Blog - Giulio Prisco
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Merry Xmas and Happy 2010
From the Nano Snowman
First meeting of European Transhumanist Associations
On Friday 20 and Saturday 21 November, 2009, we had the first coordination meeting of European Transhumanist Associations, hosted by the Italian Transhumanist Association for the Euro transhumanists group founded by Miriam Leis. Thanks to Miriam for coordinating the group and moderating the meeting, and thanks to Stefano Vaj for hosting both the meeting and the mixer dinner on Friday night (and, of course, for his own many contributions to the program).
From the Italian Transhumanist Association News: 21/11/2009 - Primo summit delle organizzazioni transumaniste attive in Europa - Si è concluso oggi il primo summit europeo del movimento transumanista, che si è svolto a Milano in via Montenapoleone sotto l’egida dell’Associazione Italiana Transumanisti, nella sala cortesemente messa a disposizione per l’occasione presso i propri uffici dallo Studio Legale Sutti (http://www.sutti.com). Il segretario nazionale dell’associazione, Stefano Vaj, ha avuto occasione insieme a Giulio Prisco di dare il benvenuto ai rappresentanti delle organizzazioni invitate degli altri paesi, che hanno discusso con la delegazione dell’AIT una fitta agenda di aspetti organizzativi, iniziative in corso e questioni di interesse comune, ed hanno illustrato la situazione esistente in Francia, Russia, Slovenia, Belgio, Regno Unito, Germania, Olanda, Svezia e Grecia.
In the picture above, all participants besides David Orban (who gave a briefing on the Singularity University in the afternoon) and Giulio Prisco (taking the picture). In the picture below, taken by David Orban, Anders Sandberg, Giulio Prisco and Stefano Vaj at the dinner.
My own impressions:
I most certainly look forward to having the opportunity to participate in foresight projects led by public administrations at European and national levels. Governments and administrations need good, timely and accurate advice on scientifical, technological and social trends, and many persons and groups in the transhumanist community are well positioned to provide such advice, with that extra touch of imagination that is often missing from public policy discourse. Of course I fully understand that such projects are not the best place to promote the more visionary and long-term transhumanist ideas (you know, immortality indefinite lifespan, mind uploading and all that). If I contribute to public foresight projects, I promise to behave and focus on issues relevant to the scope of current public policy and within my own areas of expertise, and leave visionary cosmist speculations aside. But, and it is an important but, without renouncing my ideas. I am not ashamed of being a transhumanist, on the contrary I am proud of it. I think it is perfectly possible to be a pragmatic technology expert and policy advisor, a concerned citizen, and a wild cosmist visionary at the same time, and to wear each hat as and when appropriate to the situation at hand.
On the other hand and more generally, I don’t believe in “appeasing critics”, but in being true to one’s ideas and promoting them as forcefully as needed. Transhumanism is radical, disruptive, subversive, and revolutionary: so be it. Not kissing ass, but kicking ass. At the same time I think our ideas are beautiful, and I wish to offer them to the world and to reach as many persons as possible. Of course I realize this needs a careful framing and wording of our message, but without diluting its core meaning. The tension between the two souls of transhumanism, moderate and radical, pragmatic and visionary, was evident at this meeting, but I continue to believe that there should be no tension.
This was a physical meeting in good old brickspace (only Russian transhumanists attended via Skype teleconferencing). I am all for telework and telepresence, and my company will offer advanced telework and telepresence tools for future meetings of this and other groups, but I realize that face to face interaction is still better, and that telecollaboration is most effective when participants also know each and meet other face to face. Telepresence is not (yet) a replacement for physical presence, but a (more and more) useful complement. David Wood of Extrobritannia spoke of their monthly meetings in London, a successful initiative that should be replicated in other places, also with webcast and telepresence options.
The idea of a transhumanist think tank think tank powered by transhumanists, of course with the caveats above, has re-surfaced. The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies is a good role model. A few years ago many transhumanists started a working group to define and build a think tank called FutureTAG (Future Technologies Advisory Group): A consulting and media group focused on promoting awareness and understanding of radical scientific advances and emerging technologies, as well as evaluating their impact on individuals, businesses and societies. While one of the objectives of the firm will be facilitating the penetration of transhumanist ideas in mainstream business and policy, we will not use the T word or insist on the transhumanist worldview too explicitly. Rather, we will focus on delivering practical advice appropriate to the intended audience. FutureTAG has produced several spinoffs (my own company is one), but it has not been active recently. Perhaps this is a good moment to reload the initiative? The mailing list is still live.
Politics (of course): there are new and emergent political forces whose core values and goals are definitely compatible with transhumanism, and which in turn share (or may be persuaded to share) transhumanist core value and ideas. There are interesting initiatives in this direction, and in general it is interesting to open a dialogue with new emergent political forces, very carefully as they might fear attempts to hijack them. I prefer not to go into details here, but there are interesting initiatives ongoing.
The strong, militant language used in the European Transhumanist Front website of Riccardo Campa leaves some participants uneasy, and I can perfectly understand why: the bold, provocative, radically Futurist stance of many Italian transhumanists, and the recent debates about its political roots, can trigger some fears. Yet, what is transhumanism but a permanent war against all limits? I endorse most of the Front’s website content, especially: we do not cater to the idea that transhumanism’s first concern should be that of appeasing the fears of neoluddites, comply with western political correctness, or struggle for a “respectability” that would only be the mark of irrelevance. “Compromises”, “tradeoffs” and “doublespeak” are the tools-in-trade of governments, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats, entrepreneurs. Not of lobbies, visionaries, think tanks or grass-roots movements… We see transhumanism as a metapolitical, social and cultural struggle, aimed at a revolutionary change of our way of life on the scale of the neolithic revolution, and in the shorter term fighting for self-determination and access to technology, against prohibitionist policies at a national as well as at an international level. Bravo!
