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This “Molecular Coffee” is Brewed Entirely Without Beans

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

Molecular Coffee

Take the animal out of meat, and you’ve got fake meat. Take the dairy out of milk and you have soy or almond milk. But what happens when you try to take the bean out of the coffee?

Seattle-based startup Atomo has developed a “molecular coffee” that promises to make a better cup without needing to harvest a single coffee bean. The company is touting it as a way to ditch the cream or sugar, since their product is engineered from the ground up to deliver the desirable flavors and aromas of a great cup of coffee.

Re-Engineered Java

Atomo CEO Andy Kleitsch and microbiologist Jarret Stopforth are the faces behind Atomo. They believe they’ve identified the 40 or so compounds found in the proteins and oils of coffee that represent the body, mouth feel, aroma, and color of coffee, and built a product made out of naturally derived sustainable ingredients.

The result: “the smoothest coffee you’ve ever had – with a caffeine kick you’d expect,” their peppy Kickstarter page reads. The product itself is not a powder you dissolve in hot water — the team decided to replicate the traditional coffee-making ritual by creating grounds instead.

Atomo says the grounds are made of “upcycled plant-based materials,” but it’s incredibly vague about what that actually means. “At this time we’re not disclosing our ingredients,” reads a the FAQ in the company’s press kit.

What’s Wrong With Coffee?

There are several reasons we shouldn’t over-rely on growing coffee.

Coffee growers are increasingly feeling the negative effects of climate change and deforestation. A 2019 study found that 60 percent of wild coffee species are under threat of extinction.

There are the labor issues plaguing the coffee industry. Even the biggest coffee companies themselves, including Nestlé, are starting to admit the risk of slave labor being used on coffee plantations around the world.

There’s also cost. The steep price of a high-grade, locally roasted bag of coffee beans can be inhibiting to some. Atomo’s offerings, according to their Kickstarter, bring that price down to just under 40 cents a cup.

But are we really ready to say goodbye to the coffee bean? Atomo, for one, is convinced we are.

More on futuristic coffee: This Ridiculous Startup Wants to Roast Coffee in Space

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The US Army’s Strange Inspiration for Its Next Rifle: The iPhone

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

An Army official told the military tech blog Task & Purpose that the military wants its upcoming rifle to be an expandable platform he compared to an iPhone

Killer App

An official told military and veterans site Task & Purpose that the Army plans for its upcoming rifle to be an expandable platform comparable to Apple’s iconic iPhone.

“We have hundreds of capabilities we can put into this weapons system, but we want to do it by holistically creating a system that that takes advantage of everything we’ve done in the past,” Army Col. Elliott Caggins, a project manager for soldier weapons, told Task & Purpose. “This means its capabilities will only grow, just as the iPhone’s did.”

“iPhone of Lethality”

The gun —described by Task & Purpose as the “iPhone of lethality” — is the Army’s upcoming Next Generation Squad Weapon. A lot is riding on the gun, which is expected to replace the M4 and M16 that many soldiers currently carry.

The Army is currently soliciting prototypes for the next-gen weapon, Task & Purpose pointed out — and, according to the interview with Caggins, it sounds like Army officials are looking for a high-tech, platform-style device that can be built up with future add-ons.

Platformer

Basically, it sounds like the Army is looking to build a stable platform, like iOS, that it can build increasingly sophisticated weapon technologies on top of.

“Imagine that Steve Jobs and his engineers were trying to convert the iPod Touch to the first 3G iPhone,” Caggins told Task & Purpose. “There were a thousand technologies they could have put in the first iPhone but they were looking to mature the platform before they could actually go onto the system.”

Editor’s note Feb. 8, 2019 at 4:32 PM ET: This article has been updated to describe Task & Purpose as a “military and veterans” site instead of a “military tech blog.”

More on weapons: Russian Navy Says New Weapon Makes Enemies Hallucinate

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“Trojan Horse” Cancer Drug Sneaks Inside Tumor Cells to Kill Them

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

A new cancer drug uses an antibody to get inside tumor cells so it can attack from within, similarly to the Greek army in the Trojan Horse story.

Gift Horse

According to “The Iliad,” the Greeks won the Trojan War by sneaking a few dozen soldiers into the city of Troy inside a giant wooden horse disguised as a gift of surrender. The men waited until nightfall before emerging from the horse and opening the city gates for the rest of the Greek army, which destroyed Troy and ended the war.

It wasn’t the most forthright battle plan, but it worked. And now, U.K. researchers are using a similar tactic in the fight against hard-to-treat cancers — with extremely promising results.

TV Winner

Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research, London (ICR), and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust have created a new cancer drug called tisotumab vedotin (TV) that combines a chemotherapy agent with an antibody.

This antibody attaches to markers on a cancer cell’s surface in a way that causes the cell to draw in the chemotherapy drug — which then attack the cell from the inside, like the Greek soldiers attacking Troy.

“What is so exciting about this treatment is that its mechanism of action is completely novel,” ICR researcher Johann de Bono said in a press release. “It acts like a Trojan horse to sneak into cancer cells and kill them from the inside.”

Last Resort

On Thursday, the researchers published the details of a clinical trial of TV in the journal The Lancet Oncology.

This trial involved 147 patients with a variety of cancers, including ovarian, cervical, and esophageal. For the majority of trial participants, the cancer was already in an advanced stage and had proven resistant to several other types of treatment.

According to the press release, a “significant minority” of trial participants saw their tumors either shrink or stop growing following treatment with the new cancer drug. On average, the positive response lasted 5.7 months, but some patients went 9.5 months before the effect of the TV wore off.

Next Steps

The research team is already testing TV in trials featuring several other types of cancer, including bowel, pancreatic, and head and neck. It’s also moving forward with a phase II trial of the cancer drug as a secondary treatment for cervical cancer.

“It’s exciting to see the potential shown by TV across a range of hard-to-treat cancers,” ICR’s Chief Executive Paul Workman said in the press release. “I look forward to seeing it progress in the clinic and hope it can benefit patients who currently have run out of treatment options.”

More on cancer: A Single “Cell of Origin” Might Trigger All Forms of Cancer

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China Thinks AI Could Make Its Military As Powerful as America’s

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

According to a prominent think tank's new report, the Chinese military is adopting artificial intelligence tech as quickly as it can.

Smart Bombs

China’s military is working to adopt artificial intelligence and autonomous technology as quickly as it can.

That’s because Chinese President Xi Jinping believes that AI and other cutting-edge technologies, especially when applied to military systems, are the key to keeping up and leveling the playing field between China and countries like the U.S. that had a head start on its industrial development, according to a new report published Wednesday by a think tank called the Center for a New American Security.

World Powers

The push for advanced Chinese AI is focused on more than military might — the new report highlights how China is taking steps to move away from importing foreign technology.

In October, Xi was quoted as saying that China should strive to “achieve world-leading levels” in artificial intelligence tech while also eliminating its “external dependence for key technologies and advanced equipment,” according to the report.

In short, China is positioning itself to take a global leadership role in AI development and wants to make sure it can do so without the help of any other nation.

All Hands On Deck

The think tank’s report goes on to clarify that many Chinese leaders are concerned that they may be fostering a sort of arms race between China and the West as both push to develop and weaponized autonomous technology like AI.

Still, though, the report says that those same leaders believe that AI will inevitably become more prevalent in combat. And when that happens, China is poised to take the lead, according to MIT Technology Review, because Chinese tech corporations work hand-in-hand with the government while American companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are subject to worker protests over military contracts.

READ MORE: China’s military is rushing to use artificial intelligence [MIT Technology Review]

More on military AI: The Military Just Created An AI That Learned How To Program Software

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Scientists Want to Build a Space Station Inside an Asteroid

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

We Have a Problem

Many space visionaries want to mine asteroids. But drilling in microgravity is hard, because exerting force on an asteroid will push you away from it.

That’s what an inspired a far-out idea from scientists from University of Vienna: turning an asteroid into a space station and mining it from the inside out, according to New Scientist.

Setting up Shop

The best type of asteroid to build a space station inside would be made of solid rock and rotating several times per minute, according the Viennese scientists’ research, which was published in the preprint server ArXiv in December. The idea is that it would provide enough centrifugal force to let space miners chisel away at the asteroid from the center outward.

“If we find an asteroid that’s stable enough, we might not need these aluminium walls or anything, you might just be able to use the entire asteroid as a space station,” Thomas Maindl, one of the scientists who worked on the research, told New Scientist.

