Free Republic

In a historic vote, Britain voted to leave the EU. That single effort by the English people has set off a tidal wave of events that has sent ripples through world markets and spurred similar efforts in many nation states throughout the European Union. The British, in essence, have decided to "Exit Stage Left." In the meantime, scientists have announced that they are now able to "improve" on the DNA sequence through replacement of defective strands of the very essence of life itself. Is this the new Tower of Babel? John thinks so, and once you understand the implications of...

[This is from a famous scifi writer. He argues that rather than being scared of the danger of artificial intelligence in the future and trying to have government regulate it, more competition, not restricting competition, is best!] Official Statement to the TNC Convention 02016 by David BrinIt is, of course, wise and beneficial to peer ahead for potential dangers and problems — one of the central tasks of high-end science fiction. Alas, detecting that a danger lurks is easier than prescribing solutions that can prevent it. Take the plausibility of malignant AI, remarked-upon recently by luminaries ranging from Stephen Hawking...

[So here is an idea that we could build on in America, to counter the lefties who are working to make the future a dark time indeed! Not sure how free market these Aussies are but their hearts are in the right place.]Happy Future Day! By Edward Hudgins March 1, 2016 – Stand up for optimism about the future today! Transhumanism Australia, a non-profit that promotes education in science and technology, has marked March 1 as “Future Day.” It wants this day celebrated worldwide as a time “to consider the future of humanity.” If all of us made a habit...

Entrepreneur Josh Bocanegra attracted a lot of attention when he announced his new artificial intelligence company Humai. Why? Because he claims that by 2045, they'll be able to resurrect the dead. Related articles The new company are aiming to "extend and enhance life" by freezing human brains for extended periods of time using cryonics, a deep freezing technology using very low temperatures, and then putting them into artificial bodies. But Josh claims the company's ultimate goal is to preserve a human brain BEFORE a person dies. He claims if they were able to transplant a live person's brain into a...

Brain Power, author Allan Ajifo, source WikimediaGuest essay by Eric WorrallThe Daily Mail has claimed that the super intelligence of a new race of cybernetic enhanced humans will be able to solve wicked problems such as Climate Change. ‘Superintellingence’ of AI and humans working together could solve climate change and end wars, researchers claim‘Wicked’ problems are difficult to solve due to many interacting systemsThese types of problems include climate change and geopolitical conflictHuman computation merges human intelligence and AI to solve problemsIn the fight against ‘wicked’ problems, computers may be humans’ best allies. Researchers from the Human Computation Institute and...

[If you're into science fiction or into a lot of the new scientific breakthroughs, you'll probably find this interesting!]On Viewing 2001: The First Transhumanist FilmBy Edward Hudgins I recently saw 2001: A Space Odyssey again on the big screen. That's the best way to see this visually stunning cinematic poem, like I saw it during its premiere run in 1968. The film's star, Keir Dullea, attended that recent screening and afterward offered thoughts on director Stanley Kubrick's awe-inspiring opus. He and many others have discussed the visions offered in the film. Some have come to pass: video phone calls and...

There is a dangerous philosophy emerging in our fast-paced, technology-driven world of which most people are totally unaware. And yet, when Francis Fukuyama, economist at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, was asked what idea posed the “greatest threat to the welfare of humanity,” his answer was this philosophy.And yet I am positive most Catholics have never heard of it. Catholics certainly do not realize that they are being fed a steady diet of images in popular media that play right to the more seductive aspects of this ideology.What is it? It is transhumanism. “What is that?” you...

Can churches engage transhumanism, which may very well be the next big science vs. religion battle, positively or should they absolutely resist this movement, an academic institution in Alabama asked during a multi-day event focused on whether Christianity and Transhumanism could co-exist. Samford University's Center for Science and Religion held the event, titled "Transhumanism and the Church," which took place from Sept. 24-26 and featured 27 presentations with approximately 120 attendees for the opening lecture alone. Transhumanism is the theory that science and technology can be used to advance the evolution of human beings beyond current physical and mental limitations....

 Google's director of engineering Ray Kurzweil is promising that with robots in our brains, we'll be godlike.  Yes, but what tawdry gods we'd be. Okay, all I have to do is realize that I'm god, or as a technological solution to the fundamental ontological question "why?", get one of Kurzweil's gizmos implanted in my skull. But what a poor job I'm doing from my shabby Mt. Olympus. Just take a look around you, a world of repression & murder, but with no excuse, with a sufficient amount of everything for everybody to have enough of everything. Enough agriculture, manufacturing &...

