culture

Thoughts on Transhumanism

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I’ve been thinking about Transhumanism lately, both due to editing a friend’s novel that contains some rational thought about transuhmanism, along with some of the dismal stuff out there.

Now I’d probably be considered a Transhumanist since I’m all for human improvement. I’m just rather skeptical about a lot of the enthusiasm regarding the issue since it doesn’t seem tempered with common sense, though maybe at some point we can genetically alter ourselves to have more of that.

Most times I see transhumanism discussed it’s usually about life extension or intelligence enhancement. Both understandable goals, but goals that I think actually dodge a core issue of transhumanism. We can talk about making ourselves immortal, making ourselves smarter, making ourselves healthier.

What is missing in all of this is the talk of “ourselves.”

A transhumanist should ask ‘What is this “me” that I’m trying to preserve and enhance? What is the point of what I’m doing? Who am I doing this for?’

The ultimate question of Transhumanism is one of identity.

We want an “I” that lives longer, is healthier, smarter, etc. However, let me turn it around and ask if a goal of Transhumanism should actually be “building a better ‘I'” or perhaps better realizing that “I” is really a construct anyway and seeking something more beyond that. Maybe we may want to think about building Nirvana as opposed to a techno-biologic Rapture that’ll sweep us to a manufactured Heaven.

So let’s take Transhumanism to the core – what kind of people are we going to be, what kind of selves should we seek to be, and how can we achieve that. If we’re going to re-engineer who we are let’s forget such things as years of life or IQ, and ask how we’ll identify ourselves and each other, interact, and work together as people. Only when we figure that out can we ask what the rest of it is for.

We might be surprised at the answers.

Come to think of it, we might be surprised at “who” is asking the question.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Fans Are Hackers

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On my own blog I had recently posted a rather extended rant called “You Hack Or You Die.” Yes, it’s heavy handed title-wise, yes I slipped in a “Game of Thrones Reference,”  but my basic theme is that you have to learn to modify and make things in order to survive anyway, and that it’s true in this environment and economy as well. The problem is we’ve often forgotten its importance, which is downright dangerous in these troubled times.

Yes, the thesis is depressing in some ways, but depressing or not I think it’s true – to modify things and to create is how we’ve always survived. Right now we need those skills and abilities more than ever because the world is changing fast and not always in a direction we want. Right now, I’m not sure “hackness” is being encouraged.

In fact, it can be discouraging now. People feel they have no control. People feel they can’t do anything. People feel they’re not creative, not able to make, not able to engineer, not able to hack and modify things.

This is one place where I value the HELL out of fandom, geekdom, and otakudom.

Because it’s filled with hacks and reminders of hacks.

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The Somewhat Clogged Culture Pipeline

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Serdar had responded to my post that we have replaced culture with economics with one of his usual, thoughtful replies. He notes that our technocratic marketing has driven innovation from the marketplace and we are left with what sells, not what necessarily has value, and that to an extent we have a case of this mediocrity infecting us or becoming a kind of cultural pollution. However out of many of his ideas, one thing comes up I want to talk about: the role of The Pipeline.

The Pipeline is how Stuff Gets To Us. There are Pipelines for food, for clothes, and of course for Culture.

When I say The Pipeline, for the sake of this post, I’m talking the media system we have.

The Pipeline that we have are often built of foundations decades, or even centuries old. Publishing houses, radio stations, movie studios, etc. Huge companies and small companies, various suppliers and interests, and so forth came together to create the giant Culture Engine we have now. Some of it is very old, and it often plays it very safe.

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