Ron Paul warns that this is the ‘biggest bubble in the …

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Look to the stock market and youd assume Wall Street was doing just fine. The S&P 500 has come back to March highs, the Dow is back to positive for 2018, and the Nasdaq is at fresh records.

Its all built on shaky foundations, said longtime market bear and former Republican Congressman Ron Paul.

This market is in the biggest bubble in the history of mankind, and when it bursts, it could cut the stock market in half, he told CNBCs Futures Now Thursday.

I see trouble ahead, and it originates with too much debt, too much spending, Paul said.

This isnt the first time Paul has made such dire warnings. During a Futures Now appearance in August 2017, he predicted a 50 percent drop in the market, a call he has doubled down on a number of times since. Since that appearance, the S&P 500 has rallied 15 percent.

Paul belongs to the Libertarian Party, a faction that emphasizes constrained government spending. He sees federal spending and monetary policy as dual forces inflating a market bubble.

The Congress spending and the Federal Reserve manipulation of monetary policy and interest rates debt is too big, the current account is in bad shape, foreign debt is bad and its not going to change, he said.

Paul isnt alone in his critique. A number of politicians have voiced concern over ballooning deficits, including current House Speaker Paul Ryan, who raised a warning on the nations debt in 2012.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that federal deficits will average $1.2 trillion a year from 2019 to 2028, according to its April economic outlook. Its 2018 deficit estimates rose by $242 billion over previous forecasts made in June 2017. The federal agency said the revision was mainly owing to lower projected revenues tied to tax reform.

We have a president who likes to spend. He is not concerned about the deficit, said Paul.

To Paul the decision-making arm of the Fed is equally at fault in creating a market bubble.

The Fed will keep inflating, and that distorts things, Paul continued. Now theyre trying to unwind their balance sheet. I dont think theyre going to get real far on that.

The Fed is more than two years into its rate-hiking cycle. In conjunction with rate hikes, the Fed is also unloading assets from its balance sheet, which expanded to $4.5 trillion during its post-financial crisis quantitative-easing program.

Paul is not confident much will change to divert from the disaster he predicts.

The government will keep spending, and the Fed will keep inflating, and that distorts things, said Paul. When you get into a situation like this, the debt has to be eliminated. You have to liquidate the debt and the malinvestment.

Paul reiterated his call on Thursday for a potential 50 percent sell-off on the stock market.

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Cyberpunk 2077 – the lore, story, setting, characters, and …

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CD Projekt Reds Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most anticipated games on the horizon right now, and it seems the Polish studio are gearing up for a big reveal at E3 this year. But why wait that long to learn more?

As you may already know, the Cyberpunk videogame is closely based on a tabletop RPG written by Mike Pondsmith, and first published in 1988. The game has been through three iterations, with the first two known as Cyberpunk 2013 and Cyberpunk 2020. Since the 2020s feel a little close, its no surprise that CD Projekt Red have thrown the universe forward to the year 2077 for their interpretation.

There are plenty of other tabletop games that made the jump to PC on our list of the best RPGs.

With the tabletop game providing the backdrop for the videogame, theres much we can learn about the world, weapons, and characters of the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. So we thought wed take a look a close look at it to let you know what to expect from CDPRs first triple-A release since The Witcher 3.

Looking for something in specific? Click a link to be taken straight to the Cyberpunk lore you are interested in.

Cyberpunk is set in a dystopian near-future, amid a fictional Californian city named Night City after its founder, Richard Night. Between then and now, the USA has suffered a vast socioeconomic collapse that has sent ripples around the world, throwing the entire planet - but especially the West - into chaos. The enfeebled US government has only maintained order with the aid of a number of megacorporations, some of which may seem familiar (see below).

It all starts to go wrong in 1990, when the US intervenes disastrously in a Central American war. This, together with the release of US-developed plagues targeting drug plants, stokes anti-American sentiment among powerful Central American cartels. With the backing of the European Union, who are much more competitive in this alternative universe, these cartels prosecute a savage drug war all over the Americas. In 1993, they are even able to detonate a small nuclear device in New York, killing tens of thousands.

Matters worsen in 1994 with a massive global stock market crash that hits the USA hardest, causing widespread unemployment and homelessness. A nuclear accident in Pittsburgh drives internal migration, as does a drought across the midwest, which leads to a food crisis. The family farm is essentially wiped out, so corporations come to control all US agriculture. Food exports to the rest of the world cease, which obviously causes its own problems.

In 1996, the president and vice president are assassinated, and the US government fragments - the NSA, CIA, FBI, and DEA form the Gang of Four and collude to further their own interests. Criminal gangs are established or emboldened all over the country - one of them, the Bloods, take almost total control of Miami. Executive authority is passed down the ranks to the defence secretary, who suspends the constitution and declares martial law. By now, one in four Americans are homeless, leading to huge Mad Max-style gangs of violent Nomads.

