Study Group with Natasha Vita-More: Transhumanist Aesthetics: Exponential Systems for Life

Saturday, July 9th, 10 am Pacific Time

Moderated by: Moises Ramirez

Link to Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84406408810

Readings:

• Zone of Life Expansion (Design for Future Human Bodies)

• Metaverse: Epoch of Plasticity

• Meta-Knowledge: a Practical Application of Artificial General Intelligence and Neural Macrosensing.

• Contested Culture: The Plausibility of Transhumanism

• Technoscience, Transhumanism, Telos

• Ability to Advance Knowledge and Capacity to Achieve the Impossible

Zone of Life Expansion - Design for Future Human Bodies - Vita-More.pdf

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Metaverse - Epoch of Plasticity - The Metaverse as a vehicle for cognitive enhancement.pdf

Download PDF • 5.14MB

Essay_ Ability to Advance Knowledge and the Capacity to Achieve the Impossible.pdf

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Contested Culture - The Plausibility of Transhumanism.pdf

Download PDF • 211KB

Technoscience, Transhumanism, Telos - Vita-More.pdf

Download PDF • 410KB

16. Natasha Vita More - Meta-Knowledge.pdf

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Dr. Natasha Vita-More, PhD is an internationally known speaker on the science, technology and culture of the future. Vita-More has been an invited speaker on longevity and human enhancement at the International SportAccord Convention for Olympic and non-Olympic sports in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the World’s aging population at the TOPOS Conference in Tokyo Japan, on exponential technology at the Global Leaders Forum in Seoul, South Korea, and on technology and forecasting at Microsoft Reactor, San Francisco.

She was awarded Space Camp Wings at the Space & Rocket Center in 1985 and in 1997 her manifesto was included onboard the NASA, ESA, ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft mission to Saturn. In cryobiology, she established a scientific breakthrough in long-term memory of C. elegans after vitrification and cryopreservation. As an innovator, she designed the first future body prototype, introducing the metabrain. She appears in more than two dozen televised documentaries, published in numerous articles and books, and televised documentaries. Called “an early adapter of revolutionary changes” (Wired, 2000), a “role model for superlongevity (Village Voice, 2001), and “advocates the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities” (Politico, 2017), Ray Kurzweil states, “Natasha Vita-More is a very engaging, highly regarded, and dramatic speaker, writer, and thinker”.

Professor Vita-More is Founder of Transhumanist Studies Program, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Center for Future Mind, Scientific Advisory Board, Lifespan.io, Fellow of the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and a former consultant to IBM. She has appeared in more than 24-televised documentaries and published in numerous academic and mainstream publications, and she has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Virginia Commonwealth, Aalto (Finland), and Polytechnic (Hong Kong) universities, and former Professor of Innovation, Ethics & Communication and Chair of Graduate Studies Master of Science Degree Program UAT (2012-2020).

Academic Background

2012 – Awarded Doctorate. University of Plymouth, UK., Faculty of Arts, Media Art & Design, School of Media Arts, Design and Architecture, Planetary Collegium. PhD, Dissertation topic: Life Expansion: Toward A Theory of Artistic and Design-Based Approaches to the Transhuman / Posthuman

2006 – 2008 Awarded Master of Philosophy, transfer to PhD Program. University of Plymouth, UK. Faculty of Technology, School of Computers, Communications and Electronics, School of Communications and Media Studies MPhil, Thesis: "Designing Transitional Human Futures”

2003 – 2006 Awarded Master of Science. University of Houston, TX, US. Faculty of Social Sciences, College of Technology – Future Studies, MSc with Honors, Thesis: "Design: Strategic Plan for Non-Profit, Futures Organization"

2000-2002 American Muscle and Fitness Institute, Los Angeles, CA, US Certification in Sports Nutritionist and Personal Trainer

1992 Blackstone School of Law, Los Angeles, CA, US Certification in Paralegal Research – Litigation, Tort Law, Corporate Law

Research

My research focuses on the questions humanity is facing today and impacting the future—from AI to human enhancement, life extension and space exploration. I write about the cultural, philosophical, and socio-economic-political issues concerning what it means to be human with an awareness of our trajectory that requires us to reflect on where we are headed as a synergistic ecology. My study examines who or what will govern our future, how we can strategize existential threats and assess the scope of AI and supercomputers, build awareness of cybersecurity, and protect our human rights.