Maybe Someday

Questions remain. Would digging a tunnel to place station inside an asteroid weaken it to the point that the spinning space rock rips itself apart? Would it stop spinning altogether as miners probe and dig? And if it’s so hard to drill into an asteroid from the outside, wouldn’t hollowing it out in the first place pose the same problems?

“The border between science and science fiction here is sort of blurry,” Maindl told New Scientist. “My gut feeling is that it will be at least 20 years before any asteroid mining happens, let alone something like this.”

READ MORE: Here’s how we could turn an asteroid into a space station [New Scientist]

More on asteroid landings: Here are the First Photos Japan’s Robot Landers Sent Back From an Asteroid

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NASA Head: “This Time, When We Go to the Moon, We Will Stay.”

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine published a bold essay outlining the space agency's plan to return astronauts to the Moon.

Moon Man

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine published a bold essay yesterday in Ozy outlining the space agency’s plan to return astronauts to the Moon — and laying out a bold vision for humanity’s future beyond Earth.

“We are going to the moon with innovative new technologies and systems to explore more locations across the surface than we ever thought possible,” Bridenstine wrote. “This time, when we go to the moon, we will stay.”

Lunar Outpost

According to Bridenstine, America’s return to the moon will hinge on the Lunar Gateway, an orbiting lunar outpost that will serve as the first reusable lunar lander system for astronauts.

In realizing that vision, Bridenstine emphasized the role he foresees for private spacetech ventures. NASA is currently working with nine American companies on commercial deliveries of cargo to the moon and on the Gateway project, he said.

Proving Ground

Two thirds of Americans alive today, Bridenstine pointed out, weren’t alive during the last Moon landings — including Bridenstine himself. But he emphasized that NASA’s next foray to the Moon won’t be a redux of those missions. Astronauts will venture farther onto the lunar surface and conduct new research. The missions will also, according to Bridenstine, serve as a proving ground for technologies that will take Earthlings even farther into the reaches of space.

“Following a buildup of capabilities, our goal is to land astronauts on the moon within the next decade,” he wrote. “Billions of people around the world will watch history being made as astronauts explore more of the surface for longer periods of time than ever before, and help us prepare for missions to Mars and other destinations.”

READ MORE: NASA: Join Us in Going to the Moon… And Beyond [Ozy]

More on the Moon: Elon Musk’s New Goal: “Reach the Moon as Fast as Possible”

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New Chemistry Technique Turns Waste Plastic Into Clean Fuel

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

Researchers at Purdue University say a new chemical technique technique turns waste plastic back into useful polymers — or even clean fuel.

Fuel Rules

Waste plastic is choking the Earth’s oceans and poisoning its wildlife.

That’s why researchers at Purdue University are excited about a new chemical technique technique that turns waste plastic back into useful polymers — or even clean fuel.

Immortal Technique

The new technique works on polypropelene, according to a new paper published in the journal Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, which is used to make everything from toys to snack food bags. The technique users super-heated water to convert the plastic into a gasoline-like fuel that could be used to fuel conventional vehicles.

“Our strategy is to create a driving force for recycling by converting polyolefin waste into a wide range of valuable products, including polymers, naphtha (a mixture of hydrocarbons), or clean fuels,” said Linda Wang, a researcher at Purdue University and leader of the research team behind the new technique, in a press release. “Our conversion technology has the potential to boost the profits of the recycling industry and shrink the world’s plastic waste stock.”

Waste Disposal

Polypropelene accounts for about 23 percent of the five billions of tons of plastic waste that’s been cast into landfills and the environment, according to the new research — meaning that if it could be turned into a valuable commodity, it’d create a huge incentive to recover and re-purpose it.

“Plastic waste disposal, whether recycled or thrown away, does not mean the end of the story,” Wang said. “These plastics degrade slowly and release toxic microplastics and chemicals into the land and the water. This is a catastrophe, because once these pollutants are in the oceans, they are impossible to retrieve completely.”

More on plastic: The EU Just Voted to Completely Ban Single-Use Plastics

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This 3D Printed Electric Motorcycle Looks Like Something From “TRON”

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

An electric motorcycle called Nera looks like something from a video game — a design made possible by the fact that it's almost 100 percent 3D printed.

Print “Motorcycle”

A new BBC video shows an electric motorcycle called the Nera that looks like something from a stylized video game — a “TRON”-like design made possible by the fact that it’s almost 100 percent 3D printed, down to the airless tires.

“The idea was to demonstrate to designers and engineers and architects and the general consumer what 3D printing was all about,” said Stephan Beyer, the CEO of Nera maker BigRep. “Historically, engineers and designers have been limited with manufacturing technologies like grinding and molding.”

“TRON” Bike

Though you can’t buy it yet, the BBC says the Nera is expected to cost about £2,000 ($2,600.)

The BBC claims the Nera is the world’s first 3D printed electric motorcycle — though, to be fair, a separate project called the Light Rider appears to have come first.

Bike Hack

Still, the Nera is an extraordinarily bold design, with futuristic angles and polygons that look too sharp for the staid world of automotive design. Beyers credits those bold choices with the possibilities opened up by 3D printing.

“The nice thing with 3D printing is that you can swipe those limitations away and you can create objects that have completely new capabilities, follow completely new sets of designs,” he told the BBC. “For instance, with the outer hull of the bike, that follows a design that we created that you would typically not be able to bring to life with a traditional bike.”

READ MORE: The world’s first 3D-printed electric motorbike [BBC]

More on motorcycles: Harley-Davidson’s Electric Motorcycle Will Go on Sale in August

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New Senate Bill Would Legalize Marijuana Nationwide

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

The future of drug policy? A new bill in the Senate would mark a tectonic state in the United States' drug law by legalizing marijuana nationwide.

Weed Law

A new bill in the Senate Friday would mark a tectonic state in the United States’ drug law by legalizing marijuana nationwide.

“The federal prohibition of marijuana is wrong, plain and simple,” said Ron Wyden, an Oregon Senator who introduced the bill, in a statement. “Too many lives have been wasted, and too many economic opportunities have been missed.”

Blaze It

The new bill, called S.420 — get it? — would give the Drug Enforcement Administration 60 days to strike cannabis from its list of controlled substances. It would also institute a tax on the substance and set up a mechanism for retail permits and special labeling, like tobacco and alcohol, according to The Verge.

That would be a huge shift, because individual states have pursued cannabis legalization and decriminalization piecemeal in recent decades, but the federal government still considers it a “Schedule I” substance — along heavy duty drugs like methamphetamine and heroin.

Research Opportunities

Legalizing marijuana would likely decrease unnecessary strain on the legal system and create new economic opportunities, according to many experts — and could be a major opportunity for research into possible medicinal uses.

“The American people have elected the most pro-cannabis Congress in American history and significant pieces of legislation are being introduced,” said Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer, who introduced the bill in the House of Representatives alongside Wyden. “The House is doing its work and with the help of Senator Wyden’s leadership in the Senate, we will break through.”

More on cannabis: Canada Legalized Weed, and It Could Be a Huge Opportunity for Science

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Astronomer Warns Against SETI: “Maybe They Will Come and Eat Us.”

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

In a new interview with The Times, University of St. Andrews astronomer Martin Dominik cautioned against sending messages into the unknown of deep space.

To Serve Man

For decades, scientists have used radio telescopes to listen for cosmic signals that could originate with an extraterrestrial civilization. Increasingly, they’re also broadcasting messages to the stars in hopes that someone is listening.

But in a new interview with The Times, University of St. Andrews astronomer Martin Dominik cautioned against sending messages into the unknown of deep space.

“Maybe,” he told the paper, provocatively, “they will come and eat us.”

We Come in Peace

The Arecibo Observatory beamed out a message to potential aliens in 1974. Next year, scientists intend to send a signal to the stars representing the period table of elements. In 2008, the maker of Doritos chips shot a 30-second advertisement to a system in the Ursa Major constellation. And we’re constantly beaming radio waves of old music and sitcoms in every direction.

“Anyone can just beam messages into outer space, and nobody has any right to stop them from doing it,” Dominik told The Times. “Some people feel uncomfortable about it. For the first time astronomers are facing an ethical question. Should we send messages out to others? Is this dangerous? Should we keep a lower profile? What is the better strategy?”

Last Thing

Dominik’s comments allude to the terrifying “dark-forest theory,” which holds that astronomers haven’t spotted extraterrestrial signals because other civilizations are hiding from killer aliens that wipe out any galactic competition they spot.

