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Plato at the Googleplex, by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

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Plato wouldnt disagree that philosophy is, in fact, a way of life attractive to, and perhaps available only to, the happy few. Running throughout Goldsteins long and highly original book are various arguments about what she calls the Ethos of the Extraordinary. Do some of us matter while others of us dont? To the early Greeks, the achievement of kleos, meaning glory or renown, was the chief aim of life. To be talked about, honored and remembered this was the only immortality to be had.

By the time of Plato (fourth century B.C.), this cult of celebrity had been transformed and deepened, indeed interiorized through the notion of arete, usually translated as virtue. Arete essentially is the health of the soul. As Goldstein explains, each time you lie, even if youre not caught, you become a little more of this ugly thing: a liar. Character is always in the making, with each morally valanced action, whether right or wrong, affecting our characters, the people who we are. You become the person who could commit such an act, and how you are known in the world is irrelevant to this state of being. In the end, who we are inside matters more than what others think of us.

Have I got this right? Its hard to say. Plato himself, as Goldstein reminds us, never laid out in treatise form any of his convictions. Instead, he actually staged the free play of ideas as plays, his Dialogues spotlighting the snub-nosed and ugly Socrates, but sometimes introducing such notable co-stars as the award-winning dramatist Aristophanes and Athenian bad boy and major heartthrob Alcibiades. In Platos work, these real-life characters, and many others, elegantly argue about everything from the nature of love (Symposium and Phaedrus) to the nature of good government (The Republic).

A novelist as a well as a philosopher, Goldstein pays homage to that ancient dramatic tradition by introducing Plato into several modern-day dialogues. Be warned: Readers expecting a sober presentation of ancient philosophy may be in for a shock when Plato, on book tour, visits the headquarters of Google, then later participates in a debate about child-rearing at New Yorks 92nd Street Y, assists a modern-day advice columnist as she answers questions about fraught relationships and is interviewed on a cable news program. Do these scenarios sound cutesy and even slightly condescending? I thought so at first, but Goldstein brings them off with panache, especially Plato at the 92nd Street Y.

The setup is this: Facetious newspaper columnist Zachary Burns is moderating a discussion on How to Raise an Exceptional Child with three bestselling writers: Mitzi Munitz, author of Esteeming Your Child: How the Best-Intentioned Parents Violate, Mutilate and Desecrate Their Children; Sophie Zee, author of The Warrior Mothers Guide to Producing Off-the-Charts Children; and Plato, author of The Republic. After clarifying that his last panelist prefers not to be called doctor or professor, Burns proceeds with his introduction:

Plato it is then! Plato has long been hailed as one of the most creative and influential thinkers in the history of Western thought. Indeed, some have argued that all of philosophy consists of footnotes to Plato, which is high praise indeed. He was born in Athens, Greece, a city where he has spent the bulk of his life and where he informally studied as a young man under the famous philosopher Socrates. . . .

In the free-for-all debate that follows, Munitz argues that the young should be encouraged to follow their own bent and to become who they truly are. To the psychoanalyst, Zees desire to raise an exceptional child is a desire to sacrifice the integrity of the child, to transform human beings into monkeys trained to please their parents. Zee quickly counters that strict discipline, with rewards and punishments, ultimately leads to a childs empowerment, and to a better, richer adult life later on.

And what is Platos view? Here, Goldstein presents in miniature largely using the philosophers own words parts of the educational system laid out in The Republic. Plato recognizes that children possess varying capabilities and temperaments. A teacher is charged with bringing his or her student into contact with the beauty that answers to that students type of character and mind. He notes that his guardians the ascetic elite whose lives are devoted to overseeing the ideal state must exhibit as children, besides intelligence, Zees spiritedness and Munitzs love of truth.

Throughout the fierce give-and-take, all the participants come off surprisingly well (Zach Burns not so much). Indeed, Im not sure that Munitz doesnt outsoar the Greek philosopher. But then this whole chapter possesses the sparkle and vivacity of a Bernard Shaw play. As Plato says, The best thinking is always playful.

