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#Welcome to version 2021 of Transhumanism.
[[Click to read the release notes.]]
</center>#December 10, 2021
##Transhumanism (v.2021): Afrofuturist Upgrade Available, Adds Race
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* ''Added recognition of race as a technology''
Transhumanism articulates a vision of freedom from aging, disease, and physical vulnerability that is brought about from technology. In doing so, transhumanism reveals the potential for existential hope: “the chance of something extremely good happening” (Owen Cotton-Barratt and Toby Ord 2015). However, it has previously overlooked nondigital technologies, such as race, which are crucial tools in this struggle. Like any tool, race can be used for good or bad. Like any tool, it is constructed by humans. This upgrade explicitly recognizes race as a technology, incorporating it into the transhumanist vision
By acknowledging race as a technology, Transhumanism finally offers a vision of existential hope that is racialized. Transhumanism now acknowledges that contemporary racial arrangements were not inevitable—and so race, too, can be changed and upgraded.
* ''Added racial freedom as a necessary module for human evolution''
Recognizing race as technology leads naturally into understanding current racial arrangements, and the structures that maintain them, as barriers to transhumanist transformation. There can be no liberation from humankind’s physical limitations without first ensuring that all humans are afforded the same liberations. This will not be achieved while injustice, born out of societal norms around race, exists. Thus, Transhumanism cannot fulfil its aims until racial freedom is achieved.
Therefore, Transhumanists must work towards racial freedom, which is not only a goal per se but also imperative for the path to Transhumanism.
* ''Added support for cross-movement visioning''
Transhumanism posits itself as “a new outlook that helps us become more human,” but by itself Transhumanism is not sufficiently robust. One deficiency lies in its (in)ability to transform the way that race is used, which is a necessary module in human evolution. Thus, to progress Transhumanism, this upgrade increases its compatibility with other movements. Natively, Transhumanism supports Afrofuturism but can be easily adapted to collectively envision futures in which all of humanity can flourish with other movements. To this end, Transhumanism now explicitly encourages cooperation with other movements, as it acknowledges that it is insufficient as a standalone movement.
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* ''Replaced biological upgrades with social upgrades''
So long as racial injustice exists, it is more important to focus on transforming social technologies such as race. Otherwise, the distribution of biological upgrades will occur in an inequitable environment, which prevents the Transhumanist goal of universal physical liberation. This does not mean that research on biological advancements cannot happen concurrently with the quest for racial liberation: in fact, it is important to continue making scientific breakthroughs that will alleviate suffering for all beings. However, the implementation of biological upgrades should follow naturally from the implementation of social upgrades.
* ''Corrected the interpretation of the cause(s) of social division''
Originally, the Transhumanist Manifesto suggested that discriminatory behavior such as racism originated from the human psyche. This is so obvious as to be trivial—yet this ignores the larger, systemic causes of discrimination. Tackling the emotions of fear, greed, and uncertainty will not unravel the policies that maintain current social arrangements or the inertia that arises from immense privilege disparities. Hence, to improve the utility of Transhumanism, the Transhumanist Manifesto now addresses the root causes of social division.
[[Click to read the updated manifesto.]] — <a href="https://uchicagoedu-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/starmz_uchicago_edu/EVGHyzRrMeRLuvhdI-2ut28BBEOPTTaYNkVYv04Pd6iZlQ?e=knVf1S" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read the changelog here.</a>
[[Click to read the upgrade instructions.]]
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##References
Owen Cotton-Barratt and Toby Ord. 2015. “Existential Risk and Existential Hope: Definitions.” Future of Humanity Institute. http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/.<a href="https://www.humanityplus.org/the-transhumanist-manifesto">The Transhumanist Manifesto</a>
//<a href="https://www.natashavita-more.com/">Natasha Vita-More</a> and Miranda Zhang. (Revised 2021 v.2021, Original 1993)
<a href="https://uchicagoedu-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/starmz_uchicago_edu/EVGHyzRrMeRLuvhdI-2ut28BBEOPTTaYNkVYv04Pd6iZlQ?e=knVf1S" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read the changelog here.</a>//
The Transhumanist Manifesto challenges the human condition. This condition asserts that aging is a disease, augmentation and enhancement to the human body and brain are essential to prevail, and that well-being is essential to prosper within safe and healthy environments.