“Some say [alien contact] is the greatest thing we should do,” Dominik told The Times. “Some think we should be very quiet and this should be the last thing we should do — and it might indeed be the last thing we will do.”

READ MORE: Don’t invite aliens to lunch, warns astronomer Martin Dominik [The Times]

More on aliens: Yes, a NASA Scientist Said Aliens May Have Visited Earth. But There’s Some Nuance

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See the Bizarre Storm Blanketing Uranus Right Now

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

A newly released image taken by Hubble provides a stunning view of the massive storm currently covering the north pole of Uranus.

Annual Check-Up

Once a year, the Hubble telescope snaps photos of our solar system’s gas giants for the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, an initiative to help us better understand the four planets.

On Thursday, NASA released the latest OPAL image of Uranus — and it offers a stunning view of a mind-bogglingly massive storm currently raging on the icy planet.

Image Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong and A. Hsu (University of California, Berkeley)

White Cap

The storm is impossible to miss in the new photograph — it blankets Uranus’s north pole in a cloud of white, making the planet resemble a blue Easter egg that wasn’t fully immersed in the dye.

According to a NASA blog post, scientists believe the striking image was made possible by something that sets Uranus apart from every other planet in our solar system: its dramatic tilt.

Uranus essentially spins on its side, with an axis tilt of 98 degrees. For comparison, the Earth’s axis has a 23-degree tilt. That means Uranus’s north pole points almost directly at the Sun during the planet’s summer.

The middle of that summer season is approaching, thereby granting Earth this stunning view of Uranus’s north pole and the storm on it, which NASA posits was caused by changes in the planet’s atmospheric flow.

Patterns in the Sky

Just like a meteorologist can’t predict weather patterns on Earth from a few photos, astronomers need a series of images of the atmospheres of other planets, taken over long periods of time, to reach any worthwhile conclusions about their weather trends.

The hope is that the OPAL program will provide this valuable data, helping scientists better understand the atmospheres and weather patterns of the planets circling the outskirts of our solar system — and, in the process, providing us with stunning images like the one released on Thursday.

More on Hubble: Hubble Takes Another Incredible Picture After Gyroscope Failure

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They Asked if People Would Rather Kill a Human or a Sentient Robot

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

A new experiment asked participants whether they'd sacrifice a robot to save humans. The results, as with many AI questions, were complicated.

Robot Rights

It’s an old philosophical question: if a speeding train is careening down the track, and it’s about to crush a group of injured people, would you pull a lever that would redirect it to kill just one innocent person?

Now, provocative new research puts a new twist on the thought experiment by asking people whether they’d pull the lever to kill an intelligent robot and save a person.

Trolleyology

A new paper in the journal Social Cognition describes an experiment in which participants were presented with a variety of ethical puzzles: whether to sacrifice a robot presented as a “simple machine,” a robot with intelligence and other human traits, and even whether to sacrifice a regular human.

“The more the robot was depicted as human — and in particular the more feelings were attributed to the machine — the less our experimental subjects were inclined to sacrifice it,” said co-author Markus Paulus, a researcher at Ludwig-Maximilians University, in a statement. “This result indicates that our study group attributed a certain moral status to the robot.”

Virtual Persons

Maybe the result was intuitive: the more strongly the robot was presented as being person-like — having its own “thoughts, experiences, pain, and emotions” — the less likely the participants were to sacrifice it in order to save human lives. To Paulus, that suggest a grim takeaway.

“One possible implication of this finding is that attempts to humanize robots should not go too far,” Paulus said. “Such efforts could come into conflict with their intended function — to be of help to us.”

READ MORE: Robot on the Trolley Car Track: How Valuable is Robot Life? [Interesting Engineering]

More on robot ethics: Saudi Arabia Made a Robot a Citizen. Now, She’s Calling For Women’s Rights.

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Someone Is Terrorizing People By Peering In Windows With a Drone

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Danzig

Terror Drone

Australian homeowners say someone is using a drone to leer in their windows, according to the Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun — and it could be a sign of things to come as inexpensive drone technology becomes even more ubiquitous.

“The drone is looking into our windows — it is such an invasion of privacy and it’s a bit creepy,” resident Ashley Torcasio told the paper.

Invasion of Privacy

Torcasio said the drone buzzed her house twice, according to the story. She also spotted a car at the edge of her property which drove off when she shined a light at it, leading her to suspect that thieves could be using the drone to scope out her property for a robbery.

“For all we know it could be trying to case out if anyone’s home,” Torcasio told the Herald Sun, “looking to see if they could break in or what someone’s movements throughout the day are.”

Buzz Off

Maneuverable, consumer-oriented drones, which often retail for just a few hundred dollars, raise enormous questions about privacy and the use of low airspace. This past December, drone sightings shut down Gatwick airport in London for several days.

It’s also difficult to enforce laws direct at drones, because they can always just fly away before authorities have a chance to arrive.

“It just hovers — it’s an annoying noise and it seems to be checking yards out,” another homeowner told the Herald Sun of the mysterious drone flybys.

READ MORE: ‘Creepy’ drone hovering beside windows and above backyards in Diamond Creek [The Herald Sun]

More on drones: Someone Just Used a Drone to Try to Assassinate a World Leader

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transhumanism | Definition, Origins, Characteristics, & Facts …

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Danzig

Transhumanism, social and philosophical movement devoted to promoting the research and development of robust human-enhancement technologies. Such technologies would augment or increase human sensory reception, emotive ability, or cognitive capacity as well as radically improve human health and extend human life spans. Such modifications resulting from the addition of biological or physical technologies would be more or less permanent and integrated into the human body.

The term transhumanism was coined by English biologist and philosopher Julian Huxley in his 1957 essay of the same name. Huxley referred principally to improving the human condition through social and cultural change, but the essay and the name have been adopted as seminal by the transhumanist movement, which emphasizes material technology. Huxley held that, although humanity had naturally evolved, it was now possible for social institutions to supplant evolution in refining and improving the species. The ethos of Huxleys essayif not its lettercan be located in transhumanisms commitment to assuming the work of evolution, but through technology rather than society.

The movements adherents tend to be libertarian and employed in high technology or in academia. Its principal proponents have been prominent technologists like American computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil and scientists like Austrian-born Canadian computer scientist and roboticist Hans Moravec and American nanotechnology researcher Eric Drexler, with the addition of a small but influential contingent of thinkers such as American philosopher James Hughes and Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. The movement has evolved since its beginnings as a loose association of groups dedicated to extropianism (a philosophy devoted to the transcendence of human limits). Transhumanism is principally divided between adherents of two visions of post-humanityone in which technological and genetic improvements have created a distinct species of radically enhanced humans and the other in which greater-than-human machine intelligence emerges.

The membership of the transhumanist movement tends to split in an additional way. One prominent strain of transhumanism argues that social and cultural institutionsincluding national and international governmental organizationswill be largely irrelevant to the trajectory of technological development. Market forces and the nature of technological progress will drive humanity to approximately the same end point regardless of social and cultural influences. That end point is often referred to as the singularity, a metaphor drawn from astrophysics and referring to the point of hyperdense material at the centre of a black hole which generates its intense gravitational pull. Among transhumanists, the singularity is understood as the point at which artificial intelligence surpasses that of humanity, which will allow the convergence of human and machine consciousness. That convergence will herald the increase in human consciousness, physical strength, emotional well-being, and overall health and greatly extend the length of human lifetimes.

The second strain of transhumanism holds a contrasting view, that social institutions (such as religion, traditional notions of marriage and child rearing, and Western perspectives of freedom) not only can influence the trajectory of technological development but could ultimately retard or halt it. Bostrom and British philosopher David Pearce founded the World Transhumanist Association in 1998 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with those social institutions to promote and guide the development of human-enhancement technologies and to combat those social forces seemingly dedicated to halting such technological progress.

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transhumanism | Definition, Origins, Characteristics, & Facts ...

Transhumanism | Future | FANDOM powered by Wikia

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Danzig

Transhumanism (sometimes abbreviated >H or H+) is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of new sciences and technologies to enhance human cognitive and physical abilities and ameliorate what it regards as undesirable and unnecessary aspects of the human condition, such as disease, aging, and death. Transhumanist thinkers study the possibilities and consequences of developing and using human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies for these purposes. Possible dangers, as well as benefits, of powerful new technologies that might radically change the conditions of human life are also of concern to the transhumanist movement.

