From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Fri Jun 11 1999 - 07:11:47 MDT
"Gina Miller" <nanogirl@halcyon.com> writes:
> Anyone have a report on Transvision 99?
Didn't my report get it here? I'll include it below just to make sure,
if I'm wrong I apologize for the redundancy.
Transhumanists go to jail!
or: TransVision 99 Stockholm
"I hope this is the last time transhumanists go to jail for their
views" a participant wrote on the whiteboard. But the TransVision 99
participants were a smiling, eagerly discussing lot who didn't seem
the least fazed by holding the conference at Långholmen, once one of
Sweden's major prisons but these days a conference hotel.
TransVision this year had participants from England, the Netherlands,
France, Germany, South Africa, Denmark and Sweden. There were both
familiar faces and new people, and plenty of net.acquaintances met
each other in the flesh for the first time.
The saturday session began with a short presentation of the different
participants and their groups, and a discussion of how to make the WTA
even more useful. In the afternoon Anders Sandberg presented some of
the methods for intelligence amplification that are currently
available. Ant Brooks presented the Net in Africa and the five "secret
weapons" that might help it in the future. Waldemar Ingdahl explained
the need for and possibilities of making transhumanism not just a
hobby but a livelihood. Henrik Öhrström concluded with an overview of
what genetic modificiations can do about common diseases such as
arteriosclerosis, bad backs and aging.
On Sunday we turned towards the place of transhumanism in society and
its relationship with other ideas. Remi Sussan showed how complicated
the situation is, with transhumanism sharing views with groups it
otherwise disagrees with, and having fundamental differences with
groups that are often considered related. Nick Boström presented some
of the questions of bioethics we have to learn how to discuss, debate
and think of. Alexander Bard criticized transhumanism from a mobilist
perspective, suggesting that it might be better off as a social
network than a philosophy. Max M proposed a way for more transhumanist
networking through a web portal.
Of course, the real TransVision was never the seminars, it was the
discussions that flowed between them, in the coffee breaks and long,
long into the night. Everything from the meaning of life to
cryptography, from Dilbert to megascale engineering. No doubt other
guests at the hotel wondered what was going on when they heard the
discussions.
The next TransVision will be held in London in the year 2000. The
Stockholm TransVision was the last of its millennium, the London
TransVision will be the first of its millennium. In between there will
be a year of even more growth, discovery and enthusiastic
transhumanist questioning.
See you all soon!
To read Max M's diary from the conference, see
http://maxm.normik.dk/tv99/html/postscript_maxm.htm
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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