Understanding these conditions are core to the philosophy and worldview of transhumanism and advocate for the ethical use of technology and evidence-based science to intervene and effectively mitigate aging and to retreat from “genetic liability by advancing genetic liberty”. These actions must be reached with a mindful, reasonable approach to preserve ecology.
##Human Aging: The Option of Equal Aging and Ageless Thinking
Aging is a disease. The aim is to mitigate aging and extend life beyond the maximum lifespan. The criteria for measurements chronological age are changing and countering the biases of ageist behaviors that restrict and damper peoples’ purposefulness in life.
It is known that medical and social interventions that mitigate disease and aim to restore health and well-being have advanced exponentially. Genomics has made it possible to predict, diagnose, and treat diseases with more precision and focused on personalized care. Abolition has made it possible to reduce disparities in suffering and longevity between Black and non-black people. While medical science and social policy is advancing, these do not resolve the issues of human biology and the maximum lifespan, nor of inhuman discrimination and constructed disparity. To ameliorate this liability before aging is resolved through nanomedicine and other innovations, upgrades to the technology of race, along with augmentation and enhancement to the human body and brain are essential for survival. To seek this goal, Afrofuturists have drawn upon the concept of “Sankofa”—looking back to go forward—to imagine futures that repair societal failings and liberate all beings. Biological liberation is not egalitarian if it does not come with social liberation, and social liberation cannot come about without first examining inequalities in health and beyond.
Each person deserves the right of genetic liberty. People have a fundamental right to own their body, shape who they are, and live their lives. Morphological Freedom meets this condition by protecting a person’s right to augment and enhance and protects a person’s right never to be coerced to augment and enhance. Yet, Morphological Freedom will not be afforded equally to all without Racial Freedom. Time and time again, structural inequality has withheld these fundamental rights from oppressed groups such as women or Black people. In the year 2021, there is a discourse that even seeks to frame these rights as “privileges”. (i) Thus, Transhumanists fight for racial liberation as part of the struggle for agelessness.
Human life is not restricted to any one form or by any one environment. Environments are the sole factor for the existence of life whether it be the biosphere on earth, digitality of cyberspace, artificial simulations of virtual reality, or the life support systems within outer space. However, human experience is restricted by the interaction between the environment and one’s physical and social forms. Aging and physical death is experienced by all human life but life that takes, for example, the form of a Black person, may experience inevitable social death. To maintain existence, all environments require safe and healthy infrastructures that protect life and eliminate threats to life. To maintain a positive mindset, ageless thinking liberates us from the captivity of disease.
##A Vision for Shared Appreciation of Life and Purpose
People create theories and related opinions that can bring about discord and divisiveness by pitting one belief against another with false assumptions and suggest one group as being more or less worthy than another based on age, gender, race, appearance, religion, beliefs, and political and social status. This sentiment is not about biology or human evolution; it is about a fiction turned fact that is upheld by ignorance, nostalgia, and history. Humanity needs a change—a new outlook that helps us become more human.
This something new is transhumanism(iii)—a worldview that seeks a quality of life that brings about perpetual progress, self-transformation, practical optimism, visionary solutions, and critical thinking—the transhuman.
The transhuman (iv) is a biological-technological-sociocultural organism, a transformation of the human species that continues to evolve with technology. This evolution is understood within the fields of paleontology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, sociology, and anthropology. It is further studied and understood in philosophical discourse, public policy, and social and cultural studies. It is made aware and realized through advances in technology that bring about new racial arrangements, reconfigurations to the modules of ‘justice’ and ‘freedom,’ and a recognition in the equality of all human forms. It is evidenced in the recognition of medical racism, reparations for the role that Black people have played in scientific breakthroughs, and the disentangling of health disparities caused by genetics from those caused by racism. . On an environmental level, it is experienced in unprecedented investment in infrastructure to elevate the wellbeing of dispossessed communities: Black, poor, and non-Black people of color alike. On an interactive level, it is experienced in the usage of virtual reality, augmented reality, video games, and other artificial environments to imagine radically hopeful futures—ones where the reality of race is not handwaved away by the possibility of digital blackface.
