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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Friends,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Max More and I have been working with our publisher Wiley-Blackwell to produce what we hope will be a valuable contribution to transhumanism: <i>The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future</i>, which contains 40 essays by seminal thinkers. This book brings together the visionary zeal of extropy and the analytics of scholarship. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Here is what is being said: <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black;background:white'>—Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick for Wired: “We are in the process of upgrading the human species, so we might as well do it with deliberation and foresight. A good first step is this book, which collects the smartest thinking available concerning the inevitable conflicts, challenges and opportunities arising as we re-invent ourselves. It's a core text for anyone making the future.”</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'><br><br>—Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford:“Transhumanism has moved from a fringe concern to a mainstream academic movement with real intellectual credibility. This is a great taster of some of the best emerging work. In the last 10 years, transhumanism has spread not as a religion but as a creative rational endeavor.”<br><br>—Edward Keller, Director, Center for Transformative Media, Parsons The New School for Design: “The Transhumanist Reader is an important, provocative compendium critically exploring the history, philosophy, and ethics of transhumanism. The contributors anticipate crucial biopolitical, ecological and planetary implications of a radically technologically enhanced population.”<br><br>—Sonia Arrison, Best-selling author of <i>100 Plus: How The Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything: </i>“This important book contains essays by many of the top thinkers in the field of transhumanism. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the future of humankind.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>To accompany this book, we are building a knowledge center that covers the book’s content and links to the many great works of arts and culture. I think it will have a strong position in the arts community (and with Michael Masucci (who is here on this list!) and EZTV, Parsons, UAT, Singularity University, and some of the major international arts festivals like GOGBOT, Ars Electronica, Siggraph, etc. and the human-computer interaction (HCI) events.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>This knowledge and media center offers the simple yet poignant question: <b>If transhumanism, then what?</b> The possibilities of this question can spin our minds into all sorts of extropic visions and into the depths of our imagination. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Onward!<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Natasha<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Natasha Vita-More, PhD<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Professor, University of Advancing Technology<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Chairman, Humanity+<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Co-Founder, Institute for Transhumanism<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>