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Probing de Grey Matters


AUBREY DE GREY
The Reluctant Transhumanist
CHARLIE STROSS
Don’t Leave Your Memory at Home
BUILDING BETTER BRAINS
Billionaires Funding the Future
Editon #1
SCIENCE FICTION GETS FUNDING Fall 2008
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Section Head Editorial

Humanity Plus: But please -- don’t just be a consumer. As


with any initiatory effort, there is plenty of
room for improvement via feedback and
The New Synthesis participation. So we ask you to increase the

Contents RU Sirius

Lately, I love it when people out there in the


value by spreading the word and by adding
your own ideas and content to the mix.
The Chinese epigram “May you live in
interesting times” was considered a curse.
general population ask me what I do. I tell But that’s old thinking. More recently,
5 Humanity Plus: The New Synthesis them that I’m working on a transhumanist Americans have been reasurring them-
6 I Am Ironman! webzine and then pause -- offering no selves with the straightforward saying “Life
further explanation -- as if a transhumanist is good.” Indeed. But it could be a whole
7 Skin Phone magazine were as comprehensible as a lot better.
PETA Wants Meat! magazine about real estate or pet monkeys.

H+ Magazine 8
9
Here’s Jewels in Your Eye
EPOC Neuroheadset
It’s a sort of test. Will anybody ever
have a clue as to what I’m talking about?
So far, the answer is no. Not one stranger
Make it so.

Addendum: H+ Magazine is published


We’re All Edge Cases -- or person outside certain in-the-know by Humanity+. However, not all the views
social circles -- has had even a nano-hint and ideas expressed in this publication are
Publishers 10 Open Source Robotics Looks Better Than Ever of a clue. the views of that organization. While the
Humanity Plus
12 Simple Questions/Challenging Answers By the way, I’m not talking here only general mission of this online periodical is
about people who barely know how to turn longevity or high-quality performance to spread transhumanist news and ideas,
13 Manipulating Evolution on a computer. The conversations I’m ref- -enhancing drugs, the body politic is likely this periodical will also enclose dissenting
Editor-in-Chief
14 Post-Darwinian Hedonic Engineering erencing have included those with people to experience the near future as a series of views, darker visions, irreverent humor, and
RU Sirius who work at Google and Microsoft, people isolated shocks to prior assumptions unless quirky observations. Anything less than
15 The Eye we suffuse the public discourse with a
Art Director who make digital art, and even one guy that would be stiff, boring, and dishonest.
17 Engineering an End to Aging who owns a multi-million dollar technol- different view.
DC Spensley 20 Probing de Grey Matters ogy startup. The glory of transhumanism is that
After enjoying a few moments of puz- it’s not just a movement of immortalists,
Copy Editors 23 The Distribution of Post-Humanity zlement in my conversational partner, I am or singularitarians, or advocates of digital
Michael Jin and Kristi Scott 24 Don’t Leave Your Memory At Home likely to mention the idea that we might be democratization, or experimenters in self-
able to stop aging -- or I might mention enhancing technologies. Transhumanism
Special Thanks 28 The Artificial Hippocampus “The Singularity.” Aha! On a rare occasion, reminds us that all -- or at least many -- of
Ms. Suzuki The Reluctant Transhumanist there may be a glimmer of recognition. these developments are coming online at
31 The Sheep Shit Grass (or The End of Scarcity) Someplace, sometime, my conversational about the same time, that they impact each
Jim Mielke partner had read or heard something: a other, and that they will be remaking our
Botox Parties, Michael Jackson, vague memory, something noted while societies and our personal experiences of
U n i ve r s i t y o f Wa s h i n g to n
and the Disillusioned Transhumanist sucking at the firehose of endless infotain- the world in tandem. It represents nothing
Natasha Vita-More ment. less than an attempt to have a realistic dis-
32 Science Fiction Gets Funding Clearly transhumanists have some work course about the human future while most
James Clement
34 Overclocking the Human CPU to do, if the idea that humans may be on the of our leading intellectuals and politicians
PJ M a n n e y verge of self-directed evolution is to become are still looking at that future through the
36 H+ Lab common currency. But why does this mat- rear-view mirror.
Ty l e r E m e r s o n 38 TheProgressive Ingression of Intelligence into Matter ter? Why is it important to get more people Our responsibility, then, is to cover the
to start thinking about humanity plus? events and ideas -- the discoveries and the
J o h n Fa rn s wo r t h 39 Warren Ellis Takes It Past The Limit There are probably dozens of answers to cultural expressions -- that are taking place
40 Akhentek’s Music For Mind States that question, but I want to emphasize just on the borderline between the human and
41 The Meaning of Life Lies in Its Suckiness one of them -- the importance of multidis- the post-human world. It is for us to give
ciplinary, synthetic reasoning and percep- expression to an emergent cultural/techno-
tion in preparing for the near future. logical sensibility -- and to do it within an
Our species faces a virtual agora of life- intentionally compressed space through the
altering, paradigm-changing developments deliberate creation of an online “artifact” -- Resources
in science, technology, and culture. Whether a digital magazine organized within the
All materials © Humanity+ 2008, unless previously published or otherwise indicated. All copyrights return to writers and artists 90 days after publication.
it’s germ-line engineering or molecular traditional magazine format. www.transhumanism.org
Date of publication: October 2008 — Contact: editor@hplusmagazine.com
computing; advanced AI or cyborg bodies So welcome to the first edition of H+.
(replaceable parts); engineered hyper- We hope you find value in this publication.

#1 #1
4 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 5
Fast Blasts Fast Blasts

PETA Wants Meat!


I Am Ironman! RU Sirius

HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) The notion that tissue cultures could be
Cybernetic Suit developed into veritable animal flesh
without the necessity of raising and
Tristan Guillford slaughtering living creatures has been in
circulation among tech enthusiasts for
Cyberdyne Corporation of Japan, in several years. With current off-the-shelf
conjunction with Daiwa House, has begun biotechnology, it should be possible to grow
mass production of a cybernetic bodysuit edible meat in laboratory vats, starting from
that augments body movement and a single cell.
increases user strength by up to tenfold. Recently, this idea got a boost from
The HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of
suit works by detecting faint bioelectrical Animals). The animal rights group is offer-
signals using pads placed on specific areas ing a $1 million prize for “the first person
of the body. The pads move the HAL suit to come up with a method to produce com-
accordingly. The Cyberdyne website ex- mercially viable quantities of in vitro meat
plains: “When a person attempts to move, at competitive prices by 2012.” The chal-
nerve signals are sent from the brain to the I ma ge by J i m M i e l ke lenge has been controversial among PETA
muscles via motoneuron, moving the mus- supporters because… well… like, I mean…
culoskeletal system as a consequence. At yuck!
this moment, very weak biosignals can be
detected on the surface of the skin. HAL Skin Phone
catches these signals through a sensor at-
tached on the skin of the wearer. Based on Kristi Scott
the signals obtained, the power unit is con-
trolled to wearer’s daily activities.” Welcome to the conceptual solution that combines the beauty of
Among the potential applications, Cy- a tattoo with the convenience of your cell phone and Bluetooth

Im ag e by D C Sp ens ley
berdyne is emphasizing helping people technology, the “Digital Tattoo Interface.” DTI, developed by
with movement disabilities, augmenting Jim Mielke, debuted at this year’s Greener Gadgets Design
strength for difficult industrial tasks, disas- Competition 2008, receiving Notable Entry award. This is one
ter rescue, and entertainment. tattoo with a lot of potential: a phone that would be implanted
The HAL suit is not currently available. under the skin, with microscopic spheres that would act as the
But according to Nikkei News, Daiwa and touch-screen buttons. Don’t want to show off your phone? The
Cyberdyne are planning an annual produc- concept has a button that, when pushed, can render the phone
tion of 400 units and they should be mar- invisible. If you get a call, just push the same button to answer More-reasonable commentators may
keted at approximately $4,200 US dollars. the display and have the phone reappear, with video capability. note that any person or organization that
Where’s the battery? There isn’t one. You just eat something can make commercially viable fake meat
(preferably food), and the phone works off your own blood supply. in sufficient quantity to have an effect on
With luck this phone quickly moves on from concept to actuality animal suffering won’t need PETA’s mon-
for a fashionable future enhancement. ey. Still, you never know. The competition
could supply motive simply by calling more
attention to the possibilities. Guilt-free
meat eating -- a yummy idea.

Resources Resources

HAL When Meat Is Not Murder


www.cyberdyne.jp/english/robotsuithal/index.html www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/aug/13/
Resources genetics.internationalnews
Video of HAL Digital Tattoo Interface New Harvest
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynL8BCXih8U www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/projects/4673 www.new-harvest.org/default.php
Im ag e by Prof. Sankai, U n i v. o f Ts u ku ba / C Y B ER DY NE I n c.

#1 #1
6 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 7
Fast Blasts Inter MINI view

Here’s Jewels in EPOC We’re All


Your Eye Neuroheadset Edge Cases
Kristi Scott Tristan Guillford with Cory Doctorow
A San Francisco–based neuroengineering company called Emotiv is by RU Sirius
developing a brain–computer interface that they say will be available
on the commercial market later this year. The EPOC neuroheadset DOCTOROW: Building a search engine
uses EEG technology to read electrical patterns in the brain and that only contains the information that
then sends this information through wireless signals to a computer.
we’re mostly looking for is easy. But at
According to Emotiv, the headset will be used with new biofeedback
games or can be incorporated into popular PC games like Harry Potter, that point, there’s no value. It’s pursuing
where characters could pick up and move objects with the power of the deviance, what Bruce Sterling called
their minds. In addition, the EPOC could eventually be used in multi- “Wooing the muse of the odd,” that
player online games like World of Warcraft or Second Life to control facial actually creates a system that has a lot of
expressions of virtual game characters in real time. Emotiv claims the perceived value. And that’s because we
If you’ve ever wanted to have that extra- headset can detect and replicate thirty different emotional and facial
are all weird in some way.
special something that puts a sparkle in expressions, including excitement, anger, laughter, and calmness.
your eye, and really attract attention, you Unlike earlier EEG devices, the EPOC is the first commercially
should take a trip over to the Netherlands. available EEG neuroheadset that does not require gel on the scalp
The Netherlands Institute for Innovative or an elaborate net of electrodes, and will be sold for the consumer
Ocular Surgery has developed a procedure -friendly price of $299. The EPOC will be bundled with Emortal soft-
for Cosmetic Extraocular Implants -- ware, which enables you to use the headset to browse your computer
nicknamed “JewelEye.” For the starting files and applications, and also to connect to other Emotiv users in live
price of about $750 (not including getting chatrooms.
there) and approximately 15 minutes of
your time, you can have your very own.
Brave souls and surgery freaks can check out
the Institute’s website (see “Resources”), to
learn about the surgical procedure via text or This is the most corrosive thing that
video. The adornment doesn’t interfere with
happens to people who self-identify
sight, since it is not implanted in the field Resources
of vision, and the surgery is allegedly not as science fiction fans… the idea that
very painful, because the implant is under www.emotiv.com/INDS_3/inds_3.html everyone else is mundane in science
the thin layer on the outside of the eye. fiction argot… you’re either a mutant or
Shapes offered include heart, star, eurosign, you’re a “norm,” right? But norms are every
four-leaf clover, and music note. But for bit as weird as any of us. It’s a matter of
those who really want to make a personal
presentation and identity. We are all of us
statement and stand out, the material used
is capable of being molded into a variety every bit as weird as any one of us.
of shapes and sizes upon request. Currently
there are only two labs that are performing
the procedure, and they are both located in
the Netherlands.

Resources

Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery


www.niioc.nl/cei-eng.htm#klinieken

#1 #1
8 Fall 2008 FALL 2008 9
AI AI

Open Source of funding. Japanese companies have been


the pioneers here but their enthusiasm has
tise in areas such as language learning. And
the beauty of the open source approach is Resources
flagged in recent years, with Sony dropping that it’s relatively straightforward for others
Robotics its Qrio project and Honda’s Asimo robot
remaining, basically, a skunkworks project.
with AI ideas and technical chops to extend
their work. Building an iCub of one’s own
iCub
www.robotcub.org

Looks Better The robotics industry as a whole is argu-


ably flourishing better than ever, but there
is not free, nor trivial, but it’s a damn sight
easier than designing your own humanoid PINO

Than Ever is a huge gap between Roombas, industrial from scratch... and more possible than get- www.symbio.jst.go.jp/PINO
robot arms, and their ilk, and mobile hu- ting your hands on Qrio or Asimo, which
manoid robots with the capability for com- have not been publicly released. And unlike iCub Drumming
Ben Goertzel plex interactions in the physical and social Sony’s Aibo, the robotic dog who has be- www.robotcub.org/index.php/robotcub/content/
April 2008 world. come a staple of academic AI research -- if download/1135/3982/file/icubFullDrumming3.
Open source humanoid robots have one finds aspects of the hardware platform wmv
iCub, the New Open Source been proposed before, e.g. PINO created by inadequate, one can always modify it, since
Humanoid Robot Japanese scientists and launched in 2001. the specs are completely open. Different Open source AI software platforms
These earlier projects were technically solid researchers are bound to take the iCub in
Where’s C3PO when we need him? but didn’t really take off in the community. radically different directions. For instance, Robot simulators
Compared to many other aspects of www.goertzel.org/blog/2008/05/open-source-
advanced technology -- even compared to Making a demo of a robot playing robots-robot-simulators.html
AI software technology, which isn’t exactly
zooming along -- humanoid robotics seems
the drums is no big trick, given Strong AI
to be advancing at a snail’s pace. As in many modern engineering technology. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_AI
other areas, the cause of the relatively slow
progress is a combination of technical and However, I’m guardedly optimistic that the while I’m an AI guy rather than a robot- Ray Kurzweil
economic/cultural factors. One possible iCub may meet a better fate. Early results ics researcher, reading about iCub has in- www.kurzweilai.net
work-around to the latter, being explored look promising – for instance, a nifty vid- spired me to think a bit about how it might
by an increasing number of roboticists eo of iCub drumming (see resource link). be integrated with various open source AI The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
worldwide, is the open source development (OK, it’s no Max Roach yet, but what we software platforms, robot simulators. and www.singinst.org
methodology. Perhaps the most exciting do have here is coordination of hands, feet, virtual worlds.
example of this trend is the iCub, recently and hearing – sensorimotor integration – Will open source do for humanoid ro-
developed by a European Union–funded which is a powerful first step toward real botics what it’s done for Web browsers and
consortium of researchers. embodied intelligence.) bioinformatics? It’s too soon to say for sure,
The power of the open source meth- Of course, demos are demos, not ro- but there’s reason to hope.
odology to get complex, important things bust technologies, and making a demo of
done has been well established by now in a robot playing the drums is no big trick, Ben Goertzel is the CEO of AI companies
the software domain. The Linux operating given modern engineering technology. But Novamente and Biomind, a math Ph.D.,
system and the Firefox browser are prob- if you dig a little deeper, you find that the writer, philosopher, musician, and all-around
ably the best-known examples, but there technical ideas underlying the iCub seem futurist maniac.
are countless others, ranging from everyday extremely solid, and it’s clear that the ar-
consumer software (such as, say, BitTor- chitecture is capable of a lot more than
rent clients) to technical software helping just the handful of tricks demonstrated to
scientists do their research (nearly all seri- date. Its fingers and arms have an impres-
ous bioinformatics work these days is done sive number of degrees of freedom: a choice
using open source software). Open source made because the designers favor cognitive
hardware, on the other hand, has been theories, implying that advanced human
slower to take off. Consumer hardware cognition largely arises out of the interac-
benefits so much from economies of scale tion between perception and action in the
in manufacturing that it’s proved hard for manipulation of objects.
upstart open source hardware alternatives iCub itself is just a platform and it
to really take off. But humanoid robotics is doesn’t solve all the problems of robotics,
one area where the open source hardware by any means. The iCub team has so far fo-
approach has tremendous potential. This cused on low-level perception, action, and
R&D domain is of tremendous importance coordination, without plunging much into
to the future of humanity – and beyond – the depths of communication, learning, ab-
yet it’s something neither industry, govern- stract reasoning, and so forth. But they are
ment nor academia is doing an adequate job collaborating with others that have exper-