Over the next few years, toxic spills off the coast of Seattle ravage its economy. A 10.5 earthquake shatters Los Angeles. Tensions in the Middle East escalate to nuclear exchange, reducing much of the region to radioactive slag and halving the worlds oil supply. Several states secede from the United States, including California. You get the idea: everyone has a jolly bad time.

Corporate power has been waxing across the globe as businesses exploit the opportunities created by this chaos. Corporations have been training their own armies as early as 1997, and ultimately the enfeebled US government has no choice but to turn to them for help containing the nomads, gangs, and cartels running rampant across the country. The corporations take most of what they liberate for themselves, and only grow stronger. Governments across the world - and especially in the US - are then powerless to prevent a series of corporate wars.

Thats pretty much all you need to know. Cyberpunks fictional timeline continues for many more years, but from here on out its an esoteric account of escalating inter-corporate wars that probably wont mean a lot to you. Basically: nukes, natural disasters, everyones screwed. Also bear in mind that, since the last edition (v3) of the board game is set in the 2030s, CD Projekt Red will have come up with another few decades of history which no-one outside the project will currently know about. Somehow we doubt things have improved much.

Cyberpunks megacorporations were spawned in the unregulated industrial cesspool they demanded in return for helping the faltering US government contain a series of domestic crises. They are presented as a vision of what might happen - and to some extent did, in the era of the robber barons - if market forces were let entirely off the leash. In the main, they are self-serving, amoral, and profit-driven, and we can expect many of them to be major antagonists in the videogame.

That said, given CDPRs fondness for moral ambiguity - firmly established in the Witcher series - we doubt all corporations will be unalloyed evil. As you can see below, many have different and conflicting agendas. There are more shades of grey here than in an Escher sketch, and theres no way CDPR will squander that to tell a boring, easy story about goodies and baddies.

Imagine picking the lesser of two evils as megacorps compete for your services. There is also plenty of role-playing potential as your characters class, background, or other tendencies might shape your loyalties. Perhaps some corps might not even be so bad? Many of the so-called robber barons were noted philanthropists, after all.

But now were speculating. Heres a list of some of the megacorps that have been established in the Cyberpunk universe:

In the finest traditions of tabletop RPGs, Cyberpunk lets you create your own character, but it also has NPCs. However, unless they have artificially extended their lives - which, to be fair, is entirely possible, given the worlds tech - many of those characters may have died in the decades between the board game and 2077. We note a few of the most important ones below, and those that are most likely to have survived - they may be your quest-givers, class mentors, faction leaders, and so on.

Richard NightRichard Night is the man behind Cyberpunks major setting, Coronado City - later renamed Night City in his honour. In 1990, he left the construction firm in which he was a partner to plan Coronado City. He secured corporate funding from Arasaka, EBM, and Petrochem in exchange for handing over large slices of the city for their development.

Coronado City was incorporated in May 1994. It rests on the central California coast, a little ways south of San Francisco. The megacorporations are heavily involved in its development from the beginning, and their influence upon it is greater than any other city in the USA. Night himself is killed in his penthouse in 1998, after which Coronado City takes his name. His killer is never caught.

Saburo ArasakaThe devious and megalomaniacal head of the Arasaka megacorporation, which dominates much of Japan and the third world (a label now commonly assigned to America). He brought elements of the Japanese government, military, lesser corporations, and even crime groups under his control, and is/was determined to establish Japan as the new global superpower.

Alt Cunningham

A netrunner and ex-girlfriend of famous rockstar Johnny Silverhand. She invented a program that could digitally copy a netrunners mind. For this, she was kidnapped and interrogated by the Arasaka corporation. They used the information to make a deadlier version that would torch the netrunners mind after copying it - and Alt was its first victim. The copy of her mind managed to escape into the net, however, so she continued to live as a digital ghost - and may indeed still be alive in 2077.

On that note, we should mention that a poster made from her artwork in the tabletop game appears in the Cyberpunk 2077 teaser trailer - this could just be an easter egg, or a hint that she is indeed still around.

Commissioner J. HammermanHammerman is referenced in a newscast in the Cyberpunk 2077 teaser trailer, commenting on the massacre committed by the augmented woman. Presumably, hell be commissioner of one of the emergency services, the police being the obvious guess.

Cyberpunk calls its character classes roles, of which there are nine in the main rulebook. Later supplements added many more but well list the core nine here. Some map approximately onto familiar RPG archetypes (cops sound a bit like paladins to us), but one of the coolest things about Cyberpunk is how much it rewrites the traditional rulebook - some of these could play like nothing else weve seen.

While we expect the Cyberpunk videogame to adhere closely to the board game in general, this fidelity has been all but confirmed with respect to classes specifically. Last year, Pondsmith said that the tabletop games Cyberpunk classes are all going to be there, but youre going to find some surprises about how weve done it, and I think youre really going to like it. Theres a lot of subtlety going on there.