Although the first known use of the term "transhumanism" dates from 1957, the contemporary meaning is a product of the 1980s, when a group of scientists, artists, and futurists based in the United States began to organize what has since grown into the transhumanist movement. Transhumanist thinkers postulate that human beings will eventually be transformed into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".

The transhumanist vision of a profoundly transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters as well as critics from a wide range of perspectives. Transhumanism has been described by a proponent as the "movement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations of humanity," while according to a prominent critic, it is the world's most dangerous idea.

In his 2005 article A History of Transhumanist Thought, philosopher Nick Bostrom locates transhumanism's roots in Renaissance humanism and the Enlightenment. The Marquis de Condorcet, an eighteenth century French philosopher, is the first thinker whom he identifies as speculating about the use of medical science to extend the human life span. In the twentieth century, a direct and influential precursor to transhumanist concepts was J.B.S. Haldane's 1923 essay Daedalus: Science and the Future, which predicted that great benefits would come from applications of genetics and other advanced sciences to human biology.

Biologist Julian Huxley, brother of author Aldous Huxley (a childhood friend of Haldane's), appears to have been the first to use the actual word "transhumanism". Writing in 1957, he defined transhumanism as "man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature". This definition differs substantially from the one commonly in use since the 1980s.

The coalescence of an identifiable transhumanist movement began in the last decades of the twentieth century. In 1966, FM-2030 (formerly F.M. Esfandiary), a futurist who taught "new concepts of the Human" at The New School for Social Research in New York City, began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and world views transitional to "posthumanity" as "transhuman" (short for "transitory human"). In 1972, Robert Ettinger contributed to the popularization of the concept of "transhumanity" in his book Man into Superman. FM-2030 published the Upwingers Manifesto in 1973 to stimulate transhumanly conscious activism.

The first self-described transhumanists met formally in the early 1980s at the University of California, Los Angeles, which became the main center of transhumanist thought. Here, FM-2030 lectured on his "third way" futurist ideology. At the EZTV Media venue frequented by transhumanists and other futurists, Natasha Vita-More presented Breaking Away, her 1980 experimental film with the theme of humans breaking away from their biological limitations and the earth's gravity as they head into space. FM-2030 and Vita-More soon began holding gatherings for transhumanists in Los Angeles, which included students from FM-2030's courses and audiences from Vita-More's artistic productions. In 1982, Vita-More authored the Transhumanist Arts Statement, and, six years later, produced the cable TV show TransCentury Update on transhumanity, a program which reached over 100,000 viewers.

In 1988, philosopher Max More founded the Extropy Institute and was the main contributor to a formal transhumanist doctrine, which took the form of the Principles of Extropy in 1990.[ In 1990, he laid the foundation of modern transhumanism by giving it a new definition:

"Transhumanism is a class of philosophies that seek to guide us towards a posthuman condition. Transhumanism shares many elements of humanism, including a respect for reason and science, a commitment to progress, and a valuing of human (or transhuman) existence in this life. [] Transhumanism differs from humanism in recognizing and anticipating the radical alterations in the nature and possibilities of our lives resulting from various sciences and technologies []." In 1998, philosophers Nick Bostrom and David Pearce founded the World Transhumanist Association (WTA), an organization with a liberal democratic perspective. In 1999, the WTA drafted and adopted The Transhumanist Declaration. The Transhumanist FAQ, prepared by the WTA, gave two formal definitions for transhumanism:

The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. The study of the ramifications, promises, and potential dangers of technologies that will enable us to overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies. A number of similar definitions have been collected by Anders Sandberg, an academic with a high profile in the transhumanist movement.

In 2006, the board of directors of the Extropy Institute made a decision to cease operations of the organization, stating that its mission was "essentially completed". This left the World Transhumanist Association as the leading international transhumanist organization.

For a list of notable individuals who have identified themselves, or been identified by others, as advocates of transhumanism, see the list of transhumanists.

While many transhumanist theorists and advocates seek to apply reason, science and technology for the purposes of reducing poverty, disease, disability and malnutrition around the globe, transhumanism is distinctive in its particular focus on the applications of technologies to the improvement of human bodies at the individual level. Many transhumanists actively assess the potential for future technologies and innovative social systems to improve the quality of all life, while seeking to make the material reality of the human condition fulfill the promise of legal and political equality by eliminating congenital mental and physical barriers.

Transhumanist philosophers argue that there not only exists an ethical imperative for humans to strive for progress and improvement of the human condition but that it is possible and desirable for humanity to enter a post-Darwinian phase of existence, in which humans are in control of their own evolution. In such a phase, natural evolution would be replaced with deliberate change. To this end, transhumanists engage in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and evaluating possibilities for overcoming biological limitations. They draw on futures studies and various fields or subfields of science, philosophy, economics, history, and sociology. Unlike philosophers, social critics and activists who place a moral value on preservation of natural systems, transhumanists see the very concept of the "natural" as an obstacle to progress. In keeping with this, many prominent transhumanist advocates refer to transhumanism's critics on the political right and left jointly as "bioconservatives" or "bioluddites", the latter term alluding to the nineteenth century anti-industrialisation social movement that opposed the replacement of manual labor by machines.

Converging Technologies, a 2002 report exploring the potential for synergy among nano-, bio-, informational and cognitive technologies (NBIC) for enhancing human performance.While some transhumanists take a relatively abstract and theoretical approach to the perceived benefits of emerging technologies, others have offered specific proposals for modifications to the human body, including inheritable ones. Transhumanists are often concerned with methods of enhancing the human nervous system. Though some propose modification of the peripheral nervous system, the brain is considered the common denominator of personhood and is thus a primary focus of transhumanist ambitions. More generally, transhumanists support the convergence of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC), and hypothetical future technologies such as simulated reality, artificial intelligence, mind uploading, and cryonics. Transhumanists believe that humans can and should use these technologies to become more than human. Transhumanists therefore support the recognition or protection of cognitive liberty, morphological freedom and procreative liberty as civil liberties, so as to guarantee individuals the choice of enhancing themselves and progressively become posthuman, which they see as the next significant evolutionary steps for the human species. Some speculate that human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies may facilitate such a transformation by the midpoint of the twenty first century.

A 2002 report, Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance, commissioned by the U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Commerce, contains descriptions and commentaries on the state of NBIC science and technology by major contributors to these fields. The report discusses potential uses of these technologies in implementing transhumanist goals of enhanced performance and health, and ongoing work on planned applications of human enhancement technologies in the military and in the rationalization of the human-machine interface in industry.

Some theorists, such as Raymond Kurzweil, believe that the pace of technological evolution is accelerating and that the next fifty years may yield not only radical technological advances but possibly a technological singularity, which may fundamentally change the nature of human beings. Transhumanists who foresee this massive technological change generally maintain that it is desirable. However, they also explore the possible dangers of extremely rapid technological change, and frequently propose options for ensuring that advanced technology is used responsibly. For example, Bostrom has written extensively on existential risks to humanity's future welfare, including risks that could be created by emerging technologies.

On a more practical level, as proponents of personal development and body modification, transhumanists tend to use existing technologies and techniques that supposedly improve cognitive and physical performance, while engaging in routines and lifestyles designed to improve health and longevity. Depending on their age, some transhumanists express concern that they will not live to reap the benefits of future technologies. However, many have a great interest in life extension practices, and funding research in cryonics in order to make the latter a viable option of last resort rather than remaining an unproven method. Regional and global transhumanist networks and communities with a range of objectives exist to provide support and forums for discussion and collaborative projects.

There is a variety of opinion within transhumanist thought. Many of the leading transhumanist thinkers hold complex and subtle views that are under constant revision and development. Some distinctive currents of transhumanism are identified and listed here in alphabetical order:

Although some transhumanists report a very strong sense of spirituality, they are for the most part secular. In fact, many transhumanists are either agnostics or atheists. A minority, however, follow liberal forms of Eastern philosophical traditions or, as with Mormon transhumanists, have merged their beliefs with established religions.

Despite the prevailing secular attitude, some transhumanists pursue hopes traditionally espoused by religions, such as immortality albeit a physical one. Several belief systems, termed new religious movements, originating in the late twentieth century, share with transhumanism the goals of transcending the human condition by applying technology to the alteration of the body (Ralism) and mind (Scientology). While most thinkers associated with the transhumanist movement focus on the practical goals of using technology to help achieve longer and healthier lives, some speculate that future understanding of neurotheology will enable humans to achieve control of altered states of consciousness and thus "spiritual" experiences. A continuing dialogue between transhumanism and faith was the focus of an academic seminar held at the University of Toronto in 2004.