#1 #1
10 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 11
Bio
Inter MINI view

Manipulating
“frozen potentials” within a reasonable time questionable. It’s appropriate to quote the
frame. No frozen potential went unnoticed. name of this BIO panel, the brain child of
But that’s not the story. Dr. Mike Fisher, the life sciences adviser for
Despite the absolute tracking of each
and every embryo, the UK permits stem cell
UK Trade and Investment in the United
States: “It’s life, Jim, But Not As We Know
Evolution
research on any viable line. This is where Dr. It …”
Armstrong and the latest revision of the act
enter the picture. And wouldn’t you know Moira A. Gunn, Ph.D., hosts “BioTech Nation” with David Ewing Duncan, co-host of BioTech
it? So do the cows. on NPR Talk and NPR Live. She’s the author Nation ­and author of The Geneticist Who
It turns out that the UK researchers of Welcome to BioTech Nation… My Played Hoops with my DNA: and Other
can get only a few human eggs each week, Unexpected Odyssey into the Land of Masterminds from the Frontiers of
while he – or rather his lab – can get per- Small Molecules, Lean Genes, and Big Biotech.
haps 200 per day from local cows. To quote: Ideas cited by the Library Journal as being
“We have a lot of cows.” And here… it gets among the “Best Science Books of 2007.”
by RU Sirius
interesting.
Under the new approvals, researchers ©2008 Moira A. Gunn
may now take an animal cell, remove its H+: I might spend the whole day
nucleus, and inject it with a nucleus ex- thinking about politics, economics
tracted from a human cell. This suits Dr. — thinking about solutions to knotty
Armstrong just fine. He and his fellow sci- human problems — and then I start
entists can then proceed to study how early
thinking that a lot of this is hardwired.
cells develop. The law determines that these
cells may not be permitted to live beyond Maybe nothing really good is going
fourteen days, although Dr. Armstrong to happen unless we change our
tells us that they seldom live half that long wiring. Unless we actually technically

Simple to undergo chemotherapy or other medical


procedures that might compromise fertility
in any event. Still, in that short time, these evolve. Is that part of the intrigue with
biotechnology?
– it is not unusual for a woman to emerge Researchers may
Questions/ with a dozen or more viable eggs. Today
we know better than to implant more than
now take an animal
DUNCAN: Yeah, it is. I actually agree with
Gregory Stock on a lot of this. He just
(cow) cell, remove
Challenging two at any one attempt, and so we find our-
selves with hundreds of thousands of fer- its nucleus, and
thinks this stuff is inevitable. We have the
technology now to alter the germ line.

Answers tilized eggs on ice. No one knows exactly


how many, because while the federal gov-
inject it with a
nucleus extracted
Somebody’s going to do it somewhere.
It’s more a matter of figuring out how
ernment will only permit federal research
to do it safely and manage it. So I would
Moira A. Gunn, Ph.D. funds to be expended on the stem cell lines from a human cell.
derived as of August 9, 2001, when Presi- agree with the notion that we’re going to
Is the product of a cloned cow, cloned milk? dent George W. Bush issued his Executive cow-cell -- human-nucleus hybrids give be manipulating evolution. It’s not even a
Or real milk? Is the offspring of a cloned Order, the government does not regulate scientists a direct way to study cell differen- question of if anymore; it’s a question of
cow and a “natural” bull, a half-clone? And this particular end of the techno-human tiation at its earliest stages. when and how.
then when they mix again, as cows and bulls reproductive supply chain. To date, Dr. Armstrong’s group has cre-
of all persuasions are apt to do, do we get Not so with the Brits. I have just re- ated 271 human–animal hybrid embryos.
quarter-clones? Three-quarter clones? The turned from the international BIO confer- By his estimation, they are 99.9% human,
parlor game must obviously stop in a very ence, where I had the great good fortune 0.1% cow.
few generations, but the melody lingers to moderate a panel of fellows including So where does that leave us? I asked
on. Like genetically modified seeds that the illustrious Dr. Lyle Armstrong, who Armstrong directly if we could FedEx him
have jumped the fence and are mixing and heads the Institute for Human Genetics at our extras to save him the involvement of
matching in the wild, once the progression Newcastle University. With the recent pas- the cow, and he very specifically indicated Resources Resources
begins, it’s a little hard to follow. sage of an update to the UK Human Fer- that after eighteen-vplus hours, the human
So now let’s look at some interesting tilisation and Embryology Act of 1990, his eggs were no longer of use. And yes, if we Tech Nation/Biotech Nation Germline Engineering
challenges that emerge on the human scale. group has now proceeded on to something found another way for him to do the re- www.technation.com/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germline_
In the United States, women are free to rather controversial. Under the original act, search, he would. engineering
pursue in vitro fertilization, and American the government had regulatory control over Expediency. Cows. Humans. The inexo- Reuters article about human-cow embryos
clinics have really gotten good at it. private citizens’ frozen embryos, which re- rable call of science. And there are a whole www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/ David Ewing Duncan
When they treat young women – who quired that they be tracked and that each number of people who find this entire con- idUSN02399515 www.davidewingduncan.net
might be motivated because they are about private citizen make a decision about these versation simultaneously wonderful and

#1 #1
12 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 13
Inter MINI view Enhanced

Post-Darwinian
Hedonic
Engineering
with David Pearce, founder of BLTC (Better
Living Through Chemistry) Research
and original cofounder of the World
Transhumanist Association.

RU Sirius

PEARCE: In maybe three or four decades


or so, we’ll be choosing such traits as the
average hedonic set point of our children.
The Eye
Over time, I think allelic combinations Kristi Scott
[suites of variant copies of mission-critical
Some of us can’t help but look to the future,
genes] that leave their bearers predisposed
and pretty soon, we may be looking at it
to unpleasant states of consciousness — through contact lenses with a virtual reality
unpleasant states that were genetically overlay.
adaptive in our ancestral environment — Engineers at the University of Wash-
will be weeded out of the gene pool. For ington have developed a contact lens that
a very different kind of selection pressure creates a virtual display superimposed over I mag e by Un i vers i t y of Was h i n g ton
the normal field of vision. By using a trans-
is at work when evolution is no longer
parent part of the eye to place instrumen- or identifier for you. Less practical but more
“blind” and “random,” i.e. when rational tation, the contact will be safe for human exciting is the potential gaming experience
agents design the genetic makeup of wear. The lenses will be imprinted with an these lenses will provide.
their future offspring in anticipation assortment of electronic circuits and lights But don’t throw away the digital glasses
of its likely effects. In that sense, we’re to make superimposition possible. A fu- just yet. A very basic version with a few
heading for a post-Darwinian transition ture version of the product might include pixels may be available soon, but a fuller
the addition of wireless communication realization of this concept may take years.
– ultimately I believe to some form of
via the lens. The team has already demon- Even with obstacles still to be overcome,
paradise-engineering. strated that rabbits can wear the lens for 20 these engineers have achieved something
minutes safely without any adverse effects, taken straight from a science fiction movie
and are looking into a feasible production or novel. Eye enhancements… check.
method for the contacts. There are still
some major wrinkles to be ironed out in Which sense is next?
the manufacturing process, given that the
materials need to be both safe for the body
and incredibly small.
The enhancement creates the potential
Resources for a merger between our virtual and real
worlds, overlaying them into one frame of
BLTC Research vision. It would allow people to use online
www.bltc.com services such as Google Earth in real time Resources
over the real landscape in front of us. All
The Hedonistic Imperative those giant pushpins will become a reality, Superhuman Vision
www.hedonistic-imperative.com/ making it much easier to navigate, since the uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=39094
desired location will have a great big arrow
I ma g e by D C S p e n s l e y

#1 #1
14 FALL 2008 Fall 2008 15
Engineering an Death rates were random, uncorrelated
with age. This means they weren’t display-
ing senescence (aging), and died from other
End to Aging causes. In almost all other known species,
death rates increase with age. Not in hydra.
Michael Anissimov They die from getting eaten, or infected
by a virus, or squished, but not from ag-
Age-defying creams and lotions, esoteric herbs ing. There could be a thousand-year-old
and elixirs, Botox and plastic surgery -- what hydra out there, maybe in a small lake right
do they all have in common? in your neighborhood. We don’t know, be-
cause there is no way of telling their age by
None of them will actually increase your looking at them!
life span. Usually, they’re snake oil. At best, Planarians -- those odd animals that
they improve external appearance without look like a slug squished in a microscope
actually extending life. We deserve better, slide -- are another organism that scientists
and we’ll need it if we want to live longer suspect may be immortal. No detailed stud-
than the typical three score and ten years. ies have been conducted yet. In many cases,
The first thing to realize is that nature if you cut a planarian in half, it becomes two
doesn’t specifically want us to die. There planarians. These live as long as one born
is no “death gene.” For any species in any by conventional means. If you kept cutting
environmental context, there is an ideal a planarian in half, it might never die, be-
life span from an adaptive point of view cause each piece would go on living.
-- an evolutionary optima. One evolution- What about more-complex ani-
ary strategy includes species that reproduce mals? There are our friends in the order
quickly and die off fast. Another includes Testudines: turtles, tortoises, and terrapins.
species that reproduce slowly and live for Scientists have examined the internal or-
a long time. Call it quality versus quantity. gans of young and old turtles and found that
Thankfully for humans, we’re squarely in they look exactly the same. Something in
the quality column, but many would agree a turtle’s physiology prevents these organs
that 80 to 90 years is not enough. from breaking down. An article in Discover
We perish not because of some internal magazine asked, “Can Turtles Live Forever,”
clock that says, “Time to die now!,” but be- and came to the conclusion that it’s entirely
cause of a lack of attention and self-healing possible. Like hydra, turtles experience no
-- mere neglect. Once we’ve reproduced a increase in mortality rates and no decrease
few times, in the eyes of nature, our useful- in reproductive rates as they grow older.
ness has run its course. We are cast aside, There are turtles 150 years old that exhibit
onto a pile of skeletons 600 million years no signs of aging. Harriet the Turtle, a pet
deep. This is unacceptable, and we need to of Charles Darwin’s, was born in 1830 and
find a new way, but since nature isn’t ac- died only in 2006. It seems turtles can die
tively working against us -- just neglecting from disease, injury, or predation, but not
us -- the challenge is surmountable. aging. This quality is called “negligible se-
nescence.” Sign me up.
LONGEVITY IN NATURE From these animal examples, we see it
First, let’s look to nature for inspiration. Are would be premature to state that negligible
there any animals with extraordinarily long senescence is biologically impossible, as is
life or regenerative capacities? Absolutely. frequently assumed. Nature seems to be
There is one animal that scientists be- uninterested in our quaint notion that all
lieve is immortal -- the lowly hydra, a sim- organisms must age. The question is -- how
ple, microscopic freshwater animal, shaped can we make this work for humans? The
something like a tiny squid. Apparently, the oldest person who ever lived, Jeanne Louise
challenges of indefinite tissue regeneration Calment, kicked the bucket at the age of
are simple enough for such a small organ- 122 1/2. Can we push that boundary?
ism that nature has solved them. American
biologist Daniel M. Marinez did a study of
mortality in three colonies of hydra for four
I ma ge by Kø be n h av n s U n i ve r s i te t years straight, and barely any of them died. (continued next page)

