Humanity+ (also Humanity Plus; formerly the World Transhumanist Association) is a non-profit international educational organization that
advocates
An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...
the
ethical
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...
use of
technologies
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
and evidence-based science to improve the human condition. This condition includes the health of physiological and neurological functions affected by aging and disease, the ecological health and well-being for all life forms, and the future advancements for a more human humanity. Its work includes:
* Producing conferences and summits.
* Incubating foresight strategies for society, culture, and the future.
* Sponsoring prizes.
* Providing education on healthy longevity, ecology and diversity.
The organization was named to identify with meaning more than human, beyond conditions that inhibit intelligence and toward a more humble, creative, and human humanity. It was originally conceived to reach transhumanists throughout the world.
Leadership
Humanity+ is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit international educational organization with a membership, Board of Directors, and Executive Director. The current Board of Directors include Chair
Ben Goertzel
Ben Goertzel is a cognitive scientist, artificial intelligence researcher, CEO and founder of SingularityNET, leader of the OpenCog Foundation, and the AGI Society, and chair of Humanity+. He helped popularize the term 'artificial general intell ...
, Vice Chair
José Cordeiro, Secretary
Nell Watson, Treasurer
Amy Li, Legal Advisor
Paul Spiegel
Paul Spiegel (31 December 1937, in Warendorf, Germany – 30 April 2006, in Düsseldorf, Germany) was leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) and the main spokesman of the German Jews. He was widely p ...
,
Gabriel Rothblatt
Gabriel Rothblatt, born October 5, 1982 is a technoprogressive political activist, a 2014 congressional candidate, and a writer and speaker in the futurist and transhumanist movements.
Early life and education
Born to Bina and transgender busin ...
, and
Didier Coeurnelle.
The leadership of Humanity+ is its Executive Director
Natasha Vita-More
Natasha Vita-More (born February 23, 1950) is a strategic designer, author, speaker and innovator within the scientific and technological framework of human enhancement and life extension. Her interests are located within the ethical uses of sci ...
, who leads the foresight and vision of the organization, decision making strategies, coordination of the Board, and the day-to-day operations.
History
Humanity+, Inc. originated as an organization under the name World Transhumanist Association. In 1998, the World Transhumanist Association (WTA) was founded by
Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom ( ; sv, Niklas Boström ; born 10 March 1973) is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the rev ...
and
David Pearce.
In 2002, it was incorporated as a
501(c)(3)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
non-profit corporation. WTA began working toward the recognition of
transhumanism
Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition.
Transhuma ...
as a legitimate subject of
scientific inquiry
Models of scientific inquiry have two functions: first, to provide a descriptive account of ''how'' scientific inquiry is carried out in practice, and second, to provide an explanatory account of ''why'' scientific inquiry succeeds as well as it ap ...
and
public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...
, and to add to the academic presence already created by Extropy Institute in the fields of computer science, AI, nanotechnology, and philosophy.
At its inception, WTA officials considered that social forces could undermine their
futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...
visions and needed to be addressed.
A particular concern is the equal access to
human enhancement
Human enhancement (HE) can be described as the natural, artificial, or technological alteration of the human body in order to enhance physical or mental capabilities.
Technologies
Existing technologies
Three forms of human enhancement curre ...
technologies across classes and borders.
In 2006,
William Saletan
William Saletan is an American writer for '' The Bulwark''.
Background and education
Saletan, a Jewish native of La Porte, Texas, graduated from Swarthmore College in 1987.
Journalism
Abortion and contraception
Saletan has written extensivel ...
reported a political struggle within World Transhumanist Association that erupted in 2004 largely between the
libertarian right
Right-libertarianism,Rothbard, Murray (1 March 1971)"The Left and Right Within Libertarianism" ''WIN: Peace and Freedom Through Nonviolent Action''. 7 (4): 6–10. Retrieved 14 January 2020.Goodway, David (2006). '' Anarchist Seeds Beneath the ...
and the
liberal left
The Liberal Left (''Sinistra Liberale'', SL) was a minor liberal faction within the Democrats of the Left, an Italian political party.
It was formed basically by former left-wingers of the Italian Liberal Party. Its leaders include Gianfranco P ...
resulting in a
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The c ...
ward positioning that continued to polarize politics under its former executive director
James Hughes.
In 2008, as part of a rebranding effort, the WTA changed its leadership and rebranded its corporate name to "Humanity+" in order to disassociate from political turmoil, to project a more humane image
and to include a more diverse expression of transhumanism. The official name change was filed with the Secretary of state and its Articles of Incorporation were amended in 2011.
Over the past two decades, Humanity+ leadership has worked to be more inclusive of diverse ideological, political, and religious views that support its mission, as well as diverse ethnicities, sexualities, and other positions that may cause bias and prejudice. It has become less focused on politics and more focused on longevity, social issues including diversity and plurality, the larger issues concerning the ecosystem. The past two decades have developed conferences under the title of H+ Summit and Humanity+ @ Beijing, Harvard, Parsons The New School of Design and Caltech. The 2020 H+ Summit 2020 was a virtual online event, with over 3,000 people in attendance. Humanity+ continues to co-host and sponsor the global TransVision conferences.
Programs and activities
Conferences and summits
The Humanity+ Conferences, H+ Summits, and TransVision conferences are held throughout the world. In 2011 New York City was the host, in 2012 San Francisco, in 2018, Beijing, in 2019, London, and 2021 Madrid.
