Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Transcendence: The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity
    Unavailable
    Transcendence: The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity
    Unavailable
    Transcendence: The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity
    Ebook334 pages3 hours

    Transcendence: The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity

    By R.U. Sirius and Jay Cornell

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Transhumanism is an international movement that advocates the use of science and technology to overcome the “natural” limitations experienced by humanity, through such developments as:
    • the Singularity—the creation of machine intelligences that exceed the capacities of our biological brains
    • the ability to replicate individual minds and put them into solid-state bodies or virtual environments
    • individual control over mental and emotional states for enhancing functionalities and/or ecstasies
    Some of this is happening now. Some it is still in the minds of dreamers.
     
    In nearly ninety A-Z entries, Transcendence provides a multilayered look at the accelerating advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, genomics, information technology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, space exploration, synthetic biology, robotics, and virtual worlds that are making transhumanism a reality. Entries range from Cloning and Cyborg Feminism to Designer Babies and Memory-Editing Drugs. In addition, the book notes historical predecessors and personalities, both in mythology and history—ranging from Timothy Leary to Michael Jackson to Ray Kurzweil. It also introduces the culture around Transhumanism, covering all the geeky obsessions of the Transhumanist movement.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel Weiser
    Release dateJan 1, 2015
    ISBN9781609259594
    Unavailable
    Transcendence: The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity

    Related to Transcendence

    Related ebooks

    Science & Mathematics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Transhuman Condition

      May 15, 2022

      The Transhuman Condition
      10 min read

    • Article

      The End Is Only the Beginning

      Dec 1, 2022

      The End Is Only the Beginning
      14 min read

    • Article

      Beyond Our ‘Ape-brained Meat Sacks’: Can Transhumanism Save Our Species?

      Jun 3, 2022

      Ageing cured. Death conquered. Work ended. The human brain reverse-engineered by AI. Babies born outside of the womb. Virtual children, non-human partners. The future of humanity could be virtually unrecognisable by the end of the 21st century, accor

      5 min read

    • Article

      Slowing Down; Keeping Up

      Dec 30, 2019

      Slowing Down; Keeping Up
      15 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Worry, Smart Machines Will Take Us With Them: Why human intelligence and AI will co-evolve.

      Sep 3, 2015

      When it comes to artificial intelligence, we may all be suffering from the fallacy of availability: thinking that creating intelligence is much easier than it is, because we see examples all around us. In a recent poll, machine intelligence experts p

      7 min read

    • Article

      It May Not Feel Like Anything To Be an Alien

      Jan 16, 2020

      Humans are probably not the greatest intelligences in the universe. Earth is a relatively young planet and the oldest civilizations could be billions of years older than us. But even on Earth, Homo sapiens may not be the most intelligent species for

      11 min read

    • Article

      Tech

      Feb 6, 2023

      When I was five years old, I watched the Challenger shuttle explode. I remember running from the TV in the living room to the kitchen to tell my mum. It was astonishing. The first civilian supported by NASA, the world’s largest and most well-funded s

      3 min read

    • Article

      Here Come The Smart Machines

      Jul 1, 2023

      Here Come The Smart Machines
      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jun 1, 2020

      Letters
      4 min read

    • Article

      Definitely, Maybe

      Sep 16, 2021

      Definitely, Maybe
      31 min read

    • Article

      My 3 Greatest Revelations

      Jun 16, 2021

      1  The “Dataome” Is Huge The dataome is shorthand to describe all of the externalized information we generate in symbolic representations: drawings, music, books, computing, data storage. It’s all of the information we utilize and propagate, along wi

      5 min read

    Reviews for Transcendence

    4/5

    7 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      What is Transhumanism? That's what I asked myself when I saw this book at the library. I only had a vague understanding of it from books and articles I'd read before. Now, I know a bit more.

      What I came away with was that transhumanism is an umbrella term that includes different people with different focuses, but all seem to embrace a line from the old TV show The Six Million Dollar Man. 'We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better, stronger, faster.' Transhumanists are looking for miracles in chemistry, biology, and technology that previous generations looked for by falling to their knees before altars. The details of their search aren't clear from this book, but some seem to be going about it rather scientifically. Others seem about as credulous as their ancestors with sore knees.

      I suppose we all share the transhumanist vision to some extent. Who wouldn't want to find ways to cure diseases, repair injuries, extend lifespans? But there are also those who dream of adding abilities, either through technological or biologically engineered enhancements. There are some who envision people becoming completely digital and 'living' in virtual worlds. None of these ideas bother me, as such, but they all seem highly speculative for the moment. That doesn't mean the ideas shouldn't be explored, but whereas overcoming disease, injury, and the devastating effects of aging are (I think) achievable in this century, the ability to upload a mind into a virtual world needs a much better understanding of several things first, not least of which is what a 'mind' is.

      Transcendence is more of a dictionary than it is an encyclopedia. The alphabetically arranged entries are long enough to provide definitions but not really detailed enough to provide much understanding. It is, however, a pretty good guide to future reading on the subject, if you're interested.

      1 person found this helpful