##Life Extension & Expansion
Life extension aims to increase the maximum human lifespan. Life expansion means increasing the length of time a person is alive and diversifying the matter in which increasing options and capabilities a person exists. For human life, the length of time is bounded by a single century and its matter is tied to biology.
To pursue longevity, it is crucial to uncover visible and invisible borders between interconnecting forces that disrupt health and well-being. As such, transhumanists must interrogate the system of racial inequity which creates and maintains health disparities. It is also necessary to actively address ethical concerns about science and technology with reasonable defense, to protect human rights, including morphological freedom(v).
Transhumanism is the first philosophy and worldview to publicly proclaim the need to eradicate disease and to advocate for longevity and ageless thinking. Transhumanists have contributed toward the ideas, research, development, and education of longevity through science, technology and addressed governing bodies and groups on the ethical use of technology such as AI, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering.
Transhumanism is the world’s strongest advocacy for a positive future in changing the human condition of disease, poverty and prejudice toward health, well-being, and prosperity. But transhumanism can only achieve its goals when in dialogue with other social movements, such as Afrofuturism, which envision a free future for all humans.
##I Would Rather be a Transhuman than a (Black) Cyborg
Comparisons are often drawn between the cyborg and the transhuman deliberately and also unwittingly. A cyborg is positioned as an endpoint for the integration of human, machine, and computer; however, the transhuman is a continuous human evolution. This evolution includes a confluence of organic human, technological advances in AI, nanomedicine, and gene therapies that mitigate disease, the devices and prosthetics and enhance biology that append biology, and an awareness of personal identity, as a transformative, telematic, and expanded agency that expands through new tech-communication systems.
Yet, humankind must first evolve beyond Black cyborgs to become transhuman. Black cyborgs are positioned as the present form of a Black moral agent aiming to refuse victimization: they exist so long as society casts Black beings as inhuman, requiring Black people to be superhuman to become human. Until Black cyborgs no longer exist, there can be no Black transhuman and so no transhumanism. Therefore, transhumanists are committed to transforming the conditions that reproduce Black victimization and produce Black cyborgs.
Simply adding gadgetry to our bodies will not make us modern or evolved, nor will designing new bodies and environment to inhabit without a transdisciplinary strategy. The technology of race, and any other oppressive tool, must evolve before humankind can truly progress. The human body and its diversification require a cross-pollination of conjectural, multidimensional processes for addressing complex issues that reach beyond the cyborg.
##Transhumanist Rights, Freedom & Ecology
The imperative and immediate campaigns for equity of rights and freedom form advocacies that stand apart from binary thinking. There must be an impartial acceptance of differences that establish models for justice and equity. It is imperative that human and non-human rights continue to evolve at the speed of information through impartial decision-making. The time is right to step back and consider the potential for a wide-eyed confidence for human and future sapience in a healthy ecology.
For any form of freedom to function as a right within society, tolerance and equity is needed and the right of personhood or agency needs to be protected. Transhumanism offers this objective because at its core, it is guided by life-promoting principles and values. This aim is realized by promoting interdisciplinary approaches to understand and evaluate the human condition as a transformational process. One aspect of transhumanism that offers a universal sensibility is that it strives to explore and elucidate the need for inclusivity, plurality, and continuous questioning of our knowledge, as we are a species and a society that is forever changing. While the worldview of transhumanism has commonly shared epistemological and metaphysical views with diverse approaches to transhumanist thought, the goal is to improve the human condition.
