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At 07:43 PM 11/8/2006, you wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hey, was anyone going to answer
my question about Martine Rothblatt's concept of "bemes" as a
valid concept of future identity?</blockquote><br>
Just some morning thoughts, but probably nothing of consequence to answer
your question PJ:<br><br>
To be or not to be? We have to "be" to be a future
identity. It seems that Bemes can take any form - and, because of
this the very concept of how "identity" is configured is
an issue. Identity as a set of "information pattern" or
set of "information patterns" is an exciting topic.<br><br>
My talk at the Fourth Alcor Technology Conference on
"<h2><font size=2>A Talent for Living: Cracking Myths of
Mortality" </i>opened with and continued to focused on
Shakespeare's line:
</font></h2><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/techtalk.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.natasha.cc/techtalk.htm<br><br>
</a>""To be, or not to be"<i> <br>
</i>wrote William Shakespeare in Hamlet in Act III, scene 1, <br>
"that is the question: ..."In my presentation at the
aforementioned technology conference, I made a poetic statement based on
my practice at that time, which was media-animation and poetry:<br><br>
"... To beto liveis what we do. It is our talent, our business and
our pursuit of well-being which we must carry out. The refinement of this
built-in talent currently separates us from other life forms. It is our
native, intrinsic talent, calling for the creative challenge to do
somethinganythingas long as we are "doing." To be, we must
do. If not, we are busy dying. ...<br><br>
(pause with algorithmic images on scene)<br><br>
"When I think of our culture, I see it as a body of electronically
connected data filtering messages into its appendages. Out into the
capillaries of culture, our technology has become far more exacting and
more robust than our biological bodies. Our biological bodies are far too
inadequate to keep up with our ideas and the new landscapes we venture.
From the telegraph to telecommunications, from the Net into Space, it is
no longer just the written symbolthe wordbeing transported, we are the
new transportees."<br><br>
<br>
I do not necessarily see identity as transportees or Martin's excellent
Bemes as an entirely separate philosophical outlook than the
transhumanist life view, but as an integral part of a complex extropic
system. For example, Automorph Art is an extropic subset of
Transhumanist Arts which developed in the 1990s and is intently based on
"being as art."
<a href="http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/art.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/art.html</a> Because it is within
the extropic genre, it is understood that his automorph being as art is
the actually practice of improving oneself, which is inclusive of the
positive ideas presented and described in Martine's philosophy of
Bemes.<br><br>
So, as you can see, I see that Martine has a valuable idea.
:-) However, I do not think it is separate from or counter to
transhumanism, but included within transhumanism as a constructed
category of interrelations, or at least a complimentary, valuable aspect
thereof.<br><br>
Right now I am writing a paper on "SEx - Skin (as a symbol of the
boundaries of identity) Exobody" for a conference in Brazil on the
future of identity. ... <br><br>
Beme-ing forward -<br><br>
Natasha<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">PJ<br><br>
<br>
>Robert writes <br>
> <br>
>> On 10/31/06, Lee Corbin
<<a href="https://webmailcluster.perfora.net/xml/webmail/mailDetail;jsessionid=3D226EDDED85DD69EF895DE7DCDB6107.TC132b?__frame=_top&__lf=AdresseUebernehmenFlow&__sendingdata=1&resyncFolder.Doit=true&resyncFolder.TreeID=leftNaviTree&createMail.Action=create&createMail.To=lcorbin%40rawbw.com&__jumptopage=mailNew&__CMD[mailDetail]:SELWRP=resyncFolder&__CMD[mailDetail]:SELWRP=createMail">
lcorbin@rawbw.com</a>> wrote: <br>
>> <br>
>> > But what happened to *me* in there? I'm more than my memes,
pal. <br>
>> > Don't forget my memories. <br>
> <br>
>> Well memories are memes and at least some of them are essential
<br>
>> components of the survival and reproduction processes. <br>
> <br>
>Memories are memes??? That does violence to the concept so far <br>
>as I understand it. Memories are more like raw data; for one thing,
<br>
>they're very seldom contagious. Beliefs are something else, and <br>
>are indeed memetic. <br>
> <br>
>> > That's me, maybe. I don't want to "become",
especially if the end <br>
>> > product is not me. I would rather "are". As you
put it. <br><br>
What about Martine Rothblatt's concept of "bemes?" <br><br>
<a href="http://www.imminst.org/conference/Martine.ppt">
www.imminst.org/conference/Martine.ppt</a> <br><br>
PJ<br>
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</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<dl>
<dd><font size=2><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/">Natasha
</a><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/">Vita-More</a>
<dd>Cultural Strategist - Design Media Artist - Futurist
<dd>PhD Candidate,
<a href="http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/researchcover/rcp.asp?pagetype=G&page=273">
Planetary Collegium </a>
<dd>Proactionary Principle Core Group,
<a href="http://www.extropy.org/">Extropy
</a><a href="http://www.extropy.org/">Institute</a>
<dd>Member, <a href="http://www.profuturists.com/">Association of
Professional Futurists</a>
<dd>Founder, <a href="http://www.transhumanist.biz/">Transhumanist Arts
& Culture</a> <br><br>
</font>
<dd><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><i>If you draw a circle in the
sand and study only what's inside the circle, then that is a
closed-system perspective. If you study what is inside the circle and
everything outside the circle, then that is an open system perspective. -
</i>Buckminster Fuller<br>
<br><br></font>
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