Humanity+

The design, launch, and initial management of a new magazine, as with any startup, is the most exciting, but also the most risky period in the life of the project. When H+ Magazine was born, its publisher, Betterhumans,Inc., did a great job creating great design and content — and brought together a community around it.

After an initial period, the magazine has been donated to Humanity+.  We are very grateful for this. With the efforts of R.U. Sirius, who stays on as Editor, we hope to be able to continue attracting curious readers who want to learn about technology, society, the evolution of the human condition, and all the exciting topics that we will cover in the future.

We are looking forward to finding new ways to engage our readers. We look forward to delivering content in modern, interactive ways, and  — together with our donors, sponsors, and advertisers — to creating a magazine that is sustainable for the long term!

Recently Humanity+ board members Sonia Arrison, and Kristi Scott resigned. We are sorry to see them leave but we are also thankful for the contributions they both made. We wish them well in their endeavors.

To bring the board back to full operating capacity, and to fulfill the organization’s constitution, we are now asking for nominations for new board member candidates. To stand in the election for these two open seats, the candidates – who can also nominate themselves – must be supporting or sustaining members of Humanity+ in good standing, and must send their statements of candidacy via email to the Secretary. The duties of the Board Members are defined in the constitution and bylaws of the organization, and from an operational point of view they are currently expected to participate in email discussion and be present in monthly phone board meetings. The term of the two new members will end at the time the term of the members they are substituting.

Nominations close 6th of August. We’ll then provide a bio on each candidate and ask for our membership to vote on who you think would best serve the organization as we carry Humanity+ into the future. Voting will be open for two weeks, after which we’ll and announce the new board members to you all. Just as the nominations, voting also is reserved to supporting or sustaining members in good standing: this is the perfect time to become a member, or to renew you lapsed membership, and support Humanity+!

Joel Pitt
Secretary, Humanity+

[UPDATED: "and must send their statements of candidacy via email to the Secretary" to clarify the nomination procedures]

We receive the following guest post by Brian Bishop on the issues of synthetic biology:

Last week, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues convened a conference to explore the subject of synthetic biology. President Barack Obama, aware of the news from the lab of Craig Venter, requested that his commission study the technical, legal, social and ethical issues surrounding the topic, and to complete a report not more than six months from May 2010.

The proceedings went well. In the morning of July 8th they heard testimonies from Craig Venter, George Church, Drew Endy and Rob Carlson. Later, they heard on current regulation and industrial standards in biotechnology. Overall the vibe was generally positive, and hopefully the commission will go forward with its thoughts on incentives.

This presents an interesting opportunity for the human enhancement community. Synthetic biologies are an increasingly democritized technology, spread about the world from academia, industrial labs and in some cases do-it-yourself garage biohacking. Because of my involvement in the DIYbio community, I have suggested we organize to come up with a small pitch, either an email, presentation, or some other form of communication, to indicate to the commission our interest in cooperation and helping to see that we live in a healthy society, free from disease and constraints on innovation.

As a community, those of us interested in human enhancement have an opportunity to step forward and organize our thoughts- even if they amount to only a single sentence or viewpoint that we would like to submit for consideration. I am confident that our views will be heard and that meetings can be arranged to demo our hobbyist technologies as well as more critical possibilities. I invite you to follow-up with me and I can further direct you into the process.

Here is an introduction to the talk that Humanity+ Board Member Natasha Vita-More is going to give at H+ Summit @ Harvard, in her own words:

What does second-order cybernetics have to do with human enhancement?

I anticipate human physiology going through a transformative resolution much as astronomy did with the Copernicus Revolution, as physics did with Quantum mechanics, as heredity did with the Principles of Inheritance, and as medicine with the Genome Revolution. The one element which is essential to the transformation of physiology is its self-directed nature.

Years ago, in the 1950-70s, a group of individuals with varied backgrounds were deeply drawn to two distinct areas of scientific study—biology and cognition. One such enthusiast was Norbert Weiner, an engineer and a philosopher, who applied the term “cybernetics” to the growing interest in communications and patterns of behavior. Taking this concept to a more inclusive set of principles, Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson emphasized the element of ecology of variables through second-order cybernetics. Our entire environment and its universe is an independent but interrelated, unified wholesystem, and we as life forms within this system are agents of our own physiological system. Thinking mechanisms, specifically computer generated, are interconnected systems of communications, feedback and observation.

Enhancing physiology relates to new types of human bodies, brains and behaviors, which need better processes for observation and feedback. We need to be aware what is occurring with our cells, organs and internal systems. We need to recognize how to formulate knowledge based on more intelligent and rigorous assimilation of information. We also need to be more conscious of our behaviors in how we communicate with others and how we protect our well-being. Put to the test of problem-solving, the elements form a design ecology of human enhancement.

In short, the odds are that technology will immeasurably extend human life. Until then, we need to stay alive. What ideas, means, and methods are available?

My talk covers the Human Enhancement Project as one place to start. The project began in the late 1990s with designs for transhuman and posthuman prototypes. From 2004 to 2008, it initiated a theory of human enhancement as an adaptive system and linking already available information on scientific, technological and philosophical approaches to human futures. Technology’s array of high-tech systems of robotics, AI, computer-based simulations, biotech and nanotech evidence the potential for augmenting our physiology. Sciences’ cybernetic study of systems and models imparts the awareness that ideas, means, and methods are integrated. From 2008 to the present, it has been looking for answers in dealing with a central issue that while a large percentage of society in the Western world considers certain technological augmentations as normal; an even larger percentage of socio-biopolitics considers technological enhancement as abnormal and even repugnant. This is a predicament.

The Human Enhancement Project delivers a developing sensibility which every citizen scientist might want to know for participating in an enhancement design ecology.

I look forward to seeing you all at the Summit!