“Maybe there are only two sexes: men and mothers.” Alice Sheldon, writing as James Tiptree Jr. to Joanna Russ
The Other Half
by Mike TrederChina is often depicted by the traditional media as a nation with a booming economy, a thriving middle class, and an unlimited future. We’re led to expect that it soon will become the world’s unchallenged economic and geopolitical superpower.
Marquis de Condorcet, Enlightenment proto-transhumanist
by George DvorskyMarquis de Condorcet (1744-1794) was a hugely influential Enlightenment era thinker who contributed significantly to the rise of secular humanism and helped plant the seeds of transhumanism. He is said to have best represented the ideals of the Enlightenment.
Doug’s Testament Series Wraps Up
IEET Fellow Doug Rushkoff has finished his four volume graphic novel series on how the stories of the Bible were actually written, and how they resonate with a near future history. An “underground band of renegades...employ technology, alchemy, media hacking and mysticism...to combat the frightening threats to freedom that permeate the world.”
Science Fiction, Speculation, and Living Machines
by Anne CorwinIt wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I’m a huge science fiction nut (and that this has been the case for practically as long as I can remember). I grew up being exposed to Star Trek (both the original series and the Next Generation series when that came out), Star Wars (which I became utterly obsessed with at the age of eight), and other miscellaneous media.
Overcoming Gender
by George DvorskyYour gender is a constraint. This is an inalienable truism, regardless of whether you’re a man or a woman.
Marcelo’s Hectowords
IEET Assistant Director Marcelo Rinesi has released a short book of one hundred short stories, each about one hundred words long, called Hectowords. You can also subscribe to Marcelo’s Hectowords blog for regular installments.
Enough is Enough: A Thinking Ape’s Critique of Trans-Simianism
by Aaron DiazThe following was taken from a cave wall painting in southern Tunisia more than 300,000 years ago. Fossil evidence suggests that the author was of the species Homo erectus.
Thousands of Evo Art Portraits of Hughes and Bostrom
Dr. Günter Bachelier is working on a portrait series called “Masterminds of Contemporary Transhumanism.” Using a photograph of each of the subjects, Dr. Bachelier uses a computer program to generate 2000 impressionistic variations of the image.
Announcing the next phase of Betterhumans
IEET’s George Dvorsky announces some changes at IEET ally Betterhumans, such as the fact that he is the new editor-in-chief:
Two Disappointing Novels
by Mike TrederTwo recent attempts at near-term speculation could have benefited from stronger story-telling skills.
Book Review : Feed by M.T.Anderson
by V.R. ManojI was born into a world where the telephone was still wired and had a circular dial to ring up someone.
Andy’s Prolixity
Andy has another book coming out, on the medical impact of the Net, with co-author Emma Rich, and a slew of essays.
That Joy In Existence Without Which The Universe Would Fall Apart and Collapse
by Anne CorwinA few months ago I suddenly got the urge to look up one of my favorite authors, Madeleine L’Engle, online.
The String Cuts Deeper than the Blade
by Athena AndreadisWhen I was a child, among the highlights of my life were my visits to the tiny neoclassical building where my father’s stepmother (the only grandparent I ever got to know) was spending her autumnal years. At the center of its courtyard was a dried fountain where I launched a thousand imaginary ships. The house was an Aladdin’s cave of nooks and crannies, doors with panels of etched glass, clouded mirrors, boxes that held feather boas and yellowing photographs. Its guardian was a cat as fastidious and dignified as my grandmother.
Tarkovsky’s Solaris
by George DvorskyJoy. I’ve finally got my own copy of the 1972 Soviet classic, Solaris. It will be a gem in my science fiction collection.
The Land of the Dead vs The Land of the Living
by V.R. ManojYesterday, I saw a movie by the name ”The Land of the Dead”.
What You Can Learn from Zombie Movies
by Doug RushkoffThe undead are everywhere these days.
Post-Millennial Malaise in SF?
by Mike TrederInspired by a fleeting reference in the latest science essay by CRN’s Chris Phoenix, I recently started re-reading Larry Niven’s classic novel Ringworld. It must be two or three decades since I read the book, and revisiting it all these years later, I’m blown away once again by the novel’s startling originality and by the “bigness” of its thinking.
Rushkoff’s Testament: The Final Arc(k)
That’s right: the last story arc of my comic series, Testament is underway. The finale was announced at San Diego last week in response to a question about whether the series was being “canceled.”
Deconstructing the Voldemort Fallacy
by Anne CorwinSomeone apparently found my blog recently by searching for “voldemort transhumanist”. After laughing out loud (literally), I spent a bit of time thinking about the implications of this particular combination of search terms.
Poll: Your favorite life extension novels
Looks like those of you with an opinion overwhelmingly favored the gradual, and very hard-science-based, adoption of life extension technologies depicted in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red, Green and Blue Mars series.
If aliens wanted to, they would have destroyed us by now
by George DvorskyThe Speculist today alerts us to an interesting article in The Independent called, ”Meet the neighbours: Is the search for aliens such a good idea?”
Why science has to fight an uphill battle
by Russell BlackfordThis important article by Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg (full version in Science, 18 May 2007) examines the psychological wellsprings of resistance to scientific explanations of the world’s phenomena. Specifically, it discusses the circumstances in which developing children fail to internalise information that comes from science.
What “Becomes” Post-Humanity?
by Dale CarricoHere at the IEET we have another interesting survey up, this one asking which of a number of past, ongoing, or possibly upcoming technodevelopments is the one that nudges “we humans” into the status of “posthumans.”
Mass Mediated Hand Holding: Depressive Bioconservative Cinema and Its Manic Technophiliac Twin
by Dale Carrico“Over the past 100 years, films have simultaneously mistrusted and marveled in the possibility of genomic improvement,” comments David Kirby in an intriguing recent article in The Scientist.
Things That Make Me Happy
by Jamais CascioAkira Kurosawa’s Rashomon is available, in its entirety, online, at both the Internet Archive and Google Video.
Träumen mit Diderot
by J. HughesDer Gedanke der Aufklärung, dass wir uns eine bessere Zukunft erschaffen können, ist noch jung und hat noch immer überall auf der Welt zündende Wirkung. Die Anfänge der Aufklärung liegen im 17. Jahrhundert. Seither haben ihre Ideen immer wieder Kämpfe um religiöse Toleranz, Freiheit der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Demokratie und persönliche Freiheit ausgelöst. Noch heute wird um Aufklärung und Fortschritt gerungen, und das Schlachtfeld hat mittlerweile sogar unsere Keimzellen und Neuronen erreicht.
Doug’s second Testament Book, West of Eden, is out
The second collected set of Testament is now available at comic shops, bookstores, and links like this one.
This book starts the series over - quite literally, in fact - beginning with the Genesis creation story and its modern parallel: the generation of an AI lifeform by Alan Stern. Of course, the nano-bots all have the shape of the Eye of Horus, and Goddess Astarte manages to insinuate herself into the Garden of Eden as a lovely tree.
The best part of it all is that the volume concludes with a 9000-word set of notes to the entire collection, including the first trade. All the Bible and historical references you need to assure yourself that these stories and their allegories have a basis in exegesis (objective textual and historical study).
This collection offers readers a new entrypoint to the comic, so that it’s not required to have read the first five issues to begin anew here.
Star Trek’s ‘Prime Directive’ is stupid
by George Dvorsky
Fiction often reflects reality and nowhere is this more true than in Star Trek. The franchise is one giant phantasmagoric projection of human hopes and longings. It’s also a glimpse into a our societal norms and commonly held inhibitions, fears and inconsistencies.
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