The majority of transhumanists are materialists who do not believe in a transcendent human soul. Transhumanist personhood theory also argues against the unique identification of moral actors and subjects with biological humans, judging as speciesist the exclusion of nonhuman and part-human animals, and sophisticated machines, from ethical consideration. Many believe in the compatibility of human minds with computer hardware, with the theoretical implication that human consciousness may someday be transferred to alternative media.

One extreme formulation of this idea is Frank Tipler's proposal of the Omega Point. Drawing upon ideas in physics, computer science and physical cosmology, Tipler advanced the notion that the collapse of the Universe billions of years hence could create the conditions for the perpetuation of humanity as a simulation within a megacomputer. Cosmologist George Ellis has called Tipler's book "a masterpiece of pseudoscience", and Michael Shermer devoted a chapter of Why People Believe Weird Things to enumerating perceived flaws in Tipler's thesis.

For more details on this topic, see Transhumanism in fiction. Transhumanist themes have become increasingly prominent in various literary forms during the period in which the movement itself has emerged. Contemporary science fiction often contains positive renditions of technologically enhanced human life, set in utopian (especially techno-utopian) societies. However, science fiction's depictions of technologically enhanced humans or other posthuman beings frequently come with a cautionary twist. The more pessimistic scenarios include many horrific or dystopian tales of human bioengineering gone wrong.

The cyberpunk genre, exemplified by William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) and Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix (1985), has particularly been concerned with the modification of human bodies. Other novels dealing with transhumanist themes that have stimulated broad discussion of these issues include Blood Music (1985) by Greg Bear, The Xenogenesis Trilogy (19871989) by Octavia Butler; the "Culture" novels (19872000) of Iain Banks; The Beggar's Trilogy (199094) by Nancy Kress; much of Greg Egan's work since the early 1990s, such as Permutation City (1994) and Diaspora (1997); The Bohr Maker (1995) by Linda Nagata; Extensa (2002) and Perfekcyjna niedoskonao (2003) by Jacek Dukaj; Oryx and Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood; Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (2002); and The Possibility of an Island (Eng. trans. 2006) by Michel Houellebecq.

Fictional transhumanist scenarios have also become popular in other media during the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Such treatments are found in films (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979; Blade Runner, 1982; Gattaca, 1997), television series (the Ancients of Stargate SG-1, the Borg of Star Trek, the Nietzscheans of Andromeda), manga and anime (Ghost in the Shell), role-playing games (Transhuman Space) and computer games (Deus Ex, Half-Life 2, Command & Conquer). The fictional universe of the table top war game Warhammer 40,000 also makes use of genetic and cybernetic augmentation. Human characters of the Imperium often employ cybernetic devices, while the Space Marines are indeed posthuman. Many of these works are considered part of the cyberpunk genre or its postcyberpunk offshoot.

In addition to the work of Natasha Vita-More, mentioned above, transhumanism has been represented in the visual and performing arts by Carnal Art, a form of sculpture originated by the French artist Orlan that uses the body as its medium and plastic surgery as its method. The American performer Michael Jackson used technologies such as plastic surgery, skin-lightening drugs and hyperbaric oxygen treatment over the course of his career, with the effect of transforming his artistic persona so as to blur identifiers of gender, race and age. The work of the Australian artist Stelarc centers on the alteration of his body by robotic prostheses and tissue engineering. Other artists whose work coincided with the emergence and flourishing of transhumanism and who explored themes related to the transformation of the body are the Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic and the American media artist Matthew Barney. A 2005 show, Becoming Animal, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, presented exhibits by twelve artists whose work concerns the effects of technology in erasing boundaries between the human and non-human.

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NSA California

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Danzig

DateLocationTournament NameDirectorFeb 9-10MercedMerced Valentine's WarmupStan HansenFeb 16-17TracyTracy Spring ClashStan HansenFeb 23-24BakersfieldBakersfield Early Bird SpecialStan HansenFeb 23-24MercedThe Merced KickoffStan HansenMar 2-3HanfordHanford Spring Blast TournamentStan HansenMar 9-10TurlockTurlock's Spring ForwardStan HansenMar 9-10LancasterSwing into SpringStan HansenMar 16-17Santa MariaSanta Maria Spring OpenerStan HansenMar 16-17MercedNo Mercy in MercedStan HansenMar 16-17Elk GroveBaden Spring Fever ClassicAndy PearsonMar 23-24HanfordHanford No Foolin'Stan HansenMar 30-31ModestoModesto's Spring Play DayStan HansenMar 30-31PalmdaleBest of the WestStan HansenApr 6-7FresnoFresno Softball FrenzyStan HansenApr 6-7Elk GroveElk Grove's SmashAndy PearsonApr 13-14MantecaManteca 12 ClassicStan HansenApr 13-14TracyTracy Spring ClassicStan HansenApr 13-14TulareTulare Young at HeartsStan HansenApr 20MercedThe Easter FriendlyStan HansenApr 27-28TurlockTurlock Spring Classic Fastpitch TournamentStan HansenApr 27-28BakersfieldBakersfield Fastpitch FeverStan HansenMay 4-5MantecaManteca Mother's Day TournamentStan HansenMay 4-5FresnoFresno May MayhemStan HansenMay 11MercedThe Mother's Day FriendlyStan HansenMay 18-19LancasterNSA's Return to LancasterStan HansenMay 18-19TurlockTurlock's Forget School FinalsStan HansenMay 18-19Yuba CityCystic Fibrosis Benefit TournamentAndy PearsonMay 25-26HanfordHanford Out of School BlowoutStan HansenMay 25-26SonoraMemorial Day ClassicLani ConklinJun 1-2TulareTulare Summer RoundupStan HansenJun 1-2MercedThe Merced Fastpitch ChallengeStan HansenJun 1-2Elk GroveKick off the SummerAndy PearsonJun 8-9BakersfieldSweat it out in BakersfieldStan HansenJun 8-9ModestoRainbow Fields 10 ClassicStan HansenJun 8-9Elk GroveTouch 'em all in Elk GroveStan HansenJun 8-9MercedNSA's League All-Star TournamentStan HansenJun 8-9Sparks, NVSierra ShootoutAndy PearsonJun 15-16PalmdalePalmdale SlugfestStan HansenJun 15-16TurlockEaston Fathers Day Classic XIStan HansenJun 22-23TulareTulare Summer SlamStan HansenJun 29-30FresnoGet Ready for State!Stan HansenJul 6-7ModestoNSA Northern California State ChampionshipStan HansenJul 13-14SonoraMountain BlastLani ConklinJul 13-14PalmdaleNSA Southern California State ChampionshipStan HansenJul 20-21Elk GroveElk Grove's World Series WarmupStan HansenJul 20-21MercedThe 18 ClassicStan HansenJul 20-21FresnoThe Fresno InvitationalStan HansenJul 24-28Modesto and Surrounding CitiesNSA Pacific Coast World SeriesStan HansenAug 3-4ModestoModesto's Back to School BashStan HansenAug 10-11TurlockWounded Warrior Benefit TournamentStan HansenAug 10-11Santa Maria"Catch the Spirit" in Santa MariaStan HansenAug 17-18TulareTulare's Hot Summer DaysStan HansenAug 17-18Elk GroveEnd of Summer BashAndy PearsonAug 24-25MantecaManteca's Dog Days of SummerStan HansenAug 24-25BakersfieldKalie Boyer Memorial TournamentStan HansenAug 31-Sep 1ModestoRainbow's Labor Day TournamentStan HansenAug 31-Sep 1HanfordThe Hanford Softball QuestStan HansenSep 7-8TurlockNSA's End of Summer ShootoutStan HansenSep 7-8Yuba CityStrike Out CancerAndy PearsonSep 14-15FresnoSliding Out of SummerStan HansenSep 21-22TracyFor the Love of SoftballStan HansenSep 21-22TulareTulare Fall ShowdownStan HansenSep 28-29Elk GroveCollege ScholarshipAndy PearsonSep 28-29MercedThe 14 ClassicStan HansenSep 28-29Bakersfield"Pretty in Pink" Cancer Awareness TournamentStan HansenOct 4-5HanfordPlay for the Pride Cancer Awareness TournamentStan HansenOct 12-13BakersfieldNSA's Border Wars - California, Nevada, and ArizonaStan HansenOct 12-13ModestoThink Pink Cancer Awareness TournamentStan HansenOct 19-20Hanford/TulareGhost and Goblins BashStan HansenOct 19-20Yuba CityHalloween EventAndy PearsonOct 26-27Turlock/ModestoCentral Valley's Halloween ClassicStan HansenNov 2-3HanfordHanford Team Appreciation Scholarship EventStan HansenNov 2-3ReddingRedding Fall ClassicAndy PearsonNov 9-10ModestoFall West Pac ChampionshipStan HansenNov 16-17BakersfieldBakersfield Last Chance TournamentStan HansenNov 16-17TurlockTurlock's Thanksgiving Turkey TrotStan HansenNov 23-24ModestoModesto's End of Year BlowoutStan HansenNov 30-Dec 1MercedNSA's Holiday SpecialStan HansenDec 7MercedReindeer Games Canned Food DriveStan HansenDec 7Yuba CityToys for TotsAndy Pearson

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NSA California

NATO: Donald Trump to travel to London summit in December

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Danzig

President Donald Trump at NATO headquarters in Brussels on July 11, 2018.(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

LONDON NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announcedWednesday that the military alliance will hold a leaders' summit in London in December, a gathering that following NATO protocol would be expected to includePresident Donald Trump.