That said, Goldstein does offer solid, more straightforward chapters about various aspects of Platonic philosophy. She analyzes love in a section that retells the complicated relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades; discusses the opposing claims of reason and intuition in our understanding of the world; provides several different interpretations of Platos parable of the cave; and, finally, speculates about whether Plato actually believed in immortality. In this last instance, she emphasizes that a kind of transhuman transcendence is possible by identifying ones whole self with the harmony and timeless, mathematical beauty of the cosmos. This rather Spinozist pantheism should come as no surprise since Goldstein has written an earlier book on Spinoza, to many the greatest philosophical mind since Plato.

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Plato at the Googleplex, by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

That's epic!

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Mythological narratives are getting a major upgrade with science fiction and fantasy writers injecting them with strong doses of reinterpretation and realism, finds Daniel Pinto

Writers are ushering India's myths into the realm ofspeculative fiction such as sci-fi and fantasy. One such writer isUS-based entrepreneur and IT professional Ravi V whose The ExiledPrince, the first in his Crystal Guardian trilogy, was releasedrecently. The series, told from Rama's point of view, begins and endsin the British Raj and seeks to seamlessly connect magic, futuristictechnology and the mystical Crystal of Creation which is critical tomankind's survival."The series explains events that happen in Rama'slife and the reason why his name sounds in every corner of thiscountry," says Ravi.However, the writer, who spent three years researchinglegends before embarking upon the series, maintains that he isn'tretelling folklore.

"My series is not the Ramayana; it just usesthe tale as a vehicle to deliver the plot. The book would be auniquely presented perspective with twists and turns in the sciencefiction format, and as one reads between the lines, the lateral plotwill present itself".When one mentions the marriage of science-fiction andscripture, the seminal comic series Ramayan 3392 AD which wasenvisioned by filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and self-help guru DeepakChopra comes to mind. The series, which started in the now defunctVirgin Comics in 2006 in the US, details the exploits of Prince Ramain a post-apocalyptic future where mankind is plagued by Ravan,depicted as a transhuman entity.Shamik Dasgupta, the writer of the series, reveals howthe characters in his universe differ from those in myth.

"Wemade them more realistic and instilled real modern human emotions inthem except Ravan, who is a synthetic being. Rama doesn't havegreatness bestowed upon him.From the beginning he has to strive andfight for greatness, he has to prove himself in this postmodern,savage, dystopian world, and it is not easy, not by a long shot."Dasgupta credits the series for revolutionising the artof graphic novels in India. "It is true that Ramayan 3392 AD isresponsible for the emergence of modern graphic novels and comicbooks in India, with high caliber art and intricate storytellingmeant for all ages and not just kids."Another sci-fi work which is injected with a heavy doseof mythology is The Guardians of Karma. The novel, penned by MohanVizhakat, CTO & EVP of Manappuram Finance Ltd, fills the voidthat is India's prehistoric past with a saga that sees two advancedcivilizations, the spiritually inclined Dev Lok and theall-conquering Daityan Empire, face off.

"The idea germinated few years back while readingabout the apparent disconnect between Indian mythology's rich legacyand the lack of any tangible archaeological evidence to support it.This got me thinking that if the myths had any shred of truth, theymust have been long forgotten or misinterpreted, either because ithappened so far back in prehistory that no records have survived orpossibly because all such evidence must be deep under sea ever sincemuch of the habitable world during the ice-age became submerged,during the deluge following global ice-melt," says Vizhakat."The book also explores the age-old wisdom of thescriptures from the perspective of modern scientific analysis,especially considering latest advancements in the fields ofrelativity, quantum mechanics, dark energy and biocentrism,"says Vizhakat who added that he relied heavily on mythological themessuch as the destruction of the demonic realms of Tripura depicted ashi-tech, free-floating cities.What is it about the golden age of yore that makes itsuch a haven for anarchronistic technological advancement?

