Promote TransHumanists.org

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Permalink Reply by Christopher on August 10, 2007 at 9:00am

Agreed, Adam...I must admit I haven't been putting as much energy into promotion as I did when the site opened and that was through strictly the familiar channels (transhumanist forums, blogs, etc.) so it was mostly preaching to the choir. It would be nice to bring it transhumanism away from the fringe and popularize our ideas. Ideally, for me, it would make a nice alternative to religion and could possibly be 'marketed' as such. We need to drop the stigma that we are just a bunch of nerds who want to live forever. Honestly, transhumanism doesn't get a lot of favourable press outside its' small bubble. Transvision 2007, arguably the most prominent gathering of transhumanists, had little more than 100 attendees and received no mainstream press (unless you consider Reason Magazine mainstream) so I think we need to show that we are made of bigger ideas than tucking into our carbon freezing chambers.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher on August 10, 2007 at 8:51pm

Spot on, mate...other than "3) Allay people's fears of death. Transhumanism scores quite well here with life-extension and cryonics." I doubt this allays fear of death. It may, in fact, exacerbate the fear by trying to escape the inevitable. I absolutely agree that only when people are ready for the ideas they will embrace them and, let's face it, transhumanist ideas are still well ahead of the general pace. Until then, let's just keep chewin' the fat.

On further consideration, I can see how life extension can provide some existential comfort.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Sabourin on August 13, 2007 at 5:03am

I think all we really need is one Blockbuster movie to bring the idea into the mainstream.

With all the sci fi geeks and nerds out there it's hard to believe that idea of transhumanism hasn't already taken off.

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Permalink Reply by Peregryn on August 14, 2007 at 8:34am

I found that Ghost in the Shell was an excellent movie for bringing up very Transhumanist themes and even discussing the issues met by a Transhumanist society, although it never mentions Transhumanism itself, which is unfortunate, since it is actually fairly popular.

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Permalink Reply by Dan on August 16, 2007 at 5:19am

"Ghost in the Shell was an excellent movie for bringing up very Transhumanist themes"

Yeah, couldn't agree more - but I think it's audience is limited because it's an animation.It would be great to see a block buster version of 'Diaspora' or something similar.

Until then we'll have to put up with film adaptations of Micheal Criton's books (with their bitter bioconservative subtext).

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Permalink Reply by Dan on August 16, 2007 at 5:47am

Here's a crazy idea: you've heard of mail campaigns? Sending loads of protest letters to a particular beaurocrat in a vain attempt to bully them into seeing sense?

How about starting a mail campaign against various hollywood directors? ;)

Send each one loads of transhumanist blockbuster-scripts year after year. Eventually one of them will break under the pressure (or maybe their paper shredder will break first...)

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Permalink Reply by Acumensch on September 12, 2007 at 4:40am

I think that's a good idea too.

I'm working on a short music video promoting Transhumanism. I made a video a while ago using Ghost in the Shell clips, but I'm working on one with some other student directors and we're using real footage.

Transhumanism is always portrayed badly in dystopian films and books, and so I wanted to spin it in a positive way and see what the results and reactions would be.

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Permalink Reply by Dan on August 16, 2007 at 5:23am

I agree 100%!

One thing that irritates me regularly is that the 'average Jo' is so out of touch with science (let alone transhumanist ideas).

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Permalink Reply by Sean Henderson on September 13, 2007 at 10:03pm

Judging by the activity levels on popular forums - it seems that in order to raise numbers you have to provide means for social stratification : whereby people compete for prominence and recieve rewards for doing so.

So how do we provide these rewards and develop a means to compete for prominence without running against the ideals of the movement? Wish i had a ten-point plan for this...

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Permalink Reply by Eric on April 30, 2008 at 12:14pm

People are coming around to this cause for sure. When you talk to them act like its already happening, it is, and act like you think its bizzarre that they arent a part of it. It makes them feel like they arent going with the crowd. Dont even talk to them in terms of there being so many people out there to sway toward this, until youve hooked them and reeled them in.

I need a video clip that is a direct plug for this transhumanist site. Is there a video like that, or can somebody make? I imagine 4 to 8 minutes long. It doesnt need to be proffesional.

Can somebody just get on cam and give the mission of this place and give a few insightful quotes or something and say what people can do?

Im going to use these videos on a page networking all these transhumanist sites.

Please write me at myspace.com/uneed2balifeextensionist if you respond to this. Im going to so many sites I may not find this again.

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