The White House has not confirmed Trump's attendance.

It falls during NATOs 70th anniversary year. No exact date for the meeting was given.

Stoltenberg said the leaders will "address the security challenges we face now and in the future, and to ensure that NATO continues to adapt in order to keep its population of almost one billion people safe."

When Trump attended aNATO summit in July last year he threatened to pull theU.S. out of the organization it helped found if allies did not increasespending on defense. He also accused Germany of being "a captive of Russia" in a series of tenseinteractions with allies that helped underscore how Trump intends to transform U.S. foreign policy.

More: What is NATO and why is President Trump slamming it?

NATO was founded in 1949 to help bring stability, and ensure peace, in a Europe that was reeling from the aftermath of World War II.A centerpiece of NATO is Article 5, amutual security guarantee among its 29 members that requires each member-nation to come to the aid of their allies in the event of an attack.The provision has been invoked only once: on 9/11when the U.S. was the target of terrorist attacks.

Trump has consistently railed against NATO allies for what he alleges are their failure to live up to spending commitments which amount to 2 per cent of GDP.

The U.S. spends about 3.5 percent of GDP on defense, the highest NATO share.

"Many countries owe us a tremendous amount of money from many years back, where they're delinquent as far as I'm concerned, because the United States has had to pay for them. So if you go back 10 or 20 years, you'll just add it all up, it's massive amounts of money is owed," he said in July ahead the summit in Brussels, NATO's headquarters.

There is some justification for Trump's claim.

At aNATO summit in 2014,the alliance's memberscommittedto spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense by 2024. At the time, only three countries could claim they were doing that. Stoltenberg said that eightmembers met thislevel in 2018: the US.., Greece, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Romania and Poland.

Earlier this year it emerged in a report in The New York Times that Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to withdraw from NATO to senior White House aides because he did not see the point of the alliance that has been viewed as a critical bedrock against Soviet and Russian aggression for decades.

A weakened NATO is one of Putin's major geopolitical goals and fears of its eastward expansion is one of the reasons often cited for Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea. In response to the report, theWhite House said that while Trump has publicly raised complaints about NATO, he seems satisfied with the way things stand now. It also pointed to statements that he made in July in Brussels in which he said NATO was "very important."

Trump's visits to the U.K. have sparked mass protests, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets of London to express disapproval over his personal behavior and divisive rhetoric on immigration, climate change and other geopolitical concerns.

When he last visited Britain, protesters unveiled a giant diaper-wearing blimp depicting an orange-colored Trump as a big baby. "Trump baby" flew outside Parliament. It has also shown up at the U.S.-Mexico border and at a G-20 summit in Argentina.

More: 'Trump having impact': NATO head credits president's tough talk for $100B boost

NATO's secretary-general said Tuesday he is confident that both the Western military alliance and Russia "will act in a respectable way" as the two sides hold drills in the same area in waters off Norway's coast. (Oct. 30) AP

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NATO: Donald Trump to travel to London summit in December

liberal | Origin and meaning of liberal by Online Etymology …

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Danzig

mid-14c., "generous," also "nobly born, noble, free;" from late 14c. as "selfless, magnanimous, admirable;" from early 15c. in a bad sense, "extravagant, unrestrained," from Old French liberal "befitting free people; noble, generous; willing, zealous" (12c.), and directly from Latin liberalis "noble, gracious, munificent, generous," literally "of freedom, pertaining to or befitting a free person," from liber "free, unrestricted, unimpeded; unbridled, unchecked, licentious."

This is conjectured to be from PIE *leudh-ero-, which probably originally meant "belonging to the people," though the precise semantic development is obscure; but compare frank (adj.). This was a suffixed form of the base *leudh- (2) "people" (source also of Old Church Slavonic ljudu, Lithuanian liaudis, Old English leod, German Leute "nation, people;" Old High German liut "person, people").

Liberal was used 16c.-17c. as a term of reproach with the meaning "free from restraint in speech or action." The Enlightenment revived it in a positive sense "free from prejudice, tolerant, not bigoted or narrow," which emerged 1776-88. In 19c. often theological rather than political, opposed to orthodox, used of Unitarians, Universalists, etc. For educational use, see liberal arts.

Purely in reference to political opinion, "tending in favor of freedom and democracy," it dates from c. 1801, from French libral. In English the label at first was applied by opponents (often in the French form and with suggestions of foreign lawlessness) to the party more favorable to individual political freedoms. But also (especially in U.S. politics) tending to mean "favorable to government action to effect social change," which seems at times to draw more from the religious sense of "free from prejudice in favor of traditional opinions and established institutions" (and thus open to new ideas and plans of reform), which dates from 1823.

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liberal | Origin and meaning of liberal by Online Etymology ...

Liberal Synonyms, Liberal Antonyms | Thesaurus.com

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Danzig

mid-14c., "generous," also, late 14c., "selfless; noble, nobly born; abundant," and, early 15c., in a bad sense "extravagant, unrestrained," from Old French liberal "befitting free men, noble, generous, willing, zealous" (12c.), from Latin liberalis "noble, gracious, munificent, generous," literally "of freedom, pertaining to or befitting a free man," from liber "free, unrestricted, unimpeded; unbridled, unchecked, licentious," from PIE *leudh-ero- (cf. Greek eleutheros "free"), probably originally "belonging to the people" (though the precise semantic development is obscure), and a suffixed form of the base *leudh- "people" (cf. Old Church Slavonic ljudu, Lithuanian liaudis, Old English leod, German Leute "nation, people;" Old High German liut "person, people") but literally "to mount up, to grow."

With the meaning "free from restraint in speech or action," liberal was used 16c.-17c. as a term of reproach. It revived in a positive sense in the Enlightenment, with a meaning "free from prejudice, tolerant," which emerged 1776-88.

In reference to education, explained by Fowler as "the education designed for a gentleman (Latin liber a free man) & ... opposed on the one hand to technical or professional or any special training, & on the other to education that stops short before manhood is reached" (cf. liberal arts). Purely in reference to political opinion, "tending in favor of freedom and democracy" it dates from c.1801, from French libral, originally applied in English by its opponents (often in French form and with suggestions of foreign lawlessness) to the party favorable to individual political freedoms. But also (especially in U.S. politics) tending to mean "favorable to government action to effect social change," which seems at times to draw more from the religious sense of "free from prejudice in favor of traditional opinions and established institutions" (and thus open to new ideas and plans of reform), which dates from 1823.

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Liberal Synonyms, Liberal Antonyms | Thesaurus.com

liberalism | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica.com

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Danzig

Liberalism, political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual to be the central problem of politics. Liberals typically believe that government is necessary to protect individuals from being harmed by others, but they also recognize that government itself can pose a threat to liberty. As the revolutionary American pamphleteer Thomas Paine expressed it in Common Sense (1776), government is at best a necessary evil. Laws, judges, and police are needed to secure the individuals life and liberty, but their coercive power may also be turned against him. The problem, then, is to devise a system that gives government the power necessary to protect individual liberty but also prevents those who govern from abusing that power.