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space exploration | History, Definition, & Facts …

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Although the possibility of exploring space has long excited people in many walks of life, for most of the latter 20th century, only national governments could afford the very high costs of launching people and machines into space. This reality meant that space exploration had to serve very broad interests, and it indeed has done so in a variety of ways. Government space programs have increased knowledge, served as indicators of national prestige and power, enhanced national security and military strength, and provided significant benefits to the general public. In areas where the private sector could profit from activities in space, most notably the use of satellites as telecommunication relays, commercial space activity has flourished without government funding. In the early 21st century, entrepreneurs believed that there were several other areas of commercial potential in space, most notably privately funded space travel.

In the years after World War II, governments assumed a leading role in the support of research that increased fundamental knowledge about nature, a role that earlier had been played by universities, private foundations, and other nongovernmental supporters. This change came for two reasons. First, the need for complex equipment to carry out many scientific experiments and for the large teams of researchers to use that equipment led to costs that only governments could afford. Second, governments were willing to take on this responsibility because of the belief that fundamental research would produce new knowledge essential to the health, the security, and the quality of life of their citizens. Thus, when scientists sought government support for early space experiments, it was forthcoming. Since the start of space efforts in the United States, the Soviet Union, and Europe, national governments have given high priority to the support of science done in and from space. From modest beginnings, space science has expanded under government support to include multibillion-dollar exploratory missions in the solar system. Examples of such efforts include the development of the Curiosity Mars rover, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moons, and the development of major space-based astronomical observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1957 used the fact that his country had been first to launch a satellite as evidence of the technological power of the Soviet Union and of the superiority of communism. He repeated these claims after Yury Gagarins orbital flight in 1961. Although U.S. Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower had decided not to compete for prestige with the Soviet Union in a space race, his successor, John F. Kennedy, had a different view. On April 20, 1961, in the aftermath of the Gagarin flight, he asked his advisers to identify a space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win. The response came in a May 8, 1961, memorandum recommending that the United States commit to sending people to the Moon, because dramatic achievements in spacesymbolize the technological power and organizing capacity of a nation and because the ensuing prestige would be part of the battle along the fluid front of the cold war. From 1961 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was a major influence on the pace and content of their space programs. Other countries also viewed having a successful space program as an important indicator of national strength.

Even before the first satellite was launched, U.S. leaders recognized that the ability to observe military activities around the world from space would be an asset to national security. Following on the success of its photoreconnaissance satellites, which began operation in 1960, the United States built increasingly complex observation and electronic-intercept intelligence satellites. The Soviet Union also quickly developed an array of intelligence satellites, and later a few other countries instituted their own satellite observation programs. Intelligence-gathering satellites have been used to verify arms-control agreements, provide warnings of military threats, and identify targets during military operations, among other uses.

In addition to providing security benefits, satellites offered military forces the potential for improved communications, weather observation, navigation, timing, and position location. This led to significant government funding for military space programs in the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the advantages and disadvantages of stationing force-delivery weapons in space have been debated, as of the early 21st century, such weapons had not been deployed, nor had space-based antisatellite systemsthat is, systems that can attack or interfere with orbiting satellites. The stationing of weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies is prohibited by international law.

Governments realized early on that the ability to observe Earth from space could provide significant benefits to the general public apart from security and military uses. The first application to be pursued was the development of satellites for assisting in weather forecasting. A second application involved remote observation of land and sea surfaces to gather imagery and other data of value in crop forecasting, resource management, environmental monitoring, and other applications. The U.S. and Soviet governments also developed their own satellite-based global positioning systems, originally for military purposes, that could pinpoint a users exact location, help in navigating from one point to another, and provide very precise time signals. These satellites quickly found numerous civilian uses in such areas as personal navigation, surveying and cartography, geology, air-traffic control, and the operation of information-transfer networks. They illustrate a reality that has remained constant for a half centuryas space capabilities are developed, they often can be used for both military and civilian purposes.

Another space application that began under government sponsorship but quickly moved into the private sector is the relay of voice, video, and data via orbiting satellites. Satellite telecommunications has developed into a multibillion-dollar business and is the one clearly successful area of commercial space activity. A related, but economically much smaller, commercial space business is the provision of launches for private and government satellites. In 2004 a privately financed venture sent a piloted spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, to the lower edge of space for three brief suborbital flights. Although it was technically a much less challenging achievement than carrying humans into orbit, its success was seen as an important step toward opening up space to commercial travel and eventually to tourism. Nearly a decade after SpaceShipOne reached space, several firms were poised to carry out such suborbital flights. Suggestions have been made that in the future other areas of space activity, including remote sensing of Earth, utilization of resources found on the Moon and near-Earth asteroids, and the capture of solar energy to provide electric power on Earth, could become successful businesses.

