Behold! I have arrived!

[TerranGames]

Hey everyone!  Long time lurker on the site here.  I discovered OA five years ago, and I have to say, I think what you guys have created here is the most amazing and detailed sci-fi setting that I've ever read.  The concepts and ideas that this site introduced me to have radically changed me as a person, and I'd know I'd be a very different person today if I had never found this place, so I just wanted to thank you for all that you've done here, and I'd like to help contribute to the project someday.

Also, I've been working on a school assignment, and I need to interview someone, and I thought "Hey, maybe those guys on on the OA Forums could help!"  So if it's not too much of a bother, I'd like to ask you guys some questions about yourselves, the setting, and just about transhumanism in general, if that's okay with you.

In your words, what is transhumanism, and what does it mean to you?

Are there any misconceptions that the public has about transhumanists?

What drew you into transhumanism, and sci-fi in general?

How has being a transhumanist affected you, as a person?

Some people believe that transhumanism is "unnatural," and that we shouldn't mess with the way we were created, how do you respond to that?

How did transhumanism begin, as a movement, and are there any important works or authors I should read about?

Why do you think people become transhumanists?

Why do you think many people are strongly opposed to it?

If you could get one piece of technology from OA tomorrow, any technology, what would it be and why?

How well do you think OA predicts the future, and are there any specific things you disagree with?

Those are all of the questions that I have, and if you could answer even just a few of them, I would really appreciate it.  Thanks again, and have a awesome night!

[Worldtree]

Welcome to OA

I’m curious , what is the school assignment/what will you do with this survey information ? 

And what are your answers to these questions?

[Rynn]

Welcome to the forums! First off, I think that it's worth taking a step back and asking if we're the right people to talk to.

This is a science fiction group. We are not a political or philosophical group. If you want to ask us about the literary genre of transhumanism then you're definitely in the right place. But if you're looking for a community that identifies as transhumanists in a political or philosophical sense you've not necessarily come to the right place.

I'm sure you can find some people here who hold transhumanist beliefs in real life, since of course interest in the genre tends to attract that, but it's worth asking yourself what your homework is genuinely meant to be about. Treating us as though we're a "transhumanist community" is wrong, we're a fiction community.

[Worldtree]

Welcome to OA

I’m curious , what is the school assignment/what will you do with this survey information ? 

And what are your answers to these questions?

Though here’s some threads if you’d like to answer too 


What augmentations would you have 
https://www.orionsarm.com/forum/showthre...mentations

What kind of house would you live in 
https://www.orionsarm.com/forum/showthre...ight=House

If you could start OA from scratch 
https://www.orionsarm.com/forum/showthre...t=Start+OA

For more philosophical views, You could read some articles from one of the original contributors to OA, anders sandberg 
https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/team/anders-sandberg/

And another influential  contributor Isaac Arthur 
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g

[Drashner1]

Hi - Welcome to OA!

Please feel free to join in on any conversations that catch your interest or to start a new one if you are so inclined.

Also - beyond your specific questions below - please feel free to post any questions or concerns you may have about the OA setting or the project more broadly.

Considering your specific questions below - and bearing in mind Rynn's earlier points - here are my thoughts on the matter. YMMV.

In your words, what is transhumanism, and what does it mean to you?

Transhumanism is a philosophy or ideology that seeks to actively improve the human condition using technology, including improving upon what are generally considered to be 'natural' human traits and capabilities produced by our biology.

Are there any misconceptions that the public has about transhumanists?

Almost certainly, but while I have transhumanist leanings or might be considered a transhumanist, I don't follow the subject closely enough to be able to specifically say much what 'the public' might be saying or thinking about it that is incorrect. On general principles, many people tend to fear what they don't understand or relate to. I'm sure some online research will turn up specifics. If you want to loop back and ask for our thoughts on those specifics, that's fine.

What drew you into transhumanism, and sci-fi in general?

For SF - Reading Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke when I was 8 or 9 yrs old.

For transhumanism - Reading Vernor Vinge's SF novel Marooned in Realtime in either HS or college and then coming across Extropy magazine (a transhumanist publication of the time) in college.

How has being a transhumanist affected you, as a person?

