[extropy-chat] El Club de los Astronautas: a transhumanist space agency founded by artists and musicians

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

El Club de los Astronautas <http://www.elclubdelosastronautas.com/>, "the
worlds first space agency founded by artists and musicians", is a cultural,
musical and artistic collective in Barcelona that was founded to promote and
communicate the idea of a manned, interstellar voyage. For it's
implementation the Club suggests the construction of a space ship called
Mare Nostrum. Its major task is to find and debate strategies that could
lead into this final goal. The Club's work is a very interesting mix of
scientific ideas, artistic and musical experimentation. Following
inspirations taken from Transhumanism and Second Life, the Mare Nostrum
space ship is crewed by uploaded human personalities inhabiting a virtual
reality simulation. Don't miss Chapters 5 and 6 of the radio
play<http://www.elclubdelosastronautas.com/radio/>,
covering Transhumanism, Second Life, uvvy
island<http://uvvy.com/index.php/Uvvy_island_in_SL>,
mind uploading, the Omega Point, Nick Bostrom's simulation arguments,
artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, brain-computer interfacing, and
the possibility to "move" via uploading to VR simulations running on future
supercomputers.

Most of the people of the Club, including its founder David Apfel, come from
an artistic background and were not trained as scientists and engineers.
However, they have made an effort to understand and digest the complex
scientific and technical concepts that may lead to transhumanity, as well as
the philosophical and ethical foundations of transhumanism. Their artistic
background will make it easier for them, I believe, communicating the
transhumanist worldview in such a way as to appeal to artistic sensibilities
beyond the geeky image, perhaps too cold and aseptic, that transhumanism
still has. I would not go as far as saying that they *are* transhumanists,
but certainly they take transhumanism seriously and can help us to
communicate better.

 I was first in touch with "El Club of the
Astronautas<http://www.elclubdelosastronautas.com/>"
in April, when they invited me to give a talk on transhumanism at their
festival "26 000 años luz" in Barcelona. I could not travel to Barcelona on
that day, so I proposed to give the talk from the virtual reality of Second
Life. My talk <http://uvvy.com/index.php/Astro220406> was one the first live
"mixed-reality" presentations given from virtual reality to the live
audience of a festival in brickspace, and the first presentation on
transhumanism given in Second Life.

David Apfel came to see me in Second Life, and I gave a power point -like
presentation with audio via Skype. I had a few interesting questions - the
most interesting were "haven't you any curiosity to experience death?", to
which I replied "about as much as to visit the dentist next week", and about
the concept of "living in VR": uploading to a VR world and living there. The
guy in the picture below is asking about the possibility of virtual life
after death.

  They are planning another, more ambitious festival in 2007, and I look
forward to continuing the collaboration with them.
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