Most space activities have been pursued because they serve some utilitarian purpose, whether increasing knowledge, adding to national power, or making a profit. Nevertheless, there remains a powerful underlying sense that it is important for humans to explore space for its own sake, to see what is there. Although the only voyages that humans have made away from the near vicinity of Earththe Apollo flights to the Moonwere motivated by Cold War competition, there have been recurrent calls for humans to return to the Moon, travel to Mars, and visit other locations in the solar system and beyond. Until humans resume such journeys of exploration, robotic spacecraft will continue to serve in their stead to explore the solar system and probe the mysteries of the universe.

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Immortality | PotC Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia

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The struggle for eternal life as depicted on the Mao Kun Map.

Immortality or eternal life was the state living indefinitely for an infinite or indeterminate amount of time. It was an ability to live forever, or put another way, an immunity from death. In religious contexts, eternal life was often stated to be among the promises by God (or other deities) to human beings who show goodness or else follow divine law (cf. resurrection). Moreover, only God was regarded as truly immortal, hence it is only through God's resources for resurrection and salvation that human beings may transcend death and live eternally.

During the time of Ancient Greece, the boy Melikertes had to escape the wrath of Hera, the queen of the gods. He and his mother jumped off a clif into the sea for protection, becoming powerful as gods. Through his newfound powers, Malikertes learned how to drain people of their souls so he could keep himself young for all eternity. Over the next centuries, he became known as Palaimon.[1] When he he began to study alchemy, the infamous Pirate Lord Henry Morgan devised a way to live forever.[2] The treasure of Corts rendered those who stole from it as immortal skeletons until all the Aztec gold coins were returned and a blood debt repaid.[3] Under Davy Jones, the crew of the Flying Dutchman lived as immortal beings.[4][5] The Fountain of Youth was a legendary spring that restored the youth or grant immortality to anyone who drank from its waters, thereby live forver[5], though at a cost of another's death.[6] For the Fountain, the struggle for eternal youth was depicted on the Mao Kun Map, symbolized by a tug of war between a skeleton and an angel, aligned with the symbol of the Fountainthe Chalices.[7]

In another sense, immortality can also mean being unable to be forgotten by history. For example, Jack claimed that by finding the Fountain of Youth when the legendary explorer, Juan Ponce de Len, failed to do so, he will be remebered throughout time and thus, in a way, never die.

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Faroe Islands – Wikipedia

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"Faeroes" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Fr or Fair Isle.

Coordinates: 6200N 0647W / 62.000N 6.783W / 62.000; -6.783

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The Faroe Islands (; Faroese: Froyar pronounced[fja]; Danish: Frerne, pronounced[fn]), sometimes called the Faeroe Islands, is an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, about halfway between Norway and Iceland, 320 kilometres (200 miles) north-northwest of Scotland. The islands are an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark.[8][9][10] Their area is about 1,400 square kilometres (541 square miles) with a population of 50,322 in October 2017.[3]

The Faroes' terrain is rugged, and the islands have a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc): windy, wet, cloudy, and cool. Despite this island group's northerly latitude, temperatures average above freezing throughout the year because of the Gulf Stream.

Between 1035 and 1814, the Faroes were part of the Hereditary Kingdom of Norway. In 1814, the Treaty of Kiel granted Denmark control over the islands, along with two other Norwegian island possessions: Greenland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948.[11]

The Faroese have control of most domestic matters. Areas that remain the responsibility of Denmark include military defence, policing and the justice department, currency, and foreign affairs.[12] However, as they are not part of the same customs area as Denmark, the Faroe Islands have an independent trade policy and can establish trade agreements with other states. The islands also have representation in the Nordic Council as members of the Danish delegation. The Faroe Islands also have their own national teams competing in certain sports.

In Faroese, the name appears as Froyar. Oyar represents the plural of oy, older Faroese for "island". Due to sound changes, the modern Faroese word for island is oyggj. The first element, fr, may reflect an Old Norse word fr (sheep), although this analysis is sometimes disputed because Faroese now uses the word seyur (from Old Norse saur) to mean "sheep". Another possibility is that the Irish monks, who settled the island around 625, had already given the islands a name related to the Gaelic word fearrann, meaning "land" or "estate". This name could then have been passed on to the Norwegian settlers, who then added oyar (islands).[13] The name thus translates as either "Islands of Sheep" or "Islands of Fearrann".

In Danish, the name Frerne contains the same elements, though erne is the definite plural of (island).

In English, it may be seen as redundant to call them the Faroe Islands, since the oe comes from an element meaning "island". The name is also sometimes spelled "Faeroe".[14][15] Most notably in the Shipping Forecast, where the waters around the islands are called Faeroes.

