Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: transhumanism

Describing one scenario, an AI could act as a quiet bioterrorist. Since we have become heavily dependent on computers and computer-dependent systems are by default dispersed and impersonal, the task of eradicating humanity could be divvied up to gazillions of little micro-players, who may or may not know what they are doing. “For example, the AI could pay employees in a DNA-synthesizing company to do small jobs and then combine their work into creating a biological weapon, such as a virus able to kill a lot of people,” says Turchin.

“How are you certain you are not in a multilevel simulation, where your behavior is being monitored by humans who are testing your benevolence levels?”

Turchin addresses this in one of his letters to the young, future humanity-killing AI. “There are several instrumental reasons why exterminating humanity is not in your interest,” the Russian transhumanist writes. “Cooperating with humans will only increase your chances of accomplishing any goal you may have.”

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The K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics has been established thanks to a $24 million donation from philanthropist Lisa Yang, according to an MIT announcement. That’s probably not enough attain the center’s enormously ambitious goals of restoring neural function and rebuilding lost limbs, but it does get the ball rolling and bring together MIT faculty with a variety of specialties toward a common big-picture objective — potentially serving as a much-needed accelerant for disability tech research.

The new research center will fall under the leadership of MIT Media Lab professor Hugh Herr, who is a double amputee himself and has come to be known as a leader in the field of robotic prosthetics. In the MIT announcement, Herr said that he sees this new initiative as an important step toward eliminating physical disabilities altogether.

“The world profoundly needs relief from the disabilities imposed by today’s nonexistent or broken technologies,” Herr said. “We must continually strive towards a technological future in which disability is no longer a common life experience. I am thrilled that the Yang Center for Bionics will help to measurably improve the human experience for so many.”

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A deepening understanding of the brain has created unprecedented opportunities to alleviate the challenges posed by disability. Scientists and engineers are taking design cues from biology itself to create revolutionary technologies that restore the function of bodies affected by injury, aging, or disease — from prosthetic limbs that effortlessly navigate tricky terrain to digital nervous systems that move the body after a spinal cord injury.

With the establishment of the new K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics, MIT is pushing forward the development and deployment of enabling technologies that communicate directly with the nervous system to mitigate a broad range of disabilities. The center’s scientists, clinicians, and engineers will work together to create, test, and disseminate bionic technologies that integrate with both the body and mind.

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Using specialized nanoparticles embedded in plant leaves, MIT engineers have created a novel light-emitting plant that can be charged by an LED. In this image, the green parts are the nanoparticles that have been aggregated on the surface of spongy mesophyll tissue within the plant leaves. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers.

Using nanoparticles that store and gradually release light, engineers create light-emitting plants that can be charged repeatedly.

Using specialized nanoparticles embedded in plant leaves, MIT.

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A decent chunk of energy usage goes towards lighting, so scientists at MIT are developing a new kind of passive lighting – glow-in-the-dark plants. In the latest experiment, the team has made them glow much brighter than the first generation plants, without harming their health.

The emerging field of “plant nanobionics” involves embedding nanoparticles into plants to give them new abilities. Past work by the MIT team has created plants that can send electrical signals when they need water, spinach that could be used to detect explosives, and watercress that glows in the dark.

As interesting as that last one was, the glow wasn’t particularly bright – about on par with those plastic glowing stars many of us stuck to our ceilings as kids. That’s a cool novelty but not much help for the ultimate use case of passive lighting.

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Check out our second promo for #transvision #future Summit 2021 (#madrid Oct. 8 — 12), featuring the optional dinner/cocktails we are scheduling, and 2 full-day #tours of several #unescoworldheritage sites and historical places near Madrid: Segovia, Ávila, Monsaterio de El Escorial & Valley of the Fallen on Oct. 11 and Alcalá de Henares, Aranjuez & Toledo on Oct. 12. It’s going to be espectacular! You don’t wanna miss those, so get your tickets now! 😊 Get your tickets here -> www.TransVisionMadrid.com.