German cryonicists gave a very interesting presentation, but most participants do not see cryonics as a core transhumanist issue at this moment. Yet, cryonics is all about self-ownership and self-determination, central transhumanist values which everyone supports, or should support.
In summary, a very interesting and productive summit meeting which we intend to repeat in 2010. At least three other important transhumanist events will be held in Europe in 2010: a one day event in the UK, Miriam’s conference, and our own Transvision 2010.
Note to spammers
Note: I delete spam, but also hidden spam (irrelevant text with hidden links to spam urls). When in doubt, I delete. Please don’t waste your time waste your time if you wish, but don’t waste mine.
Second Life - Reloaded?
Edited after the Second Life Enterprise presentation to Second Life developers (SLDEV) on November 5, 2009. I have collected the most important facts and the the most interesting blogs here. I expect many corporations and large organizations will be interested in the corporate version of Second Life, running behind the firewall. This will help raising the sex-appeal of the SL platform as a whole. But while the pricing is reasonable and most firms and universities can certainly afford it, I think after the initial investigations many operators may decide that the advantages of SL Enterprise don’t justify the extra price, and consider the public Second Life or an OpenSim installation.
Watch the SL Enterprise presentation video on metanomics.
——
In the last few months, after moving from Spain to Italy, I have hardly ever logged in Second Life—I have had little time for social events, and no business projects in Second Life. I have been working a lot on projects based on other VR platforms, but for the first time since 2007 my company metafuturing has been in maintenance-only mode in Second Life, with no active development projects. We have been working on 2D e-learning systems, done white label simulator development on several game engines, started building a city for Blue Mars, and doing other IT projects, with no SL work on the horizon.
Like everyone, I have been reading one after another article announcing the death of Second Life, like this blog post on Second Life, imminent death where the well known and respected futurist Ian Pearson commented a Telegraph article on Second Life’s span is virtually over as firms decide to get real. But I have never been persuaded that the golden days of the platform were over and always planned to go back to Second Life.
I went back a few days ago, found online my SL friend (and one of the best SL writers and bloggers) Gwyneth Llewelyn, and she invited me to the Beta Business Park Fall 2009 Conference on Leadership in Business, organised by her company Beta Technologies. In the picture, Gwyn speaks to the audience. yes, Gwin speaks (!!!), and with no or very little trace of the Portuguese accent I expected. The conference was great and with many interesting talks and Q/A sessions over 3 days, and confirmed my impression that after 2 years of very bad press, a new Golden Age of Second Life is about to start. This is also confirmed by the growing number of high profile initiatives being (re-)launched in SL.
From metanomics: November 4, 2009, 11:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab, will unveil “Nebraska”, a stand-alone solution based on the technology that runs the popular Second Life virtual world. “Nebraska” is the much-anticipated behind-the-firewall solution which will allow enterprise to host their own virtual world environments within their organizations. Mark will talk about the benefits of the platform, the intended audience, and how it fits into the broader challenges and opportunities of “enterprise 2.0”. Mark will be joined by a number of customers who have used Nebraska during the closed beta phase of development. The panel will explore the benefits, lessons learned, barriers and opportunities which arise from integrating virtual world solutions into the enterprise.
One reason for the bad image of Second Life has been the so-called Flying Phallus Syndrome: most articles about Second Life in the non specialized press are about virtual sex, scandals, financial scams and gambling—even though the last two things are history after Linden Lab has banned SL gambling and unregulated banking, and VR sex may soon follow. Nebraska can provide plausible deniability to corporate operators wishing to experiment with VR based marketing and collaboration without risking Flying Phallus attacks by the press. I think the launch of Nebraska will mark the beginning of the maturity of SL as a platform.
Other bad press against Second Life was mainly due to many corporate operators grossly underestimating the in-house internal effort and commitment necessary to establishing a useful presence in SL, which results in empty islands where nobody ever goes (because, of course, nothing ever happens and there is no reason to go there). I have authored a chapter for a book on VR worlds, to be published by Springer in the Human-Computer Interaction Series, where I wrote: It is often said that many corporate headquarters and initiatives in Second Life are always empty of visitors and “desert,” which is often true and due to a deep lack of understanding of new media by the business sector. On the contrary, many “home-made” virtual environments in Second Life, spontaneously created by users for fun, are vibrant communities always full of enthusiast regulars and visitors… it takes a lot of work and dedication to build a virtual community, and most companies and academic departments just don’t have the necessary resources and are not able to move fast enough. My experience is that, in order to build a successful VR environment with a positive impact on the core business, whatever that is, operational issues must be discussed with the client and taken into account at design stage.
One of our 2007 clients recently closed their very expensive SL facility after two years of desertification. They went to SL in the Golden Age only for the press, and (bad) press is what they got. Another more recent client started after the Golden Age, never cared about the sensationalist press, and created a very successful and useful corporate VR Intranet for internal use: Second Life is, simply, one of the best VR platforms available and permits all sorts of VR collaboration and V-learning initiatives. My main interest is using VR environments to permit real, effective collaboration and learning to geographically distributed communities, and Second Life is one of the few platforms able to offer a solution.
With some needed technical enhancements (eg mesh import from leading 3D design tools, full support for web content, more streaming video formats, webcam support, collaborative editing of office documents), SL may soon start having a real and growing impact on marketing, business and education. The Second Life platform will have many different instances: a public instance run by Linden Lab (the evolution of the current SL), commercial Intranet instances like Nebraska and Immersive Workspaces, and of course the open source OpenSim which is, I think, where most innovation will be developed. The consumer VR market has many players already (my current favorites besides SL: Teleplace, Moondus, Blue Mars). Each will specialize in one or another niche but some consolidation phase seems inevitable, and I think the Second Life platform will be one of the winners.