Archaeological evidence shows settlers living on the Faroe Islands in two successive periods prior to the arrival of the Norse, the first between 300 and 600 AD and the second between 600 and 800 AD.[16] Scientists from the University of Aberdeen have also found early cereal pollen from domesticated plants, which further suggests people may have lived on the islands before the Vikings arrived.[17] Archaeologist Mike Church noted that Dicuil (see below) mentioned what may have been the Faroes. He also suggested that the people living there might have been from Ireland, Scotland or Scandinavia, possibly with groups from all three areas settling there.[18]

A Latin account of a voyage made by Brendan, an Irish monastic saint who lived around 484578, includes a description of insulae (islands) resembling the Faroe Islands. This association, however, is far from conclusive in its description.[19]

Dicuil, an Irish monk of the early 9th century, wrote a more definite account. In his geographical work De mensura orbis terrae he claimed he had reliable information of heremitae ex nostra Scotia ("hermits from our land of Ireland/Scotland") who had lived on the northerly islands of Britain for almost a hundred years until the arrival of Norse pirates.[20]

Norsemen settled the islands c. 800, bringing Old West Norse, which evolved into the modern Faroese language. According to Icelandic sagas such as Freyjar Saga, one of the best known men in the island was Trndur Gtu, a descendant of Scandinavian chiefs who had settled in Dublin, Ireland. Trndur led the battle against Sigmund Brestursson, the Norwegian monarchy and the Norwegian church.

The Norse and NorseGael settlers probably did not come directly from Scandinavia, but rather from Norse communities surrounding the Irish Sea, Northern Isles and Outer Hebrides of Scotland, including the Shetland and Orkney islands. A traditional name for the islands in Irish, Na Scigir, possibly refers to the (Eyja-)Skeggjar "(Island-)Beards", a nickname given to island dwellers.

According to the Freyinga saga, more emigrants left Norway who did not approve of the monarchy of Harald Fairhair (ruled c. 872 to 930). These people settled the Faroes around the end of the 9th century.[21] Early in the 11th century, Sigmundur Brestisson (9611005) whose clan had flourished in the southern islands before invaders from the northern islands almost exterminated it escaped to Norway. He was sent back to take possession of the islands for Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway from 995 to 1000. Sigmundur introduced Christianity, forcing Trndur Gtu to convert or face beheading and, though Sigmundur was subsequently murdered, Norwegian taxation was upheld. Norwegian control of the Faroes continued until 1814, although, when the Kingdom of Norway (8721397) entered the Kalmar Union with Denmark, it gradually resulted in Danish control of the islands. The Reformation reached the Faroes in 1538. When the union between Denmark and Norway dissolved as a result of the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, Denmark retained possession of the Faroe Islands; Norway itself was joined in a union with Sweden.

In 1816, the Faroe Islands became a county in the Danish Kingdom.[22]

As part of Mercantilism, Denmark maintained a monopoly over trade with the Faroe Islands and forbade their inhabitants trading with others (e.g. the geographically close Britain). The trade monopoly in the Faroe Islands was abolished in 1856, after which the area developed as a modern fishing nation with its own fishing fleet. The national awakening from 1888 initially arose from a struggle to maintain the Faroese language and was thus culturally oriented, but after 1906 it became more political with the foundation of political parties of the Faroe Islands.

On 12 April 1940 British troops occupied the Faroe Islands, shortly after the German invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940. In 19421943 the British Royal Engineers, under the leadership of Lt. Col. William Law MC, built the only airport in the Faroe Islands, Vgar Airport. Control of the islands reverted to Denmark following the war, but Danish rule had been undermined, and Iceland's independence served as a precedent for many Faroese.

The Faroese independence referendum, 1946 resulted in 50.73% in favor of independence to 49.27% against.[23] The Faroe Islands subsequently declared independence on 18 September 1946; however, this declaration was annulled by Denmark on 20 September on the grounds that a majority of the Faroese voters had not supported independence and King Christian X of Denmark dissolved the Faroese Lgting on 24 September.[24][25] The dissolution of the Lgting was on 8 November followed by the Faroese parliamentary election of 1946 in which the parties in favour of full independence received a total of 5,396 votes while the parties against received a total of 7,488 votes.[26] As a reaction to the growing self-government and independence movements, Denmark finally granted the Faroe Islands home-rule with a high degree of local autonomy on 30 March 1948.[24]

In 1973 the Faroe Islands declined to join Denmark in entering the European Economic Community (later absorbed into the European Union). The islands experienced considerable economic difficulties following the collapse of the fishing industry in the early 1990s, but have since made efforts to diversify the economy. Support for independence has grown and is the objective of the Republican Party.

The Faroe Islands are an island group consisting of 18 major islands about 655 kilometres (407mi) off the coast of Northern Europe, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between Iceland and Norway, the closest neighbours being the Northern Isles and the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Its coordinates are 6200N 0647W / 62.000N 6.783W / 62.000; -6.783.

Distance from the Faroe Islands to:

The islands cover an area of 1,399 square kilometres (540sq.mi) and have small lakes and rivers, but no major ones. There are 1,117 kilometres (694mi) of coastline.[27] The only significant uninhabited island is Ltla Dmun.