"Anythingrelative to ancient Vedic mythologies can be looked at from thescience fiction point of view. It is known that, the father ofnuclear bomb, RJ Oppenheimer had quoted the Gita and has mentionedthat he may not have been the first to know about these atomicweapons. Take the Brahmastra; it is said as a source that can destroyworlds, like a nuclear weapon. But then these legends used to firethem from a bow and arrow! Did that technology exist or was it purelyfiction? We can't really say, but it does make a fantastic storyand that spawned imagination of several creative geniuses across theglobe," says Ravi.The Aryavarta Chronicles, a series by KrishnaUdayasankar, a lecturer at at Nanyang Business School, Singapore, isanother example of a "genre-bending" fantasy books look at thepower tussles in the titular kingdom in India's distant past. Thoughit reimagines the Mahabharata, there are supernatural elements.

But,that's not to say there's no sci-fi. "Utopia is supposed to be theultimate aim or achievement of humankind and science is the tool thatwill get us there. This is the premise of the story. An order ofscholars, the Firewrights, believe that their science and technologyis the means to peace and prosperity until things go wrong and theirweapons became a cause for terrible bloodshed," she explains.She happily categorises her books as fantasy. "Fantasystories have a structure or flow that fascinates me most of themare stories of an age, that show, in their own way, revolution andchange. It is this element that fascinates me, as also the fact thatthere is a certain sense of dramatic growth and transformation thatcharacters go through as though the story is their journey. Ifeel quite thrilled when readers place The Aryavarta Chronicles asfantasy, the reason being that I think there is the same sense ofmythopoesy, the creation of a story-world distinct and complete initself, not unlike Tolkien's Middle Earth," she says

Elaborating on why she chose to keep things real, shesays "Both religion and mythology have been, and still are, usedto legitimise or justify social elements that range from irrelevantto downright reprehensible. So, the attempt to demystify ancientstories is like a quest for a more believable truth, an attempt tomake these amazing characters and stories more 'real.' I want tobelieve that things were not always the way they are now; thatequality, compassion and reason were things heroines and heroesfought for and that's what makes my stories fantasy."

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That's epic!

Joe’s Record Store Righteous Noise: BELIEVER ‘Gabriel’ and ‘Transhuman’ – Video

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Joe #39;s Record Store Righteous Noise: BELIEVER #39;Gabriel #39; and #39;Transhuman #39;
Well it #39;s another case of an old school band making albums again after a long hiatus. During the late 1980 #39;s through the early 1990 #39;s, Believer was an intens...

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Joe's Record Store Righteous Noise: BELIEVER 'Gabriel' and 'Transhuman' - Video

Lectures and the literary scene in Marin County, March 16 through 23, 2014

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Compiled by Nick Bensen Marin Independent Journal

Chris Columbus discusses 'House of Secrets: Battle of the Beasts' at 10 a.m. March 21 at Book Passage in Corte Madera. Courtesy of Book Passage

BOOK EVENTS

ART BY THE BAY WEEKEND GALLERY 18856 Highway 1, Marshall; 663-1006; artbythebay weekendgallery.com. 3 p.m. March 23: "Painting, Poetry and Stories" with Jon Langdon and Rebecca Foust.

BOOK PASSAGE 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera; 927-0960; http://www.bookpassage.com. 4 p.m. March 16: Chris Pavone discusses "The Accident." 7 p.m. March 16: Lisa Osina discusses "A Wolf Song." 6 p.m. March 17: Sarah Mlynowski discusses "Don't Even Think About It." 7 p.m. March 17: Phil Klay discusses "Redeployment." 7 p.m. March 18: Simon Schama discusses "The Story of the Jews." 7 p.m. March 19: Cara Black discusses "Murder in Pigalle" and Libby Fischer Hellmann discusses "Havana Lost." 7 p.m. March 20: Susan Katz Miller discusses "Being Both." 10 a.m. March 21: Chris Columbus discusses "House of Secrets: Battle of the Beasts." 6 p.m. March 21: Phil Bildner, LeYuen Pham and Kevin Lewis discuss "The Soccer Fence." 7 p.m. March 21: Peter Stark discusses "Astoria." 1 p.m. March 22: David Richo discusses "How to Be an Adult in Love." 4 p.m. March 22: Ted Chu discusses "Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential." 7 p.m. March 22: Jenny Bowen discusses "Wish You Happy Forever." 1 p.m. March 23: Charles Durrett discusses "The Senior Cohousing Handbook." 4 p.m. March 23: Bill Amatneek discusses "Acoustic Stories." 7 p.m. March 23: Rivvy Neshama discusses "Recipes for a Sacred Life."