I don't consider myself a full throated transhumanist, but in general I like to solve problems and think technology can play a big role in solving problems. I also tend to be optimistic about the future, although I will also say if humanity wants a good future we're going to have to work for it.

I don't know how much of the above is tied to transhumanism influencing me or my personality/beliefs making me inclined to have a positive view of transhumanism.

Some people believe that transhumanism is "unnatural," and that we shouldn't mess with the way we were created, how do you respond to that?

That a defining characteristic of humanity is the evolution of our brains - which allow us to think, plan, and organize to manipulate the world around us - and our hands - which allow us to manipulate the world around us down to a pretty fine level of detail.

Our technology and culture (including transhumanism and everything it proposes) are a direct result of those evolutionary developments and therefore are natural to us. It is physically impossible for human beings to do anything 'unnatural' since by definition that would involve breaking the laws of physics and that's impossible.

If some people want to substitute 'creation' for 'evolution' - the same basic argument still applies.

Coming at this from a different direction - If someone wants to play the 'unnatural' game - I would point out that they likely live in a building, use modern medicine, drive a car, use modern communication tech, etc - and are unlikely to turn any of that down on the grounds that it's 'unnatural'. Especially in the case of medical care. So really, I think this is more about people being uncomfortable with the unfamiliar and trying to then reverse engineer a rationalization for it than any calmly considered philosophy or thinking about what is or is not 'natural'.

How did transhumanism begin, as a movement, and are there any important works or authors I should read about?

I will need to point you to Wikipedia for this one (LINK). More importantly perhaps, I would point you to the references at the end, which include a number of written works and such. Also, Anders Sandberg is one of the founding members of OA - although no longer generally active with the project. You might be able to start from the Wikipedia page and find a working email or Facebook page or something for him and ask him to answer your questions as well. Feel free to name drop OA as part of that if you decide to pursue it. I can't guarantee he'll respond or be inclined to answer your questions, but it certainly doesn't hurt to ask.

Why do you think people become transhumanists?

Because it aligns with their existing beliefs or proclivities or offers an ideology that they find more attractive than whatever they believed in before encountering transhumanism.

Why do you think many people are strongly opposed to it?

Many people are afraid of change, or differences, or the unfamiliar, or all of these. Particularly when it is described 'from the outside'. They might not even notice it or think twice about it if they just lived thru it without hearing about it first.

If you could get one piece of technology from OA tomorrow, any technology, what would it be and why?

Total matter to energy conversion reactors and the monopoles to make them work. Once you have clean and more or less limitless energy a huge number of other problems become a lot more tractable or are just solved by that.

How well do you think OA predicts the future, and are there any specific things you disagree with?

OA doesn't try to predict 'the future' but does try to present a 'plausible future'. Because the future we describe is so wide ranging, I think some of it will happen while quite a bit does not. I can't think of anything I specifically disagree with for firm reasons (rather than just preferring the future not turn out that way) - but I've been part of OA for such a long time, I'm generally used to its depiction. I'd have to seriously dig into my memories to find things I really disagree with but have learned to live with, so to speak.

Hope this helps,

Todd

[Worldtree]

The concepts and ideas that this site introduced me to have radically changed me as a person, and I'd know I'd be a very different person today if I had never found this place. 

I’m quite curious about your answer to this, actually. 

What drew you into transhumanism, and sci-fi in general?

the optimism and ability to imagine futures different from the present , and to use fiction as a way to explore how technology affects society and people

Q:How did transhumanism begin, as a movement, and are there any important works or authors I should read about?

A: authors.. https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-...ledgements here's a list of people who have inspired OA- there's quite a few sci fi authors whose work features transhumanism, and some transhumanist/futurist  thinkers 

Q: If you could get one piece of technology from OA tomorrow, any technology, what would it be and why?

A: either something close to a “universal” fabricator, the conversion reactors/ all the 'clean' sources of energy and their distribution tech... or most of all, whichever philosophies, institutions and other social constructs that cause most of the population of OA to choose to use their technologies to create a fairly equitable , mostly environmentally sustainable, post scarcity society rather than a more ..pessimistic alternative. (The automation technologies and efficient recycling are probably inextricably linked to making those optimistic scenarios possible, but more of that would be a nice start). 
OA isn’t actually depicting a complete utopia at all (there’s actually quite a few atrocities) but the average sephirotics would be great to live in. 

