Wikipedia on Me
While reviewing the Lifeboat Foundation page on Wikipedia, I noticed that someone put up a slightly shoddy Wikipedia article on me recently that has this flattering opener:
A well known and often quoted transhumanist, singularitarian and moderately extropian blogger regularly publishing his views and insights on the blog Accelerating Future. His blog has recently become more visited than several major blogs casting Michael headfirst into transhumanist celebrity status, and his posts are now widely regarded as canon for the movement.
Makes me sound alright, but it's slightly silly. "Headfirst into transhumanist celebrity status" especially causes snickering, and I'll address that below.
Clarification: I don't self-identify as "extropian", even though I have many extropian friends and think that Max More and Natasha Vita-More are great and fun people to be around. I think "transhumanism" and "singularitarian" are obscure enough self-labels as it is. If you give yourself too many niche labels, it's like jumping up and down and saying, "legitimate publications, please never do an article on me!" Still, I found the Extropian Principles to be an inspiring document when I read it, and my first exposure to movement transhumanism (in 2001) was through Extropy.org, though I quickly found a bunch of other sites.
Back to the Wikipedia article, it's tagged as lacking references from reliable third-party publications. Theoretically, I guess it might be possible to drag together an article based on the only two mainstream publications that have referenced me or my blog: Psychology Today and Attack of the Show, but that isn't much. It's probably best to wait until more third-party publications decide to do write-ups on Accelerating Future. Otherwise it will just piss off the Wikipedia editors, which will fight to prevent there being an article on me even when and if I do gain a higher profile.
"Transhumanist celebrity", that's a cute line, and I appreciate everyone who reads this blog, but a "transhumanist celebrity" is practically a nobody in the wider world. References like this only reinforce the notion that transhumanism is a marginal navel-gazing subculture with little thought of the mainstream. Instead of marginalizing ourselves, we have to engage in mainstream policy discussions and philosophical discourses, and face the truth that we are a small movement with very limited resources. Otherwise, transhumanism is no different than thousands of other minor echo chamber-like philosophical schools.
Also, the info in general in that Wikipedia article is a bit old. My up-to-date bio is here.
Another point. Punditry is well and good, but useless if it has no impact on research that can actually help people. This is why the most successful branches of transhumanism are working on focused projects and do not actually market themselves as "transhumanist" at all. There is a definitely crossover between punditry and helpful research, however, so it's not all clear-cut. Many of the heroes of the transhumanist movement are not visible pundits but researchers in AI, nanotechnology, and life extension that are actually doing the hard work of experimentation and engineering. My role is primarily that of a philosophical synthesizer, technology reporter, analyst, and communicator. I exist mostly to broadcast the work of useful researchers (who oftentimes lack skills for communicating to a wide audience) to the public, and hope that I can inspire interest that provides them with funding. They are the real heroes. Talented scientists, mathematicians, entrepreneurs, technology angels, and inventors.
April 13th, 2009 - 23:09
I can see the movie now “Almost Internet Famous”
April 14th, 2009 - 00:51
Thanks. Your work is greatly appreciated.
April 14th, 2009 - 02:08
Hazzah! Thou art a burr in the sock of subculture; which causeth one stop and ponder…is that lint?
April 14th, 2009 - 02:29
Actually the most “famous” transhumanist celebrity is probably Ray Kurzweil, who indeed has a film about him, plus one he’s making.
Even so, transhumanism indeed remains a niche, with its most famous researchers, like Moravec, Drexler, de Grey, respectively in the fields you mention, doing a great job of advancing the science while avoiding too close an association with the transhumanist movement. But the role of the transhumanist pundits is in large part to bring awareness to the public, and have the mainstream (I prefer that term over “legitimate”, Michael, as it would imply that we are illegitimate) publications and media bring it from its fringe status into the realm of normalcy. I am glad to see some progress there, to the point that I now occasionally read some cutting-edge news on generic outlets before they hit the transhumanist feeds. I am also glad when my mother hits me with an “I recently heard on the radio / read / saw on tv about such and such advancement in nanotechnology…”
April 14th, 2009 - 03:08
*giggles*
April 14th, 2009 - 11:02
Looks like it’s going to dissappear soon, unless people puff it up and link some better references.
Would you prefer it went away for now?
April 14th, 2009 - 12:03
Yeah, a while ago Wikipedia made a slightly higher standard for their inclusion of person entries, and I sort of agree with it, though obviously everyone’s opinion may differ on this. The key criteria here is that someone usually has to write a book to appear on Wikipedia, so until I finish mine, I see no reason why I deserve to be on there. :)
Hervé, Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey may be the only legitimate transhumanist celebrities. (Having Aubrey as a celebrity is especially nice because he is famous but also has the time to hang out and have beers with us.) Moravec is out of popularity, and out of favor in some circles (like mine) because he seems not to care if arbitrary kinds of robots drive humanity to extinction or obsolescence. Drexler experienced a decline a couple years ago (see Ed Regis’ WIRED article), but appears to be cautiously on the comeback, giving a keynote at a major conference soon.
Michio Kaku is a transhumanist, albeit a slightly odd one hovering on the fringe of SL2 and SL3. I loved reading Kaku when I was a wee blond-haired suburban elementary school student in Burlingame, CA.
April 14th, 2009 - 13:42
You were blonde?
April 14th, 2009 - 14:23
This is a useful blog because it focuses on most relevant stories and issues related to transhumanism. If something interesting happens, chances are you’ll report on it, saving people time for browsing often mindnumbing H+ fora to find something interesting and useful. Good job, Michael.
I think I agree with your take on how “transhumanist” label marginalizes H+ community. Labeling something as transhumanist unnecessarily and artificially isolates it from mainstream, sending a clear signal that the group of people calling themselves “transhumanists” is probably very small and consisting of bunch of oddballs with nutty beliefs that are not worth considering. Yet, I’m sure there are thousands of AI and nanotechnology researchers blissfully unaware that their work contributes to making transhumanists’ dreams a reality. Perhaps some of that work would not even be funded and considered useful if it was being labeled as fulfilling transhumanist mission.
Same probably applies to the label “singularitarianism.” Besides being a real tongue-twister that sounds sinister, I doubt it helps promoting safe AI research. Anyone smart enough to work on self-improving AIs should quickly realize that any such AIs would pose a serious threat to mankind even if such a researcher was never told about what Singularity meant or that there exists a whole philosophical movement built on the concept. Instead of isolating the goals of singularitarianism from the mainstream by forcing the label of “singularitarian,” on them, how about just calling it a research into safe AI? The threat of unsafe AI is scary enough and likely more than sufficient to make mainstream consider it seriously. If the same threat is explained from the singularitarian perspective, perhaps the same message might seem too fantastic and maybe even too laughable to consider seriously by serious folks.
April 14th, 2009 - 21:06
Michael,
You mentioned that you know of several H+ projects in progress. Are you referring to things like SENS and Novamente, or are there more short term h+ projects going on?
I’m on the lookout these days…
April 14th, 2009 - 21:11
Miron, yes I’m referring to things like SENS and Novamente. I also know quite a few transhumanists doing startups, and I’ve actually thought about creating and maintaining a resume database for those interested in recruiting from our community. Let me compile a list of projects and ask everyone on it if it’s alright that I share their info with select others.