Toronto Transhumanist Association attended an event by cyborg pioneer Steve Mann and cyborg artist Stelarc. The event, "Robotic Body versus Cyborg Mind," marked the reopening of Deconism, a Toronto gallery devoted to Transhumanist-style art. The TTA hopes to work with Steve Mann and Deconism in organizing future events. We are also currently planning a major event for late April or early May featuring Canadian Transhumanist writer Christopher Dewdney. Watch for more information, and please don't hesitate to contact us with ideas, comments or just to say hi. Contact George Dvorsky at george@betterhumans.com.

For a Better Future, Nigerians Turn to Transhumanism

With 150 members, the Transhumanist Association of Nigeria becomes the
biggest chapter of the World Transhumanist Association. 

One of the world's poorest countries has embraced one of the world's newest movements, with the goal of using science and technology to build a better future.

This January, the Transhumanist Association of Nigeria
(http://www.transhumanism.org/Nigeria/) held its inaugural ceremony --complete with traditional dances -- at the University of Port Harcourt, Campus Rivers State. A chapter of the World Transhumanist Association (http://www.transhumanism.org), TAN signed up 150 members from more than 300 participants, becoming the WTA's biggest local group.

"Many people assume that concerns about life extension, nanotechnology and so forth are just fantasies of affluent men in the developed world," says WTA Secretary James Hughes. "The stunning success of the transhumanist message in Nigeria shows the universality of the message that human welfare can be improved by extending our technological powers and political liberties."

Nigeria is one of the world's poorest countries. The biggest impediments to emerging from this poverty, says TAN chapter coordinator Innocent Ogu, are lack of awareness about science and technology, lack of skilled labor, weak infrastructure and hostile ethics and societal belief systems.

"Evidently Africans are traditionalists," he says. "They have placed great respect in their beliefs and traditional norms. Consequently most African communities are still wallowing in dependence on their 
gods to solve their problems. In fact, most Africans see it as a challenge or insult to their gods for man to try to make certain kinds of scientific
progress."

The problem, says Ogu, is that when decision-makers hold such views
itthwarts initiatives that can improve people's lives. "We have metinstances in Nigeria for instance, where communities refused to install multimillion dollar communication equipment in their town unless their gods are appeased," he says. "These traditional superstitious beliefs can deny people an opportunity to use science to improve their standard of living."

Ogu admits that some people will think it foolish for Africans
facingeconomic and social problems to promote thinking about transhumanist technologies such as mind-computer interfaces and transhumanist goals such as life extension.

But he says that African transhumanists can promote discussion of such
issues while addressing more urgent problems. "We need to work on the
preconditions of economic development while we educate and build awareness about the benefits of life extension and radical improvements in the human condition," he says. "This is not an easy task, and progress will not be achieved overnight."

Hughes concurs. "TAN understandably emphasizes the relevance of the
transhumanist technologies and values to basic economic development,
complementing and grounding our work on technological futurism," he says.

Poor technology infrastructures in developing countries such as Nigeria also provide an opportunity to leapfrog to new technologies. A typical example is the rapid adoption of wireless telecommunications where fixed telecommunications infrastructures are missing or poor. Widespread adoption of advances in such things as information technology could therefore provide opportunities for poor countries to quickly catch up with more developed
nations.

So as WTA Chair Nick Bostrom points out, the embrace of transhumanism by impoverished people shouldn't be that surprising. "It makes a lot of sense that those with firsthand knowledge of what living without much technology is like should perceive especially clearly just how stifling the neo-Luddite and bio-fundamentalist sentiments are that some Western intellectuals like to peddle," he says.

New Jersey Transhumanist Association 

The NJTA has begun to meet irregularly. Contact: Joseph
Bloch [jbloch@goldenfuture.net].

The website address is http://www.goldenfuture.net/njta

NEWS FROM FRIENDS AND AFFILIATES

BETTERHUMANS
www.betterhumans.com <http://www.betterhumans.com>

To better cover Transhumanist-related issues, Betterhumans is in the process of hiring staff writers. Our first new hire, Dwayne Hunter, came aboard in late March. We also have plans to add new features to Betterhumans and will be unveiling them over the next few months. And we are about to undertake major fundraising in order to promote the Website and the Transhumanist issues we cover. If you are interested and able to help, you can support our work by making a donation online at http://www.betterhumans.com/About_Us/Support_Us/. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or submissions, please don't hesitate to contact George Dvorsky at george@betterhumans.com.

TRANSHUMANITY

New Technology for Transhumanity Magazine

New Content Management System

Our new Content Management System (CMS) based on pmachine (www.pmachine.com <http://www.pmachine.com>) is now in use. You can hardly see any difference, but just about everything changed. Transhumanity has now much more advanced and robust features including RSS news feeds.

You can add dynamically refreshed content to your website, and at the same time demonstrate your support for transhumanist thinking, by importing our RSS news feeds on your website. By adding a few lines of simple code, you can automatically import selected headlines, with or without short descriptions. We provide separate feeds for articles, news, and other sections.

We will soon implement a more complete description of the system and an online help facility. We would appreciate it if you could let us know any problem that you might encounter, or just your opinions on the site. For more information go to <http://www.transhumanism.com/syndication.php>

Transhumanity Volunteers Wanted

Transhumanity survives thanks to the work of a team of volunteers (See
Staff). We have a few more positions open on the team, and look forward to contact motivated volunteers able to contribute a few hours per week.

In particular we are looking for help for:

Contacting potential article authors and assisting them in the preparation of a draft.
Participating in the editorial analysis.
Preparing and conducting interviews.
Writing regular (weekly, monthly, etc.) columns on themes of interest to a transhumanist audience.
Writing reviews of material of interest to a transhumanist audience (books, movies, articles, etc.).
Publishing pointers to news and other new material of interest to a
transhumanist audience in the News -section.

We are also looking for:

Graphically talented person, for doing some artwork and design. If you are qualified, interested and able to contribute a few hours per week, please contact us as indicated in the Contact -page.

THINGS TO READ AND WATCH

NEW IN BETTERHUMANS
www.betterhumans.com <http://www.betterhumans.com>

Controlling Our Life from Beginning to End by James Hughes
Yes, we should have the right to die. But the real goal is to have charge over all aspects of our existence

Cyborgs and Zombies by Simon Smith
Performance artist Stelarc's challenging beliefs about what it means to be human liberate us to embrace technology

Freeing the Slaves of Science Fiction by George Dvorsky
Star Wars and other stories are effective case studies on how not to treat intelligent machines

On War and Transhumanism by Philip Shropshire
There's one sure way to preempt self-evolution: Let battles waged by
undemocratic countries send us back to prehistory.

NEW IN TRANSHUMANITY
www.transhumanism.com <http://www.transhumanism.com>

God's Getting Uploaded by James Hughes
Religion isn't going anywhere, but advancing science and technology will spur its positive transformation

ABOUT THE WTA