#1 #1
16 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 17
ENGINEERING NEGLIGIBLE time, that organic molecules could not be cells. Over time, the processes of cell re- than anything currently available or in de- Luckily, although mitochondria are tures different than the healthy tissue of
SENESCENCE synthesized by inorganic precursors. Un- plenishment begin to break down. This is velopment.” It is based on a vulnerability made of thousands of proteins, only 13 of the body, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find
Enter Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a biogerontologist fortunately for Bergeson and other vitalists, what causes muscle atrophy among the old, shared among all cancer cells: their need them are synthesized using the genes of the an enzyme that breaks them down while
from the UK, and his “strategies for Friedrich Wöhler, the father of biochem- and the phenomenon especially afflicts the to renew their telomeres, junk DNA that mitochondria itself. The rest are synthesized leaving the rest alone. In fact, just one type
engineered negligible senescence” (SENS) istry, had already synthesized urea from heart and brain, our two most important serves as the ends of chromosomes. Telo- in the nucleus and imported in. The solu- of crosslinks, called glucosepane crosslinks,
plan. Instead of exclusively studying the inorganic precursors as early as 1828, and organs. To fix this problem, two strategies meres of a certain length are necessary tion to this problem is to move the thirteen may count for up to 98% of all long-lived
complex biochemical processes of aging in scientists were becoming more and more have been proposed: stimulating the divi- for a cell to self-replicate. If the telomeres critical genes from the mitochondria to the extracellular crosslinks in the human body,
detail, as in gerontology, or ameliorating convinced that the same laws of biochemis- sion of existing cells, or introducing new are too short, the cell self-destructs. nucleus of the cell. Evolution has already meaning if we figure out a way to get rid of
the worst symptoms of age-related decline, try that govern inorganic molecules govern cells, possibly including stem cells. Both are When cancer hijacks the body’s cells, the been doing this without our help for mil- these, we’ll have almost solved this cause of
as in geriatrics, de Grey and his supporters organic molecules as well. under investigation. cancer cells replicate so rapidly that their lions of years, and we need to finish the job. age-related damage.
advocate an “engineering approach” to aging Because the laws of chemistry apply to The second cause of aging is death- telomeres shorten quickly. The cancer This will require using gene therapy to add The seventh and last known cause of
that asks, what are the main categories of both life and non-life, aging is an entirely resistant cells, cells that overstay their cells avoid destruction by using the cell’s supplementary genes. Gene therapy is in its aging is general extracellular junk, the type
age-related biochemical damage, and how chemical, non-mystical process of degra- welcome. There are three main types of cells protein synthesis machinery to build early stages, but has been used effectively that just floats around instead of linking
can we fix them? The idea is not to eliminate dation with specific physical causes. Al- guilty of this offense. The first are visceral enzymes -- telomerase and ALT -- that to replace defective genes with functional together proteins. Most of these junk mol-
the sources of age-related damage, but to though it is a matter of preference whether fat cells, fat cells that build up around our extend telomeres, and allow endless self- ones, helping cure genetic diseases. Re- ecules are called amyloids, and they build
fix the damage fast enough so it doesn’t you consider aging a “disease” or not, from internal organs. These cause a progressive replication. Previous attempts at cancer search is under way to improve the process up in everyone, but are especially found
accumulate and cause health problems. the perspective of the body, aging is like loss in our body’s ability to respond to cures target these enzymes, but WILT and test it with mice. in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The
This is far easier than deciphering all the a disease -- a life-destroying biochemical nutrients from the stomach. Eventually, it proposes removing the very genes that The fifth cause of aging is intracellular main approach to dealing with this, already
intricacies of the biochemistry of aging. phenomenon occurring in the body. And leads to Type 2 Diabetes. The second type contain the information necessary to junk. Cells synthesize, reconstruct, and de- being pursued by at least one company, is to
Although some tentative engineering like diseases, aging is treatable. It is due to of cells is called senescent cells, cells that synthesize them. construct many thousands of different mol- stimulate the body’s immune cells to clear
approaches to aging had been proposed be- have lost the ability to reproduce. These Removing the genes underlying the out these molecules. There is a strong over-
We perish not because of ...aging – besides
fore, it was de Grey who really fleshed it stick around, releasing proteins that are synthesis of telomerase will mean that all lap between treatments for Alzheimer’s and
out, popularized it, and made it respectable. some internal clock that dangerous to their neighbors. Thankfully, cancers will self-destruct before becom- killing more than atherosclerosis and anti-aging treatments
It’s no wonder that he has already raised says, “Time to die now!,” they primarily aggregate in just one type ing a serious problem to their host, effec- 100,000 people per that address this cause, so there seems to
$10 million in funding for his organization, but because of a lack of of tissue, the cartilage between our joints. tively curing cancer. This is one of the most day; it makes us be significant momentum in the right di-
the Methuselah Foundation. attention and self-healing A third type is a category of immune cells ambitious strands of the SENS plan. The suffer for years or rection.
As de Grey points out, gerontologists called “memory cytotoxic T cells.” These challenge of this approach is that removing There may be other causes of aging
have discovered seven biochemical causes
mere neglect. build up faster than other immune cells these genes in all the tissues of the body
decades before it that emerge after we have solved most of
of aging. The last cause was discovered in the complexity and the aura of inevitability and refuse to go away, crowding out the will mean that the body’s natural cells will kills us. these seven. We’ll just have to wait and see.
1981, and considering how immensely far around aging that people have only recently other immune cells and eventually causing have a limited life span, as they will not ecules during the course of their operation. But if all these seven causes of aging were
our knowledge of biology has come since begun to look at it this way. Some say that disease. There are two approaches to solving be capable of lengthening their telomeres. Every once in a while a cell ends up with eliminated, people could live a lot longer --
that time, it seems quite likely that these aging is something mandated by God, and these problems: inject something that To counteract this will require introducing a molecule so large or unusual that it has maybe even hundreds of years. That would
seven causes are all of them. De Grey calls we have no right to mess with it, but these makes the unwanted cells commit suicide stem cells with renewed telomeres into the trouble breaking it up. If a molecule cannot buy us more time to develop new therapies
these causes of aging the “Seven Deadly very same people have used this same argu- but doesn’t touch other cells, or stimulate body every decade or so. This has already be broken down by the “incinerator” of the to address the remaining sources of aging.
Things.” They are: (1) cell loss, (2) death- ment throughout history to protest against the immune system to kill the target cells. been demonstrated in mice with cells of the cell, the lysosome, it stays there forever. In It’s hard to imagine why we wouldn’t
resistant cells, (3) nuclear DNA mutations, vaccinations, the dissection of cadavers, The third cause of aging is mutations in blood and gut. Skin and lungs will be next. cells that don’t divide, this can build up to want to fight the scourge of aging -- be-
(4) mitochondrial DNA mutations, (5) in- organ transplants, and numerous other the DNA of the nucleus, the center of every When this therapy is used to cure cancer in critical levels. This includes some cells in the sides killing more than 100,000 people per
tracellular junk, (6) extracellular junk, and therapies or techniques of extreme medi- cell. Most of these mutations are entirely mice, tremendous resources will be pumped heart, the back of the eye, some nerve cells, day; it makes us suffer for years or decades
(7) extracellular crosslinks. That’s it. If we cal value. Is it so radical to say that being harmless, as they only affect a few cells at into efforts to develop a therapy that works and white blood cells trapped in the walls before it kills us. Everyone is susceptible.
find medicines or therapies that can clean healthy is a good thing, and that we should a time. These cells eventually die and are for humans. of arteries. This can cause diseases, such as Instead of seeing aging as inevitable, why
up this damage, we could extend our lifes use whatever ethical strategies are available replaced with unmutated cells. Mutations The fourth cause of aging is mutations Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, macular degener- don’t we view it as a disease and search for
pans to great lengths and achieve negligible to pursue that end? get dangerous when they lead to malignant in the mitochondria, the “power stations” ation (the leading cause of acquired blind- a cure?
senescence in humans. Aubrey de Grey’s SENS plan is com- cells that self-replicate -- otherwise known of the cell. Mitochondria have their own ness), and atherosclerosis. To clean up in-
A word on a philosophical point of plex and quite thorough. To examine it in as cancer. So, finding a cure for a cancer is a DNA, much less than that in the nucleus of tracellular junk, the SENS project proposes
Michael Anissimov is a science writer.
view: many world philosophies and re- full, I suggest looking at the website of the subtask of finding a cure for aging. Accord- the cell, but some of it is essential to synthe- equipping the lysosome with new enzymes, He blogs at accelerating future.
ligions teach, or strongly imply, that the Methuselah Foundation, or getting his re- ing to de Grey, this is the most difficult part sizing the proteins that make it up. When thereby expanding the range of molecules it
body depends on some immaterial animat- cent book, Ending Aging. But I will sum- of the strategy, because cancer is constantly the DNA is damaged, the mitochondria can break down, allowing it to digest even
ing force, a soul or chi, to give it life. Scien- marize the basics here. evolving to exploit us. break down. Mitochondrial DNA is espe- very large or unusual molecules. Resources
tists disagree: the functioning of the body The first cause of aging is cell loss, or There are several proposed approaches cially susceptible to damage because of two The sixth cause of aging is extracellular Can Turtles Live Forever
seems entirely rooted in atoms, molecules, cell atrophy. For most of our lives, our bod- to finding a cure for cancer, but de Grey’s reasons. The first is that mitochondria, be- crosslinks, molecular garbage that accumu- discovermagazine.com/2002/jun/featturtle
and forces between them. As recently as ies are programmed to replace cells when favored strategy is one called “Whole-body ing the site of cellular respiration, are heav- lates outside cells, linking together proteins
1907, French philosopher Henri Bergeson they die. Our individual cells live much Interdiction of Lengthening of Telomeres” ily exposed to its by-products -- dangerous that otherwise slide smoothly over each Methusalah Foundation
wrote about an élan vital, or vital force, that shorter life spans than the body itself: some (WILT). The Methuselah Foundation’s free radicals. These react with the DNA, other. These can lead to some of the most www.methusalahfoundation.com
animated all living things and drove their cells last a few years, others, like skin cells, website calls WILT “a very ambitious but causing it to mutate. The second is that mi- outwardly visible effects of aging: wrinkles Anissimov Blog
evolution and development. This was close- a few weeks. All of them are constantly re- potentially far more comprehensive and tochondria lack the complex DNA-repair in tissue and the like. Fortunately, these www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog
ly connected to the idea, common at the generated using the body’s supply of stem long-term approach to combating cancer machinery found in the nucleus. crosslink molecules have chemical struc-

#1 #1
18 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 19
Probing de Grey corporation, hoping – among other things
– to someday market cures for aging. And,
in 1999, Cynthia Kenyon formed Elixer
#,)#+å(%2% Matters Pharmaceuticals, a company that was even
#RYONICSISAN
A conversation with Ending Aging author more explicitly dedicated to finding a phar-
maceutical solution to the aging problem.
and Methuselah Foundation Chairman
Aubrey de Grey ATTEMPTTO During that same decade, a very lively com-
&ORA munity of transhumanists and extropians
were exploring and extrapolating about the
RU Sirius
PRESERVEAND possibilities of resolving this aging thing –
and what the world would look like if we
&REEå
Throughout history, human beings have
PROTECTTHEGIFT
quested after rejuvenation – in myth and did.
in fact. Here in the US, legend has it that Sometime around the turn of the mil-

)NFORMATION Spanish conquistadorOFHUMANLIFE


Ponce de Leon
came to Florida looking for the Fountain
lennium, Aubrey de Grey, an English
biogerontologist who is now as famous for

0ACKAGE of Youth. It is perhaps a great irony, then,


that Florida -- famous for its retirees -- is a
place where the fact that aging still rules is
his long beard that makes him look like Fa-
ther Time as he is for his outspoken vision
of radical life extension -- looked at aging
ONå#RYONICSå most evident.
CLICKHEREFORA as an engineering problem and decided…
During the 1960s, some individuals Eureka!... we can do this.
began to suggest that radical increases in

THECHOICEFOR &REEå toI think it’s vital


longevity – even immortality – was within
get all of them
our grasp, not by dint of the discovery of

LIFEEXTENSION )NFORMATION
some magic waters, alchemical elixirs, or
(categories of
Taoist methodologies, but through the use
Since then de Grey has appeared on 60 idea that aging is “programmed” in most or means that there would be no selection to
0ACKAGEsoon
of science and technology. In 1964, Rob-
damage) fixed as
ert C. W. Ettinger published The Prospect of
as possible,
Immortality, which encouraged the notion
Minutes, The Colbert Report, and a Barbara
Walters special report: “Live to be 150.”
all species, yes. (Everyone accepts that it’s
programmed in a minority of species, those
maintain such machinery, so it would have
mutated into oblivion even if it had ever

ONå#RYONICSå
of cryogenic preservation in the expecta-
because any one
tion that our understanding of biology and
He is chairman and chief science officer of
the Methuselah Foundation, a nonprofit
that age extremely fast after reproduction,
such as salmon.) The widespread rejection
existed. There’s really no chance that new
evidence could overturn this. The only rea-
organization that has raised $10,000,000. of programmed aging is actually over fifty son there’s still any controversy is that there
other advances in science and technology of them could kill Among its activities, Methuselah of- years old, dating back to a paper by Peter are a few rather artificial circumstances that
would allow us to defeat death.
us on its own. fers prizes for major experimental break- Medawar from 1952. Basically the main- at first sight seem to look like programmed
7HYNOTEXPLORE
By 1993, Mike West had formed Geron
throughs in aging using mice. stream view is that slow aging (of the sort aging – but closer inspection shows that
De Grey’s recent book, Ending Aging: we see in most species) can’t be controlled they aren’t really.
ALLTHEOPTIONS The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could by genes because the presence of those H+: Does the fact that there are --
Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime, is your account -- seven different causes of
coauthored by Michael Rae, and published Initially… aging ever worry you, in the sense that
by St. Martin’s Press. there might be some frustration when one
Michael Anissimov covered many of
journalists “knew” or two of those causes won’t budge?
the basics about de Grey’s theories in the I must be crazy. ADG: There are actually many more
previous article (“Engineering an End to than seven – my seven strands are just cat-
Aging” – it really functions as an introduc-
More recently most egories of damage, within each of which
tory piece to this interview, so please take journalists have there are many examples. But still, sure, I
!LCORåISåTHEåWORLDå the time to read it). So rather than asking think it’s vital to get all of them fixed as
de Grey to regurgitate the basics of his the-
begun to realize soon as possible, because any one of them
LEADERåINåCRYONICS å ory one more time, I decided to probe his that what I’m saying could kill us on its own. That’s why my own
CRYONICSåRESEARCH åANDå thinking on a few peripheral issues. is actually quite work has historically focused on the hard-
H+: Are there still people who study est strands.
CRYONICSåTECHNOLOGY aging that cling to the notion of a bio- plausible… H+: What are these foci and what is
logical clock, and do you think there’s any happening with them?
possibility that new evidence might turn genes would give the species just the same ADG: The three hardest aspects of
up for a more centralized mechanism life span and health span as it would have SENS (at present – this could of course
WWWALCORORG WWWALCORORG leading to aging?
AUBREY DE GREY: A small minor-
if it lacked those genes and had slightly less
powerful inbuilt anti-aging machinery. This
change!) are: the relocation of the mito-
chondrial DNA to the nucleus to make
ity of gerontologists do still propound the lack of a function of pro-aging machinery mutations in the original mitochondrial

#1 #1
20 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 21
Inter MINI view