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property law: Marxism, liberalism, and the law

Not surprisingly, relatively little of Marxs theory of property showed itself in property law until a Marxist revolution took place in Russia in the early 20th century. For utilitarianism and Hegelianism, and their combination in various forms of liberal thought, the

This article discusses the political foundations and history of liberalism from the 17th century to the present. For coverage of classical and contemporary philosophical liberalism, see political philosophy. For biographies of individual philosophers, see John Locke; John Stuart Mill; John Rawls.

Liberalism is derived from two related features of Western culture. The first is the Wests preoccupation with individuality, as compared to the emphasis in other civilizations on status, caste, and tradition. Throughout much of history, the individual has been submerged in and subordinate to his clan, tribe, ethnic group, or kingdom. Liberalism is the culmination of developments in Western society that produced a sense of the importance of human individuality, a liberation of the individual from complete subservience to the group, and a relaxation of the tight hold of custom, law, and authority. In this respect, liberalism stands for the emancipation of the individual. See also individualism.

Liberalism also derives from the practice of adversariality in European political and economic life, a process in which institutionalized competitionsuch as the competition between different political parties in electoral contests, between prosecution and defense in adversary procedure, or between different producers in a market economy (see monopoly and competition)generates a dynamic social order. Adversarial systems have always been precarious, however, and it took a long time for the belief in adversariality to emerge from the more traditional view, traceable at least to Plato, that the state should be an organic structure, like a beehive, in which the different social classes cooperate by performing distinct yet complementary roles. The belief that competition is an essential part of a political system and that good government requires a vigorous opposition was still considered strange in most European countries in the early 19th century.

Underlying the liberal belief in adversariality is the conviction that human beings are essentially rational creatures capable of settling their political disputes through dialogue and compromise. This aspect of liberalism became particularly prominent in 20th-century projects aimed at eliminating war and resolving disagreements between states through organizations such as the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the International Court of Justice (World Court).

Liberalism has a close but sometimes uneasy relationship with democracy. At the centre of democratic doctrine is the belief that governments derive their authority from popular election; liberalism, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with the scope of governmental activity. Liberals often have been wary of democracy, then, because of fears that it might generate a tyranny by the majority. One might briskly say, therefore, that democracy looks after majorities and liberalism after unpopular minorities.

Like other political doctrines, liberalism is highly sensitive to time and circumstance. Each countrys liberalism is different, and it changes in each generation. The historical development of liberalism over recent centuries has been a movement from mistrust of the states power on the ground that it tends to be misused, to a willingness to use the power of government to correct perceived inequities in the distribution of wealth resulting from economic competitioninequities that purportedly deprive some people of an equal opportunity to live freely. The expansion of governmental power and responsibility sought by liberals in the 20th century was clearly opposed to the contraction of government advocated by liberals a century earlier. In the 19th century liberals generally formed the party of business and the entrepreneurial middle class; for much of the 20th century they were more likely to work to restrict and regulate business in order to provide greater opportunities for labourers and consumers. In each case, however, the liberals inspiration was the same: a hostility to concentrations of power that threaten the freedom of the individual and prevent him from realizing his full potential, along with a willingness to reexamine and reform social institutions in the light of new needs. This willingness is tempered by an aversion to sudden, cataclysmic change, which is what sets off the liberal from the radical. It is this very eagerness to welcome and encourage useful change, however, that distinguishes the liberal from the conservative, who believes that change is at least as likely to result in loss as in gain.

Although liberal ideas were not noticeable in European politics until the early 16th century, liberalism has a considerable prehistory reaching back to the Middle Ages and even earlier. In the Middle Ages the rights and responsibilities of the individual were determined by his place in a hierarchical social system that placed great stress upon acquiescence and conformity. Under the impact of the slow commercialization and urbanization of Europe in the later Middle Ages, the intellectual ferment of the Renaissance, and the spread of Protestantism in the 16th century, the old feudal stratification of society gradually began to dissolve, leading to a fear of instability so powerful that monarchical absolutism was viewed as the only remedy to civil dissension. By the end of the 16th century, the authority of the papacy had been broken in most of northern Europe, and each ruler tried to consolidate the unity of his realm by enforcing conformity either to Roman Catholicism or to the rulers preferred version of Protestantism. These efforts culminated in the Thirty Years War (161848), which did immense damage to much of Europe. Where no creed succeeded in wholly extirpating its enemies, toleration was gradually accepted as the lesser of two evils; in some countries where one creed triumphed, it was accepted that too minute a concern with citizens beliefs was inimical to prosperity and good order.

The ambitions of national rulers and the requirements of expanding industry and commerce led gradually to the adoption of economic policies based on mercantilism, a school of thought that advocated government intervention in a countrys economy to increase state wealth and power. However, as such intervention increasingly served established interests and inhibited enterprise, it was challenged by members of the newly emerging middle class. This challenge was a significant factor in the great revolutions that rocked England and France in the 17th and 18th centuriesmost notably the English Civil Wars (164251), the Glorious Revolution (1688), the American Revolution (177583), and the French Revolution (1789). Classical liberalism as an articulated creed is a result of those great collisions.

In the English Civil Wars, the absolutist king Charles I was defeated by the forces of Parliament and eventually executed. The Glorious Revolution resulted in the abdication and exile of James II and the establishment of a complex form of balanced government in which power was divided between the king, his ministers, and Parliament. In time this system would become a model for liberal political movements in other countries. The political ideas that helped to inspire these revolts were given formal expression in the work of the English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. In Leviathan (1651), Hobbes argued that the absolute power of the sovereign was ultimately justified by the consent of the governed, who agreed, in a hypothetical social contract, to obey the sovereign in all matters in exchange for a guarantee of peace and security. Locke also held a social-contract theory of government, but he maintained that the parties to the contract could not reasonably place themselves under the absolute power of a ruler. Absolute rule, he argued, is at odds with the point and justification of political authority, which is that it is necessary to protect the person and property of individuals and to guarantee their natural rights to freedom of thought, speech, and worship. Significantly, Locke thought that revolution is justified when the sovereign fails to fulfill these obligations. Indeed, it appears that he began writing his major work of political theory, Two Treatises of Government (1690), precisely in order to justify the revolution of two years before.

By the time Locke had published his Treatises, politics in England had become a contest between two loosely related parties, the Whigs and the Tories. These parties were the ancestors of Britains modern Liberal Party and Conservative Party, respectively. Locke was a notable Whig, and it is conventional to view liberalism as derived from the attitudes of Whig aristocrats, who were often linked with commercial interests and who had an entrenched suspicion of the power of the monarchy. The Whigs dominated English politics from the death of Queen Anne in 1714 to the accession of King George III in 1760.

The early liberals, then, worked to free individuals from two forms of social constraintreligious conformity and aristocratic privilegethat had been maintained and enforced through the powers of government. The aim of the early liberals was thus to limit the power of government over the individual while holding it accountable to the governed. As Locke and others argued, this required a system of government based on majority rulethat is, one in which government executes the expressed will of a majority of the electorate. The chief institutional device for attaining this goal was the periodic election of legislators by popular vote and of a chief executive by popular vote or the vote of a legislative assembly.

But in answering the crucial question of who is to be the electorate, classical liberalism fell victim to ambivalence, torn between the great emancipating tendencies generated by the revolutions with which it was associated and middle-class fears that a wide or universal franchise would undermine private property. Benjamin Franklin spoke for the Whig liberalism of the Founding Fathers of the United States when he stated:

As to those who have no landed property in a county, the allowing them to vote for legislators is an impropriety. They are transient inhabitants, and not so connected with the welfare of the state, which they may quit when they please, as to qualify them properly for such privilege.

John Adams, in his Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (1787), was more explicit. If the majority were to control all branches of government, he declared, debts would be abolished first; taxes laid heavy on the rich, and not at all on others; and at last a downright equal division of everything be demanded and voted. French statesmen such as Franois Guizot and Adophe Thiers expressed similar sentiments well into the 19th century.

Most 18th- and 19th-century liberal politicians thus feared popular sovereignty. For a long time, consequently, they limited suffrage to property owners. In Britain even the important Reform Bill of 1867 did not completely abolish property qualifications for the right to vote. In France, despite the ideal of universal male suffrage proclaimed in 1789 and reaffirmed in the Revolutions of 1830, there were no more than 200,000 qualified voters in a population of about 30,000,000 during the reign of Louis-Philippe, the citizen king who had been installed by the ascendant bourgeoisie in 1830. In the United States, the brave language of the Declaration of Independence notwithstanding, it was not until 1860 that universal male suffrage prevailedfor whites. In most of Europe, universal male suffrage remained a remote ideal until late in the 19th century. Racial and sexual prejudice also served to limit the franchiseand, in the case of slavery in the United States, to deprive large numbers of people of virtually any hope of freedom. Efforts to extend the vote to women met with little success until the early years of the 20th century (see woman suffrage). Indeed, Switzerland, which is sometimes called the worlds oldest continuous democracy, did not grant full voting rights to women until 1971.