Q: How well do you think OA predicts the future, and are there any specific things you disagree with?

A:OA isn’t necessarily created with the purpose of prognosticating the future perfectly, so I’ll say I don’t know what could actually happen. But In my own mind I think it’ll take longer to get into outer space on such a large scale.

[Rynn]

In case there's a deadline on the homework here are some answers to the questions

In your words, what is transhumanism, and what does it mean to you?

Transhumanism doesn't really mean much to me to be honest and I wouldn't describe myself as one. In literature transhumanism is the exploration of the human condition by assuming technology can be used to alter mind and body at a population level (this makes it distinct from something like Superhero fiction, where the transhumans are explicitly rare).

As a political or philosophical movement I see little need for it. The default for human society has always been to use technology to improve the human condition, including our bodies. I expect the term will die out if we ever get the kind of quick, reliable, and significant body modification technologies transhumanist fiction writes about.

Are there any misconceptions that the public has about transhumanists?[/qute]

I very much doubt that if you ran a public poll most people would even recognise the word. Transhumanists are not a large political movement and transhumanist fiction isn't as popular as it once was. I would say there aren't any misconceptions due to there not being any general conceptions.

[quote="TerranGames" pid="67931" dateline="1652933626"]What drew you into transhumanism, and sci-fi in general?

I always liked science fiction as a kid, what got me hooked into the transhumanist genre was Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. It was so different to the science fiction I was used to. Often science fiction is just history with a paint job (Star Wars is great, but the original films were basically western/WW2 films in space) but the book introduced so many ideas of technologies that could make society radically different. Thinking about questions like "what does money look like if work is automated" and "if your mind can be copied what does that say about identity" really drew me in.

How has being a transhumanist affected you, as a person?

I wouldn't call myself a transhumanist as I don't see the need to define myself as one. It's a genre I quite enjoy, but as a philosophy/political movement I find it rather basic and unnecessary.

Some people believe that transhumanism is "unnatural," and that we shouldn't mess with the way we were created, how do you respond to that?

Is a hut natural? What about a wooden hand tool? A suit of armour?

Animals make and use all of these. I have a background in biology and it saddens me somewhat how widespread the view is that humans are divorced from nature. This linguistic separation costs us something I think. We fail to see that many of our tool using traits are found in many animal species. None may have the language or tool using skills to build industrial civilisation, but that's a question of scale.

The argument of "X is unnatural" is rarely coherent. Is a house natural? How about surgery to install a pacemaker? Is this method of socialisation using computers natural? The fact is humans mess with the way we were "created" all the time, it's a natural thing about being human.

How did transhumanism begin, as a movement, and are there any important works or authors I should read about?

I'd say these are two different questions. Transhumanism doesn't really exist as a movement, at least not in any significant sense. Back in the 90s and 00s there were lots of online groups that clustered around it as an identity (like the Extropians) but less so now.

In terms of important works I would say Vernor Vinge. His works solidified a lot of the tropes of transhumanism, which allowed it to become a distinct subgenre. I would also recommend Blindsight by Peter Watts as it's often held up as a fantastic modern work of transhumanist fiction.

Why do you think people become transhumanists?

I don't, I expect the word will die out as most niche genre terms do. If you're asking if I believe humans will pursue elective modifications on themselves if the technology is safe and reliable then yes I definitely do.

Why do you think many people are strongly opposed to it?

Are they? I don't think they are. Obviously you get local issues. In the United States research can be heavily curtailed according to religious pressure for example, but I don't think people are strongly opposed to the idea of technologies that change/enhance their bodies. Gym memberships and laser eye surgery wouldn't be so common if they were.

If you could get one piece of technology from OA tomorrow, any technology, what would it be and why?

Hmm hard question. I'd probably be boring and say fusion, or self replicating solar panels.

How well do you think OA predicts the future, and are there any specific things you disagree with?

We've never intended it to predict the future, and science fiction generally shouldn't be thought of as future prediction. If only because it's never right! I doubt the future will be anything like OA. Whatever it turns out to be I have no idea.

[MacGregor]

Welcome to OA!