DNA harmless; the introduction of mi- the taking of risks, yes, but not the type of around their attempts to demonstrate it. from about 9 billion to about 11 billion — a
The Distribution
else can manufacture it without Pfizer’s
crobial (or other foreign) enzymes into our risks that will be inhibited by the defeat of More recently most journalists have begun big change, but not as radical as the more consent. But in 2012, the patent expires. At
cells to destroy molecules that accumulate aging; that will cause aversion to risks of to realize that what I’m saying is actually than doubling that happened between that point, any generic manufacturer can
in them; and the elimination of our cells’
ability to prevent the ends of their chromo-
death, but risks to one’s career (for example)
will be more acceptable, because there’ll be
quite plausible and that the more derisory
comments made about SENS by some of of Post-Humanity 1950 and 2000. make the drug. The more suppliers you
somes from shortening with each cell divi- so much more opportunity to make amends my colleagues should not be taken at face In any case, aging isn’t going to be have, the more price competition sets in.
sion, combined with stem cell therapies to for misjudgment. As for being controlled, value. with Ramez Naam, author of More Than cured tomorrow. I walk through some cal- The more consumers you have, the more
address the side effects that this will cause. heh, my reaction is that only someone from H+: One hundred years of life can Human, Embracing the Promise of culations that if you could raise global life incentive there is for suppliers to enter the
Research is proceeding healthily in all these a country that still cherishes the right to wear you down physically, but it can also Biological Enhancement expectancy to 120 years by 2050 — almost market. The net effect is that, the more de-
areas, largely funded by the Methuselah bear arms could ask such a question... the wear you down emotionally... perhaps twice what it is today — you would raise sired any information good is, the cheaper
Foundation. rest of the civilized world has amply dem- even existentially. For you, is a desire to
RU Sirius the 2050 population from the current pro- it will be to acquire.
H+: In your book, you write that to be onstrated that there is no such danger. live long accompanied by a desire to live
truly immortal or nonaging we will need H+: Really? So no one will ever have long in a much-improved human civiliza- jection of 8.9 billion people to 9.4 billion You can see this when you look at drugs
to lose the meat. Some people don’t think to risk their lives again to stop oppres- tion, or is this one satisfactory? H+: Can you give our readers a brief people. That’s a good-sized increase, but that are commonly used today. Penicillin
that’s too far away. What do you think? sion? ADG: I’m actually not mainly driven synopsis of your view of why post- as a percentage of population, it’s actually was absolutely priceless when first intro-
ADG: I’m not sure. Actually I think ADG: Since you press me... my closing by a desire to live a long time. I accept humanity will be more distributed and smaller than the change that occurred be- duced to the market. But now it costs less
it’s risky to think in terms of “truly immor- words “no such danger” were perhaps a mis- that when I’m even a hundred years old, less likely to create population problems tween 1970 and 1973. than one cent per dose to manufacture,
tal” even in a non-meat scenario – after all, statement, but not a material one. I should let alone older, I may have less enthusiasm
than many people suspect? and twenty cents a dose to buy online. The
nearby supernovae can fry most things. But have said “insufficient such danger to affect for life than I have today. Therefore, what
NAAM: Sure. There are really two specific …even if we cured same inverted supply and demand even
as to the time frame of technologies such as our choices today” -- but that’s the same drives me is to put myself (with luck) and
uploading, I’m not equipped to speculate. thing in practice, because your question was others (lots and lots of others) in a position questions that come up frequently: aging… tomorrow, applies to non-drug techniques. LASIK cost
H+: Longevity advocates have finely about risks, and therefore about quantify- to make that choice, rather than having the “Who will be able to afford these and… delivered the $5,000 per eye when it first came out —
thought-out, statistically oriented argu- choice progressively ripped away from me technologies?” and “Won’t the population cure to the entire now you can get it for $299. As more and
ments as to why longevity will not strain I’m… not mainly or them by declining health. Whether the explode if we lengthen human life?” more people wanted LASIK, more doctors
resources or the environment. But does choice to live longer is actually made is not world, the largest
the longevity movement, nevertheless, driven by a desire the point for me.
On the population question, it turns out
possible impact
started offering it. And the more doctors
that the major driver of population growth there are offering it, the more they have to
have a responsibility to do everything it to live a long time. is really fertility rather than the death rate. would be about
can to prevent or end scarcity and ensure compete with each other on price.
a survivable environment for however I accept that when If you look around the world, the countries 2 billion lives over The absolute worst thing you can do
many long-living people?
ADG: I have a number of arguments as
I’m… 100 years with the longest life expectancies — Japan, 50 years. -- if you want these technologies equally
Sweden — are actually shrinking in popu- available to poor and rich -- is to ban them.
to why the defeat of aging may not strain old… I may have lation. As these countries have gotten rich, The takeaway, for me, is that life exten-
the environment, but I never say that those Prohibition would create a black market
arguments are certain. I don’t think pro-
less enthusiasm people — particularly women — have de- sion isn’t going to have any radical effect with worse safety, higher prices, and no
longevists have a duty to solve that problem for life… cided that they want fewer children. On on population for some time. scientific tracking of what’s going on. Via-
themselves, but I do think we have a duty to the other hand, the countries where popu- The question of economic access is a gra and cocaine cost roughly the same per
bring the parameters of the problem to the ing risks rather than about what will or will lation is rapidly growing — Indonesia, Ni- little more complex. People do worry that gram at the moment. In a decade, Viagra
attention of society, so that society neither not “ever” happen. It’s hard to dispute that geria, Pakistan — have relatively low life when these enhancement technologies will be much cheaper but cocaine will be
overestimates nor underestimates it and the need to risk one’s life to stop oppres-
expectancies. People die early there, but come out, only the rich will have access to around the same price it is now. I think
so that those best placed to shape public sion is generally lower in democracies than
policy act accordingly. The same goes for all elsewhere and is lower in longer-standing those who survive have big families. On them. And they’re right — at the very be- we’d rather have our enhancements follow
aspects of the sociological consequences of democracies than in younger ones, and fur- the other hand, over the next 50 years, the ginning, only the rich will be able to afford prescription drug economics rather than il-
the defeat of aging. ther that long-lived democracies very rarely UN projects that 3.7 billion people are go- some of these techniques. It helps to realize, legal drug economics.
H+: In talking about the culture of cease to be democracies whereas non de- ing to die on this planet, while another 6.6 though, that most of these enhancement And even if governments could imple-
long-lived people, you say that people mocracies embrace democracy at a steady billion will be born. That’ll take global pop- techniques are really information goods. ment perfect bans, that wouldn’t stop peo-
will be less inclined to take risks. I can see rate. Those claims are all that are needed to
ulation to about 9 billion people. Of the They cost a huge amount to develop, but ple from using these technologies. Asia is
this being a big problem, in a lot of differ- justify my previous answer.
ent ways. Don’t we gain benefit and nov- H+: You’ve been in the media a fair 3.7 billion who are projected to die in the almost nothing to manufacture. The same much more receptive to biotech than the
elty from people who are inclined to take bit introducing this very unfamiliar con- Resources next 50 years, less than 2 billion of them thing is generally true of pharmaceuticals US and Europe. If a rich couple can’t get
risks? (I see you as a big risk taker, repu- cept of a radically expanded life span. On will die of age-related causes. So even if today. Viagra costs about $15 per pill, but the genetic treatments they want here,
tation being the currency of the current the whole, how would you review the re- Methuselah Foundation
we cured aging completely tomorrow, and only a few cents of that is production cost. they can absolutely fly to Singapore or
age.) And aren’t people who will preserve sponse that you’ve received? www.mfoundation.org
magically delivered the cure to the entire Mostly it’s Pfizer bringing in profit or paying Thailand and have it done there. The poor
their lives at any cost easily controlled by ADG: Very positive, especially recently.
The Longevity Meme world, the largest possible impact would off the $1 billion price tag of developing a or middle class couple doesn’t have the
an authoritarian state or some other type Initially a lot of the coverage was quizzi-
of oppressive imposition? cal – journalists “knew” I must be crazy but www.longevitymeme.org be about 2 billion lives over 50 years. That new drug. Pfizer can charge that much be- same options.ths
ADG: Benefit and novelty come from were impressed by my ability to run rings would increase global population in 2050 cause the drug is patented. By law, no one If you pause

#1 #1
22 Fall 2008 FALL 2008 23
device, whether external or implanted, We already know we don’t have to de- in human intelligence through purely bio-
that allows one to retrieve information stroy or dismantle the brain to get enor- logical manipulations because of the con-
by thinking about it. It sounds like a first mous quantities of information out of it; straints of neurons and neuron-based stor-
step to the sort of mind uploading envi- I think we simply need to push forward age and “computation.” However, when we
sioned by people like Hans Moravec and technologies that allow for maximum in- consider that both abiotic and biotic stor-
much copied in various science fiction formation flow to and from the brain in age and computational devices have their
scenarios. I’m trying to envision what a a non-destructive manner. Therefore, pro- own strengths and weaknesses, it is easy to
prize-winning project would do. Would cedures like those suggested by Moravec envision hybrids that tap the advantages of
this be a first baby step toward these vi- that require the brain to be destroyed or each and have characteristics superior to
sionary ideas or a “great leap forward?” dismantled and reconstructed don’t appeal either alone. As one simple example of the
to me. The IF is committed to technologies comparative advantage of abiotic storage,
PWE: The InnerSpace Foundation is that will move essential information to and my (inexpensive and old) 1 gigabyte key-
concerned primarily with challenges that from the brain, and allow it to be stored chain flash drive can store about a thousand
lie within the visible technology horizon, and backed up, but I don’t want to speculate 400-page books. And in less than a decade,
which is getting shorter in some ways. The much on “mind uploading,” which implies a 1 terabyte (TB) keychain storage should
challenges of improving natural mental dynamic reanimation of downloaded and be inexpensive and common. People will
Don’t Leave stored information. Nevertheless, there are
many very serious and respectable people
Your Memory who contemplate and seek the develop-
ment of such technologies. The IF is trying

At Home to get the world’s leading neuroengineering


talent to give us baby-step technologies to-
ward what we currently regard as the future
A conversation with Pete Estep of great leap of exceeding or transcending our
InnerSpace Foundation unwanted evolved limitations — whatever
they might be — and I am a very strong
Your brain. It may be your second favorite advocate of this bioprogressive view.
body part or – if you’re a true geek – it may H+: Do you see this program of neu-
be your first. Either way, your brain is the ral achievement as running in parallel to
one and only implement at your disposal ideas of developing smart AIs, potentially be able to store the equivalent of about a
that allows you to have any experience of the of greater-than-human intelligence, and million books of text on their 1 TB key-
world. A recently organized nonprofit, The a few years ago – the executive director of with my doctoral adviser, George Church. functions are very daunting, so we have could this – in some sense – be a step to- chain, and using standard and simple pro-
InnerSpace Foundation (IF), seeks to open the Neurosociety. He believes that neuro- So, I got into genome science because it focused on establishing basic two-way ward fostering hybridization between hu- tocols retrieval is essentially error-free and
up new ground in the operation and use logical improvement and self-control will was so hot and exciting and so many smart communication between the brain and mans and advanced AI? extremely fast. 1 TB is also equivalent to
of the human brain. Declaring themselves be the defining characteristic of human people from computer science, engineering, prototype devices. Interfacing with non- PWE: A long-term goal of the IF is about a million minutes of CD-quality
“dedicated to accelerating the development society in a decade or so, acing out even and various hard sciences were joining in, biological electronic devices is important to allow the maximum possible degree of music, a million photos from a typical 3
of technologies for improving learning, biotech. I wonder if you share this view. and George’s lab seemed like the place to because they have many advantages direct human control over powerful out- megapixel camera, or 140 days of continu-
memory, and other frailties of the human Will we see a neurological age? be. I am still very excited about what is go- over brains and neurons in terms of board intelligences. Many extremely bright ous video (5 MB/minute bitrate, which is
mind,” IF has created a neuroengineering PETE W. ESTEP: I absolutely share ing on in genomics but I’ve segued back into speed, accuracy, and durability. Input of people have argued that self-improving AI about YouTube or better).
competition it calls The IF Prize. this view and Zack is a trustee of the Inner- neuro because I think the potential is even information into the brain by electronic could have catastrophic consequences for Each of us should probably ask our-
IF is offering two awards. “The Learn- Space Foundation to help make this vision a greater — probably far greater, especially means rather than just through our normal humanity unless we are an indispensable selves if we could store all information that
ing Prize” will be “awarded for a device that reality. But maximum benefit will only ma- for people already alive. The Internet and sensory channels can be called learning, part of the overall equation. My view on the is essential and important to us on a single
augments or bypasses the need for tradi- terialize on that timeline if we push hard on electronic devices have become pervasive even though it is a non-traditional form of AI developmental timeline is pretty con- such device how we might make real use
tional learning of information.” And “The the accelerator. I started out in neuroscience and indispensable, and interfaces between learning, and outputting existing memory ventional. I think AI of this level is some of that potential. I think when we seriously
Memory Prize” will go to “a device that al- research as an undergraduate (at Cornell) us and these outboard intelligences will information to a device for later access is way off, and might even be dependent upon reflect on such questions we begin to re-
lows storage and later retrieval of memory because I saw the importance and centrality become increasingly powerful and direct. I potentially an extremely powerful way improved human intelligence, but I see the ally see some of our inherent biological
information.” of the field to both understanding and im- think these changes will come steadily and of augmenting memory because it has logic of their argument. limitations. The harsh reality is this: the
So fire up your neurotech engines, la- proving biology and behavior. I also sensed will profoundly transform our lives, but essentially unlimited capacity and high It is interesting to contemplate the human brain is a magnificent and mysteri-
dies and gentlemen. And as for the rest of huge future potential for the integration of maximum impact will only come if we alter fidelity. interdependent hybrid human–AI intel- ous collection of abilities, but for fast and
us, presumably the contest winner will re- neuro with computer technology. When I the current research and development dy- Since it is difficult for us to imagine ex- ligence scenario I just mentioned. It is accurate storage and retrieval of important
member it for us wholesale. moved on to get my Ph.D. [at Harvard] I namic to produce those technologies with actly how these things might be done best entirely possible that naturally evolved information, even a humble keychain flash
I interviewed Preston W. (Pete) Estep was still excited about the prospects for a the greatest potential. in several years’ time, we have decided to set human intelligence is incapable of produc- drive has overtaken us. But I am extremely
III, Ph.D., chairman and chief scientific of- neurotech revolution a few years down the H+: Your project, as I understand it, up a prize-based competition for rewarding ing catastrophically (for us) self-improving excited that -- for the first time in history
ficer of IF, via email. road, but I wanted to do more in silico biol- is offering awards for uploading informa- one or more teams who produce the most outboard intelligences, and that both natu- -- we can envision using such technologies
H+: Let me start off with a broad gen- ogy and I sensed an impending revolution tion to the brain, and downloading infor- compelling breakthroughs that most clearly ral human intelligence and AI are largely to augment the brain’s natural limitations.
eral question. I interviewed Zack Lynch in genomics after I met and began to work mation from the brain. And the idea is a satisfy the prize guidelines. incapable of producing dramatic increases H+: You’re focusing on memory