Despite the misgivings of men of the propertied classes, a slow but steady expansion of the franchise prevailed throughout Europe in the 19th centuryan expansion driven in large part by the liberal insistence that all men are created equal. But liberals also had to reconcile the principle of majority rule with the requirement that the power of the majority be limited. The problem was to accomplish this in a manner consistent with democratic principles. If hereditary elites were discredited, how could the power of the majority be checked without giving disproportionate power to property owners or to some other natural elite?

The liberal solution to the problem of limiting the powers of a democratic majority employed various devices. The first was the separation of powersi.e., the distribution of power between such functionally differentiated agencies of government as the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. This arrangement, and the system of checks and balances by which it was accomplished, received its classic embodiment in the Constitution of the United States and its political justification in the Federalist papers (178788), by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Of course, such a separation of powers also could have been achieved through a mixed constitutionthat is, one in which power is shared by, and governing functions appropriately differentiated between, a monarch, a hereditary chamber, and an elected assembly; this was in fact the system of government in Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution. The U.S. Constitution also contains elements of a mixed constitution, such as the division of the legislature into the popularly elected House of Representatives and the aristocratic Senate, the members of which originally were chosen by the state governments. But it was despotic kings and functionless aristocratsmore functionless in France than in Britainwho thwarted the interests and ambitions of the middle class, which turned, therefore, to the principle of majoritarianism.

The second part of the solution lay in using staggered periodic elections to make the decisions of any given majority subject to the concurrence of other majorities distributed over time. In the United States, for example, presidents are elected every four years and members of the House of Representatives every two years, and one-third of the Senate is elected every two years to terms of six years. Therefore, the majority that elects a president every four years or a House of Representatives every two years is different from the majority that elects one-third of the Senate two years earlier and the majority that elects another one-third of the Senate two years later. These bodies, in turn, are checked by the Constitution, which was approved and amended by earlier majorities. In Britain an act of Parliament immediately becomes part of the uncodified constitution; however, before acting on a highly controversial issue, Parliament must seek a popular mandate, which represents a majority other than the one that elected it. Thus, in a constitutional democracy, the power of a current majority is checked by the verdicts of majorities that precede and follow it.

The third part of the solution followed from liberalisms basic commitment to the freedom and integrity of the individual, which the limitation of power is, after all, meant to preserve. From the liberal perspective, the individual is not only a citizen who shares a social contract with his fellows but also a person with rights upon which the state may not encroach if majoritarianism is to be meaningful. A majority verdict can come about only if individuals are free to some extent to exchange their views. This involves, beyond the right to speak and write freely, the freedom to associate and organize and, above all, freedom from fear of reprisal. But the individual also has rights apart from his role as citizen. These rights secure his personal safety and hence his protection from arbitrary arrest and punishment. Beyond these rights are those that preserve large areas of privacy. In a liberal democracy there are affairs that do not concern the state. Such affairs may range from the practice of religion to the creation of art and the raising of children by their parents. For liberals of the 18th and 19th centuries they also included most of the activities through which individuals engage in production and trade. Eloquent declarations affirming such rights were embodied in the British Bill of Rights (1689), the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776) and Constitution (ratified 1788), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), and the basic documents of countries throughout the world that later used these declarations as their models. These documents and declarations asserted that freedom is more than the right to cast a vote in an occasional election; it is the fundamental right of people to live their own lives.

If the political foundations of liberalism were laid in Great Britain, so too were its economic foundations. By the 18th century parliamentary constraints were making it difficult for British monarchs to pursue the schemes of national aggrandizement favoured by most rulers on the Continent. These rulers fought for military supremacy, which required a strong economic base. Because the prevailing mercantilist theory understood international trade as a zero-sum gamein which gain for one country meant loss for anothernational governments intervened to determine prices, protect their industries from foreign competition, and avoid the sharing of economic information.

These practices soon came under liberal challenge. In France a group of thinkers known as the physiocrats argued that the best way to cultivate wealth is to allow unrestrained economic competition. Their advice to government was laissez faire, laissez passer (let it be, leave it alone). This laissez-faire doctrine found its most thorough and influential exposition in The Wealth of Nations (1776), by the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith. Free trade benefits all parties, according to Smith, because competition leads to the production of more and better goods at lower prices. Leaving individuals free to pursue their self-interest in an exchange economy based upon a division of labour will necessarily enhance the welfare of the group as a whole. The self-seeking individual becomes harnessed to the public good because in an exchange economy he must serve others in order to serve himself. But it is only in a genuinely free market that this positive consequence is possible; any other arrangement, whether state control or monopoly, must lead to regimentation, exploitation, and economic stagnation.

Every economic system must determine not only what goods will be produced but also how those goods are to be apportioned, or distributed (see distribution of wealth and income). In a market economy both of these tasks are accomplished through the price mechanism. The theoretically free choices of individual buyers and sellers determine how the resources of societylabour, goods, and capitalshall be employed. These choices manifest themselves in bids and offers that together determine a commoditys price. Theoretically, when the demand for a commodity is great, prices rise, making it profitable for producers to increase the supply; as supply approximates demand, prices tend to fall until producers divert productive resources to other uses (see supply and demand). In this way the system achieves the closest possible match between what is desired and what is produced. Moreover, in the distribution of the wealth thereby produced, the system is said to assure a reward in proportion to merit. The assumption is that in a freely competitive economy in which no one is barred from engaging in economic activity, the income received from such activity is a fair measure of its value to society.

Presupposed in the foregoing account is a conception of human beings as economic animals rationally and self-interestedly engaged in minimizing costs and maximizing gains. Since each person knows his own interests better than anyone else does, his interests could only be hindered, and never enhanced, by government interference in his economic activities.

In concrete terms, classical liberal economists called for several major changes in the sphere of British and European economic organization. The first was the abolition of numerous feudal and mercantilist restrictions on countries manufacturing and internal commerce. The second was an end to the tariffs and restrictions that governments imposed on foreign imports to protect domestic producers. In rejecting the governments regulation of trade, classical economics was based firmly on a belief in the superiority of a self-regulating market. Quite apart from the cogency of their arguments, the views of Smith and his 19th-century English successors, the economist David Ricardo and the philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill, became increasingly convincing as Britains Industrial Revolution generated enormous new wealth and made that country into the workshop of the world. Free trade, it seemed, would make everyone prosperous.

In economic life as in politics, then, the guiding principle of classical liberalism became an undeviating insistence on limiting the power of government. The English philosopher Jeremy Bentham cogently summarized this view in his sole advice to the state: Be quiet. Others asserted that that government is best that governs least. Classical liberals freely acknowledged that government must provide education, sanitation, law enforcement, a postal system, and other public services that were beyond the capacity of any private agency. But liberals generally believed that, apart from these functions, government must not try to do for the individual what he is able to do for himself.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Bentham, the philosopher James Mill, and Jamess son John Stuart Mill applied classical economic principles to the political sphere. Invoking the doctrine of utilitarianismthe belief that something has value when it is useful or promotes happinessthey argued that the object of all legislation should be the greatest happiness of the greatest number. In evaluating what kind of government could best attain this objective, the utilitarians generally supported representative democracy, asserting that it was the best means by which government could promote the interests of the governed. Taking their cue from the notion of a market economy, the utilitarians called for a political system that would guarantee its citizens the maximum degree of individual freedom of choice and action consistent with efficient government and the preservation of social harmony. They advocated expanded education, enlarged suffrage, and periodic elections to ensure governments accountability to the governed. Although they had no use for the idea of natural rights, their defense of individual libertiesincluding the rights to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assemblylies at the heart of modern democracy. These liberties received their classic advocacy in John Stuart Mills On Liberty (1859), which argues on utilitarian grounds that the state may regulate individual behaviour only in cases where the interests of others would be perceptibly harmed.

The utilitarians thus succeeded in broadening the philosophical foundations of political liberalism while also providing a program of specific reformist goals for liberals to pursue. Their overall political philosophy was perhaps best stated in James Mills article Government, which was written for the supplement (181524) to the fourth through sixth editions of the Encyclopdia Britannica.

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