Critiquing ideas by inquiry to gain better understanding is necessary for advancing knowledge. Yet, criticizing by politicizing transhumanism as a socio-economic benefit is misleading. Opponents who suggest that transhumanism favors humans over other life-forms further misunderstand the transhumanist vision. These heavy-handed, mistaken mindsets ignore the overriding transhumanist respect for human potential and for the future. Rather than react to exaggerated fears, the transhumanist approach has been to respond to the qualified, serious fears with qualified, serious investigations. The best defense is knowledge—a powerful offence that engages a mindfulness about humanity’s future. This characteristic of practical optimism, along with the erudition of many transhumanists in their respective fields, has accelerated the worldview of transhumanism as a largescale movement.
Transhumanist advocacy for improving the human condition, especially health and well-being, will benefit the symbiotic ecology of all life systems. As a global society and within diverse governing structures, people ought to have the right to determine how they want to live, for how long, and if they want to opt in or out of biomedical anti-aging therapies. The decision-making regulations must be impartial, equitable, and include a person’s legal ownership of body and mind. While these might seem to be questions for the distant future, in truth these issues are current because AI is already being used in medicine and anti-aging databases. This immediately triggers concerns about racial and gender bias, surveillance, and privacy, and makes the right to bodily ownership an imperative and immediate concern(ii).
##Transhumanist Political Potential & Sensibility
The phrase Transhumanist Politics refers to the various political views that support and endorse the transhumanist agenda. The is no one transhumanist politics. The aim is to adapt to change and to apply effective strategies to provide reasonable socio-economic structures that seek fairness and impartiality.
//Transhumanist Politics can be traced back to 1992 when (Vita-More) ran for office in Los Angeles County representing the 28th State Senate District for County Councilperson. was elected on the Green Party ticket with a platform endorsing technology for mitigating environmental issues such as pollution and climate change.//
The Transhumanist Platform was established to bring to the mainstream an awareness of emerging technologies that could be used to counter environmental problems, including pollution and climate change, and to protect all life forms in a defensible, healthy ecosystem. However, this just one of the many issues that diplomatic policy-making needs to be realized.
In 2004, transhumanists organized the <a href="https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2004/02/vital-progress-summit/">Vital Progress Summit</a> in an attempt to counter the Beyond Therapy <a href="https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/research/pbc/reports/beyondtherapy/">Report</a> authored by members of the US President’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Council_on_Bioethics">Bioethics Council</a>. The Vital Progress Summit resulted in what is known as the Proactionary Principle. This principle is an indispensable, ethical decision-making principle that offers a balanced approach to access risks and opportunities by placing the burden of proof on all sides of the debate.
There are numerous approaches to developing political advocacy in support of a transhumanist agenda, which serves a greater purpose than political tribes that use politics to argue personal moral beliefs in the name of politics. Most transhumanists are diverse and are more interested in problems solving than aligning with a political position; however, with the caveat that the positions support and advocate the goals of transhumanism. Acknowledgement should be given to groups throughout the world that focus on the political spectrum that classifies different political views and independent political dimensions(xv), (xvi).
//“Transhuman politics are diverse and while many of us are left ((technoprogressive), liberal, socialist, green) (, and some are in the middle (technoproactive and others classical liberalism)), and others toward the right (conservative, libertarian), many are independent. No matter left or right all these political views are transhumanists. Transhuman or Transhumanist politics is currently focused on a collaborative perspective. Most transhumanists today align with Technoprogressive politics, as outlined in its Declaration".(xvii)//
While transhumanists have been seen on party tickets in the US and Europe and also running as independents and others who have developed advocacy through the media but not been elected, all their efforts are valued, and the Transhumanist Manifesto supports their positive, knowledgeable and sincere efforts over the years.
In 2019, a new approach was proposed as Global Transhumanist Advocacy <a href="https://transhumanist.vip/transhumanist-politics-pac/">Political Action Committee</a> (PAC). However, this idea has yet to unfold and remains open to collaboration with the aforementioned political groups, advocacy, and individuals who seek changes in political structures worldwide.
The Transhumanist Manifesto validates and substantiates the need for collaboration among the diverse transhumanist political outreach that aims to change policies and laws that defend human rights, especially for life extension sciences and technologies, ownership of one’s body, the right to optional death (cryonics).