#1 #1
24 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 25
rather than. say. perceptual intelligence list stage but with time they’ll improve; and around the world. The kind of research we ploying underpowered brains to continue computers. But your question raises some as cultivate them from a preexisting spe-
or happiness, mainly because it’s measur- it is hard to say what the upper limit will would like to accelerate is woefully un- devising superficial solutions to these ex- very vexing downstream questions that will cies, the wolf. But everyone knows a dog is
able. My immediate impulse is that elimi- be. So, we have established “The IF Prize derfunded and is difficult to fund through tremely serious problems. take a long time to sort out. Nevertheless, not equivalent to a wolf. We used a crude
nating psychological misery would create for Memory” to accelerate the development traditional channels. Second, we think that H+: I realize that it’s not part of this we’re already painfully aware of excessive but effective understanding of trait-based
the greatest benefit of all -- both for its and demonstration of a prototype memory the pace of scientific research and technol- project, but do you worry at all about the noise in at least parts of our essential com- selective breeding to enrich our proto-dog
own sake and because troubled people augmentation device. and a particularly ogy development are limited primarily by quality of the information that human munications systems like the Internet, and companions for behavioral tendencies to
cause our biggest problems socially and powerful prototype device might satisfy the the natural limitations of the human mind. brains will be linking to? In other words, we feel the impact from time to time. This is herd, protect, hunt, and probably to show
economically. But are there other reasons criteria for both prizes. It seems self-evident that a more-powerful if my brain is directly hooked up to the a really serious problem, and like any other obvious appreciation and affection for us.
why memory has the greatest advantage, The reason we’re not trying to acceler- intelligence can solve difficult problems -- Internet, or more specifically to Wikipe- really serious problem, faster and more ac- They have intelligences and abilities that
if it does? ate development of other research or tech- including providing lasting cures for any dia, I’m still going to experience the same curate learning and memory, and increased are complementary to ours and we turned
PWE: We’re focused on memory because nologies is multilayered. First, mainstream disease or disability -- much more quickly frustrating quantity of crap — errors, ir- overall cognition and intelligence, should a marginal initial relationship. into an ex-
it is the currency of our very existence. Our research into the brain and behavior is very and efficiently. So we’re putting all our ef- relevancies, and the tendency of Internet contribute to more rapid and satisfactory tremely mutually rewarding relationship
memories give us a sense of continuity well funded. Mental diseases and disor- forts where we think they’ll do the most informational materials to exclude im- solutions. that we valued then and probably value
and connection to our friends, relatives, ders are researched by thousands of people long-term good, rather than wishfully em- portant bits of data. H+: Do you see a relationship between even more now because they have become
and associates and to our own histories. PWE: I am very concerned with the this project and neural performance en- increasingly what we wanted them to be.
We’re also focused on memory because hancement oriented projects like brain I think we should go forward with an
moving memory information from the the human brain exercises, nutrients, and “smart drugs?” extremely optimistic belief that we can es-
brain to a device accomplishes one of PWE: I’d say there’s only a weak rela- tablish even more rewarding and comple-
the two most basic directional transfers is a magnificent… tionship. I’m certainly an advocate of those mentary relationships with other intelli-
of information (into the brain and out
of the brain), which is a first step toward
collection of approaches since they’re all we’ve got right
now; but their potential is very limited rela-
gences — including one another — by all
becoming more like we’d like ourselves and
establishing meaningful and increasingly abilities, but tive to what we would like to accomplish others to be.
complex two-way communication. There — although, right now I’d be happy with
are many types of information that might for fast and anything to remind me to return emails
flow from the brain to a device but when
we consider establishing connectivity at the
accurate storage or phone calls on time! It might sound a
little futuristic at this point but I think for
most basic prototype stage, we probably and retrieval what we’d like to achieve there is a much
think of “sending” requests to a device greater upside to investments in brain im-
for information input, and transferring of important aging, biocompatible materials science, mi-
to a device somewhat more meaningful,
preexisting information about ourselves.
information, even croelectronics, and information technology,
than in inherently weaker approaches for
This first type of “query” information a humble keychain tweaking our existing biology. I support
is important for accessing or learning the continuation of basic research on brain
information and we are addressing this flash drive has function using brain exercises, drugs, and
with our “The IF Prize for Learning.”
This information can be stored and
overtaken us. other approaches but I’d like to see each
person thinking “outside the box” that sits
retrieved as “memory” but this challenge data quality issue but when we consider on his or her shoulders.
is somewhat different from dealing with the downside of what we might get with We have expanded our intelligence and
other types of information, particularly new technologies, we should carefully re- reach in unexpected ways in the past and I’d
complex and preexisting memories of, for flect on the quality of what we already have like people to contemplate possible future
example, friends and events. Capturing this and ask why and how it got that way. The expansions. Richard Dawkins’ seminal book
more-meaningful “memory” information reason our public discussions and databases The Extended Phenotype is an exploration of
on a device is beyond our current under- give us some garbage out is because people the selection for genotypes that result in
standing and technical abilities, but this is put garbage in. Wikipedia has gotten much organisms creating various extensions of
information you’d like to recall accurately better over time and in many cases is sur- themselves, including physical extensions Resources
over time, and even back up in the same prisingly good, which shows that mature of their biological selves (a more succinct
way you back up important documents technologies eventually establish an ac- treatment can also be found in the second InnerSpace Foundation
stored on your computer hard drive. But ceptable signal-to-noise ratio. One of the and later editions of The Selfish Gene, in the www.InnerSpacefoundation.org
the complexity of this type of information problems of the naturally evolved mind try- chapter “The Long Reach of the Gene”).
exists on a continuum that can be as trivial ing to sift through large amounts of data in This process can be very abstract; it can ex- Brain Stimulant
as a grocery list or as meaningful as the de- a complex modern world is that we don’t tend to the establishment of various novel brainstimulant.blogspot.com
tails of your wedding day or your first date. have efficient filters. We do have filters, relationships and can be extremely reward-
I ma g e by D C S p e n s l e y

We won’t be able to store and subsequently lots of them, but they are not very good at ing. Consider our relationship with dogs. Brain Waves
access all the complexities of an important rapidly sorting through complex data. This Dogs are not just a human’s best friend, brainwaves.corante.com
memory with initial prototype devices; we’ll is another area that should benefit greatly they are one of our greatest creations ...
probably begin much closer to the grocery from increasingly direct interfaces with well, we didn’t exactly create dogs as much

#1 #1
26 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 27
Inter MINI view

The Reluctant cost you the life that counts.


It’s no surprise that Stross is a highly
I suspect the mainstream is only a decade
or so behind the cutting edge: the debates
What do you think about economic sys-
tems in a presumably post-human world?
tion processing comes into economic inter-
actions.
controversial figure within Transhumanist over spam and intellectual property that Do any of the theories – free market, What kind of information processing
Transhumanist circles – loved by some for his dense-with-
high-concepts takes on themes dear to the
the geeks were having in the early 1990s
are now mainstream. (Of course, a decade
Marxist, and so forth – that have guided
those who ideologize these things con-
can vastly smarter-than-human entities do
when engaging in economic interactions?
SF Writer Charlie Stross keeps his options open movement, loathed by others for what they feels like an eternity when you’re up close tinue to make sense after replicators and In Accelerando I hypothesized that if you can
see as a facile treatment of both ideas and and personal with it.) the like? come up with entities with a much stronger
Interview by RU Sirius & Paul McEnery characters. But one thing is certain –- Mr. H+: Remaining on the cyberpunk tip CS: In a nutshell, about Economics theory of mind than regular humans pos-

I mage by DC Spensley
Stross is one SF writer who pays close at- for a moment, Gibson’s Neuromancer (the 2.0: economics is the study of the alloca- sess, then their ability to model consumer/
Singularity, 2012: God springs out tention to the entire plethora of post-hu- whole trilogy, really) popularized a trendy tion of resources between human beings supplier interactions will be much deeper
of a computer to rapture the human manizing changes that are coming on fast. subculture that impacted on both enter- under conditions of scarcity (that is, where and more efficient than anything humans
race. An enchanted locket transforms As a satirist, he might be characterized as tainment and actual technology. Do you resources are not sufficient to meet maxi- can do. And so, humans will be at a pro-
a struggling business journalist into a our Vonnegut, lampooning memetic sub- think that Accelerando could have that ef- mal demand by all people simultaneously). found disadvantage in trying to engage in
The Artificial medieval princess. The math-magicians
of British Intelligence calculate demons
cultures that most people don’t even know
exist.
fect? Do you see yourself as a popularizer
of memes that are just taking root?
Resource allocation relies on information
distribution -- for example, price signals
economic interactions with such entities.
They’ll be participating in economic ex-

Hippocampus back into the dark. And solar-scale


computation just uploads us all into the
H+: With biotech, infotech, cognitive
science, AI, and so many other sciences and
CS: Naah.
A chunk of Accelerando was extracted
are used to indicate demand (in a capitalist
economic system). In turn, economic inter-
changes that we simply can’t compete ef-
fectively with because we lack the informa-
happy ever after. technologies impacting the human situa- in raw juicy nuggets from my time on the tion processing power to correctly evaluate
with David Pescovitz, director of research Stripped to the high concept, these tion, it seems that most social and political extropians mailing list in the early to mid- their price signals (or other information
at the Institute for the Future and Boing visions from Charlie Stross are prime discourse remains back in the 20th century nineties; another chunk came out of my disclosures). Hence Economics 2.0 -- a sys-
geek comfort food. But don’t be fooled. at best. You talk sometimes about being a time in the belly of a dot-com’s program- tem that you needed to be brighter-than-
Boing Editor.
Stross’ stories turn on you, changing up post-cyberpunk person. How do you deal ming team in the late nineties. I wanted to human to participate in, but that results in
into a vicious scrutiny of raw power and with the continued presence of so many get my head around the sense of temporal better resource allocation than conventional
RU Sirius the information economy. pre-cyberpunk people? compression that was prevalent in the dot- economic systems are capable of.
The “God” of Singularity Sky is re- CHARLIE STROSS: As William com era, of the equivalent of years flicker- H+: What do you think about trans-
PESCOVITZ: Biomedical engineer ally just an Artificial Intelligence, ma- Gibson noted, “the future is already here: ing past in months. But it’s too dense for humanism and singularitarianism as
Theodore Berger at the University of nipulating us all merely to beat the alien it’s just unevenly distributed.” Most people the mainstream. As we’ve already noticed, movements? Are these goals to be at-
Southern California in Los Angeles has competition. The Merchant Princes run on the normative assumption that life a lot -- probably the majority -- of people tained or just a likely projection of tech-
developed an artificial hippocampus: (from a series of novels by Stross) are tomorrow will be similar to life today, and aren’t interested in change; in fact, they find nologies into the future that we should be
a silicon substitute for the part of the just as rapacious as anything on Wall don’t think about the future much. And it frightening. And Accelerando compressed aware of?
brain that scientists believe encodes Street, and a downstream parallel uni- I’m not going to criticize them for doing so many ideas into such a small space (I CS: My friend Ken MacLeod has a
experiences as long-term memories. verse is just another market to exploit. so; for 99.9% of the life of our species this think there’s about 0.5 to 1 novel’s worth rather disparaging term for the singularity;
To do this, Berger built mathematical The Atrocity Archives gives us a gut- has been the case, barring disasters such as of ideas per chapter in each of its nine he calls it “The Rapture of the Nerds.”
models of neuronal activity in a rat’s punch full of paranoia -- on the far side plague, war, and famine. It’s a good strat- chapters) that it’s actively hostile to most actions within, for example, a market en- This isn’t a comment on the probability
hippocampus and then designed of hacking and counterhacking lurks an egy, and periods when it is ignored (such as readers. Some people love it, those who’re vironment hinge on how the actors within of such an event occurring, per se, so much
circuits that mimic those activities. The unspeakable chaos. And for all our en- the millennial ferment that swept Europe already into that particular type of dense the economic system use their information as it’s a social observation on the type of
next step is to implant the devices in rats gineering genius, Accelerando’s paradise around 990 A.D. and didn’t die down until fiction-of-ideas, but many, even seasoned about each other’s desires and needs. personality that’s attracted to the idea of
to see if they can process the electrical is won at the cost of planetary destruc- 1020 A.D.) tend to be bad times to live. SF readers, just turn away. To get a little less nose-bleedingly ab- leaving the decay-prone meatbody behind
impulses associated with memory tion, with humanity cul-de-sac’d as our Unfortunately, for about the past 200 I would like to hope that I’ve gone some stract: say I am crawling through a desert and uploading itself into AI heaven. There’s
future heads off into the stars without years -- that’s about 0.1% of H. sapiens’ life way toward changing the terrain within the and dying of thirst, and you happen to have a visible correlation between this sort of
and then communicate them back to
us. span as a species – that strategy has been SF genre itself, though. Robert Bradbury’s the only bottled water concession within personality and the more socially dysfunc-
the brain for long-term storage. Joel
For his latest novel, Halting State fundamentally broken. We’ve been going concept of the Matrioshka Brain (or Jupi- a hundred miles. How much is your wa- tional libertarians (who are also convinced
Davis at the Office of Naval Research, a
(released in June 2008), Stross savages through a period of massive technological, ter Brain, in earlier iterations) is one of the ter worth? In the middle of a crowded city that if the brakes on capitalism were off,
sponsor of Berger’s work, said, “Using
the fantasy worlds we escape into for scientific, and ideological change, and it has most marvelous SF concepts I’ve run across with drinking fountains every five yards they’d somehow be teleported to the apex
implantables to enhance competency is fun and profit and invites us to peek invalidated the old rule set. But even so, at in a long time, and not trivially easy to re- and competing suppliers, it’s worth a buck of the food chain in place of the current top
down the road. It’s just a matter of time.” underneath the surfaces as our chatter- a day-to-day level, or month-to-month, fute. I wanted to get past the then-prevalent a bottle. But in the middle of a desert, to predators).
While Berger’s work is a far cry from a ing gadgets dress up reality with virtual things don’t change so much. So most idea that you couldn’t write about a Vinge- someone who’s dying of thirst, its value is Both ideologies are symptomatic of
hard drive for the brain, I’m intrigued by sword-and-sorcery games, all under- people tend to ignore the overall shape of an singularity -- it’s difficult, but we’ve got nearly infinite. You can model my circum- a desire for simple but revolutionary so-
the notion of being able to “back up” my written by oh-so-creative financial in- change until it’s impossible to ignore. Then tools for thinking about these things. And stances and my likely (dying-of-thirst) re- lutions to the perceived problems of the
memory just in case. struments. they try to apply the old rules to new me- I got the idea of computronium into com- action to a change in your asking price and present, without any clear understanding
All of Stross’s highly connective dia or technologies, make a hopeless mess mon enough parlance that Rudy Rucker decide to hike your price to reflect demand. of what those problems are or where they
pipe-dream superstructures are wide of things, and start on a slow and painful recently took a potshot at it, implying that You can do this because you have a theory arise from. (In the case of the libertarians,
open to the one geopolitical prick that learning process. It’s been quite interesting it’s part of the universe of discourse in my of mind, and can model my internal state, they mostly don’t understand how the cur-
will pop them all like the balloon ani- to watch the slow progress toward an inter- field. and determine that when dying of thirst, rent system came about, or that the reason
mals they are. Be warned. Take care of national consensus on certain aspects of In- H+: I’m curious about the Econom- my demand for water will be much higher we don’t live in a minarchist night-watch-
the bottom line, or your second life will ternet culture, for example. In that context, ics 2.0 idea that is featured in Accelerando. than normal. And this is where informa- man state is because it was tried in the 18th