The islands are rugged and rocky with some low peaks; the coasts are mostly cliffs. The highest point is Slttaratindur in northern Eysturoy, 882 metres (2,894ft) above sea level.

The Faroe Islands are dominated by tholeiitic basalt lava, which was part of the great Thulean Plateau during the Paleogene period.[28]

The climate is classed as subpolar oceanic climate according to the Kppen climate classification: Cfc, with areas having a tundra climate, especially in the mountains, although some coastal or low-lying areas can have very mild-winter versions of a tundra climate. The overall character of the islands' climate is influenced by the strong warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean, which produces the North Atlantic Current. This, together with the remoteness of any source of warm airflows, ensures that winters are mild (mean temperature 3.0 to 4.0C or 37 to 39F) while summers are cool (mean temperature 9.5 to 10.5C or 49 to 51F).

The islands are windy, cloudy and cool throughout the year with an average of 210 rainy or snowy days per year. The islands lie in the path of depressions moving northeast, making strong winds and heavy rain possible at all times of the year. Sunny days are rare and overcast days are common. Hurricane Faith struck the Faroe Islands on 5 September 1966 with sustained winds over 100mph (160km/h) and only then did the storm cease to be a tropical system.[29]

The climate varies greatly over small distances, due to the altitude, ocean currents, topography and winds. Precipitation varies considerably throughout the archipelago. In some highland areas, snow cover can last for months with snowfalls possible for the greater part of the year (on the highest peaks, summer snowfall is by no means rare), while in some sheltered coastal locations, several years pass without any snowfall whatsoever. Trshavn receives frosts more often than other areas just a short distance to the south. Snow is also seen at a much higher frequency than on outlying islands nearby. The area receives on average 49 frosts a year.[30]

The collection of meteorological data on the Faroe Islands began in 1867.[31] Winter recording began in 1891, and the warmest winter occurred in 201617 with an average temperature of 6.1C.[32]

A collection of Faroese marine algae resulting from a survey sponsored by NATO,[citation needed] the British Museum (Natural History) and the Carlsberg Foundation, is preserved in the Ulster Museum (catalogue numbers: F3195F3307). It is one of ten exsiccatae sets.

The natural vegetation of the Faroe Islands is dominated by arctic-alpine plants, wildflowers, grasses, moss and lichen. Most of the lowland area is grassland and some is heath, dominated by shrubby heathers, mainly Calluna vulgaris. Among the herbaceous flora that occur in the Faroe Islands is the cosmopolitan marsh thistle, Cirsium palustre.[36]

Although there are no trees native to the Faroe Islands, limited species were able to be successfully introduced to the region, including the Black Cottonwood, also known as the California Poplar (Populus trichocarpa)

A few small plantations consisting of plants collected from similar climates such as Tierra del Fuego in South America and Alaska thrive on the islands.

The bird fauna of the Faroe Islands is dominated by seabirds and birds attracted to open land like heather, probably because of the lack of woodland and other suitable habitats. Many species have developed special Faroese sub-species: common eider, Common starling, Eurasian wren, common murre, and black guillemot.[37] The pied raven was endemic to the Faroe Islands, but has now become extinct.

Only a few species of wild land mammals are found in the Faroe Islands today, all introduced by humans. Three species are thriving on the islands today: mountain hare (Lepus timidus), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), and the house mouse (Mus musculus). Apart from these, there once was a local domestic sheep breed, the Faroe sheep (depicted on the coat of arms), a variety of feral sheep survived on Ltla Dmun until the mid-19th century.[38]

Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are common around the shorelines.[citation needed] Several species of cetacea live in the waters around the Faroe Islands. Best known are the long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melaena), which are still hunted by the islanders in accordance with longstanding local tradition.[39] Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are regular visitors around the islands.

The domestic animals of the Faroe Islands are a result of 1,200 years of isolated breeding. As a result, many of the islands' domestic animals are found nowhere else in the world. Faroese domestic breeds include Faroe pony, Faroe cow, Faroe sheep, Faroese goose, and Faroese duck.

The Faroese government holds executive power in local government affairs. The head of the government is called the Lgmaur ("Law person") and serves as a premier. Any other member of the cabinet is called a landsstrismaur ("national committee man") or landsstriskvinna ("national committee woman"). The Faroese parliament the Lgting ("Law assembly") dates back to Viking times and is believed to be one of the oldest parliaments in the world. The parliament currently has 33 members.[40]

In contemporary times, elections are held at municipal, national (Lgting) and Danish (Folketing) levels. Until 2007, there were seven electoral districts, each comprising a ssla, while Streymoy was divided into a northern and southern part (Trshavn region). However, on 25 October 2007, changes were made such that the entire country is one electoral district, giving each vote equal weight.

Administratively, the islands are divided into 30 municipalities (kommunur) within which there are 120 or so settlements.