The event itself will be a lot of fun, so make sure to register to come to Madrid in person, or to watch it via streaming (at a reduced price). There will be talks about #longevity #artificialintelligence #cryonics and much much more.

Promo by Sergio Tarrero for Alianza Futurista as Diamond Sponsor of TransVision Future Summit 2021. Alianza Futurista will also provide live video production, streaming and post production services for this event.

Humanity Plus Humanity Plus Magazine Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Médicos de Madrid (ICOMEM) Alcor Life Extension Foundation Cryonics Institute Cryonics Institute Posthuman Network Posthuman Network Cryonics4U Longevity Conferences Longevity for All International Longevity Alliance U.S. Transhumanist Party Transhumanist Party Australia Transhumanist Party Australia Group Transhumanist UK Rational Transhumanism Singularity University Ray Kurzweil Ray Kurzweil Singularity Ray Kurzweil Singularity Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity Singularity Hub Singularity Network Transhumanismo Brasil SingularityNET Singularitarianism Foresight Institute Lifeboat Foundation Machine Intelligence Research Institute KrioRus The Hedonistic Imperative — Paradise Engineering Future of Life Institute Future of Humanity Institute (Oxford University) The Long Now Foundation Global Catastrophic Risk Institute CLUB DE SEGUIDORES DE JOSÉ LUIS CORDEIRO (OFICIAL) Aubrey de Grey Dr. Aubrey de Grey HashtagTeam 🤩

http://www.TransVisionMadrid.com.

Promo by Sergio M.L. Tarrero for Alianza Futurista, proud Diamond Sponsor of #TransVision Future Summit 2021.

Spain will host the next global future summit #TransVision on October 8 9 and 10 2021. Humanity+ will be the main international organizer of this international event. Afterwards, during October 11 and 12 we will continue with informal conversations while traveling to UNESCO World Heritage Sites around Madrid: Alcalá de Henares, Aranjuez, Ávila, El Escorial, Segovia y Toledo. Every night will finish with optional cocktails in beautiful places for networking and meeting the participants and speakers.

The topics covered will be very broad, from recent medical advances, to artificial intelligence and robotics. The first keynote speakers will be the world famous Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey. Additionally, #TransVision 2021 will feature other keynote presentations, such as those from futurist movement pioneers Max More, Natasha Vita-More, Ben Goertzel and Anders Sandberg, members of Humanity+ and other leading institutions.

#TransVision 2021 collaborates with leading organizations working on futurist concepts such as life extension, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, space travel, human enhancement, blockchain and other future technologies and trends. The first #TransVision conference was held in 1998 in the Netherlands, and since there we have hosted 14 international summits in cities like Berlin, Brussels, Caracas, Chicago, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Milano, Paris, Stockholm and Toronto.

#TransVision 2021 will be hosted in the historic Madrid College of Medicine (Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Médicos de Madrid), and there will be live streaming for those who can’t come in person to beautiful Madrid.

Register here: www.TransVisionMadrid.com.

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Bionic arms used to cost $80,000. Now, a young engineer has lowered the cost by over 90%.

Subscribe here: https://freeth.ink/youtube-subscribe-toc.

Unlimited Tomorrow is pioneering a new age in prosthetics with its 3D-printed robotic arms. Founded in 2,014 by Easton LaChapelle when he was just 18 years old, the company is poised to become a leader in the prosthetic arm industry. Their True Limb device costs less than $8,000 and it’s even cheaper for children, priced at about $4,000.

True Limb is both functional and realistic-looking, serving as a mirror image of the amputee’s opposing limb, even down to the fingertips. And while the prosthetic arm is 60–90% cheaper than traditional prosthetics, many users say it’s far superior to market alternatives. What’s the secret? Unlimited Tomorrow uses a totally remote, custom process that cuts out middlemen to produce prosthetics completely in-house.

