Category Archives: Transhumanist

Dr de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist, is chief science officer at the SENS Research Foundation which conducts counter-ageing research. He argued we could reach the point of longevity escape velocity, when scientific breakthroughs are able to keep pace with the ageing process, in as little as 20 years.

However the leading scientist called for a dramatic increase in funding for research aimed at stopping ageing, arguing it will revolutionise human society.

Speaking to Express.co.uk Dr de Grey stated massive advances in the fight against ageing have been made over the past two decades.

He said: Oh a huge amount of progress has been made - absolutely immense.

Over the past 15 years the whole concept that I first started putting forward about 20 years ago of comprehensively repairing the molecular and cellular damage that the body does to itself throughout life, that concept has become not only totally mainstream; weve seen enormous progress towards actually doing it in the laboratory and even now in the clinic.

There are many different types of damage that need to be repaired which means there are many different therapies that need to be developed, but some of them are already in clinical trials and most of them have got to the point where they will be in clinical trials in the next year or two.

The SENS Research Foundation, based in California, was founded in 2009 to conduct research aimed at halting ageing.

According to Dr de Grey it focuses on early stage research that is unlikely to attract commercial investment.

Asked whether the first human to live to 1,000 years is already alive Dr de Grey predicted they are.

He said: Probably already alive - its very important to be probabilistic about this.

We all know this is early stage research and therefore any timeframe predictions are extremely speculative.

The number of 1,000 years is actually an extremely conservative estimate.

Dr de Grey previously said longevity escape velocity is likely to be reached within 20 years.

Asked if still believes this he replied: I certainly think thats likely.

READ MORE:Donald Trump faces Presidential challenge from Transhumanist

In fact I think my estimate on how long it is before we have an at least 50-50 chance of reaching longevity escape velocity is now about 17 years so its coming down slowly as time goes on.

The definition of the term is the point at which we reach the rate of progress that means we are staying one step ahead of the problem and that the health problems of late life are being postponed faster than time is passing.

And yes I do believe we are definitely getting there.

However Dr de Grey was critical of politicians who he believes need to focus more on the societal effects of radically extended human life.

He commented: The Government always comes last into all of this because ultimately elected representatives main priority is to get reelected and therefore the essence of public policy always follows public opinion rather than leading it.

Theres always a lot of caution amongst the general public in believing progress is really being made against this problem that weve been trying to make progress against since the beginning of civilisation.

READ MORE:Body health deteriorates from 'head to toes' in forties, study reveals

Its beginning to become a conversation within the corridors of power, particularly in the US, but its really only just beginning.

Its crazy that politicians are keeping their heads in the sand like this.

Dr de Grey argued we should expect politicians and wider society to take radical life extension more seriously as technology improves over the next few years.

He asked: How will society change when it becomes the case that most people expect to live a very very long time?

Because that transition of expectation is likely to occur really rather soon.

Whats going to happen is pretty much overnight people are going to go from an expectation that they will live maybe slightly longer than their parents did to an expectation that they will live a very great deal longer.

A huge amount of restructuring of the economy is going to have to happen pretty much at once in order to avoid this transition being really rather turbulent and its about time policy makers started to realise that.

Dr de Grey claimed the main obstacle to research aimed at combatting ageing is the lack of funding.

He said: Even today when this field is becoming much more established it is still really difficult to get enough resources to move as fast as the science allows.

Im quite sure we could be going at least twice as fast if we had one extra digit on our tiny little budget.

Last year the all party parliamentary group on longevity was launched in the UK, though it is primarily focused on managing the ageing population rather than halting ageing itself.

Dr de Grey argued attitudes to ageing amongst the public will shift sharply once the progress towards its abolition he anticipates is made.

He commented: The fundamental problem is that humanity has been aware of ageing since the beginning of civilisation and has been aware that its absolutely horrifying.

Most people have only one way that theyre able to cope with that, namely to put it out of their minds and get on with their lives and make the best of it.

Nobody wants to hear the answers, they want to carry on thinking that ageing is a blessing in disguise so as to not get their hopes up.

Now at some point how close we actually are to achieving this will get to a sufficient stage that the fear of getting ones hopes up can finally be dismissed and people can actually get their hopes up and get emotionally invested in it.

But were not there yet.

Read this article:
First human to live 1,000 years may already be alive says scientist fighting to end ageing - Express.co.uk

Grimes. Promo shot for Miss Anthropocene release. 2020 [PNG Merlin Archive]PNG

Grimes | Grimes Creative Corporation/Crystal Math Music

In only a decade, Grimes (a.k.a. Vancouver-born and raised Claire Boucher) has gone from the eerie DYI of 2010s Halifaxa to 2012s confident and expansive critically acclaimed Visions right up to the wildly ambitious and successful sounds of 2015s Art Angels.

Now Miss Anthropocene arrives at a time when Grimes is as much a global brand for her romantic affiliation with Elon Musk and shrewd manipulation of social media platforms as for her music.

Her fifth album is either a concept album about anthropomorphizing climate change into an evil entity, or another delightfully damming confusion of sounds and statements from an artist who is putting out her final earth album this year. This may very well be because she is fed up with all the attention being paid to her amorous adventures rather than her adventurous art.

Spoiler alert: Repeated listenings wont divulge any grand statements about impending global chaos, save for the advice to gleefully fk the world.

However the 11 tracks (or 15 on the superior deluxe edition of the album) are philosophically assembled, Miss Anthropocene lands as one of the first big releases of this decade and certainly one of 2020s most-anticipated records. Here are five things to know about it:

1. So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth. A booming bass line haunts the back of the mix while leaden drums pound out echoing patterns until a vocal bursts forth to lets us all know what Enya huffing helium would sound like. The layers keep on stacking onto the six-minute song, until the lightest thing about it is Grimes repeating the tunes title. The sudden 360 turnaround at the 4:30 mark is quite brilliant, as she apparently falls clean through the planet and its gravity to float in some ambient expanse.

2. Violence (with i_o). This uptempo electro banger is one of the most straightforward songs on the record. But with lyrics such as You wanna make me bad, make me bad/(And I like it like that, and I like it like that), it turns the coquettish pop cluttering up the radio into something far darker and disturbing. Fans will be reading into the juxtaposing of violence, pain, partying and more as some kind of commentary on her relationship. Or Grimes is just eviscerating everyones expectations in public. The video is well worth a peek.

3. New Gods.Even someone used to making sense of the words on extreme black metal recordings could have trouble translating what Grimes is actually saying. Her voice is so often mutated past the point of comprehension, or pinging around the vast echoing background as it does in this song, that you are hard-pressed to pry any kind of meaning out of the music. Which works for a project that is meant to be both ethereal and personal. The mood is as, or more, important than the meaning.

4. Youll miss me when Im not around. From not-fully-realized drum and bass tracks (4M) to the weirdly Taylor Swift-ish acoustic strumming in Delete Forever, the album mixes somewhat experimental approaches with mainstream songcraft. Nowhere is this more realized than in the full-on dance-rock of this hooky track. The heavy guitars coupled with the blasts of mega-manipulated vocal harmonies make this a likely single.

5. We Appreciate Power. Available on the deluxe version of the album, this earlier collaboration with Hana came complete with press statements that it was influenced by everything from pro-A.I. pop bands to ideas of transhumanist desire. OK computer. What is clear is that the songs title is an accurate reflection of the artists being. Its the kind of hard industrial rock track you might expect from Nine Inch Nails, but with a goofball spoken-word bit that could rival Madonnas bad rapping in Vogue. In other words, its more fun than scary. The other remixes on the deluxe edition are of varying quality, with the Algorithm mix of IDORU particularly good.

Myopia | Universal Music Canada

At some point, Obels classical orientation is going to have to take shape in an opera. The voice arrangements paired against the orchestrations in Cameras Rolling sound ready-made to be the opening song to some noir-esque stage play as much as any album track. And that is only the beginning of this lush chamber-pop recordings highlights. Obels music has become even more sparse and flowing with silence used to add emotional impact to every note. Check out how Cant Be uses a riff almost like Laurie Andersons O Superman, and pairs it with a choir that sounds straight out of the Middle Ages. Gorgeous.

[USA] | Polyvinyl Record Co.

More digital thrashing from this chiptune quartet whose use of hacked Nintendo hardware to craft tunes has produced some truly delightful results. To prove that they are more than just a bunch of tech nerds with a love of neat noises, Lorem Ipsum (Arctic Anthem) derives its lyrics from Ciceros 1st-century BC debate about the difference between pleasure and goodness. Of course, rendered through Vocaloid treatment, youre listening to Latin sung by a possessed childs toy. Still, as one example of the groups album with words, so thats pretty good.

March 4 at the Biltmore Cabaret, 2755 Prince Edward St. Tickets and info: $24.00 at eventbrite.ca

Suddenly | Merge Records

Dan Snaith puts the past five years of his life down in a way he never has before on his latest release as Caribou. The opening song, Sister, is a haunting chant about making false promises and the need to break things to change them. Coming from the maths professor-cum-electronic musician, its a melancholy start to the dozen new tracks he selected out of a rumoured 900 to make this album. From the warped lounge piano jazz of Sunnys Theme to slinky sex groover Home, this is full of surprises. Obviously, there are some dance happy tracks too. Never Come Back will have backbones slipping.

All Or Nothing | Fat Cat

This U.K. trio really sounds like some long-lost release from the 1980s heyday of Gang of Four, Au Pairs and others was suddenly discovered, remastered and released. Songs such as Initiative, No Apologies or About You could all have been hits back then or today. Singer/guitarist Rachel Aggs has a way with laying melodic leads over top of bassist/vocalist Billy Easter and drummer/vocalist Andrew Milks mechanistic rhythms that just ripples with edginess. Its a sound that deserves reviving and revering.

March 7 at the Biltmore Cabaret, 2755 Prince Edward St. Tickets and info: $14.50 at eventbrite.ca

sderdeyn@postmedia.com

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5 things to know about Miss Anthropocene by Grimes - Vancouver Sun

The front and back of Mark Stewart-Greensteins signs. Photo/Andrew Sylvia

The First in the Nation Primary has finally come and New Hampshire voters will head to the polls with ballots that include 50 total candidates between the two parties (including that guy with the Hartford Whaler signs everywhere)

Heres Manchester Ink Links guide to all 50 of those candidates, 37 Democrats and 13 Republicans, divided between candidates campaigns weve reported on/received letters to the editor on directly and other candidates, with each category sorted in alphabetical order by last name. The names of candidates no longer in the race but on the ballot are italicized.

Links to webpages or Facebook pages can be found on the candidates names where applicable, as well as a brief bit of information about each of the lesser-known candidates we could gather.

Michael Bennet

Joe Biden

Cory Booker

Steve Bullock

Pete Buttigieg

Tulsi Gabbard

Kamala Harris

Amy Klobuchar

Bernie Sanders

Tom Steyer

Elizabeth Warren

Marianne Williamson

Andrew Yang

Mosie Boyd

An attorney hailing from Arkansas, Boyd seeks to rebuild patriotism by uniting Americans around our shared values.

Boyd received 96,000 votes in the 2002 California Democratic Primary for Governor and also runs a PAC that supports female candidates.

She believes that there will be no clear candidate heading into the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee and can emerge as a dark horse alternative.

Steve Burke

Burke is a cattle rancher and local Democratic party official in New York State. He sees the recent impeachment of Donald Trump as a distraction from issues impacting most Americans such as climate change, unemployment and homelessness.

Julian Castro

Julian Castro was the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2014 to 2017 and mayor of San Antonio, Texas from 2009 to 2014.

His campaign was suspended on Jan. 2, 2020 after the deadline for removing his name from the ballot.

John Delaney

John Delaney was the Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Marylands sixth district from 2013 to 2019.

His campaign was suspended on Jan. 31, 2020 after the deadline for removing his name from the ballot.

Jason Evritte Dunlap

Jason Evritte Dunlap of Arizona is a former military intelligence officer fluent in several languages.

Dunlap does not actually want to run for president, but felt compelled to do so after he said repeated attacks by the Trump administration have put himself and fellow intellligence officers in harms way.

Like Boyd, he believes that there will be no clear candidate heading into the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee and can emerge as a dark horse alternative.

Roque De La Fuente III

Roque De La Fuente III is the son of serial candidate (and 2020 Republican Primary candidate) and is focusing his campaign on global debt relief.

Hes on the ballot in California, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Texas and Utah in addition to New Hampshire.

Michael Ellinger

Ellinger is a Ohio resident running on a platform that he calls the Moral Deal. Hes on the ballot in California, Arizona and New Hampshire.

Ben Glieb

Glieb is a comedian that has appeared on CNN, ABC, NPR and other outlets. He dropped out of the race on Dec. 30, 2019.

Henry Hewes

Henry Hewes is from New York and he really, really, really dislikes abortion.

Tom Koos

Koos is the Associate Director for Health and Safety at Stanfords School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences in California.

This is the third time hes put his name in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary, running just days after he turned 35 in 2000 and then again in 2008. Hes unable to put up as much effort this time, but feels that its is civic duty to run again.

He is a son of Eastern European immigrants, he feels a strong need to update the countrys immigration laws and he also feels that climate change is a key issue.

Lorenz Kraus

Kraus is an anti-semite from New York who believes the United States should be broken up into four countries.

Rita Krichevsky

Rita Krichevsky is on the ballot in New Hampshire and Colorado. Repeated calls to Krichevsky went unanswered. According to the Lawrenceville, NJ Town Clerks office, her license to practice medicine was suspended in 2018. No further information was available.

Thomas James Torgesen

Torgesen lives in Saratoga, NY. He has been a Democrat since the 1960s and believes the party has gone too far to the left, but he shouldnt have to leave it. Hes running due to the fact that several current candidates protested the Vietnam War while he served in the Navy.

His primary issues are getting prayer in schools, making sure the Navy has a thousand ships and trade surpluses.

Raymond Moroz

Raymond Moroz hails from New York, his primary focus is strengthening labor unions. He received eight votes in the 2016 New Hampshire Democratic Primary.

Joe Sestak

Sestak is a former Pennsylvania congressman and three-star Navy admiral. He dropped out of the race on Dec. 1, 2019 and endorsed Amy Klobuchar on Feb. 7, 2020.

Sam Sloan

A New York resident, Sloan ran for the Libertarian Presidential Nomination in 2012 as well as running for Governor of New York in 2010 and for New Yorks 15th Congressional District seat in 2014.

In 2016, he ran in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary and he received 15 votes.

Mark Stewart-Greenstein

Anyone driving around the greater Manchester area over the past few months has probably seen his signs (see above), a throwback to his grassroots efforts to return the Hartford Whalers to Connecticut several years ago. In the past, Stewart-Greenstein has run for several offices in Connecticut and received 29 votes in the 2016 New Hampshire Democratic Primary.

He describes himself as a conservatarian, blending philosophies from libertarianism and conservatism, but he also says his views are in line with where the Democratic Party once was before it began to move to the left in the 1960s.

Stewart-Greensteins main goal is not earning the Democratic nomination, but building support for his EPIC (Every Politically Minded Citizen) Party.

David John Thistle

Thistle currently lives in Texas, but originally hails from the Manchester area.

Thistle served in the military and is running for president primarily to reform the Veterans Adminstration, which he says harmed him and has harmed many other veterans.

Thistle received 226 votes in the 2016 New Hampshire Democratic Primary. and

Robby Wells

Wells is the first white football head coach coach of a Historically Black College or University. He also served in the Army National Guard and has a twelve-point plan he calls Eaglenomics that incorporates left-wing and right-wing policies.

He ran for president in 2012 as a member of the Constitution Party and an independent candidate in 2016.

Donald Trump

Bill Weld

Robert Ardini

A moderate Republican from New York, Ardini ran for Congress in 2016 and lost, writing a book entitled Running for Congress in Trumps Backyard about the experience.

His main goal in running is to bring greater awareness to the national debt. However, he also has other unique proposals, such as pushing the age for drivers licenses and other coming of age landmarks to 25 and requiring all Presidents to select at least 20 percent of their cabinet from a party other than their own.

President R. Boddie

Mr. Boddie, a resident of Georgia, legally changed his first name to President after receiving a vision from God in 2018 that he was destined to become President.

Boddies main goal is to merge the United States with Israel and move to capital of the United States to Jerusalem.

Stephen Comley Sr.

Comley, who hails from Massachusetts, is primarily concerned with corruption within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Roque Rocky De La Fuente

Rocky De La Fuente, (not to be confused with his son, who is also running as a Democrat), is not only running for President, but also running for Congress in the 21st District of California.

De La Fuente recieved 96 votes in the 2016 New Hampshire Democratic Primary, and has also tried to run for the nomination of the Reform Party as well as a party he created called the American Delta Party

He ran for the U.S. Senate in Florida in 2016, ran to become the Mayor of New York in 2017 and ran for the U.S. Senate in nine states simultaneously in 2018.

Bob Ely

Bob Ely of Illinois describes himself as having the charisma of a door knob and in previous attempts running in the New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary he described himself as a jerk.

Imagine a more boring Vermin Supreme (who is running as a Libertarian this year, so hes not on either ballot in New Hampshire.)

Zoltan Istvan Gyurko

A self-described transhumanist, Gyurko doesnt expect to become president. Instead, he hopes to advance the cause of innovation on the right, which he says has been dominated by the left, not just for the sake of conservatism, but to help America keep track with the innovation of other countries.

Gyurko ran for President in 2016 under the ticket of the Transhumanist Party and ran for Governor of California in 2018 as a Libertarian.

Rick Kraft

Mr. Kraft is a lawyer from New Mexico seeking to unify the country under the principles of Christianity.

Star Locke

Mr. Locke is opposed to abortion, immigration and Islam. Locke received 33 votes as a Democrat in New Hampshire in 2016 and has run for various offices in Texas over the past three decades.

Mary Maxwell

Maxwell, a Concord resident, actually wanted to run for vice president in the Primary, but could not do so. She ran for Congress against Charlie Bass here in New Hampshire in 2006 and ran for the U.S. Senate in Alabama in 2017.

Eric Merrill

Merrill lives in New Boston and ultimately is just running because it was on his bucket list.

He says he has voted Republican in every election since his first vote, which was for Richard Nixon. He generally agrees with mainstream principles of the Republican Party outside of climate change, which he says is a problem, but cannot be addressed with any effectiveness unless China is forced to also reduce its emissions.

See original here:
Information on all 50 NH Primary candidates (including the Hartford Whalers guy) - Manchester Ink Link

IN the anthropocene, when narratives turn to metaphor to grasp the meaning, deep time and big history, Richard Powers turns to trees in The Overstory. The book, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2019, narrates the stories of nine characters centred around trees as theme, motif and species to configure an account where trees begin to matter.

The novel is the saga of generations and families and the trees that have survived the vagaries of human history. The title refers to the foliage that makes the canopy or the trees that contribute to the overstory and represents distinctive character arcs in the novel. Just like the trees that make up the visible foliage, the nine main characters of the story are a set of people whose lives the author selects to chronicle. The lives of these characters are entangled in serendipitous ways without being envisioned through human tropes such as fate or destiny because The Overstory is not a realistic novel attempting to map human social history. Rather, by having the characters understand trees in different ways such that their paths converge, Powers attempts to map a small cross-section of humans from a larger cosmos of multiple species.

Consider the credentials: Nicholas Hoel is an artist whose family has photographed a chestnut tree every month for generations. Patricia Westerford, the botanist, seems to be modelled after Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology who has put forward theories about communication between trees. She writes a book titled The Secret Forest (probably based on The Hidden Life of Trees, the 2005 bestseller by Peter Wohlleben) and all the main characters read it. Douggie Pavlicek is a Vietnam War veteran who participated in the controversial but real Stanford Prison Experiments as a college student. He falls in love with Mimi Ma, daughter of a Chinese immigrant engineer. We follow the boyhoods of two men: Neelay Mehta, son of Indian immigrants, and Adam Appich, who becomes a psychologist. Ray Brinkman is an intellectual property lawyer, and his wife Dorothy Cazaly is a stenographer. Olivia Vandergriff is an actuary student who has an epiphany after a near-death experience.

Powers background in computers is an important key to the novel. Neelay Mehta, who is confined to his wheelchair, invents a game that will scour databanks for knowledge about trees, so that armed with it we can engage with the natural world to solve our problems. This kind of transhumanist yearning, where corporeal finitude is an obstacle that can be overcome, is only one of the narrative answers to the puzzle that is the tree.

But how does one begin to narrate a tree? There is a happy coincidence between style and subject in The Overstory. Like the expansive trees, Powers is adept at laying out the story in broad brushstrokes. This is not to say that he mimics Charles Dickens in characterisation. His men and women suffer from a lack of detail but the narrative force allows the reader to suspend disbelief and understand them through their encounters and rendezvouses. For example, Neelay Mehta is typecast crudely, with shades of a cleverer Raj Koothrappali, the character in the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory. On the other hand, Patricia is portrayed as an activist like Greta Thunberg or Arundhati Roy. At the same time, reading about Patricia and her difficult childhood offers an invitation to speculate about the life history of an activist academic. What causes the turn from theory to praxis? Is praxis grounded in actions that shape a childhood and is adulthood a reclaiming of that lost agency? This kind of evocative characterisation allows for an openness that the reader is encouraged to inhabit.

The ecological importance of The Overstory lies in its ability to supplant the human in the story. As the network of people branches out across the interlayered stories through chance and connections, the centre appears evanescent, fugacious and non-human. Unlike other anthropocene novels that document the plight of humans in apocalyptic situations, The Overstory is ultimately about trees and how a set of people try to relate to them.

The difficulty of constructing a narrative that can capture the complexity of ongoing ecological catastrophes cannot be overstated. Should it be inspiring and moving? Or should it merely state the facts and expect the readers to draw their own conclusions? Or should the narrative be experimental and try to mirror nature so that form can provoke action? The hidden premise of the novel is the opening line of The Secret Forest that is recounted by several characters: You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. It is this common ancestral root that makes the trees come alive in the novel without anthropomorphisation and allegorisation.

It is interesting that this exploration does not require trees to be characters in a rhetorical or Aristotelian sense that would embody a particular quality. Trees are not simply innocent victims out there to be preserved in their pristine virtue. This is made evident in the narrative through a clearly phenomenological investigation that the people engage in through various modes of their lives to acknowledge trees. In Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, David Abram demonstrates our entanglement with nature by showing how human nature is animal too, and a sensuous awareness can help us realise this dormant essence. Powers does not deny this entanglement of people and trees, but The Overstory upholds a certain distance. People and trees do not belong to the same species. It is this real chasm that the protagonists try to comprehend and decipher.

This is also the source (or shall I say the root?) of the strangeness of the narrative. How do we understand characters or motivations for which trees are not simply trees? The common ancestrality that The Secret Forest professes is what drives the authorial urge to understand trees in the novel. There is an intuition that we and trees belong to the same life process that exceeds our finite understanding because of the brevity of our lifespan and it is this insight that the novel taps into.

Curiously, it is not literature or philosophy that the novel uses to buttress its beliefs but social movements. The novel refers to the Chipko movement in India and the Brazilian Kayapo Indians to understand the concerns that one species may have for another. As the psychology student in the novel remarks, Who does the tree hugger really hug when he hugs a tree? Yet, when people interpose their bodies between tree cutters and the trees, the tree cutters always have their way with violent consequences for the dendrophiles.

Bound up with this cross-species interest toward trees is, of course, the legal suggestion of personhood. If trees acquire legal standing, will plant species cease to become resources worthy only of our consumption and exploitation? Perhaps legal standing will flatten barriers of species and language. The novel grapples with this question through activism. Nick, Olivia, Douglas and Mimi together oppose deforestation and stage protests and sit-ins atop trees. At one point, they even carve out an independent state for themselves called The Bio-Region of Cascadia. But because trees cannot speak back and be grateful or disenchanted, activism only furthers the life stories of the men and women involved, with the trees registering a woody opacity. The only possible acknowledgement remains with the human: will they cut the tree or not?

Against this seeming passivity, trees have a spectral presence in the novel that makes them resemble impenetrable aliens with whom true communication is never possible. Activism, then, is a pledge of the hope that communication, and action based on faith, are possible, despite the diverse personalities of humans and reasons. And as the novel makes clear, perfect harmony with trees or total empathy need not result in satisfying courses of action. There is no cosmic redemption or a promised messiah that will make our sacrifices worthwhile. The descent of environmental activists in the novel after repeated failures to protect the trees from an eco-terrorist group is testimony to this misjudgment.

This is not to say that the different characters do not attempt to anthropomorphise trees or allegorise them. It could be that human communication, even inner speech, is always already humanised. For Dorothy and Ray, the tree symbolises their child. Olivia and Nick give a human characteristic to the redwood tree, Mimas, during their stay atop it. However, here lies the paradox of writing on the environment: by the end of the novel, the reader is not sure whether the anthropomorphisation is inappropriate and the allegorisation insensitive. This is because one is able to see that the perspective of each character towards trees is shaped by their distinctive experiences and personalities, and the reader cannot obviously fault them for that.

The Overstory refrains from making ethical pronouncements for the same reason. While it is accepted that trees need to be protected, the novel never assumes a science fiction/fantasy fiction mode. Thus, though the characters fight for trees in different ways, the novel does not propose a unique or singular solution. In that way, it is certainly not utopic in its aim or hope. It is also not futuristic or idealistic. But as Maidenhair tells Adam, who is there to study them instead of studying people who believe plants are persons, he should study people for whom only other people are real.

The characters, whose lives seem entangled with trees, have chosen to become allies with trees and have, thereby, merely experienced a shift in perspective. Indeed, the main characters, especially Mimi, Douglas, Nick and Olivia, seem to experience time and history differently. Cross-species intimacy allows these characters to take on and dwell in the vital circles of the Umwelt of the trees. Realising that the trees have a longer life process that evokes the cosmic processes of life and cycles, Olivia and Nick live in forest time: They have been on forest time too long to count in mere hours anymore. The work is over in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The transience of human life poses an urgency to the matter that the characters are aware of: They cant see that time is one spreading ring wrapped around another, outward and outward until the thinnest skin of Now depends for its being on the enormous mass of everything that has already died. The logo of the cross section of a tree trunk showing the concentric growth rings recurs in the novel to alert us gently to human history as it is being shaped today by deforestation and forest fires.

This intimacy is also a dangerous tendency because at least for some characters it often seems to be on the verge of teetering into a kind of unreflective nativism at whose centre is a tenuous figure such as the ecological Indian. Do we have to discard humanity to reach out to other species? By rejecting civilisation and by extension, technology, what kind of return to the putative innocence of nature do we envision? The utopia certainly cannot be an anarchy of chaos and probably not one of jungles and lush verdure either.

The novel ends with an ambiguous message from Nick: STILL. While a lot of species may not survive the ongoing mass extinction event, there is something to be said about resistance and the possibilities that resistance enfolds, like a seed, of growth, rebirth and change. This still does not answer the question as to whether art is necessary in the anthropocene. While Powers does not privilege art as the mode through which we can understand trees, there is an element of the creative and the artistic at the core of every story in the novel. Thus, Nick is an artist, Ray and Dorothy act in plays, Mimi recites ancient Chinese poetry, Patricia writes a book, Douglas keeps a diary and Olivia assumes a persona, namely, Maidenhair.

Perhaps, it could be said that at the heart of every activism is a flair for the dramatic as well. Of course, even the activists affirm the need for narrative: The best arguments in the world wont change a persons mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.

The narrative power of The Overstory stems from how the stories of the characters make sense, not from one anothers stories but from the unwritten and unread story of trees. This is possible because of a self-reflexivity that is sewn into the novels texture, which states that it is impossible to narrativise a tree.

As we read about Rays need for fiction, Powers tells us that novels can only cover a few peoples lives and cannot tell a story that is compelling enough to successfully narrate the world that includes innumerable species, and it is precisely for this reason that we are failing the world. Rather than announcing a cliched return to our earthly natures or the reasons to love trees, The Overstory tells us why it is hard to tell a good story about them.

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The tree family - Frontline

Cyberpunk 2077, originally planned for an April 16 release date, but has now been delayed until September 17, developer CD Projekt Red announced on Thursday.

In a statement posted to social media, the Cyberpunk developer did more than announce the delay, further describing just how far along the game is in its development. According to CD Projekt Red, the game is currently "complete and playable," throughout its open world setting of Night City. Instead of core story, content or environmental changes, the delay is primarily motivated by the need for additional "playtesting, fixing and polishing."

Indicating their confidence in the game they've created, CD Projekt Red also set a bold goal for Cyberpunk 2077: topping their own critically acclaimed Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to become their "crowning achievement" in the current console generation. Witcher 3 is often named among the best open world games and best RPGs ever createdit's not even uncommon to hear Witcher 3 named as the best game ever made. So while Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot to live up to, its delay announcement suggests CD Projekt Red feels as if they're near to realizing their complete vision.

CD Projekt Red also promised more frequent updates on the game's progress, particularly as the revised release date approaches.

In Cyberpunk 2077, players start off in Night City as V, a customizable mercenary who acquires transhumanist enhancements throughout the game. Night City is a gigantic corporate-controlled metropolis in the Free State of California, with six different regions for players to explore, each with their own rival factions and gangs. Along the way, players are guided by Johnny Silverhands, a digital ghost played by Keanu Reeves, who haunts the player and nudges him or her towards his own objectives.

Signed by CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiski and the head of studio, Adam Badowski, the full statement reads:

"We have important news regarding Cyberpunk 2077's release date we'd like to share with you today. Cyberpunk 2077 won't make the April release window and we're moving the launch date to September 17, 2020.

We are currently at a stage where the game is complete and playable, but there's still work to be done. Night City is massivefull of stories, content and places to visit, but due to the sheer scale and complexity of it all, we need more time to finish playtesting, fixing and polishing. We want Cyberpunk 2077 to be our crowning achievement for this generation, and postponing launch will give us the precious months we need to make the game perfect.

Expect more regular updates on progress as we get closer to the new release date. We're really looking forward to seeing you in Night City, thank you for your ongoing support."

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'Cyberpunk 2077' Delayed as CD Projekt Red Polishes 'Crowning Achievement' Over 'Witcher 3: Wild Hunt' - Newsweek

Learn how transhumanism and artificial intelligence are changing the way we acquire users as software engineer for PALO IT and co-founder of Transhumanism Australia, Alyse Sue, speaks at Mumbrella MSIX to lift the lid on transhumanist technologies.

Sue, a full stack Node.js and C# software developer has co-founded three ventures focusing on health and emerging technology. Shes also had vast experience working with AI and blockchain and has previously spent nearly four years at KPMG focusing on finance and technology.

Sue will speak at Mumbrella MSIX on transhumanism and artificial intelligence

At Mumbrella MSIX, Sue will discuss using artificial intelligence to completely tailor content to passers-by, while also revealing how to target digital humans living in virtual worlds created by Facebook and other tech giants.

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In addition, shell uncover ways to plant messages directly in peoples brains using brain-computer-interfaces.

Also confirmed is Forethought group CEO, Ken Roberts, who will reveal how to avoid the big idea lottery. The former associate professor at Melbourne Business School and now managing partner of Forethought Research (formerly Roberts Research Group) will assert that there is still extreme ineffectiveness in advertising and that the origin of the issues is the intuition-based big idea.

Roberts will explain a scientifically proven way of forming a foundation for creative briefs and big ideas

He will share with delegates Prophecy Thoughts & Feelings, a scientifically proven, marketing science-based, method for identifying the rational and emotional motivations for category and brand-specific consumer behaviour and show how these motivational drivers should form the foundations of the creative brief and the big idea.

Meanwhile, Dr Juliette Tobias-Webb will lead an interactive session explaining the psychological reasons why consumers enjoy games and how certain structural characteristics of games elicit beliefs and behaviours that lead to continued engagement.

Tobias-Webb will reveal the real benefits of gaming and how it affects consumer thinking

Tobias-Webb, who has worked for Commonwealth Bank, Ogilvy & Mather and lectured at the University of Cambridge has spent her career focusing on understanding human behaviour and decision making and applying insight from neuroscience, psychology, and economics to create real-world, measurable behavioural change.

Curated by Adam Ferrier, consumer psychologist and chief thinker at Thinkerbell, Mumbrella MSIX (Marketing Sciences Ideas Xchange) explores the intersection of marketing, behavioural science, creativity, and everything in between.

It takes place on February 20 in Sydney with tickets on sale now.

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Transhumanism, AI, gaming and human biology to feature at Mumbrella MSIX with new session announced - mUmBRELLA*

It was 3 a.m. on a typical Saturday in Geneseo. UHots was closing and there was nothing to domy alumni friend was visiting, so we trudged through the rain back to my place for an early morning catch-up. His life is a lot more exciting than mine, so I listened intently as he told me of his post-grad misadventures.

Did I ever tell you about the time I was almost recruited into a cult? he said casually. No, he had not. I listened intently as he told me of a private subreddit he had been added to and the pseudo-intellectual who ran the page, inviting people who had like-minded views to join.

This got me thinkingthis subreddit cant be the only page like this on the internet. Since then, I have uncovered similar communities and ideas (i.e. places where spiritual thought meets modern politics and personal musings) grasping for meaning in the digital age. I believe the new frontier for religious thought lies not in the worship spaces of yesteryear, but in online forums and other digital spaces where one can make their beliefs heard and gain a following.

Spiritual groups born and bred online occupy a space somewhere between absurdism and grave sincerity. There is a whole spectrum of those who believe, dont believe or are simply curious about a given sect of online spiritual thought.

In conducting research, I came across the website for The Church of Google, a parody religion founded in 2009 with the goal of creating commentary about the sophistication and increasing symbiotic relationship that technologies like Google play in our lives. I also came across online forums such as MySpiritualgroup, which is self-described as an online spiritual group which seeks to gather all genuine truth seekers from around the world and focuses on metaphysics and esoteric thought.

Additionally, there are countless Reddit forums, like the one my friend joined, focused on the interplay between religion and psychedelics, anarchy and the alt-rightto name a few topics that have been brought into the conversation via dedicated subreddits.

One of the most intriguing online spiritual movements is one called H+, or Transhumanism. According to H+pedia, an online Wikipedia-esque transhumanist encyclopedia, transhumanism can be defined as a belief or movement in favour of human enhancement, especially beyond current human limitations and with advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, life extension and nanotechnology.

While prescribers to the philosophy might describe themselves as post-religious, there is something fundamentally spiritual about their way of thinking, which combines the concept of human transcendence with modern technological advancement. I may add that transhumanists are the same people in favor of gene modifying and strong AI technology, as well as proponents of the concept of technological singularity.

The internet is chaos, and so it only makes sense that spiritual communities that have formed from the internet are chaotic as well. The wide range of content, from intellectual to idiotic, underscores the wide range of beliefs being vocalized. Not only have we been ushered into a new age with technology providing platforms to express opinions, but the very opinions themselves have also been altered and shifted due to the emergence of the internet and what that means for human development.

As spiritual discussion online continues to mold the worldviews of many internet users, it is important that we attempt to broaden our understanding of this emerging intellectual discourse in order to better understand its real-world implications.

You can call Hayley Jones a metamorphosis rock because they do well under pressure!

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Religious and spiritual online forums consist of chaotic, impactful ideas - Lamron

It has been a bumpy stretch for Quartz, one of the most lauded digital news startups of the past decade.

Not long after the Atlantic Media site was sold for $86 million to Japanese company Uzabase, web traffic started going in the wrong direction. Quartz says its monthly uniques were down 11 percent year over year between 2018 and 2019. Its membership program, launched nearly a year ago, didnt seem to generating as much traction as desired. It put up a paywall in May after building its business on free distribution across all channels.

Then came last week. On Monday, anticipated leadership changes replaced co-CEOs Kevin Delaney and Jay Lauf with chief product officer Zach Seward (as CEO) and chief commercial officer Katie Weber (as president). The New York Times reported that Quartz lost more than $16 million on less than $12 million in revenue through the first half of 2019. On Wednesday, its iOS app was removed from the App Store in China after its reporting on the uprising in Hong Kong. And on Thursday, it debuted a new homepage and a refined, more member-focused vision of its future.

The way I think about Quartzs evolution is: We just turned seven years old and thats 50 years in internet years. In that time Quartz has gone through several different eras of digital media, said Seward, who, full disclosure, worked here at Nieman Lab a decade ago.

There was this era at the beginning when it was considered smart and prescient to be mobile-first. Then there was the Facebook era where we and a whole lot of other digital publishers were able to really dramatically expand our audience and introduce our brands to the world on the backs of this distribution of social media. That era is clearly over. The way I would describe the new era weve entered is one where publishers are going to live or die based on their relationship with readers.

Seward said Lauf and Delaney had decided to leave Quartz by early September, as 2020 budgeting and planning commenced. (Weber, Sewards new leadership partner, is currently on parental leave. Lauf is staying on as chairman and Delaney will be an advisor.)

Quartz is far from the only outlet to be focusing more on members these days (reader revenue, reader revenue, reader revenue). One of the biggest questions is how to convince a reader to support your specific outlet over another in a world of finite personal budgets for journalism and broad competition. Especially since the biggest reader-revenue success stories (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal) are all broad general-interest publications that overlap in subject matter with, well, everyone at one time or another.

The sticker price for Quartzs membership program $100 a year is also higher than that of some of its non-newspaper peers, like The Atlantic ($50), New York ($50), Wired ($10), Vanity Fair ($15), and The Athletic ($60).

Weve tracked many of Quartzs strategies and changes since launch because the outlet has been an unusually bold innovator in the industry. Its Quartz Daily Brief was one of the first email newsletters to show the mediums potential for media companies. At a time of mostly interchangeable mobile news apps, it built one entirely around a GIF-heavy chat interface. Its invested in augmented reality, news-breaking bots, and an AI studio.

Throughout all those twists, though, the more revenue model was mostly unchanged: Quartz makes money from advertising mostly high-quality, high-cost bespoke advertising for high-end brands (Prada! Infiniti! Credit Suisse! Boeing!). That model typically requires the kind of scale you get with relatively friction-free distribution social-friendly, mobile-friendly, and outside any paywalls.

Our revenue is still predominantly advertising, although within advertising theres a lot of nuance to that business, Seward said. At this point, reader revenue the membership business accounts for a small percentage of our revenue. Thats precisely why were putting such a focus on it. Subscription businesses are a very different kind of business and the faster we can build up that business the more that will pay off in the long term. He wouldnt share any specific numbers [cmon Zach, not even for Nieman Lab? Ed.] but said theyre closely watching the total number of members and daily active users across Quartzs email newsletters and apps. Uzabase financial filings say the company expects Quartzs traditional ad-driven business to be profitable for the full year 2019 (anticipating the usual holidays bump in Q4), but that investments in the membership program will fuel that large expected overall loss.

Membership was a key part of Uzabases plans for Quartz; this was our Ken Doctors take on the sale last year:

At the core of this transaction: a lack of overlap and a promise of synergy. Quartz brings a big English-language audience and sophisticated ad selling and event marketing. Uzabase emerging in Japan and more widely in Asia with both B2B and B2C business news products opens up possibilities for faster Quartz expansion

The move also clears the way for Quartz itself to move into the digital subscription space, a plan that has been awaiting execution as its audience grew. With its high-rate ad business, Lauf has told me the company wanted to move carefully as it added another leg of revenue. Now, it looks the time may be right.

Lauf told me today that the company had already accelerated its subscription plans earlier this year, before the sale became likely. Could Quartz offer a subscription product within 18 months. Yes, he said.

(It barely took four.)

While Quartz now has a traditional metered paywall, its membership offering is pitched differently than most outlets more as an investment in the readers career, almost an educational product. Along with no paywall, it promises:

Its meant to be a core part of the Quartz user experience rather than a premium-content add-on, Seward says. Quartz is focused on repackaging its journalism into longer-lasting resources for members like field guides and slide decks (it is a business audience, after all). Thats how he sees the outlet breaking out of the rest of the business reporting pack. Quartz is best at is providing a guide to the global economy with a particular focus on how businesses and industries are changing, he said.

For example: Every week we produce a really deep dive on a company or industry or business trend that weve identified as really for you to understand if you want to understand the global economy. Weve done nearly 50 of them at this point. Those are very unlike news coverage, in that all 50 of the news guides weve produced remain valuable today. As members you get access to all of it. In that sense its more similar to an Audible.com subscription, where youre getting access to this huge library of journalism, than it is to a daily news subscription. Members can also tune into conference calls with Quartz reporters digesting the issues or watch mini-documentaries about them.

Quartz has probably changed its homepage more than any other major digital outlet: It launched without a traditional homepage at all you were thrown straight into the top story of the moment launched without a homepage at all, later turned it into a web version of its morning Daily Brief email, and eventually an artier version of something more traditional.

Quartzs new homepage looks less like a news site and more like a personal dashboard, greeting members by name with a time-appropriate Good afternoon and offering a briefing-like experience covering what Quartz sees as the top stories of the moment, usually grouped into larger topics. To emphasize its members, a selection of their comments appear right on the homepage itself underneath stories. (Members are usually identified by their titles; some highlighted on the homepage today include a Futurist, Strategist, Philosopher, someone Spearheading the Transhumanist Movement, and a Founder at Virgin Group. That would be Richard Branson.)

(Its also being a bit more aggressive on pricing, offering a 40-percent-off coupon that lowers a new subscribers first-year price to $60.)

Quartz announced a key hire this morning, bringing Walt Frick (a former Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow here) aboard as membership editor, coming over from Harvard Business Review.

In the meantime, Quartz is also working on strengthening the journalism as well as broadening the perks. It recently launched its first-ever investigations team, which isnt usually a short-term, small expense. John Keefe will lead the four-person reporting team digging into online advertising and political influence ahead of the U.S. presidential election, leaning on the grant-funded Quartz AI Studio to infuse more machine learning-powered reporting into the investigations. Seward said it wasnt a hard choice as an investment:

As we focus on membership and our relationship to members, a number one thing that members and potential members want from Quartz is our journalism. So it becomes a pretty easy calculus.

The rest is here:
Publishers are going to live or die based on their relationship with readers: How Quartz is rethinking its membership offerings - Nieman Journalism...

Im at a challenging place in my manhood. Im developed enough to know that sports dont really matter, at all. In a world threatened by global warming and profound political corruption, while being transformed by quantum technological advancement, the Super Bowl, for example, is so obviously irrelevant that even having an opinion about who wins is basically absurd.

I know this. I read books. I write plays. I publish essays like this one. Companies hire me to create their communications strategies. Im a thinking person, dammit. But I really wanted the Rams to kick the Patriots asses. And I dont even follow football.

My partner Bernie relieves herself instantly of any potential sports angst by simply switching allegiance to whoevers winning. Even the Dodgers. She has no idea why I object to this. Why do I object to this? Im a transhumanist. I see us using technology to take charge of our destinies, create abundance, and live unlimited lifespans. Why should we be subject to the whims of sports?

It helps that the hometown Phoenix Suns are so hideously, perpetually incompetent that I cant bear to care. But thats a bit like a smoker being too depressed to light up, isnt it? Eventually, things will turn around and then where are you?

Growing up in Washington DC, my oldest brother taught me to play basketball in fifth grade and I loved everything about it. The sounds alone quickened me the thump of dribbling, the sneaker squeak of cutting, the swish of a made shot. And I loved, just as much the movement the full court sprint, the change of direction, and the jumping, always the jumping, filling walls then ceilings all over the house with my fingerprints. I loved the ball itself, its size and heft and subtle texture, which spoke to my fingertips in a language that so exquisitely bypassed my brain.

I poured my solitude into basketball, even when asthma made my lungs feel like sacks of sand. When I wasnt playing at school, I played at the playground in my DC neighborhood. I idolized the lanky high school-aged black kids that played in that smooth style that is DC basketball. They didnt think and then move; they played at the speed of spontaneity, out of their minds. I wanted that freedom.

A little white kid, I looked like the type who worked tirelessly to develop a pure jump shot, his one ticket to be on the court. But I was at my best on the move, driving to the basket. This consistently surprised the black kids, who had their own stereotypes. Plus, who wanted to defend a whirling, wheezing white kid who played as if his very self-worth depended on beating you to the spot?

In high school, I finally outgrew asthma and developed physically. By tenth grade, I was winning trophies. I played in a kind of mental bubble, holding my brain at bay, so that it would not block me from moving freely through the game. I had my best games when I was sick; the weakness forced me to an extreme focus, which shut out thought entirely, and the points came in a seemingly automatic flow.

But one day the schools athletic director made a point of taking me aside to inform me that I wasnt as good as I thought and that I would never play at the next level. I had dreamed of being great. It may have always been just a fantasy, but I had already taken a little boys vision of being a high school star and birthed it whole out of my heart, so who was to say? I had the love and the legs, and I had no other dream.

But his words instantly jarred me out of that reverie. Perhaps Id never really believed in myself. Or maybe I just didnt understand where belief came from, thinking it originated from others who could be relied upon to accurately inform me of what I could and could not be. But now I know better.

Ive had brushes with real sports stars. I worked at the first PF Changs restaurant in Scottsdale, outside of Phoenix, back when it was the hot spot in town, when Charles Barkley brought in Michael Jordan, who walked through the restaurant like a god, as the Saturday night din noticeably lowered, heads turned, the air buzzing with awareness of him.

I brought the food to their table once, putting a dish of Orange Peel Chicken in front of Jordan. But the server whod taken the order had somehow botched it Jordan didnt want Orange Peel Chicken. The poor girl, of course, apologized profusely and offered to bring him what hed like. Everything was wok preparedit would only take moments. But he wouldnt let her correct her error, and sedately ate nothing while the rest dug in. Asshole.

I played basketball with the Hall of Fame Quarterback Kurt Warner at the YMCA when he was working his way back to the Cardinals from an injury. The first time I saw him, he was reading his leather-bound bible, waiting for his game. Kurt competed hard, sometimes dominating games, but he played clean and fair, more so than some of the regulars.

Of course, it doesnt matter who these stars really are; it matters who we are. This came to me recently as I was listening to sports talk radio on the way to a client meeting. I know, what could be dumber than listening to people who are so moronic they not only think and talk about sports all day, they get intense, even self-righteous about their utterly trivial perspectives on events with no inherent significance in the first place.

Ill tell you what could be dumber, its the desire to call in.

But they were talking about the freshman basketball phenom at Duke, Zion Williamson, and comparing him to Charles Barkley and Sean Kemp. No way! Hes like a young Dominique Wilkins, the Human Highlight Film, who played for the Atlanta Hawks in the 80s and early 90s, after a sterling career at the University of Georgia. Dont they know anything?

I didnt call in. The freeway traffic was roiling around me like a rodeo, which demanded my focus, considering my unlimited, tech-enabled future might be at stake. But it did make me reflect. I mean, what if the Suns, as a reward for their heinousness, got the number one overall draft pick again? What if they drafted Williamson and turned it around and became contenders? Would that make me any more of a human being? Would that advance me in any significant way as a man?

I dont know, but that 2001 World Series victory by the Diamondbacks was pretty sweet! But was all the suffering before and after made good by that one season of fulfillment?

While Im asking myself these questions another part of me, my cerebral cortex perhaps, which is supposed to give humans the ability to self-evolve and innovate, is trying to make the point that these questions are really irrelevant because its all joy or suffering by proxy anyway; because Im not actually a player on a winning or a losing team; Im just a guy watching. So emotionally, sports is just a simulation, like the Matrix. Its not really happening, not to me.

I may be overthinking this.

I get to my appointment and present the communications strategy. The client gets it, they love it, were good. Which is important. Because this is how I actually earn a living. Back to sports.

Driving home on the radio, theyre talking about the very scenario Id run in my own mind, with the Suns tanking so they could draft Williamson. Weird. Is this evidence of a simulation in action?

Another thought: maybe the car radio is the trigger. Maybe when we have self-driving cars and I can nap my way to appointments the future is going to be amazing maybe then I can beat this sports thing.

Alternatively, several decades down the road, because Im still alive and well, maybe Ill look back on this moment and be so evolved, so advanced, not just technologically, but emotionally, spiritually even, that the whole thing will seem like some kindergarten drama Ive so far outgrown I cant even grasp now what it was about.

Or maybe, just maybe, a millennium from now, Ill have lived long enough to see the Suns get their act together, and build not just a contender, but a champion, no a repeat champion, and it will all have been worth it.

Excerpted from Outlier Heart by Joe Bardin

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Sports Man of the Future - The Good Men Project

Read Story Transcript

Canadians are heading to the polls in two weeks, but one futurist argues that one day we'll be casting our votes for a robot prime minister.

"At some point we're going to create a machine that's better than the human brain, and that machine is going to be better at running the planet and running the world," said Zoltan Istvan.

"You really have an opportunity here to maybe get what we can see as true leadership, for the very first time in perhaps everyone's lifetime."

Istvan ran in the 2016 U.S. presidential election under the banner of the Transhumanist Party, a group that believes in using technology to modify and enhance our intellect and bodies as long as no harm results to anyone else. He is not running in the 2020 campaign.

He said people he met along the campaign trailwere skeptical of the Transhumanist pitch, but argued that people underestimate how quickly technology is advancing.

He told The Current's Laura Lynch that "almost every single action that a human does, a machine can almost certainly do dramatically better."

"When you talk about running a country, you talk about governing for the greatest good," Istvansaid. "Amachine is going to have better algorithms."

He added that one benefit of robot leaders would be that they could improve over time, weeding out idiosyncrasies or issues experienced by previous iterations.

A robotprogrammed to lead wouldn't necessarilybe stuck behind a desk on Parliament Hill it could beartificial intelligence that you could access anywhere, like a smart speaker in your living room.

The implication for democracy would be that "in the future, an AI will be able to keep on millions and millions of close relationships with its voters base," Istvansaid.

It "might be campaigning right in your living room," he added.

"That's where this becomes really interesting, is a really direct relationship with a potential AI political leader."

Kerstin Dautenhahn, Canada 150 research chair in intelligent robotics, said she "would definitely not want political leaders to be robots."

She told Lynch that "we need to maybe be realistic on what machines are good at, and what humans are good at."

"AI is certainly very good [at] enhancing vast amounts of data, so for example, recognizing one face in a million different faces, or collecting data on people's habits and then recognizing patterns," said Dautenhahn, director of the social and intelligentrobotics research lab at the University of Waterloo.

"What machines are not very good at is common sense and general intelligence, so for example machines lack compassion, they lack empathy."

Dautenhahn said those common sense decisions are vital for politicians "because they are dealing with incomplete information, they have to make quick decisions, they have to make predictions."

"That's what people are very good at and it is because we are human beings," she said.

Istvan argued that decisions based on emotion can lead to "total chaos."

"That's why we want pure reason, pure statistical analysis," he said.

He told Lynch that "even if the picture is incomplete, a statistical analysis of that would make a much better decision than something that comes out with emotions."

"Frankly, the last thing I want is [U.S. President Donald] Trump to be emotional as he's making decisions with the military and things like that."

Istvan said the qualities needed for leadership could eventually be programmed into robots, but Dautenhahn warned that the people programming them could unwittingly introduce their own biases.

"I would certainly not vote for a robot because ... there's no such thing as pure rational decision-making," she said.

Dautenhahn acknowledged that humans make mistakes, but perhaps robotics could be used to help us make better-informed decisions, rather than just making them for us.

"I think humans are pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good in what they're doing, and they can certainly be complemented by AI, in areas where the AI is very good."

Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Ben Jamieson.

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Could a robot be prime minister? Machines will soon be smart enough to run the world, says futurist - CBC.ca