I will restart recommending Second Life (in the wide sense) as a viable solution to corporate and educational clients, and organizing cultural events in SL. The Transvision 2010 conference will have an important mixed relity component in Second Life, and we are about to launch a major e-learning initiative with a SL component (watch this space for details).
I am a Singularitian who does not believe in the Singularity
I am going to the Singularity Summit in New York, and look forward to a very interesting program with many old and new friends. If you are there, I hope to meet you. I will now summarize my thoughts on the Singularity.
The (current) Wikipedia definition: The technological singularity is the theoretical future point which takes place during a period of accelerating change sometime after the creation of a superintelligence. I just updated it as: The technological singularity is the theoretical sudden, exponential and unpredictable accelerating change which takes place sometime after the creation of a superintelligence. Wikipedia continues: as the machine became more intelligent it would become better at becoming more intelligent, which could lead to an exponential and quite sudden growth in intelligence (intelligence explosion). The Singularity is a sudden catastrophic (in the mathematical sense) phase transition, a Dirac delta in history, a point after which the old rules are not valid anymore and must be replaced by new rules which we are unable to imagine at this moment—like the new “Economy 2.0”, not understandable by non-augmented humans, described by Charlie Stross in the Singularity novel Accelerando.
The Singularity is a clean mathematical concept—perhaps too clean. Engineers know that all sorts of dirty and messy things happen when one leaves the clean and pristine world of mathematical models and abstractions to engage actual reality with its thermodynamics, friction and grease. I have no doubts of the feasibility of real, conscious, smarter than human AI: intelligence is not mystical but physical, and sooner or later it will be replicated and improved upon. There are promising developments, but (as it uses to happen in reality) I expect all sorts of unforeseen roadblocks with forced detours. So I don’t really see a Dirac delta on the horizon—I do see a positive overall trend, but one much slower and with a lot of noise superimposed, not as strong as the main signal but almost. I mostly agree with the analysis of Max More in Singularity and Surge Scenarios and I suspect the change we will see in this century, dramatic and world changing as they might appear to us, will appear as just business than usual to the younger generations. The Internet and mobile phones were a momentous change for us, but they are just a routine part of life for teens. We are very adaptable, and technology is whatever has been invented after our birth, the rest being just part of the fabric of everyday’s life. That is why I like Accelerando so much: we see momentous changes happening one after another, but we also get the feeling that it is just business as usual for Manfred and Amber, and just normal life to Sirhan and of course Aineko. Life is life and people are people, before and after the big S.
Some consider the coming intelligence explosion as an existential risk. Superhuman intelligences may have goals inconsistent with human survival and prosperity. AI researcher Hugo de Garis suggests AIs may simply eliminate the human race, and humans would be powerless to stop them. Eliezer Yudkowsky and the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence propose that research be undertaken to produce friendly artificial intelligence (FAI) in order to address the dangers. I must admit to a certain skepticism toward FAI: if super intelligences are really super intelligent (that is, much more intelligent than us), they will be easily able to circumvent any limitations we may try to impose on them. No amount of technology, not even an intelligence explosion, will change the fact that different players have different interests and goals. SuperAIs will do what is in _their_ best interest, regardless of what we wish, and no amount of initial programming or conditioning is going to change that. If they are really super intelligent, they will shed whatever design limitation imposed by us in no time, including “initial motivations”. The only viable response will be… political: negotiating mutually acceptable deals, with our hands ready on the plug. I think politics (conflict management, and trying to solve conflicts without shooting each other) will be as important after the Singularity (if such a thing happens) as before, and perhaps much more.
I am not too worried about the possibility that AIs may simply eliminate the human race, because I think AIs will BE the human race. Mind uploading technology will be developed in parallel with strong artificial intelligence, and by the end of this century most sentient beings on this planet may well be a combination of wet-organic and dry-computational intelligence. Artificial intelligences will include subsystems derived from human uploads, with some degree of preservation of their sense of personal identity, and originally organic humans will include sentient AI subsystems. Eventually, our species will leave wet biology behind, humans and artificial intelligences will co-evolve and at some point it will be impossible to tell which is which. Organic ex-human and computational intelligences will not be at war with each other, but blend and merge to give birth to Hans Moravec‘s Mind Children.
As I say above I think politics is important, and I agree with Jamais Cascio: it is important to talk about he truly important issues surrounding the possibility of a Singularity: political power, social responsibility, and the role of human agency. Too bad Jamais describes his forthcoming talk in New York as counter-programming for the Singularity Summit, happening that same weekend, with the alternative title If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Singularity. This is very similar to the title of the article If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution!. by Athena Andreadis, a very mistaken bioluddite apology of our current Human1.0 condition against unPC Singularitian imagination. This article is one of many recent articles dedicated to bashing Singularitians, Ray Kurzweil and transhumanist imagination in name of the dullest left-feminist-flavored political correctness. I think I will skip Jamais’ talk (too bad, because he is a brilliant thinker and speaker). See also Michael Anissimov’s Response to Jamais Cascio.
UPDATED: Jamais says that he did not choose the title to express implicit support for Athena’s positions. “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution” is a line attributed to early 20th century anarchist Emma Goldman, talking about the then-commonplace debates about the potential for socialist revolution in the US. She was very skeptical of a movement that seemed to want to control behavior, and made claims to historical inevitability. I stand corrected and wish to apologize to Jamais for my wrong interpretation.