Incubating foresight strategies for society, culture, and the future
The H+ Academy, established in 2020 is an opportunity to face the world's issues with leading thinkers of AI, Philosophy, Economics, Science and the Arts. Roundtable discussions include "Going Meta with the Brain", "Brain Enhancements and Rights", "Future Economics", and "Worldview & Culture of the Future".
Transhumanist Studies is an educational program sponsored by non-financial support by Humanity+. The program launched its first course in 2021 "Introduction to Transhumanism". The program examines the primary ideas on human evolution, social change, emerging technologies, longevity sciences, healthy ecology, and the future potential of humanity that reaches across science, technology, philosophy, ethics and the arts, to develop a practical approach responsive to changes that are occurring.
"Humanity+", as a newly branded organization,
launched ''H+ Magazine'', a quarterly magazine on transhumanist news and ideas
that has since changed its organization, leadership, and format several times. The magazine produced five issues from 2008 through 2009, each released as PDF-based digital editions,
and one released also as a print edition available in retail stores. The publisher changed from Humanity+ to Betterhumans LLC beginning with the second issue,
with
R. U. Sirius the editor of all five issues. In 2010, with R. U. Sirius continuing as editor, the magazine transitioned into a web-only publication not based around complete issues, and its publisher was switched back to Humanity+. Notable contributors included
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has work ...
,
Rudy Rucker
Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...
,
Woody Evans
Woody Evans is an American librarian and author of short stories and nonfiction works, who is known for critical commentary on technology, technoculture, and transhumanism.Articles published in '' The Journal of Evolution and Technology'', Accele ...
,
John Shirley
John Shirley (born February 10, 1953) is an American writer, primarily of fantasy, science fiction, dark street fiction, westerns, and songwriting. He has also written one historical novel, a western about Wyatt Earp, ''Wyatt in Wichita'', and ...
,
James Hughes, and
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open sourc ...
. H+ Magazine is no longer actively publishing articles and is now an archive of articles written about the future.
Prizes
The Uplift Prize was launched in 2013 with the winner Quentin Harley for his "Morgan" machine.
The H+ Essay Prize launched in 2018 with "Mutual Benefits of Blockchain and Transhumanism" with three winners.
The H+ Video Prize featured three prizes with "Awakening" receiving first place.
The H+ Innovator Award was launched in 2021 to looks into our community and acknowledges ideas and projects that encourage social change and author unique narratives. There were three winners: Steve Hill – lifespan.io; Dinorah Delfin – ''Immortalists Magazine''; and Mirko Ranieri – Google AR.
Education on longevity, ecology and diversity
# to support discussion and public awareness of
emerging technologies
Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized. These technologies are generally new but also include older technologies finding new applications. Emerging technologies ar ...
;
# to defend the
right of individuals in free and democratic societies to adopt technologies that expand human capacities;
# to
anticipate and propose solutions for the potential consequences of emerging technologies;
# to actively encourage and support the development of emerging technologies judged to have sufficiently probable positive benefit.
Advisors and members
*
Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom ( ; sv, Niklas Boström ; born 10 March 1973) is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the rev ...
*
David Pearce
*
Natasha Vita-More
Natasha Vita-More (born February 23, 1950) is a strategic designer, author, speaker and innovator within the scientific and technological framework of human enhancement and life extension. Her interests are located within the ethical uses of sci ...
*
George Dvorsky
George P. Dvorsky (born May 11, 1970) is a Canadian bioethicist, transhumanist and futurist. He is a contributing editor at io9 and producer of the ''Sentient Developments'' blog and podcast. He was chair of the board for the Institute for Et ...
*
Giulio Prisco
Giulio Prisco (born in Naples in 1957) is an Italian information technology virtual reality consultant; as well as a writer, futurist, transhumanist, and cosmist. He is an advocate of cryonics and contributes to the science and technology on ...
*
James Hughes
*
Mark Alan Walker
Mark Alan Walker (born 1963) is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is a professor of philosophy at New Mexico State University, where he occupies the Richard L. Hedden Endowed Chair in Advanced Philosophical Studies. Prior to his professorship at ...
*
Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey (; born 20 April 1963) is an English author and biomedical gerontologist. He is the author of ''The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging'' (1999) and co-author of ''Ending Aging'' (2007). He is known ...
*
Max More
*
Ben Goertzel
Ben Goertzel is a cognitive scientist, artificial intelligence researcher, CEO and founder of SingularityNET, leader of the OpenCog Foundation, and the AGI Society, and chair of Humanity+. He helped popularize the term 'artificial general intell ...
*
Patri Friedman
Patri Friedman (born July 29, 1976) is an American libertarian, neoreactionary,
anarcho-capitalist, and theorist of political economy. He founded The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit that explores the creation of sovereign ocean colonies.
...
*
R. U. Sirius
*
Martine Rothblatt
Martine Aliana Rothblatt (born October 10, 1954) is an American lawyer, author, entrepreneur, and transgender rights advocate. Rothblatt graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with J.D. and M.B.A. degrees in 1981, then began to wor ...
*
Linda MacDonald Glenn
*
Giuseppe Vatinno
Giuseppe Vatinno (Rome, April 3, 1961) is an Italian politician, journalist and writer.
As part of the Italy of Values party, he has been a member of the Observatory on High Speed Rail for the Bologna Node from 2006 to 2008, and advisor for enviro ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
501(c)(3) organizations
Non-profit organizations based in California
Transhumanist organizations