#1 #1
28 FALL 2008 Fall 2008 29
Inter MINI view

Botox Parties,
and 19th centuries, and it didn’t work very access to mind-numbingly vast amounts of world that’s haunted by imaginary beings.
well. In the case of the AI-rapture folks, I energy and inhabitable space. mainstream culture show signs of un-
I think of Arthur C. Clarke’s notion that
suspect there’s a big dose of Christian mil- The extropians took the idea one step a sufficiently advanced technology is in- derstanding itself as evolving into a
lennialism (of the sort that struck around
990–1010 A.D., and again in the past de-
further, with the idea of computronium
— the densest conceivable form of mat-
distinguishable from magic. Do you think
the areas and powers that we’re opening
Michael Jackson, mutant breed and do those who need
to be different or avant garde have any
cade) that, because they’re predisposed to
a less superstitious, more technophillic
ter structured to maximize computation.
What amount of thinking can you get done
up will change us?
CS: What makes you think it’s about and the new avenues opening up to keep them
ahead of the hoi polloi?
world-view, they displace onto a quasisci- by building a Dyson sphere, optimized to
Disillusioned
us?
entific rationale. support computation rather than biological DEWDNEY: The corollary to the Botox
We’re human 1.0. We’re not going
Mind uploading would be a fine thing, life? Bradbury suggested building multiple there. Or we may go down that road, but craze is the predicament of disillusion-
but I’m not convinced what you’d get at the
end of it would be even remotely human.
concentric spheres of free-flying compute
nodes, each shell feeding off the waste heat
the things that arrive at the other end won’t
be us. (They might remember having start-
Transhumanist ment, nay, misanthropism, that I have
found myself immersed in the last couple
(Me, I’d rather deal with the defects of the of the next layer in. Some estimates of the ed out as us, but I’m not betting on it.) of years. Perhaps the real ground of my
meat machine by fixing them -- I’d be very computing power of such a Matrioshka H+: There’s a nasty little idea bur- with Christopher Dewdney, culture theorist
disillusionment is my hard-lost benevo-
happy with cures for senescence, cardiovas- Brain (named after the nested Russian ied in Halting State, I think. Like: if you and author of Last Flesh: Life in the
cular disease, cancer, and the other nasty dolls) suggest that it would be roughly as far lence. I’m an optimist; I like people. Yet
think things are bad when people get their Transhuman Era
failure modes to which we are prone, with beyond us -- the entire human species -- as ideas about reality from TV, wait until our when I asked a lot of “average” people
limb regeneration and tissue engineering we are beyond a single nematode worm. imaginations are completely colonized, — people who weren’t part of my circle
RU Sirius
The Sheep
and unlimited life prolongation.) But then, If the idea of procedural artificial in- surveilled and programmed. Our hero — what they would do with the kind of
I’m growing old and cynical. Back in the telligence holds water, it’s possible that a bleakly opines, that this is the reason for self-transformative power that may per-
eighties I wanted to be the first guy on my H+: Michael Jackson seems to
the Fermi Paradox. There are no signs of
block to get a direct-interface jack in his
skull. These days, I’d rather have a firewall.
Back in the eighties
I wanted to be the
alien life because you get so far and then
vanish up your own artificial reality. Have
Shit Grass reflect
themes.
various trans-mutant haps be ours to wield, I was increasingly
appalled. The jocks I talked to wanted to

(or The End of


H+: You said “I’d be very happy with I got that right? And is that a prediction? DEWDNEY: For me, Michael Jackson be bigger and stronger so they could beat
cures for senescence, cardiovascular dis- first guy on my CS: I try not to make predictions -- but represents a sort of pioneer of self-trans- the shit out of everybody else; the wom-
ease, cancer, and the other nasty failure
block to get a
Scarcity)
I see that one as a distinct possibility (and formation. Aside from whatever question- en wanted to morph into their ideal role
modes to which we are prone, with limb indeed, as yet another solution to the Fermi able personal motives are impelling him, models. I began to realize that what most
regeneration, and tissue engineering and direct-interface Paradox). he is using cosmetic surgery to achieve a people wanted was conformity; their “ide-
unlimited life prolongation.” It seems to
me that this still puts you in the Trans- jack in his skull. with Cory Doctorow, SF writer and Boing
Boing editor.
look that is definitely transhuman. He has als” would turn us into a world of under-
taken us by proxy to the frontier of what is
humanist camp. Would you agree? These days, I’d achieving Nicole Kidmans and eight-foot
CS: To the extent that I don’t believe RU Sirius currently possible with cosmetic surgery Brad Pitts, identical cut-outs with no indi-
the human condition is immutable and rather have a and he has even escaped the constraints vidualism.
constant then yes, I’m a Transhumanist. If
the human condition was immutable, we’d
firewall. DOCTOROW: It’s not hard to think about of race by lightening his skin color. This My previous rather naive notion that
a kind of nanotech future where virtually last aspect is perhaps the most controver- biotechnology would free us from the
still be living in caves. (And I have a very Matrioshka Brain (or something like it) is
dim view of those ideologies and religions going to turn out to be the end state of any all objects are available on demand. In sial and disconcerting, but the freedom to tyranny of “normalcy,” that we could
that insist that we shouldn’t seek to im- tool-using civilization: after all, the bulk of that kind of world, both the traditional choose all your “inherited” features, both become anything we wanted, morph
prove our lot.) the mass of which our planet is composed Marxist and the traditional Keynesian familial and racial, will probably become ourselves into elongated, blue-skinned,
H+: Earlier on, you referred to the is of no use to us whatsoever (other than an intrinsic part of the transhuman era. orange-haired, sixteen-fingered geniuses
analyses don’t make a lot of sense. These
Matrioshka brain. Can you say a bit more insofar as it makes a dent in spacetime for H+: He reflects, although perhaps or perhaps flying ribbons of sensual bliss
about that and why you find it an appeal- us to stick to), never mind the rest of the are predicated first and foremost on the
regulation of scarce and valuable objects. not fully consciously, a pursuit of oth- that performed acrobatic choreographies
ing or, perhaps, realistic concept? solar system...
CS: As I said, the credit for the concept H+: Moving on, your latest novel, In a “Kazaa World” where every time erness, alienation, and mutation that above the sunset, was a very utopian and,
belongs to Robert Bradbury, who refined it Halting State is all about different levels someone expresses a market signal about runs through many contrasting sub- as it turns out, unpopular dream. Indi-
further from discussions by Eliezer Yud- of reality. LARPs and Second Life, of- the value of a song by downloading a cultures from psychedelicists to goths viduality or creative improvisation is the
kowsky and others in the mid-nineties, in fice politics, the “mammalian overlay” of to UFO nuts, to early transhumanists, last thing most people want. So Botox is
copy of it, instead of there being one fewer
turn based on speculation by Freeman Dy- sexual seduction, financial instruments: SF fanatics, ad infinitum. And now really a dreadful symptom of a new, radi-
son going back as far as the 1960s. they’re all artificial realities, one layer on copies of that song, there’s now one more
copy of that song, this is a really different middle-aged, middle-class ladies have cal mundanity enabled by biotechnology.
Dyson first opened the can of worms top of each other, and all interacting. It’s
by suggesting that we could make better sort of like what we used to think of as a economic proposition. And I talk about parties to shoot up Botox. Does the And that’s disillusioning.
use of the matter of the solar system by spiritual realm, but it’s right here run- this as an alternative to the tragedy of the
structuring it as free-flying solar collec- ning on TCP/IP. It used to be only sha- commons. This is a commons where the
tors and habitats in variously inclined but mans and schizophrenics who had these “G re at b o o k!” -D C
sheep shit grass. The more you graze the
non-intersecting orbits, which would trap sorts of visions, but now, if you’re wearing
the entire solar radiation output and give us the special specs, we all get to share this more you get.

#1 #1
30 Fall 2008 FALL 2008 31
Miscellany Miscellany

Founder’s Fund.
Science Fiction “I’m trying to construct a science fic-
tion fund,” Thiel says, “but I’m nervous to
Name Net worth Edgy projects Amounts Web

Gets Funding Paul Allen http://www.seti.org/seti/projects/ata


16 billion Seti, Allen Telescope Array (ATA) 25 million
describe it as that because it might attract
crazy people and not real entrepreneurs.” Sponsored SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari 30 million http://www.paulallen.com/Template.
X-Prize in 2004 aspx?contentId=26
It’s true that wherever there are new
ideas, there are a few crazies, which may Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for early 5 million http://www.fhcrc.org
Sonia Arrison detection
explain why Larry Ellison seems to go out
of his way to downplay the “anti-aging” Allen Institute for Brain Science 100 million http://www.alleninstitute.org
Billionaires who care about escape velocity, tone of his $42 million per year bioscience Jeff Bezos 8.2 billion Blue Origin Refuses to disclose http://public.blueorigin.com
radical life extension, or the Turing Test donations. Yet Ellison’s foundation was
don’t come along very often, but when Robert Bigelow Reportedly around 1 billion Bigelow Aerospace 500 million http://www.bigelowaerospace.com
responsible for funding David Sinclair of (he won’t comment)
they do, their actions have the potential to Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which is develop- Richard Branson 4.4 billion Virgin Galactic in collaboration with the 25 million investment http://www.virgingalactic.com
dramatically change the world. Space travel, ing a drug based on resveratrol, a chemical SpaceShipOne team
biotechnology, and artificial intelligence are found in the skin of red grapes that fights Larry Ellison 25 billion Ellison Medical Foundation 42 million a year for basic biomedical research http://www.ellisonfoundation.org/index.jsp
three areas where some super-smart, super- the effects of aging. Sinclair’s company was anti-aging research
wealthy people are directing their money – recently sold to GlaxoSmithKline for $720
and it’s starting to pay off. million, proving that Ellison’s anti-aging
For instance, Richard Branson of Virgin
Jeffrey Epstein Unclear Harvard, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics 6.5 million http://www.ped.fas.harvard.edu
bet is not only edgy, but also valued by the
Group has already signed up 200 people to marketplace.
Funds R&D on AI Unclear One example: http://intelligenesiscorp.com/
take his commercial space flights starting agiriorg/path/acknowledgements.htm
in 2009. And, as if that wasn’t enough, he Paul Allen’s Larry Page, Sergey Brin 18.6, 18.7 billion Google Lunar X Prize 30 million http://www.googlelunarxprize.org
also announced that he’ll be performing
the first-ever space marriage on board one
Institute for Brain John Sperling 1.7 billion Kronos 50 million for all anti-aging initiatives claimed
in an ‘04 Wired article.
http://www.kronoshealth.com
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/
of his ships. When the new couple consid- Science has… immortal_pr.html
ers a location for their honeymoon, hotel
chain billionaire Bob Bigelow can help. His
mapped an entire Kronos Longevity Research Institute (founded
1999)
6.3 million in ‘06 from Sperling’s Aurora Foundation,
usually 1.5 million per year according to Kronos
http://www.kronosinstitute.org/
http://www.guidestar.
company, Bigelow Aerospace, is planning mouse brain, spokesperson, but the extra funding is for the
Keepstudy orgFinDocuments/2006/860/873/2006-
on launching experimental inflatable hotel
modules sometime in 2010. But it doesn’t
detailing more 860873239-03778e30-F.pdf
Genetic Savings and Clone Created first cloned cat Went out of business in 2006
end there. than 21,000 genes Via Gen Livestock cloning and gene banking http://www.viagen.com/
Google co-founders Larry Page and
Sergey Brin take things a step further with
at the cellular
the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize for level… Peter Thiel 1.2 billion Methuselah Foundation 3.5 million http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/
any team of scientists who land a robot on Singularity Institute 500,000 http://www.singinst.org/
the surface of the moon, travel 500 meters
over the lunar surface, and send images and Cynthia Kenyon at UCSF $150,000 http://kenyonlab.ucsf.edu/
data back to the earth.
When it comes to biotechnology, Mi-
crosoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Institute
Sonia Arrison is a senior fellow at the Pacific Resources
for Brain Science has already mapped an
Research Institute and is currently working
entire mouse brain, detailing more than Paul Allen’s SpaceShipOne The Ellison Medical Foundation
on a new book examining the social and
21,000 genes at the cellular level. Now his www.paulallen.com/Template.aspx?contentId=26 www.ellisonfoundation.org/index.jsp
political impacts of extreme longevity.
researchers are focused on the human brain,
Allen Institute for Brain Science Google Lunar XPrize
and perhaps soon they can start thinking
www.alleninstitute.org www.googlelunarxprize.org
about reverse engineering it. Of course, some billionaires funding
Then there’s Peter Thiel, the PayPal co- cool technology prefer to avoid the lime- Jeff Beznos’ Blue Origin Kronos Longevity Research Institute
founder turned hedge fund manager who light and questions of money. For instance, public.blueorigin.com www.kronosinstitute.org/about/whoweare/index.cfm
is looking to speed up research in all three Amazon’s Jeff Bezos refuses to say how
Bigelow Aerospace Singularity Institute
areas (space, life extension, and AI). On the much he is spending on his space project www.bigelowaerospace.com www.singinst.org
non-profit side, Thiel has given to the Sin- Blue Origin. It was also difficult to find de-
gularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence tails concerning the investments of Apollo Virgin Galactic Cynthia Kenyon
as well as the Methuselah Foundation that Group’s John Sperling and investor Jeffrey www.virgingalactic.com kenyonlab.ucsf.edu
seeks to cure aging. On the for-profit side, Epstein. Nevertheless, all these billionaires
he’s working to create a unique kind of in- are funding edgy and important work, and
vestment strategy with his associates at the one hopes their ranks will grow.

