[ExI] Question from a neophyte

[Giulio Prisco]

Welcome Sarah,

Besides all excellent books that have been mentioned by others, I wish
to recommend:

The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. I do not like too much
the more recent The Singularity is Near, which is basically a
compilation of older content, but TAoSM is great.

Citizen Cyborg by James Hughes (if you are politically inclined to the
Left). Many other posters may not agree with this recommendation.

Robot by Moravec, especially the final chapters

All fiction by Greg Egan and Charlie Stross

And of course all the unpublished books being written or to be written
by members of this list, starting with Max' book (any recent
intelligence?).

Note: there are some anti-transhumanist writers who understand very
well what transhumanism is about, and formulate it very clearly. For
example Francis Fukuyama's gives a very good definition: "For the last
several decades, a strange liberation movement has grown within the
developed world. Its crusaders aim much higher than civil rights
campaigners, feminists, or gay-rights advocates. They want nothing
less than to liberate the human race from its biological constraints.
As "transhumanists" see it, humans must wrest their biological destiny
from evolution's blind process of random variation and adaptation and
move to the next stage as a species."

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 11:01 PM, Sarah Wood <wood.sarah.m at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all -
> Having barely dipped my toes in the murky waters of transhumanism, I have a
> request. I would like to know what are, in your opinion, the (three? five?)
> most important foundational texts that one should read to become versed in
> the basic principles and vocabulary of the subject.
>
> Please forgive (and redirect) me if this is not the appropriate forum.
>
> Sarah