Many people may wonder how they can contribute to the loose coalition of people and organizations that is the transhumanist movement. Let me make a few suggestions.

1. Order and read transhumanist books, like Engines of Creation and The Singularity is Near. If you try to “get by” in transhumanist discussions having read nothing but magazine articles and news items, it will eventually become evident that your knowledge is relatively shallow and you aren’t contributing as much as you could be. The more everyone is familiar with the standard literature, the sooner enclaves of people can move on into discussing more advanced topics.

2. Join transhumanist organizations. The World Transhumanist Association, Immortality Institute, and Lifeboat Foundation all offer basic membership for yearly fees of $50 - $100. Organizations with more membership have more leverage. If enough people chip in, even a regular staff becomes affordable, lending the group a greater edge. If you’ve ever considered joining any of these organizations, ask yourself, “why not join right now?”

3. Network with other transhumanists: join Transhumanists.org. On average, transhumanists tend to be intelligent, well-educated, friendly people. Our intellectual output per capita is much higher than seen in most modern movements. Poke around the community and you’ll find that each individual brings a unique perspective: there are transhumanist writers, economists, programmers, physicists, artists, musicians, biologists, and many more. Reach out to them and it’ll be worth your while.

4. On the same note as above, attend transhumanist conferences! Transvision 2007 is happening next month in Chicago, for example, so I’ll see you there if you’re going. Attendees will include William Shatner, Ariana Huffington, Peter Diamandis, Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil, etc. Alcor also puts on transhumanist-oriented conferences, usually in Scottsdale, AZ, that I hear are good.

5. Start a transhumanist or futurist blog. One of the reasons that the Web 2.0 business blogs have such high Google and Technorati ratings is because so many of them exist and mutually link one another. Communities of similar size but somewhat less inclination to blog, say, environmentalists in general, are comparatively missing out on the Internet’s massive traffic. Why let it happen to us? Barry Mahfood, Tom McCabe, and the Singularity Institute have all recently started transhumanist-oriented blogs, make the next one yours!