From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Fri Jun 18 1999 - 19:56:13 MDT
At 03:41 AM 6/18/99 -0700, Jamees Ganong wrote:
>OK, we've gone over Nietzche as a possible memetic ancestor; who else
>might qualify? Who first inspired &/or
>infected you with the transhumanist/extropian meme?
Across history and across disciplines of study there are all sorts of
ancestral links. Usually, we prefer to focus on the writers, and
especially SF authors, because they appear to be more available and words
often speak louder than images. There is usually a desire to recognize a
meme-blood line from those thinkers whose ideas resonate with our own,
rather than whose ideas *actually* got the meme-pool spreading
"down-and-dirty."
The person who first inspired me was a person who wrote about over coming
odds, and not one on your list. It was Simone de Beauvoir. Beside her,
there were visionaries who illustrated the mind outside the human
psychological box, and they were the Abstract Expressionists. Long before
them were those who fancied to be free, and delighted in being more than
merely human, and these were the Greeks. More recently, there were those
who tore through pedestrian thinking and plebian mannerisms, and these were
individuals such as Mapplethorp who dared to be, or Carl Sagan who
championed critical thinking. I'd put at the top of my list Max More who
has done a lot of memetic mental intercourse over the years and give him
credit for being prolific and highly potent.
My thoughts leap to the question: What is vision without character --
ideas without aesthetics? Rather than emphasizing ancestral vision based
on technological advances, why not search for those who established memes
for *depth of character.* What we really need now is a "Veggie Soup for
the Evolving Spirit" and to incorporate what human values have given us the
insights and intelligences to become extropian transhumans.
However, getting back to your initial question, below is an excerpt from my
book _Create/Recreate - The 3rd Millennial Culture_ which gives an very
recent historical account of transhuman meme spreading:
"Ideas about humanity and evolution were explored by Julian Huxley in his
writings on evolutionary humanism in the book Evolution: The Modern
Synthesis (1942) and Teilhard de Chardin in The Future of Man (1959). In
1966, FM-2030 (formerly, F.M. Esfandiary) outlined an evolutionary
transhuman future while teaching “New Concepts of the Human” at the New
School for Social Research, New York City. Abraham Maslow referred to
transhumans in Toward a Psychology of Being,(1968), and Robert Ettinger
authored Man into Superman (1972).
In the dictionary, “transhuman” is defined as meaning “superhuman,” and
“transhumanize,” meaning “to elevate or transform to something beyond what
is human” (Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1983). Yet, this
is not a complete and contemporary meaning. Today, we refer to transhuman
as meaning an evolutionary transition from being human to becoming posthuman.
The actual concept of transhuman as an evolutionary transition was first
expressed by FM-2030. His trilogy, Up-Wingers, Telespheres and Optimism
One (1973) constitutes the beginnings of the transhumanist philosophy, as
well as his contributing final chapter in Woman, Year 2000, (1972).
FM later defined transhuman as “a new kind of being crystallizing from the
monumental breakthroughs of the late twentieth century. ... the earliest
manifestations of a new evolutionary being.” Later, he authored the book
Are You A Transhuman? (1989)
Transhumanism has a slightly different beginning. Julian Huxley’s book
written in 1956, New Bottles For New Wine, contains the essay
“TRANSHUMANISM” which sets out to explain how humans must establish a
better environment for themselves. He also alludes to a new species that
the human might eventually become. The difference in Huxley’s transhumanism
and Max More’s transhumanism is that Huxley states “man remaining man but
transcending himself.” Transhumanism as defined by Max More explains the
overcoming of human limits and the transformation from being human to
becoming posthuman. Although Huxley had a vision of a possible future for
humanity, he single-tracked the future when he saw man remaining man.
How did the memetic spreading of transhumanity begin? What started as
futurist ideas taught at the New School eventually became evolving ideas
held by thousands of individuals linking across the Internet. The
cyberculture became the most fertile breeding ground for people interested
in exploring new ideas. Extropy Institute spearheaded extropian transhuman
influence academically, in print and throughout the Internet. The Extro
Conferences, meetings, parties, on-line debates, and documentaries have
continued to get the idea of the transhuman to the public.
But let’s not forget Transhumanist Art. It had an early start but a slow
one. While the scientific community embraced the new concepts in human
evolution, the art community focused on exploring new tool—electronics, CD
ROM, VR, HD, VRML. Soon evolutionary memes such as bio-tech, A-Life, AI,
SI, transhuman, extropy, extreme-life, avatar and thoughts of new types of
sexuality and genders arose. Like meme spores infiltrating culture with
words well known in the scientific world, artists have been exploring the
ideas of evolution and giving them the art of life."
Natasha Vita-More: http://www.natasha.cc
Transhumanist Art Centre - Home of Extropic Art: http://www.extropic-art.com
**NEW** Transhuman Culture InfoMark: http://www.transhuman.org
PRESS RELEASE: "We are transhumans ..." Meme Orbits Saturn in 2004!
Biotech Futures: Challenges of Life Extension and Genetic Engineering
http://www.extropy.org/ex4/e4main.htm
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