Although transhumanism is a broader church than libertarianism, it does approach many issues from a similar background: challenging current obstacles that prevent individuals from deciding that they wish to fully benefit from the range of cutting edge technologies that are now moving from speculation to experimentation. Like all movements, it has many variations, from those who champion pragmatic, short-term, measures to those who take a more visionary stance, dwelling upon the joys of uploading.
The United Kingdom has always provided a sympathetic culture and activists for transhumanism, notably its libertarian variant, extropianism. However, after the early 1980s, there does not appear to have been any group within the United Kingdom, which could organise and focus the efforts of likeminded individuals to provide an alternative voice to those organisations that wish to retard technological progress and promote the precautionary (reactionary?) principal.
In the last few two years, people interested in transhumanism have been meeting on a monthly basis in London and listening to guest speakers on various subjects. This social exercise, called Extrobritannia, has proved extraordinarily successful at providing links and full kudos to its founder, Fabio, who continues to put in a determined effort to engage a series of strong speakers. Past speakers have included Nick Bostrom, who argues that we may live in a computer simulation, Aubrey de Grey, a gerontologist at Cambridge (whose interview with Glenn Reynolds can be accessed here) and Alex Ramonsky, a wearables experimentalist and neurohacker (in the lexicon).
Most of the regulars to these meetings have become increasingly concerned at the influence of groups inimical to the development and application of technologies beneficial to humanity, whether they be environmentalists or bioconservatives. To combat these trends and to provide an alternative voice, we have decided to set up the UK Transhumanist Association as a non-profit organisation that will, hopefully, publicise and act as a coordinator for interested parties within the United Kingdom that can recognise the benefits of current and future developments within science. The papers were signed today.
At the moment, the UK Transhumanist Association is an embryonic organisation, with ambition rather then experience, but there is a role that needs to be filled.
Excellent news and long overdue. Providing a solid voice in this area is needed in Britain, though in certain respects (such as stem cell research), Britain is actually a friendlier environment than the USA, surprising though it may seem.
Good luck.
though in certain respects (such as stem cell research), Britain is actually a friendlier environment than the USA, surprising though it may seem.
I don’t think it is too surprising considering that socially, Britain(and Europe) is very much more liberal than the US.
TWG
5. Open Society: Extropy means supporting social orders that foster freedom of communication, freedom of action, experimentation, innovation, questioning, and learning. Opposing authoritarian social control and unnecessary hierarchy and favoring the rule of law and decentralization of power and responsibility. Preferring bargaining over battling, exchange over extortion, and communication over compulsion. Openness to improvement rather than a static utopia. Extropia (“ever-receding stretch goals for society”) over utopia (“no place”).
I am glad this plank was included. I hold a general belief that technology falls into two categories at this point, that which eminates from free association and that which eminates from Statism (or perhaps a third, a hybrid of private technologies hijacked by the State). I fear the technologies which commingle with Statism if for no other reason than that it tends to excuse more Statism. I differentiate between these two and champion one and dread the other. A technology that binds with individuals and furthers individuals well being is proper, while those that are meant to be sold as beneficial to the masses are typically improper. Though one has to wonder if all technology, which quickens the paces of life, and makes life more efficient and effective, will eventually fall into the wrong hands. Can anyone envision a use for transhuman technology once out of the free exchange realm? I could see it as a ‘Godsend’ to the State. Once they regulate it, they are sure to regulate in their favor to dominate.
So may seem contradictory or muddled, but I favor individual and voluntary associations in questing for knowledge, but I have seen too many examples of State confiscation of ideas and products from the market/culture, either directly or through regulation, and have come to fear the practical results of such strides if the State is not properly reduced beforehand. Technology, after all, can simply be regarded as one portion of the culture at large, and as long as we have the mentality that the State is not only the preserver of culture, but the progenitor of culture, all aspects of the culture are ripe for the picking.
On the subject of UK and medical research, you gotta see this.
“Big Brother” Blunkett has been letting animal-rights terrorists off the hook, and now he’s been caught as an undeclared patron of an anti-vivisection group…
Excellent to see my fellow >Humanists in Britain getting this going. It’s especially needed, what with the recent “Green Rising” there.
Best of Luck ladies and gents!
Good luck in your efforts. This sounds like a rather interesting organisation. I think I might be inclined to attend a meeting of yours.
Great news. Hope it takes off.
Just a minor quibble; it’s my understanding that ExI has been trying to distance itself from its more overtly partisan political origins, and I think it would object to being termed a ‘libertarian variant’. Although clearly dominated by libertarian voices, there are significant non-libertarians, notably Natasha Vita-More, and Max More and others have long argued against people like James Hughes (representing the pinko-commie wing of transhumanism 😉 trying to paint it into that political corner.
Ooops, the post by “j” was obviously me. Sorry!
As far as WTA/EXI politics go, I stay clear of it. Needless to say, there’s a lot of cross-membership and good cooperation between them, if not on an official level.
Re transhumanism and libertarianism: I’d say they’re linked, but not in the way people have been thinking.
The link is: only libertarians should be trusted with transhuman techniques. Everybody else would use them to make overlords and serfs.
In the hands of a libertarian, transhumanism promises liberty.
In the hands of a statist, it’s a gun pointed right at your head.
I enjoyed reading the comments about Extropy Institute, Proactionary Principle.
Let me comment on my personal political leanings. While I think that the more “futurist” approach to politics and socio-economic issues is to sift through many approaches, develop scenarios and evaluate why one particular approach is better than another and why. No one way of thinking has ever prospered across the threshold of conflict in resolving issues. It takes an multi-disciplinary approach to crack open unresolved issues to, piece, by piece, identify the core problem and then apply not one, but many theories.
A futurist today must address all sides of a problem. To do this, he or she must be skilled across the board, and to be skilled requires an open mind and broad intellectual base for reasoning. The intellectual base for reasoning cannot be cramped, pigeonholed, or inflexible. Because of this, professing or aligning with any one political party becomes a handicap rather than a benefit.
Unless and until there is a futuristic, a transhumanist, political system of reasoning, all political parties are troubled.
The main point is that in order to care for the world and to assist the world in understanding and dealing with the future in a positive, beneficial way, we need to understand one another and work together. This requires patience and, above all, an ability to ask the right questions.
Extropy Institute was never affiliated with any one political party. Many of the Silicon Valley transhumanists who were members of Extropy Institute and Foresight Institute in the early 1990s and on, were libertarians. These ExI and Foresight members were very vocal – very political. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and in this case, the vocal advocates of libertarian policies were heard.
What is important to acknowledge is that ExI has always been an international transhumanist organization and that there are many more members now and in the past than those who lived in Silicon Valley in the 1990s.
I think that someone addressed this issue frankly in one of the comments.
My best to all,
Natasha Vita-More