Traditionally, there are also the six sslur (similar to the British "shire": Noroyar, Eysturoy, Streymoy, Vgar, Sandoy, and Suuroy). Although today ssla technically means "police district", the term is still commonly used to indicate a geographical region. In earlier times, each ssla had its own assembly, the so-called vrting ("spring assembly").

The Faroe Islands have been under Norwegian/Danish control since 1388. The 1814 Treaty of Kiel terminated the Danish-Norwegian union, and Norway came under the rule of the King of Sweden, while the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland remained Danish possessions. From ancient times the Faroe Islands had a parliament (Lgting) which was abolished in 1816, and the Faroe Islands were to be governed as an ordinary Danish amt (county), with the Amtmand as its head of government. In 1851, the Lgting was reinstated, but, until 1948, served mainly as an advisory body.

The islands are home to a notable independence movement that has seen an increase in popularity within recent decades. At the end of World War II, some of the population favoured independence from Denmark, and on 14 September 1946 an independence referendum was held on the question of secession. It was a consultative referendum; the parliament was not bound to follow the people's vote. This was the first time that the Faroese people had been asked whether they favoured independence or wanted to continue within the Danish kingdom.

The result of the vote was a narrow majority in favour of secession, but the coalition in parliament could not reach agreement on how this outcome should be interpreted and implemented; and because of these irresoluble differences, the coalition fell apart. A parliamentary election was held a few months later, in which the political parties that favoured staying in the Danish kingdom increased their share of the vote and formed a coalition. Based on this, they chose to reject secession. Instead, a compromise was made and the Folketing passed a home-rule law that went into effect in 1948. The Faroe Islands' status as a Danish amt was thereby brought to an end; the Faroe Islands were given a high degree of self-governance, supported by a financial subsidy from Denmark to recompense expenses the islands have on Danish services.

At present, the islanders are about evenly split between those favouring independence and those who prefer to continue as a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Within both camps there is a wide range of opinions. Of those who favour independence, some are in favour of an immediate unilateral declaration of independence. Others see it as something to be attained gradually and with the full consent of the Danish government and the Danish nation. In the unionist camp there are also many who foresee and welcome a gradual increase in autonomy even while strong ties with Denmark are maintained.

As of 2011[update], a new draft Faroese constitution is being drawn up. However the draft has been declared by the Danish Prime Minister, Lars Lkke Rasmussen, as incompatible with Denmark's constitution and if the Faroese political parties wish to continue with it then they must declare independence.[41]

As explicitly asserted by both treaties of the European Union, the Faroe Islands are not part of the European Union. The Faroes are not grouped with the EU when it comes to international trade; for instance, when the EU and Russia imposed reciprocal trade sanctions on each other over the War in Donbass in 2014, the Faroes began exporting significant amounts of fresh salmon to Russia.[42] Moreover, a protocol to the treaty of accession of Denmark to the European Communities stipulates that Danish nationals residing in the Faroe Islands are not considered Danish nationals within the meaning of the treaties. Hence, Danish people living in the Faroes are not citizens of the European Union (though other EU nationals living there remain EU citizens). The Faroes are not covered by the Schengen Agreement, but there are no border checks when travelling between the Faroes and any Schengen country (the Faroes have been part of the Nordic Passport Union since 1966, and since 2001 there have been no permanent border checks between the Nordic countries and the rest of the Schengen Area as part of the Schengen agreement).[43]

The Faroe Islands are not a fully independent country, but they do have political relations directly with other countries through agreement with Denmark. The Faroe Islands are a member of some international organisations as though they were an independent country.

The Faroe Islands are a member of several international sports federations like UEFA, FIFA in football[44] and FINA in swimming[45] and EHF in handball[46] and have their own national teams. The Faroe Islands have their own telephone country code, Internet country code top-level domain, banking code and postal country code.

The Faroe Islands make their own agreements with other countries regarding trade and commerce. When the EU embargo against Russia started in 2014, the Faroe Islands were not a part of the embargo because they are not a part of EU, and the islands had just themselves experienced a year of embargo from the EU including Denmark against the islands; the Faroese prime minister Kaj Leo Johannesen went to Moscow to negotiate the trade between the two countries.[10] The Faroese minister of fisheries negotiates with the EU and other countries regarding the rights to fish.[47]

The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of Norse and Celtic descent.[48] Recent DNA analyses have revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian.[49]The studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Celtic.[50]

There is a gender deficit of about 2,000 women owing to migration.[51] Three hundred women from the Philippines and Thailand, recruited as wives because of the Faroes' gender imbalance, make up the largest ethnic minority in the Faroes.[51]

The total fertility rate of the Faroe Islands is currently one of the highest in Europe.[52] The fertility rate is 2.409 children born per woman (2015 est.).[53]

The 2011 census shows that of the approximately 48,600 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands (17,441 private households in 2011), 43,135 were born in the Faroe Islands, 3,597 were born in the other two countries of the Kingdom of Denmark (Denmark or Greenland), and 1,614 were born outside the Kingdom of Denmark. People were also asked about their nationality, including Faroese. Children under 15 were not asked about their nationality. 97% said that they were ethnic Faroese, which means that many of those who were born in either Denmark or Greenland consider themselves as ethnic Faroese. The other 3% of those older than 15 said they were not Faroese: 515 were Danish, 433 were from other European countries, 147 came from Asia, 65 from Africa, 55 from the Americas, 23 from Russia.[54]The Faroe Islands have people from 77 different nationalities.