#1 #1
32 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 33
Neuro Neuro

Overclocking the Lame! Not only is our working bandwidth


low, our long-term memory is lossy, leav-
clarity, they seem to only milk the limited
capacity of our current wetware without
Integration Theory (P-FIT, referred to here
as the intelligence circuit), “Genetic re-
ing us to rely on external storage methods providing the instantaneous multi-point search has demonstrated that intelligence
Human CPU (ideas encoded in symbols or bits) to com-
municate rational output to other people
IQ boost we would expect from our “smart
drugs.” Drugs can increase human intelli-
levels can be inherited, and since genes
work through biology, there must be a bio-
A primer for the future of human intelligence and keep track of all the new “information” gence temporarily by increasing the speed logical basis for intelligence.”
we create over time. For creatures that have and conductivity along the intelligence Since there is most likely a biological
James Kent short unpredictable lives, this limited setup circuit. However, most of the evidence to basis for intelligence, and intelligence is
might be okay, but for modern humans it date suggests that the brain will eventually considered to be a positive survival trait, it
Although the human imagination is leaves us wanting more, better, faster. begin to power-down or tip into psychotic is reasonable to assume that humans will
capable of many things, it is very difficult Since we have external memory stor- states if this method is used or abused for get smarter over time just by having sex and
to imagine being smarter than we are now. age down (thanks, Internet!), this leaves too long. To build long-term conductivity making babies, which is a fun (but slow)
We may be able to envision a life where the personal working-memory bandwidth the you need to train your mental reflexes just way to go about solving this problem. The
average human can hold hundreds of facts most lacking of human traits in our time. as you would train your hand-eye reflexes, imposed pressures of modern society – such
in working memory and manipulate them In biophysical terms the bandwidth of our and like any training this takes long peri- as requisite cultural literacy and basic math
all with perfect accuracy and efficiency, but intelligence is limited to a tiny conduit of ods of discipline to see even limited results. skills – also drive the trend toward smarter
it is hard to imagine what that would feel neural cables running from our working Books, video games, and websites that fo- humans, but simple education and evolu-
like. How much more would we “know” memory in the brain’s frontal lobes, back cus on multistage puzzle solving in strict tion aren’t enough for some people. How
due to the heightened capacity of our to the abstract symbol processing networks time limits (yes, I’m talking about Tetris) do we get people to become more intelli-
super-genius intellect? Would the feeling in the parietal lobes, and back to the work- are probably the best way to get the logic gent within a single generation?
be cold and computer-like; would it be circuit wires crackling and ready for more
eerily prescient and clairvoyant? Would it Since we complex problem-solving, but what about …scientists find a
be god-like? improving the robust capacity we crave?
These are more than just rhetorical
have external Data capacity, bandwidth, or robustness common splice for
questions. While we 21st century humans memory storage along the intelligence circuit is the main increasing the
are currently locked within the framework shortcoming of human intelligence, and
of our genetic neural architecture, our spe-
down (thanks, what divides the geniuses from the morons. efficiency of learning
cies has gotten to the point where we can Internet!), this In real terms, this metric defines how many and… neurotrophin
routinely tweak and build on the physical abstract symbols we can hold in working
traits we’re born into with some training,
leaves personal memory at any one time while still per- supply at specific
chemical or surgical tinkering, and/or tar- working-memory forming rational analysis on those objects. neural targets,
geted genetic alteration. Messing with the For instance, how many words from the
fabric of human intelligence may be an eth-
bandwidth the last paragraph could you recall if you closed leading to targeted
ical black area in today’s climate, but super- most lacking of your eyes right now? Could you remember
neural growth
intelligence research is well under way in enough words to complete a simple seven-
many forms right now. We’re heading into human traits in teen-syllable haiku in thirty seconds or less and plasticity in
a future we can hardly begin to imagine our time. without any errors? No? Why not?
mammalian neural
with our primitive brains. If you can do it you’re probably a genius,
Human intelligence is already progress- ing memory again. This intelligence circuit because that means you have the capacity networks
ing in ways we cannot accurately measure. is where all the heavy-duty puzzle solving to hold at least ten or more random words
The sheer force of evolution, culture, and goes down when you’re reading a map or in your working memory while perform- There are a few popular answers to
centuries of written language has imprinted working a Sudoku grid. Human problem- ing rule-based contextual algorithms to this question. The first is that humans take
our neural DNA with the networks needed solving requires that data moving along this rearrange logical syntactical output under advantage of brain-computer-interfaces
to process abstract symbols and draw com- circuit be fast for focus and precision (good strict time limits. A computer could do it in (BCI) to create more robust “offsite” mem-
plex hypothetical conclusions based on conductivity) and robust for complexity of a snap, but the limitations of our working ory and logic processing in a small micro-
available data sets. This is the core of hu- thought (dense wiring). Increased speed memory make this all but impossible. This chip we keep implanted in our chest or
man intelligence: the ability to compare, and connectivity along this circuit is where capacity is a trait we cannot easily improve shoulder. The technological foundation for
contrast, and juxtapose sets of data against the future of human intelligence lies, and in a lifetime, not without radical mental making this work exists today, and is cur-
each other in order to draw accurate con- there are only a few ways to get it moving training, dodgy neural steroid hormones, or rently used to effectively treat Parkinson’s
I ma ge by D C S pe n s l e y
clusions and predict likely outcomes. in the right direction. even dodgier drug-induced neural plastic- disease via targeted computer stimulation
Unfortunately, our mental toolkit is At one point in time it seemed that ity. What we do know is that this capacity of dopamine neurons. While the BCI op-
comically weak, allowing us to only hold drugs were the answer to this question: Dex- for robust intelligence is genetically inher- tion seems optimal at first pass, the fact
five to seven variables for comparing and edrine and piracetam, cognitive enhancers, ited, which naturally gives some people the that it requires surgery to embed electron-
contrasting at any one time, and constantly ginko, ephedra, nootropics, and the like. upper hand. According to Richard Haier of ics and pass dozens of thin electrodes into
needing to “dump” whatever is in work- While these supplements are indeed nifty the University of California, Irvine, one of our brains at various areas presents ethical
ing memory when distracted by new tasks. for achieving short-term focus and mental the initial founders of the Parieto-Frontal roadblocks to research. Perhaps if someone

#1 #1
34 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 35
Neuro / H+ Lab H+ Lab

could finagle a sweet big-money grant to


cure stupidity via microchip-aided neural Resources H+ Lab tic design. The fields are distinct because of
their intention. The intention of industrial
Bioart
What can I say about bioart? It is a
synchronization we would see some major design is to serve a client’s or potential cli- fabulously new genre that has a particular
progress in this area, but that’s not likely in Working Memory Capacity Natasha Vita-More ent’s needs; the field of artistic design is to
  set of ideological viewpoints that are not
the U.S.A. anytime soon. Maybe China? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_ realize a concept conjured up in one’s mind
I am writing a paper on radical life extension terribly H+, but are in close proximity to
Maybe India? Hello, developing world, I memory#Working_memory_capacity — a creative process. These fields overlap
for a developmental field in the media arts NBIC works that some of us designers have
hear opportunity calling… and are allied, to be sure, but they are none- been engaging in. Bioart doesn’t include
However, the most likely (and poten- PFIT - Intelligence Circuit and sciences. Even though I have tried to theless distinct. Here are some examples:
avoid it, the technological singularity keeps experience design yet, but there is potential,
tially darkest) scenario for rapid intelli- www.physorg.com/news108722746.html
appearing, not because it was propitious Immersivity particularly as the nano-bio-info-cogno
gence increase within a single generation is revolution begins to explores new media.
the genetic one. With all the trendy bio- Diversity of Steroid Hormone Actions on the Brain for the paper but because it touches on You can find a great example of an
the very technologies that are crucial for industrial-type interface at Tronic Studio Upcoming exhibitions that are a precursor
tech being thrown down these days it is www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=bnchm.
investigation of radical life extension. -- a company I am fond of. Working in the to a nano-bio-info-cogno rad-life-ex will
only a matter of time until scientists find section.3529
The nano-bio-info-cogno (NBIC) context of commercial design, they provide be appearing at the Moscow International
a common splice or knockout method for Film Festival and also at the “Evolution
increasing the efficiency of learning and Drug-induced Neural Plasticity convergence and its offspring generate a collection of experience designs for their
inspiring and devastating narratives. (For clients. Haute Couture: Art and Science in the
memory genes and/or neurotrophin supply www.acnp.org/g4/GN401000067/CH067.html
those who may be unfamiliar with NBIC, Post-Biological Age.”
at specific neural targets, leading to targeted
neural growth and plasticity in mammalian Nootopics the acronym refers to a nascent field that Tronic Studio
neural networks, a technique that will then en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nootropics employs the interdisciplinary possibilities www.tronicstudio.com www.artifacial.org/evolution_haute_couture

Im ag e by Nat as ha Vit a- M o re
be applied to neurogenesis and plasticity of nanotechnology, biotechnology,
along the intelligence and motor-skills cir- Book: Mind Performance Hacks: Tips & Tools for information technology, and cognitive
science and technology.) Digital Water Pavillion is an example of My video, “Bone Density,” will be ex-
cuits of animals in vitro in order to create Overclocking Your Brain
Passing through this nano-bio-info- an artistic experience design that is exhib- hibiting. Returning to my paper, I stumble
super-functioning organisms. Over a peri- www.amazon.com/Mind-Performance-Hacks-Tools-
cogno intersection might require some fi- ited for audience viewing and participation. across a famous 1954 quote from Nor-
od of decades these methods will of course Overclocking/dp/0596101538
nessing -- much like the smooth moves of It premieres at the World Expo in Spain, bert Weiner, the founder of cybernetics:
be secretly tested in humans, resulting in a “Seven Mile Boots” is a clever artistic “The human species is strong only insofar
jump in IQ on the order of two - threefold VideoGame: Nintendo Brain Age synthetic nanometer-scale material passing and offers a sensorial experience — archi-
through cell membranes without ruptures. tecture as experience. design — a stunning contemporary piece of as it takes advantage of the innate, adap-
in a single generation, no doubt spawning a www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/26/brain.training/
But MIT scientists has done this. red footwear that enables the person wear- tive, learning faculties that its physiologi-
race of Kahn-like supermen who will beat ing the boots to be a flaneur in the real and cal structure makes possible.” In H+ Lab, I
us at chess all the time, grow to loathe us, Ways to overclock your brain Digital Water Pavilion
Stelacci Nano Research www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/mit_
virtual worlds simultaneously. will be encouraging all of us to do just that
and ultimately plot to destroy us all. But ririanproject.com/2006/11/03/22-ways-to-overclok-
www.medindia.net/news/Synthetic-Nanoparticles- digital_water_pavilion_makes_a_splash_in_ through media and art.
that’s still a few years out, so go play some your-brain/
can-Penetrate-Cells-Without-Adverse-Effects-on- spain_10171.asp Seven Mile Boots
Halo 3 to get those hair-trigger reflexes up
ririanproject.com/2007/05/22/33-new-ways-to- Membrane-37853-1.htm randomseed.org/sevenmileboots
to snuff. When the black-market neural
steroid hormones hit the milk supply we’ll overclock-your-brain Another architectural experience – one
have to hope we don’t all go insane, but at So why is it so difficult to locate enough that spins – is planned for Dubai.
Wired on Neurostim implants cognitive surplus to engage in meaningful
least SAT scores will be through the roof,
www.wired.com/medtech/health/ conversations about radical life extension? Alternative Reality Gaming
for once. Spinning Architecture This genre is both industrially and artistically
news/2001/08/46278 Maybe it’s because many people simply www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/
want to be in the now and experience as based and might be appropriate for engaging
James Kent is the former publisher of la-fg-buildingmotion26-2008jun26,0,312971. Additional Resources
much comfort and joy as possible, and then with other people in a narrative, real-world
Psychedelic Illuminations and Trip Neurotrophins story?track=rss
pass the knowledge on. I suppose it is easier experience. Alternative reality gaming
Magazine. He currently edits DoseNation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotrophins Year Zero
to accommodate our physiological wet-ware could provide a potential inducement for
com, a multi-user blog featuring drug news, www.alternaterealitybranding.com/
by experiencing a sense of accomplishment imagining together the actual experience of
humor, and commentary. Learning and Memory Plasticity Genes Wearables living longer. Unfortunately, at the Cannes
cannes2008yearzero/
www.sciencedaily.com/ now, rather than in anticipating an arduous “FrogConcept” is a wearable industrial
reach toward H+ mental plasticity. Lions Award, the winner game was Trent
releases/2007/04/070418104300.htm design that allows for a full-sensory 42 Entertainment
Anyway, since we are, in fact, experienc- Reznor’s devastating narrative of the year
experience by reshaping the world into a www.42entertainment.com/see.html
ing the now — we can look to the field of zero. Instead, it might be worth looking
MindFit Brain Training Software Achieves Highest soothing spa-like escape. While it gives
Experience Media Design as a medium for into the designers at 42 Entertainment,
Score in Wall Street a robot appearance around the eyes, nose, Moscow International Film Festival
building narratives that can perhaps mimic providers of immersive experiences.
Journal Brain Aging Experts Review and mouth, its streamline mask is, in itself, mediaforum.mediaartlab.ru
www.pr.com/press-release/81533 the experience of radical life extension. a pleasant design that can’t help but make
For example, immersive environ- for an aesthetic experience. Evolution Haute Couture: Art and Science in the
ments, wearable technology, alternate-re- www.42entertainment.com/see.html Post-Biological Age
ality games and, adjacently, bioart practices FrogConcept www.artifacial.org/evolution_haute_couture
touch on futuristic scenarios. These works www.frogdesign.com/news/frogconcept-a-digital-
can be found in two distinct fields: the field escape-05162008.html
of industrial design and the field of artis-

#1 #1
36 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 37
Inter MINI view Mixed Media

wisdom, gave Ellis the tie-in book, Hulk vs. his own devising. Freakangels is a weekly
Warren Ellis Iron Man in Ultimate Human. That might
sound like a Mixed Martial Arts pay-per-
six page webcomic - net community that
merges Midnight’s Children with Children of
Takes It Past view special – the flying shiny metal of
death against the biological freak who eats
Men in an Anglified anime style. “23 years
ago, twelve strange children were born at

