As promised, here’s my essay:

The Sacred Road to the Stars
http://www.transfigurist.org/2016/06/the-sacred-road-to-stars.html

Hi Bob, of course I’ll share my new article here. I would also be happy to write stories for Hieroglyph and, in general, contribute more. I think Hieroglyph hasn’t achieved a critical mass yet, but once it has a critical mass it will play an important role.

I am reading the book again. Best passage: “Freerunner landed 0413 Zulu on August 10,…[Read more]

I came back after a few months and decided that this is one of my favorite websites and really, really deserves more popularity and activity, so I’m restarting this discussion of a few months ago. Bob, what’s new and exciting?

I wrote about transhumanism and manned deep space exploration in “Why we should send uploaded astronauts on interstellar missions.”

I am persuaded that, ultimately, “the stars are not for Man” (Arthur C. Clarke in Childhood’s End) but for our post-biological successors – AIs, uploads and hybrids.

However, the stars are there, we are here, and we…[Read more]

Thanks for replying Bob. I just shared the HoloLens article on r/virtualreality.

The forums are hidden behind a clickwall (these days even one click is too many). Any way for us readers to submit blog posts to be shown on the frontpage?

I am afraid “Friendly AI” is an oxymoron: If one can only be friendly than he’s not intelligent, and if one is intelligent then he’s not necessarily friendly. Just like, you know, our kids. We try to push them to do what we want, but they do what they want, and that is good.
I think AI (or hopefully hybrid human/AI) is our future, but we should…[Read more]

Exactly what you say: “a world where genetic and cybernetic enhancements are the cosmetics of the day.”

Genetic and cyber ehnancement seem momentous, world-changing ideas to us, but I guess they will be seen as just business and usual and part of the texture of daily life, just like cosmetics, by future generations.

I think some fluid forms of religion, compatible with science, emotionally powerful but also flexible enough to avoid ossification and constantly renew their vision, could play a big positive role.

Solseed is a great initiative. You may find my article “Octavia Butlers fictional religion of ‘Earthseed’ inspires real religious movement” int…[Read more]

@Wendy re “Our personality isn’t simply our consciousness and/or knowledge, it has to do with emotional responses which are defined by our experience and physical response to stimuli. As we grow up we learn to define the combination of physical responses into emotions: excitement, lust, fear, happiness
Without a body, would we be able to r…[Read more]

Thanks Brenda for recommending Blue Remembered Earth.

Note that the term “Quantum Archaeology” is frequently used to indicate hypothetical technologies for reviving people who have NOT left a lot of information behind, for example people who died hundreds of years ago. “Quantum” indicates that these far-future super-technologies may have…[Read more]

@Rudy re “I think you can use quantum entanglement for telepathy with one caveat: you can’t remember the contents of the communication, otherwise you get Faster Than Light communication.”

Communication via entanglement implies FTL only if the interval between transmission and reception is space-like (the two events transmission-reception are o…[Read more]

@Geoffrey re “immortals can’t learn everything– there has to be a limit on information storage in the brain somewhere!”

Not if they can add storage space to their brains, just like we add storage space to our computers. I think we can’t learn _everything_ because _everything_ can be an infinite amount of information, but future immortals will be…[Read more]

@mburnamf re “I think that such a place, if it existed, would need oversight. The planet would be rightfully concerned if Mad Scientist Island started dumping toxins into the environment, or systemically violating human rights. Independent research enclaves could be a great idea-if they could be inspected without destroying their unique…[Read more]

I think the most interesting “new” concept in economics does not come from science-fiction, but is actually very old, much older than economy as-we-know-it.

It is the old concept of P2P exchanges between people, unmonitored and unregulated by states.

Bitcoin can be seen as the beginning of a system to enable this P2P model. That’s why, of…[Read more]