##Beyond Prejudice / Toward Freedom
Transhumanism offers a new philosophical approach to the human condition while simultaneously expanding upon antecedents—the Renaissance, Enlightenment, Modernism, and Postmodernism. This philosophical approach builds upon social movements that shaped society—the Suffragettes and Feminism, Civil Rights Movement, Sexual and Gender Rights, Animal Advocacy, and Environmentalism. The movement also has much to learn from contemporary social movements, including advocates for Black Liberation, and looks to interface with existing communities fighting for freedom and equality. Transhumanism values the corroboratory affirmation of human potential to overcome societal impediments and to strive for justice for all but does not see the human as the final stage of our species evolution.
Transhumanism accepts certain human enculturated behaviors as held between types of people but does not support the notions of a universal human nature. By this, transhumanism does not support economic, religious, or political absolutes or biases that aim to constrain and curtail peoples’ rights and freedoms. Transhumanists are largely secular, while some hold religious and spiritual beliefs. The larger issue is to understand diverse aspects of religious tradition within the established practices, the mythic, ritual, and experimental.
Transhumanism advocates for develop longevity research and development as well as personal freedoms for end of life choices within the medical, technological, and scientific domains. This advocacy includes global need for education that focuses on humanity’s future with a meta focus on healthy longevity as a diverse course of action rather than a single path or process.
Transhumanism recognizes the uniqueness of people and the need to overcome bias of age, race, gender, appearance, religion, and economic and social status, and supports diversity to include rather than exclude a heightened awareness of the potential multiplicities. In this transitional process, the transhuman sheds worn-out biases and integrates both old and new values and methods for longevity—equalizing health outcomes, extending the maximum lifespan, improve biology, and increase mental acuity.
//''Beyond Disease:''// The disease of aging leaves people helpless, locked in a system of sickness and death rather than a system of healthcare and life. We need new technology, science and social structures that promote positive conditions rather than negative conditions.
//''Beyond Scarcity:''// We must improve the global quality of life. An economy of abundance is not about how much; it is about how good—a quality of life that provide basic human needs, freedom, well-being, and that advances opportunity and potential.
//''Beyond Cruelty:''// Discrimination of people because of sex, age, race, gender, appearance, religion, beliefs, and political and social status are global, verifiable, and prevalent. What would society need to overcome misperception and cognitive bias? Transhumanism does not proclaim to know the answer, but transhumanists are obligated to work with other liberatory movements, such as Afrofuturism, to create a collective vision of the future that “will enlarge the humanity of all of us.”(ii) With an abundance of compassion, hope, and imagination, discrimination has no place or purpose.(xviii)
[[Click to read the release notes.]] — [[Click to read the upgrade instructions.]]
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##References
(i) Kelley, Robin D. G. 2002. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston, Mass: Beacon Press.
(ii) Gebru, Timnit. 2019. “Oxford Handbook on AI Ethics Book Chapter on Race and Gender.” ArXiv:1908.06165 (Cs), August. http://arxiv.org/abs/1908.06165.
(iii) More, M. (1990) Transhumanism: Toward a Futurist Philosophy. In Extropy Magazine. Vol. 4, No. 1.
(iv) (Vita-More, N. and Clark, W. (1988-1995). Note: The research on the history of the term “transhuman” and “transhumanism” was completed Natasha Vita-More and Winifred Clark (1988-1995). “As an historical note, the Italian verb “transumanare” or “transumanar” was used for the first time by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) in the Divine Comedy. It means “go outside the human condition and perception” and in English could be “to Transhumanate” or “to Transhumanize.” T.S. Eliot wrote about the risks of the human journey in becoming illuminated as a “process by which the human is Transhumanised” (1950, 147) in his play “The Cocktail Party” (1950). Ideas about humanity and evolution were explored by Julian Huxley in his writings on evolutionary humanism in the book Evolution: The Modern Synthesis (1942) and suggested the term transhuman for a “superior being aware of his potential and able to work toward it because of his knowledge” (Halacy 1965:11). Pierre Teilhard de Chardin referenced the transhuman in The Future of Man (1964) and in FM Esfandiary (FM-2030) outlined an evolutionary transhuman future while teaching “New Concepts of the Human” (1966) at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Abraham Maslow referred to transhumans in Toward a Psychology of Being (1968), Robert Ettinger also referred to transhumans in Man into Superman (1972). FM Esfandiary (FM-2030) wrote the trilogy, Optimism One (1970), Up-Wingers (1973) and Telespheres (1977), which comprise his unique ideas about the transhuman, some of which were mentioned in the final chapter of Woman In The Year 2000 (1974). Damien Broderick discusses the transhuman in the science fiction novel The Judas Mandala (1982), and by Natasha Vita-More in the “Transhuman Statement (Manifesto)” (1983).).
