In a message dated 4/25/00 10:30:00 PM Central Daylight Time,
wingcat@pacbell.net writes:
> In particular, I wonder if one could come up with a single buisiness
> that profitably covered all aspects of transhumanism? It'd be easy
> enough to focus on, say, just access to space, or just nanoassemblers,
> or just human augmentation (though I haven't heard of too many doing
> that last one), but could one do them all and still turn the profit it
> would need to survive?
This is the six bazillion dollar question and I spend a LOT of time thinking
about it. Perhaps we'd like to see the formation of "Transcendence, Inc."
that could attract investment and channel it into all the avenues necessary
to implement to broad transhumanist agenda, from efforts toward cultural
change through basic scientific research through technical applications and
the creation of products and services. But the time just isn't ripe yet,
IMO. Trying this now would be like trying to start Boeing or Lockheed in
1850.
What I do see happening in the very near future is larger and larger "chunks"
of the transhumanist agenda coming together into viable businesses. With
practical wearables just around the corner and the developing bandwidth
explosion, I see the formation of "personal information ecology" companies
within the next five years or so. Attempts are already being made to bring
all of the various strands of the biomedical work in anti-aging together into
the formation of clinics and medical practices that focus on this work in an
integrated manner. We already have a couple of companies focused
specifically on developing nanotech. Success by any of the completely
private launch companies could spur the formation of vertically-integrated
space access and service companies. Success in founding a cryonics-oriented
community could become the seed of a transhumanist enclave.
As these precursor businesses succeed over the next ten years, the groundwork
will be laid for even more integrated "transhumanist goods and services"
enterprises. When will this happen? It seems to me unlikely before 2010.
It seems hard to imagine it wouldn't occur before 2040. In the broad sweep
of human history, that's the blink of an eye.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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