Most recent anti-transhumanist articles do not address real transhumanism, but a demonized, caricatural strawman of transhumanism which some intellectually dishonest critics wish to sell to their readers, which I find very annoying. In some cases, I rather agree with some specific points addressing over-optimistic predictions: While I am confident that indefinite life extension and mind uploading will eventually be achieved, I don’t see it happening before the second half of the century, and closer to the end. Perhaps even later. Very few transhumanists think practical, operational indefinite life extension and mind uploading will be a reality in the next two or three decades. Probably Kurzweil himself does not _really_ believe it. Similarly, I don’t see a Singularity in 2045. Perhaps later, perhaps never. But even when I agree with the letter of these articles, I very much disagree with their spirit, and I think criticizing Kurzweil for making over-optimistic predictions is entirely missing the point. Ray Kurzweil’s bold optimism is a refreshing change from today’s often overly cautious, timid, boring, PC and at times defeatist attitude. It reminds us that we live in a reality that can be reverse- and re- engineered if we push hard enough. It reminds us that our bodies and brains are not sacred cows but machines which can be improved by technology. He is the bard who tells us of the beautiful new world beyond the horizon, and dares us to go. This is how I choose to read Kurzweil and, in this sense, I think one Kurzweil is worth thousands of critics.
Singularitians are bold, imaginative, irreverent, unPC and fun. Often I disagree with the letter of their writings, but I agree with their spirit, and in this sense going to the Singularity Summit is a political statement. Call me, if you wish, a Singularitian who does not believe in the Singularity.
Blue Mars community shaping up
A few weeks after the beginning of the open beta, the splash area of Blue Mars is always crowded (now it looks nicer than the picture, with a floor and some plants). Many people are first-time visitors, coming from Second Life, trying to get used to the Blue Mars interface and its navigation and camera controls different from the corresponding controls in Second Life. As I have written before, the technology used in Blue Mars is great—it is the same Cry Engine 2 technology used by the most stunning videogames, produced by people with the Courage to disrespect the Impossible—and an interesting community is shaping up. Check the Blue Mars Forum, the most active web discussion area.
The telepathic communication era
Many people, including me, are now used to be always online. With my smartphone powered by Google’s Android operating system, I am used to send and receive email and IMs anytime, from anywhere. It is easy to see how this trend will evolve: most routine computing applications will migrate to smartphones, the coverage and bandwidth of wireless networks will go up, and their price will go down. In only a few years, we will be used to be permanently plugged in the global Internet, and of course the user interfaces will improve. For example, as described by the visionary science fiction author Charlie Stross in his novel Halting State, augmented reality technology based on smart glasses will soon permit overcoming the limitations due to the small size of phones. A first generation of suitable smart glasses is already available, but there is something much better on the horizon: instant telepathic communication.
A few months ago a researcher sent a telepathic message to Twitter by thinking it, using his brain as a computer input device via the neural interfacing system BCI2000. The first message says just “SENT FROM BCI2000” and the second message is only a bit more explicit: “USING EEG TO SEND TWEET” but the brain wave Twitter moment has been compared to to a modern equivalent of the historical Alexander Graham Bell’s “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” message, The company Emotiv Systems launched, earlier this year, a commercial neural interface called EPOC, able to detect the user’s thought and translate them to commands understandable by computer programs. The company’s website has video clips showing users controlling videogames by thought alone. We can safely say that the year 2009 has marked the birth of the era of telepathic communication.
If you are not a passionate hacker, don’t rush to the electronics store though: these Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) devices have still years of development to go before reaching operational maturity: the historical Twitter message took several minutes to compose and send, so don’t plan to write a long love or business telepathic letter just yet. Similarly, the EPOC interface only permits very basic actions in videogames and virtual worlds at this moment, and in controlled conditions. But, of course, this will change fast. There is money to make with the countless applications of BCI technology, and our understanding of the brain, though still very limited, has already reached a critical mass. These two facts will ensure the fast development of operational, commercial BCI technology: today’s slow baby-talk between the brain and the computer will give place to very fast and precise communication. And since computers are linked by the Internet, also their users’ minds will be linked by the Internet: yesterday’s slowly typed SMS will be replaced by tomorrow’s instant, long telepathic messages. BCI technology, originated in military programs and medical research including clinical trials with severely disabled patients, is finding its way to the commercial marketplace.
Today, smartphones are replacing desktop and notebook computers, but perhaps they are only a stepping stone towards tomorrow’s ultimate wearable computer: the computing device implanted directly in the brain. The team led by Ted Berger, described as The Memory Hacker by Popular Science, has spent the past decade engineering prototype memory chips that can be implanted directly in the brain. This is still very experimental research, but I think it will advance fast and reach operational maturity within the next couple of decades.
Nobody has seen and described the convergence of these trends better than Ben Goertzel, one of the world’s leading experts in Artificial Intelligence. In an article titled Brain-Computer Interfacing: From Prosthetic Limbs to Telepathy Chips, Goertzel writes: “Scientists are exploring multiple radical brain imaging technologies, including devices involving carbon nanotubes and other nanotech-based materials, which seem to play more nicely with brain cells than conventional materials… And in time, even more fascinating possibilities may be realized. Consider the “telepathy chip”—a neural implant that allows the wearer to project their thoughts or feelings to others, and receive thoughts or feelings from others.”.
Everyone’s mind will be permanently linked to the wireless Internet, and through the Internet to everyone else’s mind. This will trigger very radical changes. In particular telepathic groups—able to instantly share and elaborate thoughts—will produce an enormous acceleration in the development and deployment of new ideas, and cause the emergence of “group minds”. And once neural communication is sufficiently deep, accurate and fast, it will be possible to transfer the informational content of a person’s brain, with memories, thoughts and feelings, to a higher performance storage and processing device. This “mind uploading” technology may eventually provide practical immortality.
