Ray Kurzweil! Posthuman THIS!!

"Ray Kurzweil! Posthuman THIS!!" So screamed Bill Dvorak, the self-described so-called "freedom fighter" and "ex-egoist," at Raymond Kurzweil on Thursday evening, the 26th of July. As Dvorak scrambled to run outside of the Simpson theatre in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the crowd laughed at him and cheered for Ray's awkward response of, "Well, I hope that I could possibly become post-biological..."

The past week was one of the most amazing weeks I've gone through, and probably the best of the summer. And not just because I wasn't in lab. TransVision 2007 was held this year in Chicago from July 24th to July 26th, ending up with a gala awards dinner that involved an embarrasing moment that I have decided to withold from the general public. I was volunteering for it, just as a member of the Democratic Transhumanists at the U of C, being mildly interested in the issues it presents, such as life extension, artificial intelligence, and other "future" technologies. However, this conference has changed me from merely a passive observer to an activist ready to mobilize for the cause of preparing for the singularity that is about to occur sooner than later. I am ready to face the future.

I first encountered Transhumanism when I was surfing the web last summer and finding myself on Wikipedia. The feature article that day was on Transhumanism, which was something that I had never heard of before, and I was intrigued, thinking that it was some sort of new age movement. After reading the article, I was somewhat disgusted by the notions of it, thinking that it is a new religious movement that is focused around using science as a basis for their mysticism. I didn't think much of it while I finished up my summer courses at Salt Lake Community College and I went to Korea to see my father before I began school at the Univ. of Chicago. Being separated for more than six years, we obviously had an awkward time trying to reconnect personally, so instead we talked about politics, economics, and technology--topics that provide stimulating talk but not requiring us to get any closer to each other than comfortable. Before he went on sick leave for his colon cancer, my father worked for the emerging sciences Science Advisory Board of Samsung, and was therefore extremely well-versed in different upcoming technologies. He was really excited about combining biotechnology and information technology and tried to explain "cognitronics," which he interpreted as enhancing psychic ability (something I have never found much online about, but judging by the name, it seems to refer more towards connecting the human brain to non-biological objects, such as a robotic arm that is separate from the body--this is why I believe that anyone dealing in the science industry should be expertly trained in the sciences, even if they are more administrators than developers). With these new ideas buzzing around in my head, I entered the Univ. of Chicago 2010, ready to embrace the changing world through interdisciplinary research.

After joining facebook, I have made a friend who had an interest in Transhumanism. I was fascinated by her, seeing that she had so much on her profile that deemed her to be cool, so I messaged her and friended her, excited that I had fun friends at the U of C. I started classes, yet I never saw her on campus, which discouraged me from further looking into Transhumanism. Meanwhile, I had a really cool molecular biology lab TA who was in awesome clothes and had a really chill, yet amazingly professional demeanor. I bonded with her instantly, but then halfway through the quarter I realized... wow, she's the Transhumanist on facebook! The next time I went to biolab, I jumped on her and started jibbering like a school girl, "I KNOW YOU! I KNOW YOU!!!" We've been the best of friends ever since.

Gradually, working with her and another Transhumanist friend who graduated from Northwestern in 2005, I took more of Transhumanism and slowly digested it. I was still skeptical, of course, because it seemed to me that the movement took too much on faith. First of all, I argued, any long-term predictions regarding the future are extremely imprecise, usually inaccurate, and always a long shot. Second of all, Transhumanism seemed to have this utopian dream of paradise brought on by diverging technological development. Of course paradigm shifts can always change the outlook, but that in itself defies prediction, which would discount any Transhumanist theory in the first place. I kept this attitude well into this summer and considered Transhumanism somewhat of a crazy-people movement, which I was quite interested in, but never fully devoted myself to. Even to the first meeting, I wondered if there was any value in volunteering for the TransVision conference, which was conveniently held in Chicago this year. I decided that I was attending out of convenience and convinced myself to commit since it was a nice break from work. However, starting from the very first meeting, I noticed that something very radical was about to begin.

I was met by a group of diverse opinions who have read texts in neuroscience, philosophy, and evolutionary biology far beyond anything I've encountered, and they were ready to tear my misconceptions about Transhumanists apart. Philosophers, artists, biologists, mathematicians, and sociologists all came to debate the future of evolutionary trends, and this was just the group of volunteers! As the event went on, speakers gave their talks while attendees and volenteers had intense conversations that resonated something inside my core; I felt that even though these were non-U of C peoples (although there were several people affiliated with the U of C), we were all reaching for that same level of intellectualism that leaves most people behind, paddling along on driftwood. Admittedly, it was quite different from the general brilliance of the U of C (there were many mystics there with their new agey nonsense), but despite the self-taught individuals (some of whom, like Eliezer Yudkowsky, are more than brilliant), there was something here that is very lacking in pure U of C conversation--passionate conviction. Of course I like to quote Nietzsche: "Convictions are more dangerous foes of truths than lies," but the imminence of radical change and the acceptance of needing to take action for not just betterment, but for self-preservation, really materializes the relevance of these discourses. I am now also an active Transhumanist.

It's a bit of a gamble, I admit, to associate myself with a fringe group of thinkers. Although you have mainstream people like William Shatner or Ray Kurzweil (although some might argue against my standards of mainstream), Transhumanism really is an extreme paradigm that will undoubtedly shock the general public. However, regardless of whether or not Transhumanists' specific predictiions come true, it is inevitable that great changes due to social, technological, and biological evolution are always in front of us. Therefore, I too have jumped the bandwagon. These issues are real. These issues are relevant. These issues will decide whether or not we as intelligent life will survive. I think it is time to take action. As Ray Kurzweil wrote in my copy of The Singularity is Near, Welcome to the Singularity.