An interview with one of the pillars of that nebulous and hard to define thing, the transhumanist community: I'd make a distinction between the "Transhumanist movement" and a larger group of people - many of whom probably read io9 (and Boing Boing, Slashdot, Wired, and on and on). There are lots of people out there who are fully cognizant of transhumanist views, and who are interested in - and possibly supportive of, or ambiguously curious about - say, cyborg body enhancements, or memory enhancement, or ending aging. And in fact, my friend Ramez Naam argues that anybody who wears glasses or takes birth control pills is a transhumanist and so he refuses the label as sort of banal. If you look around at the serious efforts to make progress in longevity science or other means of postponing permanent death, you'll find members of the transhumanist community involved and amongst the most vocal supporters: the Methuselah Foundation; Alcor and the Cryonics Institute; the Immortality Institute. Similarly in the fields of strong artificial intelligence and advanced nanotechnology - organizations like the Singularity Institute, the Future of Humanity Institute and the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology are outgrowths of the transhumanist community of the 80s and 90s. Collectively these organizations and others have raised tens of millions of dollars over the years. Join discussion...

Of course, nobody can predict exactly how the future will unfold over the next ten centuries, but by projecting advances in biotech, nanotech, infotech, and cognitive sciences expected over the next four-to-rive decades, we see changes that will radically transform humanity into highly intelligent futuristic beings with ability to resolve the social, ethnic, and technological problems that plague society today. Join discussion...

Please consider including your Singularity-oriented quotes here. If you don't think a quote belongs, feel free to say below the specific quote. In the future, quotes may need to be divided into categories, should the list become too long for casual browsing. Join discussion...

The Howard W Hunter Chair is interested in expanding the discussion of Latter-day Saint (LDS) perspectives on the attributes of God and the potential of man through a variety of innovative directions. One of the directions to be explored is whether there is a possible resonance between Mormon and engineering thought. An assumption can be made that, according to LDS understanding, God is the architect of the Creation and the engineer of our bodies and spirits. Man, on the other hand, is believed to be capable of growing to become like God. The theological question is: where does engineering fit in the convergence of these two realms? Papers for Parallels and Convergences: Mormon Thought and Engineering Vision should present scholarly discussions that explore scriptural background and LDS philosophy, set in the context of engineering and technology. Topics can include, but are not limited to: Join discussion...

Working toward a positive Singularity through public education and direct action in the development of Singularity technologies. Join discussion...

The Mormon Transhumanist Association promotes practical faith in human exaltation through charitable use of science and technology. The association was founded on 3 March 2006 and affiliated with the World Transhumanist Association on 6 July 2006. Read the Transhumanist Declaration and the Mormon Transhumanist Affirmation. Join discussion...

New briefs are available to subscribers to Social Technologies' Technology Foresight project: Future Options in Energy Technologies Innovation Indicators Europe's decisions about energy will be shaped by concerns around security of energy supply, the sustainability of the energy supply, and cost competitiveness of new energy technology. This report provides forecasts around the commercialization of new energy-producing technologies, and supporting indicators of innovation probability within the EU. Five Technologies that Will Change How We Interact with World 0 To reach forecasted levels of World 0 expansion, advances in new methods of accessing and interacting with virtual worlds are needed. Five technologies will change how users interact with virtual worlds and reduce current barriers to adoption: touch interfaces, brain-computer interfaces, location-aware technologies, vital-sign sensing, and mobile devices. Join discussion...

How ‘bout uploading memories, feelings into a perfect body By Dick Pelletier The World Health Organization describes good health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being”. This sounds like utopia, but what does it actually mean?Besides family, friends, a faithful pet, and plenty of clean air and sunshine, what else contributes to our well-being? We could add feeling happy, feeling smart, and controling our bodies. According to a recent article in New Scientist Magazine, most people enjoy the conveniences in today’s modern homes – air conditioning, entertainment, appliances, etc. Join discussion...

A ‘Virtual’ Escape From Economic Pain: Forbes It seems that in these times of economic decline, people don’t want to forgo the luxuries that they’ve grown accustomed to over the years, so are choosing to indulge themselves in a virtual manner instead. There’s certainly a lot to be said for staying home surrounded by cheap entertainment compared with going out and being ripped off and mugged. Could this be the future? As Virtual Reality improves, we’ll be finding it replacing more and more of the “Real Life” things we currently take for granted. Why travel on dangerous, expensive, and environmentally unfriendly airlines when you can immerse yourself in a Virtual holiday? Google Earth and Google Street, not to mention other “virtual sightseeing” options have recently taken a lot of big steps towards this. Although virtual reality interfaces have a long way to go before we can experience all the delights of a trip to somewhere beautiful, in the next few years it will be possible to walk down a foreign street on your computer screen, with the realism of a TV documentary. You’ll be able to go into a real shop, select a real item from a real shelf, and make real purchases from the shops on this street, to be delivered to your door. In Second Life, you can already wander around the accurately recreated streets of Dublin and other major cities. Primitive as it is now, we’ll soon be taking it for granted. Join discussion...

Giulio Prisco Let’s take a few short and long term trends together and see what may be the long term future of the net: first wired connectivity for everyone, then wireless connectivity for everyone, then the development of working brain-machine interfaces and the emergence of a Global Brain. Trend 1: Everyone uses the net more and more - Trend 2: Wi-Fi is gaining more and more momentum - Trend 3: The possibility to develop brain-machine interfaces is being taken more and more seriously - So sooner or later everyone will be permanently linked to a wireless net, and a working neural interfacing technology will have been developed. It is easy to see that at this point somebody will develop a new generation of killer apps: neural interfaces to the wireless net. Join discussion...