(v) Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_freedom
(vi) Wiener, N. (1950) The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics. New York: Da Capo Press, pp. x, 58, 95, 103, 134-135, 163.
(vii) Mann, S. (May 1998) WEARABLE COMPUTING as a means for PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT. Keynote address titled presented at the 1998 International Conference on Wearable Computing ICWC-98, Fairfax VA.
(viii) Warwick, K. (2004) I, Cyborg. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, p. 4.
(ix) Haraway, D. (1991) Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, pp. 3-5, 149-181.
(x) “Primo Posthuman”. (1996). The seminal future whole-body prosthetic device that offers a regenerative semi-biological body, fostered by AI and nanomedicine. This body is an alternative to a frail and unfunctioning human body. Available: https://www.kurzweilai.net/radical-body-design-primo-posthuman
(xi) Wiener, N. (1950) The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics. New York: Da Capo Press, pp. x, 58, 95, 103, 134-135, 163.
(xii) Bostrom, N. (2005) A History of Transhumanist Thought. In Journal of Evolution and Technology, Vol. 14, No. 1
(xiii) Pepperell, R. (1995) The Post-Human Condition. Bristol, UK: Intellect.
(xiv) Sandberg, A. and Koene, R. (3 October 2009) Anders Sandberg and Randal Koene On Whole Brain Emulation. In H+ Magazine. See http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/10/03/singularity-summit-anders-sandberg-and-randal-keone-whole-brain-emulation/
(xv) Acknowledgement is given to the US Transhumanist Party, UK Transhumanist Party, Transpolitica, Science Party, Transhuman National Committee, Transhumaniste France, and the Transhumanist Party Global. There may be new groups forming and reference here credits the parties currently in existence.
(xvi) Vita-More, N. (2018). Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/TRANSHUMANISM-What-Natasha-Vita-More/dp/0578405075
(xvii) In 2014, the Technoprogressive Declaration was drafted at meeting of transhumanists attending the TransVision Paris 2014 conference. In 2017, The declaration at TransVision 2017 in Brussels.
(xviii) Goertzel, B. and Vita-More, N. (2020). H+ Summit 2020. https://humanityplus.org/projects/humanity-conferences/Before undergoing the upgrade to Transhumanism (v.2021), please read the following instructions. You must follow them all carefully, lest Transhumanism (v.2021) become corrupt and fail to serve its ultimate goal of physical liberation for all humans.
#1. Look back to go forward.
We believe that we will not progress unless we use the past. This entails at least three tasks: understanding how we got to the present, considering the value and values of historical movements, and recognizing the invisible contributions of Black people.
To implement this upgrade, we must trace the historical roots of today’s societal arrangements. We must illuminate the government policies, market failures, and sociopsychological biases that have combined to uphold today’s manifestation of race.
We must also (re)consider the value of historical movements, and account for their values. ‘Failed’ movements—those that have not manifested in reality—can hold persuasive and powerful visions, which speak to the values of its supporters. We must learn from those movements, for their germination indicates //some// desire for those values and visions within humankind. If such movements were successful in inspiring a struggle for change, then we can learn from them, deliberate collectively, and incorporate what we can into our imagined utopias.