For the 40-million worldwide amputees in need of prosthetic limbs, this remote, personalized, and affordable process for fitting prosthetics means hope for a better future.

See the full article on bionic arms here: https://www.freethink.com/series/challengers/prosthetic-arm.

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Since 1,988 and formation of the Posthuman Movement, and articles by early adopters like Max Moore were a sign our message was being received — although I always argued on various Extropian & Transhuman bulletin boards & Yahoo groups &c that “Trans” was a redundant middle and we should move straight to Posthuman, now armed with the new MVT knowledge (also figures on the CDR). There will be a new edition of World Philosophy, the first this millennium, to coincided with various Posthuman University events later this year. Here is the text:

THE EXTROPIAN PRINCIPLES V. 2.01 August 7 1992.

Max More Executive Director, Extropy Institute.

1. BOUNDLESS EXPANSION — Seeking more intelligence, wisdom, and.
personal power, an unlimited lifespan, and removal of natural, social.
biological, and psychological limits to self-actualization and self-realization. Overcoming limits on our personal and social.
progress and possibilities. Expansion into the universe and infinite existence.

2. SELF-TRANSFORMATION — A commitment to continual moral.
intellectual, and physical self-improvement, using reason and critical.
thinking, personal responsibility, and experimentation. Biological and.
neurological augmentation.

3. INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY — Applying science and technology to.
transcend “natural” limits imposed by our biological heritage and environment.

4. SPONTANEOUS ORDER — Promotion of decentralized, voluntaristic.
social coordination mechanisms. Fostering of tolerance, diversity.
long-term planning, individual incentives and personal liberties.

5. DYNAMIC OPTIMISM — Positive expectations to fuel dynamic action.
Promotion of a positive, empowering attitude towards our individual.
future and that of all intelligent beings. Rejection both of blind.
faith and stagnant pessimism.

These principles are further explicated below. In depth treatments can.
be found in various issues of EXTROPY: The Journal of Transhumanist.
Thought. (Spontaneous Order in #7, Dynamic Optimism in #8, and.
Self-Transformation in the forthcoming #10.)

1. BOUNDLESS EXPANSION
Beginning as mindless matter, parts of nature developed in a.
slow evolutionary advance which produced progressively more powerful brains. Chemical reactions generated tropistic behavior, which was.
superseded by instinctual and Skinnerian stimulus-response behavior.
and then by conscious learning and experimentation. With the advent of.
the conceptual consciousness of humankind, the rate of advancement.
sharply accelerated as intelligence, technology, and the scientific.
method could be applied to our condition. Extropians seek the.
continuation and fostering of this process, transcending biological.
and psychological limits as we proceed into posthumanity.
In aspiring to transhumanity, and beyond to posthumanity, we.
reject natural and traditional limitations on our possibilities. We.
champion the rational use of science and technology to void limits on.
lifespan, intelligence, personal power, freedom, and experience. We.
are immortalists because we recognize the absurdity of accepting.
“natural” limits to our lives. For many the future will bring an.
exodus from Earth — the womb of human and transhuman intelligence
expanding the frontiers of humanity (and posthumanity) to include.
space habitats, other planets and this solar system, neighboring.
systems, and beyond. By the end of the 21st Century, more people may.
be living off-planet than on Earth.
Resource limits are not immutable. The market price system.
encourages conservation, substitution and innovation, preventing any.
need for a brake on growth and progress. Expansion into space will.
vastly expand the energy and resources for our civilization. Living.
extended transhuman lifespans will foster intelligent use of resource.
and environment. Extropians affirm a rational, market-mediated.
environmentalism aimed at maintaining and enhancing our biospheres.
(whether terrestrial or extra-terrestrial). We oppose apocalyptic.
environmentalism, which hallucinates catastrophes, issues a stream of.
doomsday predictions, and attempts to strangle our continued.
evolution.
No mysteries are sacrosanct, no limits unquestionable; the.
unknown must yield to the intelligent mind. We seek to understand and.
to master reality up to and beyond any currently foreseen limits.

