On Sunday, December 11, we explored the convergence of religion with highly imaginative future science and technologies in the Turing Church online workshop 2 in teleXLR8, a 3D interactive video conferencing space.
Monthly Archives: January 2012
Frank Tipler’s talk at the Turing Church Online Workshop 2
In the picture I am with Frank Tipler, in a preparation meeting for the Turing Church Online Workshop 2.
I am a big Tipler fan, see for example Interview with Frank. J. Tipler (Nov. 2002), and Review of The Physics of Christianity, by Frank Tipler.
Frank gave a great talk at the Workshop (see also this video for the full Q/A session).
Continue reading Frank Tipler’s talk at the Turing Church Online Workshop 2
Terasem Hangouts
Terasem joiners and friends meet on the 10th of each month, and remote participants can join via Google+ Hangouts. In the picture, the participants in Florida (shown, Martine Rothblatt performing a yoga session), Dan Massey and Alison Gardner from DC, myself from Europe, and a visitor. Continue reading Terasem Hangouts
Interview with venusplusx — Alison Gardner and Dan Massey
I interviewed venusplusx.org polymaths Alison Gardner and Dan Massey on sexual freedom, the occupy movement, transhumanism, the singularity, physics, religion and spirituality, and their forthcoming book. LGBT rights and quantum entanglement in the same talk. Continue reading Interview with venusplusx — Alison Gardner and Dan Massey
Book Review — Zendegi, by Greg Egan
My review of Greg Egan’s Zendegi
Quantum Archaeology
I have often used the almost equivalent term “Time Scanning”, but I see that more and more people are using “Quantum Archaeology”. A short definition:
Quantum Archaeology is a set of hypothetical far future technologies that, presumably through the application of yet undiscovered quantum effects, will permit reconstructing past events up to any desired resolution in space and time. In particular, Quantum Archaeology will permit reconstructing the life, thoughts, memories and feelings of any person in the past, up to any desired level of detail, and thus resurrecting the original person via “copying to the future.”
A Cosmist Manifesto, by Ben Goertzel
(First published by IEET and H+ Magazine, 2010) – The term Cosmism seems to have been introduced by Konstantin Tsiolokovsky and other Russian Cosmists around 1900. Now, Ben Goertzel’s Cosmist Manifesto (published by Humanity+ Press and available on Amazon) gives it new life and a new twist for the 21st century. Cosmism, as Goertzel presents it, is a practical philosophy for the posthuman era. Rooted in Western and Eastern philosophy as well as modern technology and science, it is a way of understanding ourselves and our universe that makes sense now, and will keep on making sense as advanced technology exerts its transformative impact in the unfolding future. Goertzel weaves a philosophic tapestry using AI, nanotechnology, uploading, immortality, psychedelic drugs, meditation, future social structures, psi phenomena, alien and cetacean intelligence and the Singularity. The Cosmist perspective is shown to make plain old common sense of even the wildest future possibilities.
Apocalyptic AI: Visions of heaven in robotics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality
Oxford University Press – Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality, by Robert M. Geraci – Buy on Amazon.
From the publishers’ site: “Description: Apocalyptic AI, the hope that we might one day upload our minds into machines or cyberspace and live forever, is a surprisingly wide-spread and influential idea, affecting everything from the world view of online gamers to government research funding and philosophical thought. In Apocalyptic AI, Robert Geraci offers the first serious account of this “cyber-theology” and the people who promote it.
Shadows and the concept of self
Shadows and the concept of self
By Giulio Prisco and Richard L. Miller
March 11, 2005
Let us begin with the dead cat in the box — or maybe it is the live cat. Or maybe both, depending upon how the radioisotope decayed during the time of the original thought experiment. Or maybe, it really took place. Somewhere. Someplace. Or maybe not. Or maybe the cat is only a shadow, and its source is not really a cat (look closely at the picture above).
Order of Cosmic Engineers
The Order of Cosmic Engineers is not currently active. This is an archive of some pages of the old website. Continue reading Order of Cosmic Engineers
Ten Cosmist Convictions
These Ten Cosmist Convictions, which I co-authored with Ben Goertzel, originally appeared in Ben’s A Cosmist Manifesto blog, and have been published in Ben’s book A Cosmist Manifesto (recommended reading).
Transcendent Engineering
My essay Transcendent Engineering has been published on the Terasem Journal of Personal Cyberconsciousness. A version of the essay is forthcoming in the Transhumanist Reader edited by Max More and Natasha Vita-More. Continue reading Transcendent Engineering