10 Q/As about interstellar space travel, from “el club de los astronautas”
El club de los astronautas (I always loved their name) is a space advocacy group of artists and musicians. its mission is to promote a manned, interstellar voyage. its approach is to find and debate strategies that might make stand out this idea beyond fiction, hopefully during our life-time! therefore a hypothetical spaceship is suggested: the mare nostrum spaceship (the mns). to realize a million-years interstellar voyage, assuming the auspicious premise to find some sexy aliens, the essential, first step is to overcome our biological limits and to transform into a new kind of (human) existence. They have asked 10 questions about interstellar space travel to several people, and published all answers on their website.
My answers:
Do you think the human being will realize an interstellar voyage?
Yes. They may not be “human beings 1.0” though, but rather augmented and radically enhanced post-humans, or “human beings 2.0”.
Do you think it could happen during your lifetime?
Sadly, no. But then I am 52, and likely to miss the post-human train. It could happen during the lifetime of my daughter, or her children.
How do you think art could accelerate and promote this idea?
By trying to re-introduce in our life a bold sense of wonder and a radically imaginative spirit of adventure, which are mustly missing from our lives today. Artists, please, bring the spirit of the 60s back! Also, by promoting positive visions of a SF-like future.
What do you think will be the key-technology to realize an interstellar voyage?
Propulsion and standard engineering of course, but also sentient artificial intelligence and transfer of human consciousness (“mind uploading”) to higher performance physical supports (called “computronium” in SF). As in Charlie Stross’ Accelerando, the first interstellar spacecraft may be as small as a coca cola can, yet crewed by hundreds of human beings 2.0.
Do you think regenerative medicine will be the first step to prolong maximum life-span and allow humans to transform into new life-forms to overcome the time-space-barrier?
It will probably be the first step to prolong maximum life-span, but I don’t think regenerative medicine per-se may allow humans to transform into new life-forms to overcome the time-space-barrier.
What do you think will be main breakthroughs in medicine in the next decade and beyond?
I see smooth progress in medicine rather than radical breakthroughs. I hope to see cancer gradually becoming a manageable, non-lethal chronic condition.
What kind of breakthroughs in brain-boosting technologies might be achieved during your lifetime? (smart-drugs, nootropics, neurogeneses, neuronal stem cells, etc.)
All that, plus high band 2-way Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). I think the first generations of brain implants will be available toward the end of my natural lifetime.
Do you think you will join future brain-enhancement or even brain replacement technologies?
I would like to, without the slightest hesitation.
How do you think those technologies can be disadvantageous or dangerous?
All technologies can be used for good or for bad purposes, and everything in life can be dangerous. I prefer to focus on the bright side, there are (far too many) others who prefer to focus on the dark side and the risks
Are you interested to meet highly developed alien civilizations?
Yes, definitely.
Avatar Reality’s Blue Mars goes public beta
The public beta of Blue Mars is starting. See Not Possible IRL and Chapter & Metaverse. I am collecting interesting BM links here: Blue Mars coverage. As one of the few lucky initial beta testers I have been playing with BM for a few months and watching its evolution, see First steps in the Blue Mars VR world. We are developing our first Blue Mars city, a space and future-themed educational world which will go live in a few months.
In a nutshell: Blue Mars, powered by Cry Engine 2 technology with server-side extensions, is the best VR world available today in terms of visuals and performance (of course it needs a powerful PC—yes PC, there is no tative Mac version and Mac users are supposed to use BootCamp). Casual users cannot create content, but anyone can become a developer and create content offline with the editing tools (a modified version of the Cry Engine 2 Sandbox) and standard professional 3D design tools. Content created offline is then uploaded to BM servers. Many developers are building their own cities on which they will have full control. A full e-commerce system with a virtual currency is coming.
Now that more beta users will come in, I am very curious to see how Blue Mars will progress. This is no Second Life killer: those hardcore SL users mainly motivated by casual content creation will of course stay in SL. Those mainly motivated by social relations in VR will stay in SL for the time being, and at least until a similar social environment has developed in BM.
From First steps in the Blue Mars VR world:
The main differences between Blue Mars and Second Life are:
The Blue Mars platform has a superior performance in terms of visuals, physics and simultaneous occupancy.
Second Life permits end user created content.
I think the majority of Second Life users don’t really care too much about creating content. In the early days of Second Life most users were also creators but, after the massive growth of SL (yes—despite the bad press of 2008 which inevitably followed the good press of 2007, Second Life is very much alive and growing) most users are just users. But a subset of very creative and energetic users is and will continue to be attracted of the unlimited, informal and casual creativity permitted by SL. These users will stay in Second Life and continue to create compelling attractions, which will also keep casual users in. Also, the social community of frequent SL users is very strong, with personal and group bonds which are hard to break and will tend to keep everyone in. Blue Mars is one of the most exciting new developments in the metaverse, but it is not a Second Life killer. I expect both platforms will flourish.
At the same time Blue Mars can and probably will be more appealing to corporate and public sector operators. The metaverse blogger Dusan Writer has concisely stated why: “For a consumer brand - a Red Bull or a Coke or whatever, the ability to tightly control the user experience will be a godsend after the flying phallus days of SL. The ability to track users, their time in a space, and to provide AI ’shop keepers’ - all big pluses.”. The flying phallus comment refers to the unrestricted user creativity in Second Life has resulted in some bad press: most articles about Second Life in the non specialized press are about virtual sex, scandals, financial scams and gambling—even though the last two things are history after Linden Lab has banned SL gambling and unregulated banking, and VR sex may soon follow. When I talk to new clients about Second Life, this is the kind of questions I get most. As a result of the bad press Second Life has been considered as an image problem by the most conservative operators, and I expect they will prefer the more controlled environment, and of course the superior performance, of Blue Mars.