It's finally happening. A controversial human head transplant operation now has a date and a team of neurosurgeons willing to undergo the procedure. Italian neurosurgeon Dr Sergio Canavero has, according to CEN, announced that he will be carrying out the procedure at Harbin Medical University in China along with a team of both Chinese and Italian surgeons. valery spiridonov Valery Spiridonov has agreed to undergo the procedure. Dr Canavero has been talking about the controversial procedure for years but it was only this year that he was able to find a willing volunteer that would be happy to undergo the...

[I lover science! The one thing I would add is that the tech advances that make these sorts of inventions possible came from the free market. That’s why we can all afford smart phones and computers. Get the government out of medical stuff and these sorts of things could be more widely available.]Future Transhumanist Tech May Soon Change The Definition Of DisabilityBy Zoltan Istvan Radical technologies around the world may soon overhaul the field of disability and immobility, which affects in some way more than a billion people around the world. MIT bionics designer Hugh Herr, who lost both his...

Is the world we live in a computer simulation in the minds of Robotic Overlords who are using humanity as playthings? This is the "scientific" theory put forward by a number of physicists and Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom.(1) Bostrom is one of the founders of the World Transhumanist Association. Transhumanism is a blend of revitalized Gnostic pagan and Eastern occult pantheist elements and magic science undergirded by a strong Darwinian impulse. Thus it subscribes to the modern myth of a coming Superman that is actually a counterfeit of the Christian vision of a new and perfected human race spiritually...

The other night my wife and I were reading to our 4-year-old daughter a children's book that we borrowed from the public library. We came to a section where two characters -- both who were the same sex -- began having romantic feelings for each other. My wife and I smiled -- we have many good LGBT friends. Later that evening after putting my daughter to bed, I began wondering about the future of the LGBT movement, especially after Tim Cook, Apple's CEO and probably the world's most influential technologist, recently said he was proud to be gay. It's certainly...

That's the prediction of Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google (GOOG), who spoke Wednesday at the Exponential Finance conference in New York. Kurzweil predicts that humans will become hybrids in the 2030s. That means our brains will be able to connect directly to the cloud, where there will be thousands of computers, and those computers will augment our existing intelligence. He said the brain will connect via nanobots -- tiny robots made from DNA strands. "Our thinking then will be a hybrid of biological and non-biological thinking," he said. The bigger and more complex the cloud, the more advanced...

Bionic eye (CC0 1.0). Washington D.C., Apr 9, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie – being able to “upload” our minds to computers to live on after we die, to freeze our bodies only to bring them back in the future, or to pop pills to enhance our mood and intelligence. While these may seem like impossible notions, these are the kinds of things the transhumanism and posthumanism movements are hoping for and working toward. However, as with most technological advancements, these proposals have bioethicists and theologians questioning: just because we...

[The one thing to add is that free markets are absolutely necessary so that entrepreneurs can pursue their ideas and innovations.] Google, Entrepreneurs, and Living 500 YearsBy Edward Hudgins “Is it possible to live to be 500?” “Yes,” answers Bill Maris of Google, without qualifications. A Bloomberg Markets piece on “Google Ventures and the Search for Immortality” documents how the billions of dollars Maris invests each year is transforming life itself. But the piece also makes clear that the most valuable asset he possesses —and that, in others, makes those billions work—is entrepreneurship. Google's Bio-FrontiersMaris, who heads a venture capital...

Interesting here to see transhumanists again talking about moving offshore—literally!—to avoid government regulations. -- Mellonkronos “Researchers, Ahoy! Should Futurist Science Move… Offshore?" By Nikki Olson November 9, 2014 http://transhumanity.net/researchers-ahoy-should-futurist-science-move-offshore/ What is the likelihood of seeing research vessels devoted to scientific research outside the bounds of national jurisdiction? The idea of relocating for the sake of circumventing law, in particular the notion of establishing new nations in international waters, is an idea typically initiated with liberty in mind. The Principality of Sealand, for instance, established in 1967, was founded with the intention of creating a space free from “oppressive laws and...

An analysis pointing out the intersection of transhumanism and the occult.

Atheists and agnostics like to claim that religion or belief in God isn’t necessary for living a moral life. “I can be a good person without God,” they say. Some go a step further and try to build a case for why they can be even better people without God. For example, they might claim that whereas theists are concerned about obeying religious commands that will get them into a heavenly afterlife, unbelievers are able to apply all their energies to making this world a better place.In a certain sense, it’s correct to say that one can be a...

Al Gore pops his head up at Davos…say, how’d he get there? A fossil fueled flight?…to make a racist pronouncement (via Climate Depot). Stopping overpopulation is one way the dangers of climate change can be mitigated, according to two of the most prominent believers in global warming. Former Vice President Al Gore and Microsoft founder Bill Gates (how did Gates get to Davos? Anyone think he flew commercial?) said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that contraception is a key in controlling the proliferation of unusual weather they say is endangering the world. “Depressing the rate of child mortality,...