The Limit monster trucks, as Ellis puts it – but what


we’ve got here is sharper, more cerebral,
exactly the same moment. 6 years ago, the
world ended. This is the story of what hap-
  something that drives both properties hard pened next.” What happens next is a post-
Ultimate Human 1-6 (Marvel Comics), into the 21st century. What we’ve got here apocalyptic London under permanent
Warren Ellis and Cary Nord. is two mad scientists arguing engineering flood, stripped down to subsistence living
Freakangels, Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. tips for the future of the species. and watched over by eleven gothic oddities
In the green corner, Bruce Banner, with peculiar powers and nasty habits.
review by Paul McEnery pumped full of a biochemical “Supersoldier “What is the way the world ends?” “Of
stack” that physically reimagines his body course, everyone has a different name for
Warren Ellis will, if pushed, write about on the fly to fit any hostile terrain (like, it. The Violent Unknown event. The Es-
ordinary people. Take “Crecy.” It’s a novella say, the planet Venus). In the red and yel- chaton. The Singularity. The Collapse. Lol/
that details every horrible technique low corner, Tony Stark, bloodstream flush Dies. And yet, whatever caused it saved us
ordinary British people used to give two with nanotech that talks directly to the from a world where all future time was pre-
fingers to the French nobility -- especially metal hand with the repulsor ray. Round determined and free will meant nothing.
the longbow. But mostly he writes about one: smash each other’s head in. Round Imagine: It took the end of the world to
extraordinary people, modified people, two: team up against the real villain, who create the conditions for the human race
people with a little extra jammed into their blends both flavors of post-humanity, the to move forward into time on their own
eye socket or pumping through their veins. internalized biotech and the externalized terms.”
People you’d patent to make a fortune from, mech-tech, to form a self-modifying brain They live in Jack the Ripper’s territory,
except they’re the kind to use every horrible grown out of pure mechorganic compu- but it’s Lucifer’s agenda. Time and Space
technique they can think of to give you the tronium. And why? Why to take down ripped apart to create total freedom from
finger somewhere you wouldn’t want it, America’s best, and brightest for Britain, of necessity, and with the added benefit of giv-
TheProgressive maybe a billion billion billion atoms at a Why is this process taking place?  It is
with something novel and filthy and lethal
and active flickering under the nail.
course. That the villain is a hard-drinking,
hard-smoking, antagonistic, self-promot-
ing you precognition, telepathy, and flying
steampunk bikes that run on water, which
Ingression of pop. And we’d move through metallurgy,
and chemistry, and come down to the
my belief – and I think anthropology can
back me up here – that language isn’t
And speaking of extraordinary and le-
thal people, there were two big superhero
ing, over-thinking cynic doesn’t make him
a stand-in for the author, but only because
may not be enough to compensate for what
Number Twelve means to do with his filthy,

Intelligence into manipulation of billions to millions just an internal process. Rather, linguis- movies let loose early this summer, with they haven’t quite invented it yet. lethal fingertip technique.
of atoms. Then we could get down to tic components overflow their boundar- Robert Downey Jr. boozing his way through In parallel to this mainstream big event Freakangels unfolds slowly, in episodic
current state-of-the-art microprocessors, ies in the mind and become concretized Iron Man, and Ed Norton brooding it up as book, Ellis has invented a property of his time, and two-by-two windowpane space,
Matter where the surface features are about a
thousand atoms thick. And we can see
as artifacts. Writing is the most obvious
of these boundary overflows, but every
The Incredible Hulk. Marvel Comics, in its own, on a turf of his own, in a medium of with a guarantee of one unexpected idea
a week, completely mad but still as of yet
how the subsequent generations of chips technology represents some sort of mate- available for commercial exploitation. And
with Mark Pesce, senior lecturer in
will have features that are a hundred rial fixation of a linguistic concept. In that unlike the commercial films that provide
Emerging Media and Interactive Design at the impetus for this project, there’s no
atoms across, then ten atoms, and then sense, the materiality of human history is
the Australian Film, Television, and Radio chance at all of a sappy ending with a baby.
– perhaps around 2012 or so – a single a story of how homo sapiens learned to
School and designer of VRML atom across. That’ll end the chart. speak with their hands, translate their lan-
Paul McEnery is a former editor with Mondo
What this chart actually shows is the guage into artifact, and then engage in a
RU Sirius 2000. He is writing a mosaic novel about an
relationship between human activity and conversation with these artifacts. This sets
ill-tempered God trapped in his own creation.
human artifact. Artifacts have consistently up a very interesting feedback loop, be-
He is beginning to sympathize.
PESCE: Ray Kurzweil has this nifty little moved away from the crude – in terms of cause the exteriorized linguistic object –
chart that shows the cost of computing the raw number of atoms being manipu- the technology – produces ramifications
per bit, dropping precipitously – lated – to the refined. Fewer and fewer at- of language, which in turn produce new
exponentially – as time goes by. Like so oms are employed in each manipulation. technologies, etc., until the whole thing
much of his work, he manages to miss The end state of this process is nanotech- spirals completely out of control. And Resources
the big point by focusing on a particularly nology, which, for those of your readers we’re already well past that point.
Freakangels
meaningless one. If I were to draw a chart, who don’t believe atomic scale assembly A succinct way of phrasing this pro- www.freakangels.com
I’d map out the minimum number of will ever be possible, I insist is the natural cess, using two-dollar words, is the “pro-
atoms a human being can manipulate at and inexorable vector of human activity, gressive ingression of intelligence into Warren Ellis Live Journal
warren-ellis.livejournal.com
one time through time. We’d start out with as demonstrated by the chart I have just matter.”
stone and flint and obsidian tools – that’s described.

#1 #1
38 FALL 2008 Fall 2008 39
Music Humor

Akhentek’s Music this music the strange quality of feeling at


once transparent and mysterious.
until we do, I’m thrilled to know that we
have innovators like Akhentek. Fighting
tion, because this argument is so profound
it only seems stupid to the untrained brain:
McKibben, the human death’s head.
Their argument isn’t actually that death
Deep within the art of this music coils the good fight, sculpting sound to elevate If you never die, your life never had any
For Mind States the esoteric theory of neuroentrainment:
the science of getting the brain to vibrate at
consciousness directly and for the greater
good–secret agent techno-shamans like
meaning. Only if you die will your life have
had meaning. Of course, there’s no way to
is good. Their argument is that heaven is
good. All prominent anti-transhumanists
-- Fukuyama, Kass, McKibben -- are re-
Michael Garfield specific frequencies. It seems to be an easy Akhentek are about the business of en- tell, since you’re dead. That’s where I get a ligious. Their sense of meaning springs
enough trick. Our brains expect to hear lightening unwitting ravers and inspiring little confused. Maybe it’s knowing you will from a faith that through suffering they
A moment of speculation, rooted in a more or less the same thing in each ear, so the next generation of state-engineers to eventually die that gives life meaning. Wait, will enter paradise after they are dead. If a
study of universal trends: human history they split the difference between tones that plunge even deeper into our limitless po- this is deeper than you think. Here’s an ex- bunch of nonbelievers creates a real death-
can be defined as development along any don’t quite line up, creating the auditory il- tential to explore – and create – novel states ample: wake up with a feeling of existential less paradise here in reality, it will ruin that
of numerous axes, but my preferred story- lusion of a single note. This activity requires of mind. anomie. Life is so meaningless. Then stub fantasy. It will be like when all the bad kids
for-our-species is of an advance in mind special collaboration between the right and your toe. See any meaning? Maybe not yet on your block get better presents from
control technologies. For good and ill, the left hemispheres, which syncs brain activ- Michael Garfield is a live painter, songwriter, How about you find a lump in your breast? Santa. To work so gleefully for immortal-
development of our consciousness flies in ity at that agreed-upon mean. If the left ear and essayist in Boulder, Colorado. Aha! Now your life is suffused with mean- ity and cessation of pain is to thumb your
tandem with our expanding capacity to hears 104 Hz and the right ear hears 108 ing! Why? Because it just started sucking. nose at ancient sources of meaning. Success
access and explore various states of mind Hz, the entire brain will pulse at 4 Hz, the McKibben will put on his tombstone: will demonstrate that such deep sources of

I mage by D C Spensley
at will. Our command of navigating the corresponding state of mind. It may be one “I’m dead. Nyah-nyah-nyah. Have a nice meaning are not eternal, but technical solv-
mind with sensory and electrochemical of the cheapest ways to engineer conscious- eternal enhanced life, transhumanist suck- able problems. That’s a real faith-shaker.
stimulation has matured to include ness. No drugs, no surgery, no nanobots – in ers.” Ray Kurzweil will be sitting there with I’ve tried to convert to what I call the
everything from reviving early entheogenic his nanotechnologically enhanced penis Wendell Berry style of argumentation,
experiments with drumming and chanting, and Wikipedia brain feeling like a chump. which is to replace clear thinking with lit-
to contemporary techniques of magnetic
temporal lobe stimulation and virtual
The Meaning of Whose life has meaning now, bitches?
That’s right, the dead guy’s.
erary eloquence, but I just don’t get their
core syllogism:
reality immersion. And with impending
advances in biotech and nanotech that Life Lies in Its Won’t it be funny if Bill McKibben
outlives Ray Kurzweil? Can you imagine
I’m alive. Then I’m dead. Where’s the
meaning?
will profoundly deepen the intimate
relationship between brain and machine Suckiness anything pissing off Bill McKibben more
than if he reaches 110? That would be po-
How about this? I’m alive. I keep living
longer. Not sure if that’s more meaningful,
(and erase those primitive distinctions), we etic justice. but it sure sucks less.
can be sure that individual control of the Joe Quirk But no matter how much older he gets
mind will be one of the best markers we than his photos, Bill can always hope he Joe Quirk is a TV talk show darling for his
have for measuring our humanity (and our I’ve been converted. Frances Fukuyama, will die. So what’s his concern? hilarious nonfiction It’s Not You, It’s Biology:
transhumanity). theory, all you need is a pair of headphones Leon Kass, and Bill McKibben have shown McKibben is concerned that the rest The Science of Love, Sex and Relationships.
With this in mind, I spend much of my and a “crystalline array technician” to pre- me the folly of all you silly transhumanists. of us might not suffer and die. If we all
time looking at contemporary art and mu- pare the sounds for you. Life has meaning in direct proportion to live long healthy happy lives, Bill’s favorite
sic as touchstones, clues to our place as a These so-called binaural beats coast how royally it sucks. poetry will become obsolete. Bill is wor-
self-transcending species. Every time I see inaudibly across each other in Akhentek’s I saw Bill McKibben read a speech to ried that an enhanced Ray Kurzweil won’t
intention meet technology in a deliberate music underneath warm and deep master- the Singularity Summit. He was on a gi- appreciate Ecclesiastes. In case you don’t
manipulation of mindstates, I rejoice that ing, giving his compositions an odd quality ant Teleportec screen. His face was three know, Ecclesiastes is the most depressing
we are on the right track. And nowhere is – it feels at once transparent and mysteri- feet wide, towering over the transhuman- poem in the gloomiest book ever written,
this confluence more apparent than in the ous. ist panel, explaining why every nerd in the on the subject of all things sucky, and Bill
careful structuring of electronic musicians It’s little wonder that he has a back- room should suffer and die. The guy never thinks we should appreciate it.
like Akhentek, a self-described “crystalline ground in biology and “Brazilian Genet- smiled. Not once. McKibben is a perfect Here’s another moral imperative you
array technician” from Elphinstone, British ics” (which I assume is a euphemism for spokesman for death, because he looked transhumanist fools haven’t considered: we
Columbia, whose psy-trance productions ayahuasca initiation) – this guy’s eye and like a giant talking skull. owe something to people who don’t exist
are “precision engineered sonic textures in- ear are definitely trained on human evo- Resources If you pause the streaming video at yet. People who don’t exist yet are waiting
tentionally designed to induce higher fre- lution and accelerating its numerous per- 13:18, you see a shot of me, slack-jawed, in line to take our places. They can’t do that
quency mindstates.” mutations. Cascades of twittering clicks Akhentek with an expression on my face that says: unless we die. Don’t nonexistent people
Akhentek’s nuanced tracks, like the and swells of buzzing oscillations sweep www.myspace.com/akhentekmusic “This giant skull wants to kill me to give have rights? Damn right they do. The right Resources
burbling glitch of “Spectrality” or the free- through my head as I listen, seemingly re- my life meaning.” to demand our deaths. Luckily, nonexistent
floating guitar and synthesizers on his formatting my consciousness on some deep en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats McKibben’s dedication to the nobility people have Bill McKibben and Frances Joe Quirk
“White Girls in Saris” remix, definitely in- unconscious level. I start feeling the effects of age and death doesn’t prevent him from Fukayama speaking up for their right to kill www.joequirk.com
duce a strange, buzzing feeling – and unlike of his “rare sensitivity to frequencies” as the www.neuroacoustic.com posting a photo on his website that shows you. Which they can’t do, since they don’t
many other buzz-inducing artists, I know physical environment around me begins to him looking twenty years younger than exist. So Kass and Fukayama will kill you Bill McKibben
that he’s doing it on purpose. Binaural ripple with gauzy transparency. Michael Garfield -- Art and Music he actually is. Nor does his stance against for them, by legislating against doctors in-
myspace.com/michaelgarfield www.billmckibben.com
beats coast inaudibly across each other un- It may be a long while before we have technological enhancement prevent him terfering with your long slow death. Which
derneath warm and deep mastering, giving total agency over individual awareness, but from wearing eyeglasses. But pay atten- takes me back to my initial terror of Bill

#1 #1
40 Fall 2008 Fall 2008 41
Dear Readers,

The board of directors of Humanity+ welcomes you to this first edition of H+ Magazine, with its inspiring
stories of how emerging technologies can help elevate humanity in increasingly powerful and positive ways.
We will cover diverse fields such as nanotech, biotech, artificial intelligence and robotics, longevity medicine,
space exploration and colonization, and, of course, their legal and ethical issues.

2008 has been a watershed year for us. We launched our first ever matching grant fund drive, raising over
$75,000; we began rebranding our organization as “Humanity+”; we launched this magazine; we began
redesigning our site under www.humanityplus.org; and we created Convergence08: Bringing Life to Big
Ideas, an Unconference in partnership with other future-focused organizations.

We especially want to thank the generous financial contributions from our members, who helped make
these achievements possible, and give our deepest thanks to Bill Faloon, Brian Cartmell and Dan Stoicescu
for their unprecedented support. Their matching grants accounted for over two-thirds the money we
raised this year. Thanks, guys. We couldn’t have done this without you.

Bill Faloon Brian Cartmell Dan Stoicescu

We would also like to thank our Editor RU Sirius and Art Director, DC Spensley for making our dream of
producing a quarterly magazine a reality!

In the coming year, we hope to build on our successes, growing our membership and guiding our ideas out
into the mainstream through as many forms of communication as the future allows.

For a brighter, healthier and happier future,

Ben Goertzel Bruce Klein Giulio Prisco James Clement

PJ Manney Michael LaTorra Michael Treder Nick Bostrom

Tyler Emerson James Hughes Michael Anissimov

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