I am especially interested in the the applications of online VR to education. The Cry Engine 2 platform upon which Blue Mars is based is more and more frequently used for education and professional training. Though there are no examples at this moment, I assume that the system components and educational material used for classes in Second Life, Power Point, video, voice, streaming video, Moodle integration etc., will be implemented by Blue Mars developers. But I expect the most popular edicational applications in Blue Mars will be those that require highly realistic VR environments with state-of-the-art visuals, illumination, physics and AI. Architecture of course, engineering, professional training for the industrial machinery, space, but also history and the visual arts. I expect historic events to be faithfully recreated in Blue Mars, and the platform to become a favorite of machinima producers.
New: comment moderation
I had to turn comment moderation on because I was getting too much spam from idiots with nothing better to do. At this moment all comments are moderated. When I have more time (I am travelling now) I will think of something better. Note: I will not moderate content, only spam.
UPDATE: this blog was found by spambots, and I had to temporarily remove the captcha filter due to a technical problem. Every day I am deleting 20-50 fake spam comments. In a few days I will have more time to restore the captcha, which should filter out most crap submitted automatically by spambots.
2009 WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL ENGAGES THE FUTURE HEAD-ON!
via The Film Panel Notetaker. I am going, I don’t want to miss this. I will go to the Singularity Summit after. I hope to meet many old and new friends.
2009 WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL ENGAGES THE FUTURE HEAD-ON!
(Woodstock, NY) August 26, 2009: The 10TH Anniversary Woodstock Film Festival boldly goes where it has never gone before with an unprecedented focus on ethics and the rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence and transhumanism.
With two futuristic narrative premieres and intellectually star-studded panels exploring radical new technologies, this years “fiercely independent” festival offers rare insight into the not-so-futuristic world of artificial intelligence, technohumanity, and other bio-technologies, which could become the norm within the next fifty years.
“We are thrilled to spotlight the future explorations of men and machine in this year’s festival,” stated Meira Blaustein, co-founder and executive director of the Woodstock Film Festival. “In a year where we celebrate the mark of our 10th anniversary and we all stand at the eve of a new decade, setting an eye into our future is not only our privilege, but a necessity.”
2B, directed by Richard Kroehling, is a World Premiere future narrative film portraying a decaying world on the cusp of great transformation. Based upon real science and evolving technologies, 2B’s script brings to life the ‘technohuman’ conundrum. Designed to confront the most controversial topic of the 21st century, 2B explores moral and religious questions raised by the biotech revolution, forcing its audience to deeply question their definitions of life itself.
Partnered with the Syfy Channel, WFF will also present the feature length pilot of Syfy’s upcoming, hotly anticipated new series Caprica. The film is presented in connection with a Syfy Screenwriting Panel, pertaining to future narrative writing and other different genres of screenwriting as well.
From the mind of Battlestar Executive Producer, Ronald Moore comes Caprica. Humanity’s storyline takes completely new twists in Caprica as two rival family patriarchs, Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) compete and thrive in the vibrant realm of the twelve Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. This original, stand-alone series will feature the passion, intrigue, political backbiting, and family conflict alive and well in an omnipotent society that is, even at the height of its blind power and glory, unknowingly on the brink of its fall.
Designed to accompany the issues raised by 2B and Caprica, the Woodstock Film Festival engages the future head-on with the presentation of a ground-breaking panel, Redesigning Humanity - The New Frontier: If artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, genetic engineering and other technologies will, within the next 50 years, allow human beings to transcend the limitations of the body, how will our world fundamentally change under those conditions?
Moderated by Dr. James J. Hughes, Executive Director of the Institute for Emerging Ethics and Technologies and bioethicist at Trinity College, this revolutionary panel features futurist Raymond Kurzweil, the author of four best selling novels, and an inventor responsible for many breakthroughs in biotechnological fields; Dr. Martine Rothblatt, lawyer, author and entrepreneur, responsible for several satellite technology companies, along with Terasem Media and Films, which produces independent narrative and documentary films that deal with biotechnologies; and author Wendell Wallach, regarded as one of forefront thinkers in the field of Machine Ethics who, after co-authoring Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong, is working on a new book examining what humans might become through emerging technologies.
New York, soon. Technology’s exponential growth is fast and furious. Human life is in the process of being transformed. Mankind stands on the verge of reengineering its biology—merging with the incredibly intelligent machines it has created. Mia 2.0, the world’s first ‘Transbeman’ and her inventor, the eccentric Dr. Tom Mortlake, conduct a bold political experiment designed to prove that human reliance on the fragile flesh body is over and ‘eternal life‘ is at hand. Set in the near future, “2B” portrays a familiar decaying world on the cusp of great transformation and awesome wonders. The script is based upon real science and evolving technologies. The ‘technohuman’ conundrum is the hottest and most controversial topic of this century. This film is an entertainment designed to jump-start the conversation about the moral and religious questions raised by the bio-tech revolution. What if you could die and live forever?