CAFE ARRIVEDERCI 11 G St., San Rafael; 492-8870. 5:30 p.m. March 17: salon with storyteller Angar Mora and artist Jennifer Bundey. $10.

DANCE PALACE 503 B St., Point Reyes Station; 663-1075; 663-1542; http://www.dancepalace.org; http://www.ptreyesbooks.com. 2 p.m. March 16: "Mother Ireland: An Afternoon of Irish Poetry, Storytelling and Song." $10.

ENTERPRISE RESOURCE CENTER 3270 Kerner Blvd., San Rafael; 457-4554; 460-1912; http://www.writeonworkshops.org. 2:30 to 5 p.m. Fridays: Write On! creative writing workshop with Robert-Harry Rovin.

FALKIRK CULTURAL CENTER 1408 Mission Ave., San Rafael; 485-3328; http://www.falkirkcultural center.org; http://www.marinpoetrycenter .org. 7:30 p.m. March 20: Marin Poetry Center reading with Ellen Bass and Andrea Hollander. $3 to $5.

PERI'S SILVER DOLLAR BAR 29 Broadway Blvd., Fairfax; 459-9910; http://www.perisbar.com; http://www.facebook.com/tuesdaynightwriters. 6 p.m. March 18: Tuesday Night Writers' Pints & Prose reading with Clive Matson and Sarah Griff.

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Lectures and the literary scene in Marin County, March 16 through 23, 2014

Transhuman Space – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Transhuman Space is a role-playing game published by Steve Jackson Games as parts of the "Powered by GURPS" (Generic Universal Role-Playing System) line. Set in the year 2100, humanity has begun to colonize the Solar System. The pursuit of transhumanism is now in full swing, as more and more people struggle to reach a fully posthuman state.

Transhuman Space was one of the first role-playing games to tackle postcyberpunk and transhumanist themes.[citation needed] In 2002, the Transhuman Space adventure "Orbital Decay" received an Origins Award nomination for Best Role-Playing Game Adventure. Transhuman Space won the 2003 Grog d'Or Award for Best Role-playing Game, Game Line or RPG Setting.[1]

The game assumes that no cataclysm natural or human-induced swept Earth in the 21st century. Instead, constant developments in information technology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and nuclear physics generally improved condition of the average human life. Plagues of the 20th century (like cancer or AIDS) have been suppressed, the ozone layer is being restored and Earth's ecosystems are recovering (although thermal emission by fusion power plants poses an environmental threatalbeit a much lesser one than previous sources of energy). Thanks to modern medicine humans live biblical timespans surrounded by various artificially intelligent helper applications and robots (cybershells), sensory experience broadcasts (future TV) and cyberspace telepresence. Thanks to cheap and clean fusion energy humanity has power to fuel all these wonders, restore and transform its home planet and finally settle on other heavenly bodies.

Human genetic engineering has advanced to the point that anyonesingle individuals, same-sex couples, groups of three or morecan reproduce. The embryos can be allowed to be developed naturally, or they can undergo three levels of tinkering: 1. Genefixing, which corrects defects; 2. Upgrades, which boost natural abilities (Ishtar Upgrades are slightly more attractive than usual, Metanoia Upgrades are more intelligent, etc.); and... 3. Full transition to parahuman status (Nyx Parahumans only need a few hours of sleep per week, Aquamorphs can live underwater, etc.) Another type of human genetic engineering, far more controversial, is the creation of bioroids, fully sentient slave races.

People can "upload" by recording the contents of their brains on computer disks. The individual then becomes a ghost, an infomorph very easily confused with "sapient artificial intelligence". However, this technology has several problems as the solely available "brainpeeling" technique is fatal to the original person, has a significant failure rate and the philosophical questions regarding personal identity remain equivocal. Any infomorph, regardless of its origin, can be plugged into a "cybershell", or a biological body, or "bioshell". Or, the individual can illegally make multiple "xoxes", or copies of themselves, and scatter them throughout the system, exponentially increasing the odds that at least one of them will live for centuries more, if not forever.

