[ExI] SF - cyberspace and utopian narratives for meatless bodies

[Mike Dougherty]

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 11:10 AM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On the number of Transhumanists, there was a list on Wikipedia that
> had around 100 on it.  I found a list (that includes me, but leaves
> out many prominent transhumanists) of 24.  My estimate is that the
> number of people who identify as transhumanists is within a factor of
> 5 either way of the number of people signed up for cryonics.  Since
> there are about 2000 people signed up for cryonics that would put
> transhumanists at 400-10,000 people.
>

Is your intent that factor of 5 covers those who might consider
cyborgisation but would have zero interest in cryonics?  Or is that an
unrelated dimension of consideration?  I am curious why cryonics would
be such a strong indicator.

I wonder how many people would select themselves into this group if
given the right questions.  I imagine something like Belief-O-Matic
[1] asking a few qualifiers that start listing "transhumanist" as
something people could investigate as a 'belief.'  I know many here
raise a red flag regarding any belief that isn't backed by empirical
evidence and the scientific method but we're still discussing the
qualia of red... so maybe there's some room for beliefs.  :)


[1] http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx