Hello online universe!

I confess that I feel daunted. So many people have blogs these days. I keep coming across blogs of amazing quality written by brilliant people. What can I add to what they have to say?

Plenty! My perspective on big issues is often contrary in ways minor or major. My background as a transhumanist over several decades gives me an unusual perspective. As I enter my sixth decade I see a lot of potential in the future but an awful lot going wrong. I want to do my bit to realize the potential of humans to create an increasingly marvelous future and to head us off from bad policies that drain our freedom, our health, and our ability to learn and grow.

My history and background make my thinking different. Yes, I know, “we are all different” as Monty Python taught us – except for the one guy who isn’t different from all the people who are. But I’m a bit differently different and hope that makes what I have to say interesting. I was fascinated with space travel from as early as I can remember, staying up as late as necessary to watch every Apollo launch, starting at age 5. From the age of 10 or 11 I explored the various “occult” beliefs and various religions, until concluding that none of them were convincing.

I did poorly at school from 10 to 16 or so. Then my reading ignited me and before long my school had to let me take the Oxbridge (Oxford and Cambridge) exams. At Oxford I took Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, the perceived value of which has plummeted due to its association with British politicians.

Even before I went to Oxford, I became involved in cryonics and in 1985-6 started the first cryonics organization in the UK (and Europe, I think) with a few friends. In 1987, I left England for California to study philosophy. Soon after arriving, with my friend Tom I started the first fully and explicitly transhumanist magazine, Extropy: Vaccine for Future Shock (later changed to a more academic Extropy: The Journal of Transhumanist Studies). I then started Extropy Institute, got married to the amazing Natasha Vita-More (1996), we held five transhumanist Extro conferences, and I eventually went on to run the cryonics organization Alcor for a decade. I’ve met many remarkable people and explored many fascinating ideas. All that and more informs what I will write.

I’m working on two books, in the course of which I’m sure to generate material that I will try out on this blog. The first book is a long-overdue collection of some of my essays from the last 30+ years, many of which revolve around or reflect a transhumanist perspective. This consists of 45 essays on transhumanist ideas, the Singularity, risk and decision making, and economics and politics.

I’m writing introductions to each essay, putting them in the perspective of history and current thinking. These include several transhumanist declarations and principles, a couple of versions of the Proactionary Principle, tough pushback on a range of anti-transhumanist critics, philosophical explorations of personal identity, change, and death, and my version of rationalism. I’m having fun writing the introductions and relating the essays to what people are thinking today and how the intellectual environment differed at the time. People used to say that I had crazy ideas rather frequently. Today, many of the ideas are either accepted or widely debated.

The second book is on cryonics and, more broadly, biostasis. My interest in cryonics as a means of potentially avoiding permanent death goes back to the early to mid-1980s. I’m more convinced than ever that it’s something we need and should be working on far harder. I don’t know of any single book that makes the case sufficiently well. I want my book to be that book.

This isn’t my first blog. I still have one on Blogspot. Probably, I’ll move some of the material from there over here, sometimes with some updates. My website is also overdue for an update. When I finally get that done, you’ll hear about it here.

To sum up what to expect, here are topics you’re likely to see covered here:

• Life extension economics, psychology, and culture

• Why we should be accelerating technology, including AI

• Transhumanism – perspectives on its history and development, responses to anti-transhumanists

• Risk and decision making under uncertainty

• Biostasis/cryonics

• Critical commentary on the Singularity and panic over an AI takeover.

• Positive takes on the future

• Commentary on economic policy especially as it relates to growth, freedom, and technological innovation

• Healthcare policy

• Philosophy, especially around future-related topics

• Critical perspectives on energy and environmental and resource issues

Frequency: We will see. Expect something at least weekly. Shorter pieces probably more often. Despite being future-oriented I’m not a fan of predictions and it’s way too soon to predict my output here.

Don’t expect the kind of absurdly long blogs that seem to be becoming more common. Occasionally these are called for but brevity is better if more difficult for the writer. “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter blog.”

Free vs. paid: It seems presumptuous to offer paid subscriptions right away. However, two people immediately pledged so I’m going to turn on paid. Thank you!

Style: If you are drawn to the numerous online writers who cover a wide array of topics with great certainty in their beliefs, this may not be for you. On topics that I’ve thought long and hard about, I may be hard to budge. But doubt and a willingness to reconsider beliefs is extremely important to me.

I look forward to communicating with you and hope to see your feedback.

Let’s go!

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