This is also a time of space colonization. First, humanity (specifically China, followed by the United States and others) colonized Mars in a fashion resembling that outlined in the Mars Direct project. The Moon, Lagrangian points, inner planets and asteroids soon followed. In the late 21st century even some of Saturn's moons have been settled as a base for that planet's Helium-3 scooping operations.

This is no utopia, however: several problems have arisen from these otherwise beneficial developments. The Generation gap has become a chasm as lifespans increase. No longer do the elite fear death, and no longer can the young hope to replace them. While it seemed that outworld colonies would offer accommodation and work for those young ones, they are being replaced by genetically tailored bioroids and AI-powered cybershells. The concept of humanity is no longer clear in a world where even some animals speak of their rights and the dead haunt both cyberspace and reality (in form of infomorph-controlled bioshells or cybershells).

And the wonders of high science are not universally shared some countries merely struggle with informatization while others suffer from nanoplagues, defective drugs, implants and software tested on their populace. In some poor countries high-tech tyrants oppress their backward people. And in outer space all sort of modern crime thrives, barely suppressed by military forces.

After the initial set of GURPS books which included GURPS Lite in them, later publications such as Transhuman Space by David Pulver were labelled "Powered by GURPS" without including "GURPS" in the book title, primarily to make it easier for fans to find the books at mass-market retailers.[2]Transhuman Space was well supported by an extensive game line, and was the first major original background produced by Steve Jackson Games in 15 years.[2] The books inclusion of posthuman characters began to show the limits of the current GURPS system, which is something that Pulver would address soon thereafter.[2]

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Transhuman Space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tinkering With Frankenkinder

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(Photo: The Christian Post/Scott Liu)

Bestselling author Eric Metaxas address industry leaders at the National Religious Broadcasters dinner in Nashville, Tenn., on Sunday, March 3, 2013.

March 7, 2014|12:27 pm

An FDA panel is currently reviewing a procedure that would allow a child to inherit genetic material from three different people.

If that sounds like one too many to you, congratulations! Your moral intuition is more highly developed than that of many scientific researchers.

The procedure, pioneered at Oregon Health and Science University, involves replacing defective mitochondria in a woman's egg with healthy mitochondria from another woman.

To understand the controversy, you have to understand that every human carries two kinds of DNA: chromosomal DNA, the iconic "double helix," to which both your father and mother contribute equally, and mitochondrial DNA, which serves as the power source in cells and is only passed on by your mother.

If this proposed procedure is approved, the result would be children with DNA from three different people.

Not surprisingly, this procedure is being justified as a therapeutic measure. As the Washington Post put it, "scientists think [the procedure] could help women who carry DNA mutations for conditions such as blindness and epilepsy."

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Tinkering With Frankenkinder

Why We Wrote "Death is Wrong" – Gennady and Wendy Stolyarov at Transhuman Visions 2.0 – Video

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Why We Wrote "Death is Wrong" - Gennady and Wendy Stolyarov at Transhuman Visions 2.0
Gennady Stolyarov II and Wendy Stolyarov present their illustrated children #39;s book, "Death is Wrong", at the Transhuman Visions 2.0 conference in Piedmont, C...

By: G. Stolyarov II

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Why We Wrote "Death is Wrong" - Gennady and Wendy Stolyarov at Transhuman Visions 2.0 - Video

"Death is Wrong" – Fundraiser Progress and Distribution Plans – February 25, 2014 – Video

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"Death is Wrong" - Fundraiser Progress and Distribution Plans - February 25, 2014
Mr. Stolyarov offers an update regarding the impact of "Death is Wrong", the status of the Indiegogo fundraiser to spread this illustrated children #39;s book to...

By: G. Stolyarov II

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"Death is Wrong" - Fundraiser Progress and Distribution Plans - February 25, 2014 - Video


  1. Transhuman