Why I Left Transhuman Separatism
[ Reposted from my blog at Humanity+ Magazine ]
Recently I was added to a group on Facebook called Cyberpunked: Journal of Science, Technology, and Society. I was given a shout-out by a fan of my music and drawn into a few interesting discussions. Since Transhuman Separatism had a cyberpunk flavor to it I posted a link the Transhuman Separatist manifesto but explicitly mentioned that I was no longer affiliated with the movement. People are wondering why I am no longer involved with the old movement that I co-founded. Why did I leave Transhuman Separatism? Have I reformed my beliefs? Have I been cured all right?
Cyberpunk would be a good starting point here. Transhuman Separatism was cyberpunk. It was a fantasy. It was a utopia for the freaks. A lot of people ended up taking it too seriously and I quickly realized that the Transhumanist community as a whole was concerned about the image of this group. My initial reaction of course was to rebel against the Academic world but I also understood why there was so much concern about the image in the first place with Transhumanists already being branded as techno-fascists. There were talks of us being a dangerous paramilitary organization and I was even told that there was an FBI scare related to the Transhuman Separatist movement.
Let me start by saying that I have not reformed my position and become some Xavier or Martin Luther King of oppressed artists. This is not a a Disneyland essay about how I changed my entire belief system for the press or even the lulz. This is about learning to present myself in a way that does not alienate the very people I am seeking to reach. Transhuman Separatism was alienating to the Transhumanist community because it was extremely agitprop in its approach. Not everybody in the world is capable of understanding agitprop and sometimes it is better to use logic and reason than shock tactics to create a revolution.
I left Transhuman Separatism because I wanted to start The Human 2.0 Council. I was no longer in contact with the person I formed the organization with and my views on society ware starting to improve now that I had connected with so many intelligent people. There were other organizations out there that were better at uniting the mutants than I was such as the Real Life Superheros. The point of Transhuman Separatism was to create unity among the creative/oppressed and The Real Life Superheros were living proof of this new mutant society. It was already happening. Did we really need Transhuman Separatism when we had Real Life Superheros? Yet in the end what was really exciting to me was the concept of Transhumanism as a whole which is what lead me to form The Human 2.0 Council.
My interest in Transhumanism far exceeded my interest in “fighting against the sheep” because of all the cybernetic augmentations that were being developed to help people with physical problems. I think is fair to say that if we didn’t have any physical problems we would not have to experience the oppression of human biology. Scientists such as David Pearce were presenting theories like Abolitionism (the use of biotechnology to eliminate suffering) and Aubrey de Grey started the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Foundation. I have to say that these people were a lot more radical and “on the edge” than I was and that I was beginning to feel embarrassed that my interest in Transhumanism had previously only been philosophical and cyberpunk. There was so much more out there.
I recently saw an article that suggested it was possible to eliminate groupthink without taking militant measures to do so. The article states that “Scientists have identified the part of the brain responsible for controlling whether we conform to expectations and group pressure.” This was extremely inspiring to me as someone who views groupthink as the major problem with Humanity 1.0. There was no longer a reason to go around calling myself a Separatist of any sort when I had found Transhumanism. Ray Kurzweil was able to map out the Technological Singularity in a Scientific manner, and not as a utopian fantasy but an upcoming reality. We do not need to separate from one another to separate from groupthink. Max Stirner refers to a Union of Egoists which is now possible with modern technology. The Human 2.0 Council is a union of Extreme Futurists and our philosophical dreams are being awakened with the Extreme Futurist Festival in December. We are donating 10% of proceeds to the SENS Foundation.
In a perfect world there would have been no disagreement between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. In a perfect world Magneto and Xavier would have quit their petty infighting and realized that separating from their own tribe based on issues such as “is violence good or evil?” were a symptom of baseline humanity or Human 1.0. People holding up arms against their government and people flashing peace signs would have stood together as one movement. The new revolution. The rising up of the oppressed. The freedom to exist without oppression. Humanity 2.0.