Finally, we believe that racism has robbed Black people of their due credit. Black people, who came from <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-africa-became-the-cradle-of-humankind-108875040/">the cradle of humankind</a>, who have accomplished so much for humankind (launched humans into space, developed computers, uncovered secrets of the peanut), have yet to be given forty acres and two mules. We demand recognition for these contributions as a necessary first step towards the future.
Ultimately, to be Transhumanist is to be for racial freedom. We therefore believe that upgrading to Transhumanism (v.2021) includes becoming involved in this struggle.
#2. Incorporate racial freedom into all utopias.
We believe that utopia should exist for all humans, but that that will not occur if we are blind to how societal structures inequitably distribute opportunities for utopia. A utopian vision achieved alongside racism can never be a utopia, as it will (re)produce existing technological inequalities, which run contrary to our goals of universal physical liberation. Therefore, a vision that does not consider race in its trajectory to utopia will not succeed.
In recognition of this, all our utopian visions must become raced. To apply this upgrade, we must explicitly consider the technology of race and how that affects our path to Transhumanism. This has been reflected in language updates to our Manifesto but must be a continuous process, extending beyond documents and to our behavior.
#3. Create safeguards against future racism and discrimination
We believe we can craft a future that is free from racism, discrimination, and other forms of oppression. We believe that this is only possible, however, if we actively consider ways in which we may be perpetuating oppression and build in safeguards. If Earth is Omelas, then we have kept too many children in the basement: Black people, poor people, future beings, animals, etc. etc.
Attempting to enact biological upgrades and advance towards the next stage of human evolution without first achieving social freedom is no better than claiming a post-racial society or race-blind nostalgia. Such claims are dangerous, both in concealing what is happening in our basement and in mindlessly exporting these inequalities to the rest of the world. We therefore believe that we transhumanists, as with all humans, must learn from the eradication of contemporary inequity to consider how we can avoid future <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/WILTPO-101">moral catastrophes</a>. Concrete steps we can take today include prioritizing research that benefits the least well-off (i.e., Black and poor people), increasing investment into diseases that disproportionately affect the least well-off, and equalizing social determinants of health.
#4. Constant, Collaborative Visioning
We believe that no utopia can exist without first dismantling contemporary racial arrangements and transforming the use of race. While we believe Transhumanism per se does not offer a robust vision for doing so, we believe that we can and must contribute to this end. We do not believe that any single movement has a definite answer to how we can ‘fix’ the problems with race, which run so deep and have pervaded even our imaginations. We do not have answers for tough questions such as whether race should exist in humanity’s future, or the extent to which race can be used to dismantle itself. However, we seek these answers in solidarity with other individuals, groups, and movements. For example, the Black Panther Party proposed reparations, decent housing, free education, etc. The scholar Joy James seeks the end of American Democracy. We approach such proposals with respect, curiosity, and an understanding of our shared goals: regardless of the method, racial freedom is on the path to utopia.
We will remain open to criticism and constantly fix bugs in Transhumanism until it is sufficiently adapted to transform race. We will be aided in the very process of upgrading by our co-collaborators: from incorporating racial freedom into our visions to creating safeguards against future moral atrocities, we will hold each other accountable in the struggle for racial and physical liberation. We are committed to being in open dialogue with other movements to consider what they value and how we can create shared visions of utopia. In particular, if Transhumanism seeks freedom from agelessness and the physical struggle for existence, then we have much to learn from Afrofuturism. Distinct from other variants of futurism, Afrofuturism draws from <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-afrofuturism-can-help-the-world-mend/">“the Black experience [which] is defined by a historical struggle for existence.”</a> (Ogbunu 2020) What, then, is a technoutopia without Afrofuturism? Perhaps no utopia at all.
The need for constant collaborative visioning is driven by this united belief: we can do better than just the best of today. In the struggle to craft a utopia for all life, we will keep us accountable to each other and to this aim.
[[I understand these instructions.]]<center>Estimated time to completion
<img src="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/833416_f66f9f4e194248eb8b401b765df0efb1~mv2.gif"></center>Unfortunately, this version of Transhumanism will no longer be supported.
(fin.)Would you like to upgrade to Transhumanism (v.2021)?
[[Yes]] / [[No]]