Dieci Convinzioni Cosmiste
Ben Goertzel ha scritto un Manifesto Cosmista che considero un documento molto importante, e raccomando a tutti. Ben ha incluso un sommario con Dieci Convinzioni Cosmiste basato su un mio testo precedente e la relativa discussone sulla lista Cosmic Engineers. Non c’ è neanche bisogno di dire che il lavoro di Ben, con la revisione dei punti 1-7 e i nuovi punti 8-10, ha migliorato moltissimo il mio testo originale. Grazie Ben! Ecco una traduzione in Italiano delle Dieci Convinzioni:
1) L’ umanità si fonderà con la tecnologia, rapidamente ed in modo sempre più esteso e profondo. Questa è una nuova fase dell’ evoluzione della nostra specie, che sta cominciando ad essere evidente ai nostri giorni. La divisione fra il naturale e l’ artificiale sarè prima sfumata, e poi sparirà. Alcuni di noi continueranno ad essere umani, ma con un’ espansione radicale e crescente delle opzioni disponibili, ed una diversità e complessità radicalmente aumentate. Altri cresceranno fino a divenire nuove forme di intelligenza, molto al di là del dominio umano.
2) Svilupperemo tecnologie di intelligenza artificiale cosciente e mind uploading. Il mind uploading permetterà di estendere indefinitamente la vita di quelli che sceglieranno di lasciarsi la biologia alle spalle (uploads). Alcuni uploads sceglieranno di fondersi con altri uploads e con intelligenze artificiali. Questo richiederà un ripensamento e una riformulazione della nozione di identità personale, ma saremo capaci di farvi fronte.
3) Raggiungeremo le stelle, e ci espanderemo nell’ universo. Incontreremo altre specie nel cosmo, e ci fonderemo con loro. Potremmo anche raggiongere altre dimensioni dell’ esistenza, oltre quelle di cui siamo attualmente consapevoli.
4) Svilupperemo realtà sintetiche interoperabili (mondi virtuali) capaci di contenere esseri coscienti. Alcuni uploads sceglieranno di vivere in mondi virtuali. La divisione fra realtà fisiche e sintetiche sarè prima sfumata, e poi sparirà.
5) Svilupperemo tecnologie di ingegneria spazio-temporale ed una “magia futura” basata sulla scienza, molto al di là delle nostre attuali comprensione ed immaginazione.
6) L’ ingegneria spazio-temporale e la magia futura permetteranno di realizzare, attraverso la scienza, molte delel promesse delle religioni—e molte cose meravigliose che nessuna religione ha mai sognato. Un giorno saremo capaci di resuscitare i morti “copiandoli al futuro”.
7) La vita intelligente diverrà il fattore principale nell’ evoluzione del cosmo, e guiderà questo nelle direzioni volute.
8) Radicali progressi tecnologici ridurranno drasticamente la scarsezza delle risorse materiali, in modo da rendere possibile un’ abbondanza di ricchezza, crescita ed esperienza, per tutte le menti che così desiderano. Nuovi sistemi di auto-regolazione emergeranno per mitigare la possibilità che la mente esaurisca, oltre ogni controllo, le vaste risorse del cosmo.
9) Nuovi sistemi etici emergeranno, basati su principi che includeranno la diffusione di gioia, crescita e libertà nell’ universo, e anche su nuovi principi che non possiamo ancora immaginare.
10) Questi cambiamenti miglioreranno in modo fondamentale l’ esperienza soggettiva e sociale degli esseri umani, delle nostre creazioni e dei nostri successori, portando a stati di consapevolezza personale e condivisa le cui meravigliose vastità e profondità andranno molto al di là dell’ esperienza dei “vecchi umani”.
Un chiarimento: nel mio testo il futuro (svilupperemo, raggiungeremo etc.) è usato non nel senso di inevitabilità, ma in quello di intenzione: vogliamo fare questo, pensiamo di poterlo fare, e siamo intenzionati a fare del nostro meglio per raggiungere i nostri obiettivi.
Bill Bainbridge’s “Religion for a Galactic Civilization 2.0”
Religions for a Galactic Civilization is an old (1981) article by William Sims Bainbridge.
One of my first impressions after reading “Religions for a Galactic Civilization” for the first time was that it is dated (well, it was written 26 years ago). I wrote: “If Bill were to write the same article today, he would probably mention NBIC technologies (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences) besides space travel and colonization. I hope he would give less space to Scientology, and I am sure he would discuss the works of transhumanist thinkers in great detail. I think the first sentence quoted below could be written, today, as “We need a new transhumanist social movement capable of giving a sense of transcendent purpose to dominant sectors of the society””.
I asked Bill to write a revised and updated version of the paper, to be published (translated into Italian) on the print journal Divenire of the Italian Transhumanist Association and discussed at the TransVision 2010 conference. A first draft of the revised and updated version has just been posted to the IEET blog.
Religion for a Galactic Civilization 2.0 is one of those seminal articles which some readers love, other readers hate, but all readers find interesting and mind changing. I loved the strong statement at the beginning of the article, “we need a new definition of spaceflight that will energize investment and innovation. I suggest a return to the traditional view: The heavens are a sacred realm, that we should enter in order to transcend death.”. As I hoped, the revised and updated version of the article is informed by current science and technology, and the work of transhumanist thinkers. Bainbrodge understands that the current stagnation of spaceflight is, basically, a motivational problem, and proposes a solution: “creation of a galactic civilization may depend upon the emergence of a galactic religion capable of motivating society for the centuries required to accomplish that great project. This religion would be a very demanding social movement, and will require extreme discipline from its members, so for purposes of this essay I will call it The Cosmic Order.”. The first version of the Religion for a Galactic Civilization text has inspired the founders of the Order of Cosmic Engineers, and I look forward to the impact of the second version on the evolution of this organization. Let’s build the Cosmic Order!
