[extropy-chat] Questions About Real People

[Kevin Freels]

>
> 1. What first attracted you to transhumanism?
I can't say that I was "attracted" to transhumanism. It just happened to be
the next logical in my quest for truth, understanding, and immortality.
It was a long road getting here, but here is the simplified version:
When I was a kid, I was taught all of the standard christian beliefs. Most
people around me seemed content to accept everything they were told, but I
never was. Instead, I wanted a deeper understanding. I had questions that
noone could answer...even the preachers.
Then I forgot religion for a while while I spent my teenage years worrying
about more important matters such as "Does Missy like me?" and "What did you
do Friday night?"
When I hit my twenties, I started looking for "meaning" again. I couldn't
find it anywhere. Although I had left this alone for a while, my brain had
become very analytical. From 20-28 I struggled through many problems,
marriage, children, divorce, self-employment, new career, promotions,
downsizing, seld-employment, etc. You name it, I probably went through it!
My biggest fear was death. I was so afraid of dying that sometimes I
couldn't even sleep at night. I guess part of my reason for fearing death so
much was because I felt I hadn;t really been living. But there was one other
factor.
According to my upbringing I would go to heaven simply by asking Christ for
forgiveness of my sins. But I wasn;t sure exactly what a "sin" was.
According to some of my Baptist friends, drinking alcohol was a sin. My
Catholic friends drank alcohol like fish! It was this little problem that
led me to where I am now: "Which of my friend's are going to heaven, and
which one's are not?"
You see, IF the Catholics were correct, then my Baptist friends would be
going to hell whether or not they wanted to admit it. Surely a God wouldn;t
make several different sets of rules and expect people to choose any of them
and be OK! So I started doing research for years on each and every religion,
or type of religion that I could run into simply to see if I could figure
out which one was right. After all, it wouldn;'t do me any good to worship
God if Allah was "The One True God"

Now keep in mind, I already had my misgivings with religion, but I was
simply too afraid to embrace atheism. It took years of research into
religion, history, human evolution, biology, physics, and anything else that
might apply before I was confident enough to state out loud that religion
was horseshit without fear of bringing the Wrath of God upon myself.

It was during this time of intense study that I realized that:
A.) Human beings are simply complex machines
B.) Identity is simply the information that is contained in our brains.
C.) Human beings have an incredible ability to learn and alter their
environment
D.) Human beings will one day be able to alter and repair anything at the
most basic level.

To me, that meant that one day, unless there is some catastrophe,
 human beings will develop a way to become immortal. No religion or specific
belief was required.

So the only question to me was whether it would occur before, or after my
death. Since I would prefer to see the technology developed before I die
rather than keeping myself preserved via cryonics, I decided to actively
support this technology. It was after I had already decided to sign up for
Alcor and investigate the actual technologies when I started getting
involved with transhumanist societies. Until then, I had only stumbled onto
the word "transhumanism" on occasion while performing other research. There
were many times that I saw the term come up on Google and ignored it because
it sounded like some wacko group. :-)
Finally, one night I was looking for people that had thoughts similar to my
own, and I found them.


> 2. To you, what is transhumanism's most important principle?

Immortality. Nothing less. Yes, there is the "singularity". AI, Mollecular
manufacturing, but it is all useless to me if it can;t make myself and the
human species immortal...at least until the Big Crunch.

> 3. Do you identify with a specific branch of transhumanism?  Which?

Not really. I never bothered to see if there were other branches to be
honest. Unless you want to call the Extropians a "branch"; which I wouldn;t.
To me, a "branch" would be a group of individuals that have beliefs in
common which are slightly different from others of the same belief system.
The Extropians usually don;t agree on much at all. :-) This is agood thing.
Lots of ideas are thrown in, filtered, broken down, analyzed, and processed.
I don;t think any two of us has more than a few common thoughts. (As a
matter of fact, there is an ongoing debate here about whether or not the
word "belief" should even be used. I am one who thinks the word does more
harm than good. See the archives)
I guess the one common thread is that we all want to bring about the
singularity so we can become immortal. I don;t see how that would be any
different from any other transhumanist organization. In short, we deal in
science, not belief, and scientific facts are (supposed to be) the same
regardless of which "group" you associate with.

 4. Whose writings on transhumanism, or related principles and topics, have
> most greatly influenced you?
Um, Robert Bradbury, Damien Broderick, and Harvey Neustrom (sorry if I
misspelled that!.... :)
OK. There's also Drexler, Vinge, Stephen Baxter, Asimov, Herbert, Darwin,
heck...I have no idea!
> 5. Do you have a religious affiliation?  If yes, which religion and how
> strongly do you adhere to it?  If no, were you formerly?  If you were
> formerly religious, what caused you to change?
All that is above.
> 6. What sort of impact does transhumanism have on your daily life?  Your
> life in general?

None at all. I just enjoy research the way many watch Nascar and football. I
couldn;t tell you who was at the Superbowl or even the rules of football or
basketball. It leaves me a bit alienated since I am surrounded by Christians
that deny facts to keep their beliefs intact. I have trouble striking up
conversations with people since few respond to things such as "How 'bout
that Sedna planet?" Since they are all used to "How 'bout them Redsocks?" I
quit smoking, try to excercise, keep my mind and body fairly healthy, but
not obsessively so. It's not really a way of life, or a belief system. It is
simply an interest in my own future. I see it as such a shame that so many
people don;t even care what life will be like in 10, 20, or 30 years, let
alone the next million or so!

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