Recently I was added to a group on Facebook called Cyberpunked: Journal of Science, Technology, and Society. I was given a shout-out by a fan of my music and drawn into a few interesting discussions. Since Transhuman Separatism had a cyberpunk flavor to it I posted a link the Transhuman Separatist manifesto but explicitly mentioned that I was no longer affiliated with the movement. People are wondering why I am no longer involved with the old movement that I co-founded. Why did I leave Transhuman Separatism? Have I reformed my beliefs? Have I been cured all right?
Cyberpunk would be a good starting point here. Transhuman Separatism was cyberpunk. It was a fantasy. It was a utopia for the freaks. A lot of people ended up taking it too seriously and I quickly realized that the Transhumanist community as a whole was concerned about the image of this group. My initial reaction of course was to rebel against the Academic world but I also understood why there was so much concern about the image in the first place with Transhumanists already being branded as techno-fascists. There were talks of us being a dangerous paramilitary organization and I was even told that there was an FBI scare related to the Transhuman Separatist movement.
Let me start by saying that I have not reformed my position and become some Xavier or Martin Luther King of oppressed artists. This is not a a Disneyland essay about how I changed my entire belief system for the press or even the lulz. This is about learning to present myself in a way that does not alienate the very people I am seeking to reach. Transhuman Separatism was alienating to the Transhumanist community because it was extremely agitprop in its approach. Not everybody in the world is capable of understanding agitprop and sometimes it is better to use logic and reason than shock tactics to create a revolution.
I left Transhuman Separatism because I wanted to start The Human 2.0 Council. I was no longer in contact with the person I formed the organization with and my views on society ware starting to improve now that I had connected with so many intelligent people. There were other organizations out there that were better at uniting the mutants than I was such as the Real Life Superheros. The point of Transhuman Separatism was to create unity among the creative/oppressed and The Real Life Superheros were living proof of this new mutant society. It was already happening. Did we really need Transhuman Separatism when we had Real Life Superheros? Yet in the end what was really exciting to me was the concept of Transhumanism as a whole which is what lead me to form The Human 2.0 Council.
My interest in Transhumanism far exceeded my interest in “fighting against the sheep” because of all the cybernetic augmentations that were being developed to help people with physical problems. I think is fair to say that if we didn’t have any physical problems we would not have to experience the oppression of human biology. Scientists such as David Pearce were presenting theories like Abolitionism (the use of biotechnology to eliminate suffering) and Aubrey de Grey started the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Foundation. I have to say that these people were a lot more radical and “on the edge” than I was and that I was beginning to feel embarrassed that my interest in Transhumanism had previously only been philosophical and cyberpunk. There was so much more out there.
I recently saw an article that suggested it was possible to eliminate groupthink without taking militant measures to do so. The article states that “Scientists have identified the part of the brain responsible for controlling whether we conform to expectations and group pressure.” This was extremely inspiring to me as someone who views groupthink as the major problem with Humanity 1.0. There was no longer a reason to go around calling myself a Separatist of any sort when I had found Transhumanism. Ray Kurzweil was able to map out the Technological Singularity in a Scientific manner, and not as a utopian fantasy but an upcoming reality. We do not need to separate from one another to separate from groupthink. Max Stirner refers to a Union of Egoists which is now possible with modern technology. The Human 2.0 Council is a union of Extreme Futurists and our philosophical dreams are being awakened with the Extreme Futurist Festival in December. We are donating 10% of proceeds to the SENS Foundation.
In a perfect world there would have been no disagreement between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. In a perfect world Magneto and Xavier would have quit their petty infighting and realized that separating from their own tribe based on issues such as “is violence good or evil?” were a symptom of baseline humanity or Human 1.0. People holding up arms against their government and people flashing peace signs would have stood together as one movement. The new revolution. The rising up of the oppressed. The freedom to exist without oppression. Humanity 2.0.