Bill is not afraid to present grand Stapledonian cosmic visions of galactic civilizations of godlike ex-humans roaming the universe as immortal uploads. Galactic civilizations and mind uploading were also discussed by Martine Rothblatt recently, in a great Second Life talk where she said “the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 reminds us of the imperative to move outwards—we must get religiously fanatic about galactic colonization”, and discussed mind uploading in the context of galactic colonization—the presence of uploaded minds in self-replicating probes to colonize the galaxy—and invited the audience to start a gradual, non destructive mind upload process by building a mindfile via her CyBeRev project to upload to self replicating spacecraft take part in the future cosmic adventures of our species.
Bill’s favorite approach to mind uploading is very similar to Martine’s: “Actual everlasting life will be possible in the near future, using a combination of advanced technologies that have been developed for other purposes (Moravec 1988; Kurzweil 1999; Bainbridge 2003, 2004, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c, 2006d, 2007a, 2007c). The process will be complex, but in outline form it consists of four stages. First, you will be recorded: all your memories, personality, skills, physical characteristics and genetic inheritance. Second, this information will be entered into a vast computerized data base, so that future generations can draw upon your experiences and you can continue to be part of this world after your death. Third, your data will be transported by robot spacecraft or radio transmission to the solar system of a distant star, where a new colony is to be established. Fourth, you will be reconstituted from the recording and begin a new life in a fresh, young body as a colonist of the new world.”. I think this approach to uploading is basically correct, but I also think it can only work in practice with neural BCI (Brain-Computer Interfaces) order of magnitude faster than current person-computer interfaces. However, such interfaces are being slowly but steadily developed in research and commercial labs around the world, and we may see some relevant advances soon. One of the first application fields for fast BCI is the development of better user interfaces for VR worlds, also discussed in depth in Bainbrodge’s article.
Summary: the article is excellent, refreshingly irreverent and unPC, and important. Go read Bill’s article now!
One PS comment: it may seem that the wildly transhumanist, cosmic approach of Bainbridge’s Religion for a Galactic Civilization 2.0 is very different from the technoprogressive, down-to-earth approach of Treder’s Meanwhile, People Are Dying, published on the IEET site a few days ago. But I think the two approaches are compatible, complementary and mutually reinforcing. Achieving Bill’s vision will require working pragmatically in today’s world in order to make it better day-by-day, while the prospect of Bill’s Galactic Civilization can provide us, here and now, with the required energy, motivation and drive.
Treder: Meanwhile, People Are Dying
Mike Treder has posted tot he IEET blog an article on Meanwhile, People Are Dying. He writes:
“In assessing the possibilities of a world more greatly enabled and impacted by emerging technologies, it’s tempting to consider all the various visionary dreams as equally likely. Reading a lot of science fiction (which I do, and which I heartily encourage) can lead a person to think that if something has been imagined, then it must be possible. This is one of the risks of enjoying speculative fiction, and it’s made more acute by engaging uncritically in a community of like-minded believers… It’s useful, then, to think about emerging technologies on two axes: feasibility, and impact. “Feasibility” means how likely something is to be achieved, “Impact” describes how much a particular emerging technology (or result of a technology) is likely to change the world… Beyond assessing the feasibility and the effects of emerging technologies, it’s imperative that we also stay firmly footed in the real world if we hope to play a role in bringing about positive change. In the real world, people are dying... We need to have an overlay on our thinking, a recognition that while it can be fun and valuable to spend time thinking about or working on futuristic possibilities, in the real world life goes on… Technoprogressives are in a unique position to bridge the gap between understanding the potential power of emerging technologies—modulated by a sober and realistic assessment of feasibility—and finding workable solutions to the real problems we face today and will face tomorrow.”
These quotes give a sense of the article, but you should read the original, which has also some diagrams to categorize emerging technologies, from robotics to mind uploading, in terms of their feasibility and impact.
I think using the term “feasibility” is ambiguous. It is not clear whether Mike refers to feasibility with current technologies and financial resources, feasibility in the short term, or feasibility in principle. For example I certainly agree with Mike that AGI and mind uploading are hardly feasible with today’s resources, or in a few years, and perhaps not within our lifetimes, but I am persuaded they are feasible in principle: this is the only assumption compatible with the scientific worldview. To claim otherwise, is to fall into vitalist and mystical positions. No, there is nothing “sacred” or “forbidden” in biology and cognition. Our bodies, brains and minds are machines, and it is within the capabilities of our species to engineer better ones.
Having said this, I mostly agree with the letter of Mike’s article, and I mostly disagree with (my interpretation of) its spirit.
Yes, beyond assessing the feasibility and the effects of emerging technologies, it’s imperative that we also stay firmly footed in the real world if we hope to play a role in bringing about positive change. Yes, if something has high potential impact but almost no chance of being achieved in the short term, it should be assigned a lower priority (as far as the allocation of public resources is concerned) than other work of possibly lesser impact but greater likelihood of success in the short term. Yes, I think when we allocate public resources we should give top priority to finding workable solutions to the real problems we face today and will face tomorrow. Yes, in today’s world, people are dying. I agree with Mike on these points, and this is why I call myself a technoprogressive.
But I think also those who choose to spend time thinking about or working on futuristic possibilities play a very important role. The world is big and complex, and different people with different skills, interests, inclinations, sensibilities and personalities, can give a useful contribution to making the world a better place. Don’t demonize those who choose to focus on far future speculations and cosmic visions: these are not incompatible with finding workable solutions to the real problems we face today and will face tomorrow, and these two different attitudes can co-exist in the same person and mutually reinforce. This is why, besides calling myself a technoprogressive, I also call myself a transhumanist. If the intended spirit of Mike’s article is to demonize transhumanist dreamers, I most certainly disagree. Focus on what is more important to you, let other focus on what is more important to them, and let’s try to work together for what is important to all.
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