[ExI] The meaning of life (in transhumanism)

[natasha at natasha.cc]

Hi Anders, 

 

My doctorate dissertation’s thesis focuses on life in regards to life extension, personhood expansion, and particularly delves into the topic of “What is Life” (i.e., Margulis) and  expressly on what is the core of life that transhumanists value and want to extend and expand.  You are welcome to cite me.

 

I can send you excerpts from it to this list or to you privately. Just tell me what you want me to do.

 

Best,

Natasha

 

 <http://www.natasha.cc/> Natasha Vita-More, PhD

 

Faculty, University of Advancing Technology

Chair, Humanity+

_______________________________________

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cover email

 

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Anders Sandberg
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2014 4:15 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: [ExI] The meaning of life (in transhumanism)

 

A while ago I started working on an essay called "the meaning of life in transhumanism", but quite soon I got distracted (Oh! Shiny!) and it languished. Then I got an offer to turn it into a book chapter, and it is now up and running. However, while much of it is standard scholarship (Nikolai Fedorov's cosmism and its links to Tipler and FHI-style big futures) I think it would be sensible to actually ask you in the community for your views of what the "meaning of life is".

 

Some ground rules: Yes, it is not clear that the question even makes sense. Do your best. See http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/life-meaning/ for a lot of takes on what might be going on (including a pretty cool use of uploading as a counterargument to soul-centred views). I am interested in meanings that actually relate to transhumanism: either as an idea that motivates you to want to enhance yourselves or hope humanity does get enhanced, or as an explanation of why all of this enhancement actually is moving things along in the right direction, or maybe the meaning of life as the right direction(s) to enhance ourselves along. 

 

Bonus meaning-of-life-points to people who can point at fun publications I can cite: I love having footnotes to early issues of Extropy. 

 



Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University

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