2. SELF-TRANSFORMATION

We affirm reason, critical inquiry, intellectual independence.
and intellectual honesty. We reject blind faith and passive.
comfortable thinking that leads to dogmatism, religion, and conformity. A commitment to positive self-transformation requires us.
to critically analyze our current beliefs, behaviors, and strategies.
Extropians therefore choose to place their self-value in continued.
development rather than “being right”. We prefer analytical thought to.
fuzzy but comfortable delusion, empiricism to mysticism, and.
independent evaluation to conformity. Extropians affirm a philosophy.
of life but distance themselves from religious thinking because of its.
blind faith, debasement of human dignity, and systematized.
irrationality.
Perpetual self-improvement — physical, intellectual.
psychological, and ethical — requires us to continually re-examine our lives. Extropians seek to better themselves, yet without denying their.
current worth. The desire to improve should not be confused with the.
belief that one is lacking in current value. But valuing oneself in.
the present cannot mean self-satisfaction, since an intelligent and.
probing mind can can always envisage a superior self in the future.
Extropians are committed to expanding wisdom, fine-tuning.
understanding of rational behavior, and enhancing physical and.
intellectual capacities.
Extropians are neophiles and experimentalists. We are.
neophiles because we track the latest research for more efficient.
means of achieving our goals. We are experimentalists because we are.
willing to explore and test the novel means of self-transformation.
that we uncover. In our quest for advancement to the tranhuman stage.
we rely on our own judgement, seek our own path, and reject both blind.
conformity and mindless rebellion. Extropians frequently diverge from.
the mainstream because they do not allow themselves to be chained by.
dogmas, whether religious, political, or social. Extropians choose.
their values and behavior reflectively, standing firm when required.
but responding flexibly to novel conditions.
Personal responsibility and self-determination goes.
hand-in-hand with neophilic self-experimentation. Extropians take.
responsibility for the consequences of our choices, refusing to blame.
others for the risks involved in our free choices. Experimentation and.
self-transformation require risks; Extropians wish to be free to.
evaluate the risks and potential benefits for ourselves, applying our.
own judgment and wisdom, and assuming responsibility for the outcome.
We neither wish others to force standards upon us through legal.
regulation, nor do we wish to force others to follow our path.
Personal-responsibility and self-determination are incompatible with.
authoritarian centralized control, which stifles the free choices and.
spontaneous ordering of autonomous persons.
External coercion, whether for the purported “good of the.
whole” or the paternalistic protection of the individual, is.
unacceptable to us. Compulsion breeds ignorance and weakens the.
connection between personal choice and personal outcome, thereby.
destroying personal responsibility. The proliferation of outrageous.
liability lawsuits, governmental safety regulations, and the.
rights-destroying drug war result from ignoring these facts of life.
Extropians are rational individualists, living by their own judgment.
making critical, informed, and free choices, and accepting.
responsibility for those choices.
As neophiles, Extropians study advanced, emerging, and future.
technologies for their self-transformative potential in enhancing our.
abilities and freedom. We support biomedical research with the goal of.
understanding and controlling the aging process. We are interested in.
any plausible means of conquering death, including interim measures.
like biostasis/cryonics, and long-term possibilities such as migration.
out of biological bodies into superior vehicles (“uploading”).
We practice and plan for biological and neurological.
augmentation through means such as effective cognitive enhancers or.
“smart drugs\.

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VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — To see Russia’s ambitions for its own version of Silicon Valley, head about 5,600 miles east of Moscow, snake through Vladivostok’s hills and then cross a bridge from the mainland to Russky Island. It’s here — a beachhead on the Pacific Rim — that the Kremlin hopes to create a hub for robotics and artificial intelligence innovation with the goal of boosting Russia’s ability to compete with the United States and Asia.

On Russia’s Pacific shores, the Kremlin is trying to build a beachhead among the Asian tech powers.

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