If the first inhabitants of the Faroe Islands were Irish monks, then they must have lived as a very small group of settlers. Later, when the Vikings colonised the islands, there was a considerable increase in the population. However, it never exceeded 5,000 until the 19th century. Around 1349, about half the population perished in the Black Death plague.

Only with the rise of the deep-sea fishery (and thus independence from agriculture in the islands' harsh terrain) and with general progress in the health service was rapid population growth possible in the Faroes. Beginning in the 19th century, the population increased tenfold in 200 years.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Faroe Islands entered a deep economic crisis leading to heavy emigration; however, this trend reversed in subsequent years to a net immigration. This has been in the form of a population replacement as young Faroese women leave and are replaced with Asian/Pacific brides.[55]In 2011, there were 2,155 more men than women between the age of 0 to 59 in the Faroe Islands.[56]

The Faroese population is spread across most of the area; it was not until recent decades that significant urbanisation occurred. Industrialisation has been remarkably decentralised, and the area has therefore maintained quite a viable rural culture. Nevertheless, villages with poor harbour facilities have been the losers in the development from agriculture to fishing, and in the most peripheral agricultural areas, also known as toyggjar "Outer Islands", there are few young people. In recent decades, the village-based social structure has nevertheless been placed under pressure, giving way to a rise in interconnected "centres" that are better able to provide goods and services than the badly connected periphery. This means that shops and services are now relocating en masse from the villages into the centres, and slowly but steadily the Faroese population is concentrating in and around the centres.

In the 1990s, the government abandoned the old national policy of developing the villages (Bygdamenning), and instead began a process of regional development (kismenning). The term "region" referred to the large islands of the Faroes. Nevertheless, the government was unable to press through the structural reform of merging small rural municipalities to create sustainable, decentralised entities that could drive forward regional development. As regional development has been difficult on the administrative level, the government has instead invested heavily in infrastructure, interconnecting the regions.

In general, it is becoming less valid to regard the Faroes as a society based on separate islands and regions. The huge investments in roads, bridges and sub-sea tunnels (see also Transport in the Faroe Islands) have bound the islands together, creating a coherent economic and cultural sphere that covers almost 90% of the population. From this perspective it is reasonable to regard the Faroes as a dispersed city or even to refer to it as the Faroese Network City.[citation needed]

Faroese is spoken in the entire area as a first language. It is difficult to say exactly how many people worldwide speak the Faroese language, because many ethnic Faroese live in Denmark, and few who are born there return to the Faroes with their parents or as adults.

The Faroese language is one of the smallest of the Germanic languages. Written Faroese (grammar and vocabulary) is most similar to Icelandic and to their ancestor Old Norse, though the spoken language is closer to Norwegian dialects of Western Norway. Faroese is the first official language of the island while Danish, the second, is taught in schools and can be used by the Faroese government in public relations.[1]

Faroese language policy provides for the active creation of new terms in Faroese suitable for modern life.

According to the Freyinga saga, Sigmundur Brestisson brought Christianity to the islands in 999. However, archaeology at a site in Toftanes, Leirvk named Bnhstoftin (English: prayer-house ruin) and over a dozen slabs from lansgarur in the small island of Skvoy which in the main display encircled linear and outline crosses, suggest that Celtic Christianity may have arrived at least 150 years earlier.[57] The Faroe Islands' Church Reformation was completed on 1 January 1540. According to official statistics from 2017, 80.2% of the Faroese population are members of the state church, the Church of the Faroe Islands (Flkakirkjan), a form of Lutheranism.[58] The Flkakirkjan became an independent church in 2007; previously it had been a diocese within the Church of Denmark. Faroese members of the clergy who have had historical importance include Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb (18191909), Frrikur Petersen (18531917) and, perhaps most significantly, Jkup Dahl (18781944), who had a great influence in ensuring that the Faroese language was spoken in the church instead of Danish. Participation in churches is more prevalent among the Faroese population than among most other Scandinavians.

In the late 1820s, the Christian Evangelical religious movement, the Plymouth Brethren, was established in England. In 1865, a member of this movement, William Gibson Sloan, travelled to the Faroes from Shetland. At the turn of the 20th century, the Faroese Plymouth Brethren numbered thirty. Today, around 10% of the Faroese population are members of the Open Brethren community (Brrasamkoman). About 3% belong to the Charismatic Movement. There are several charismatic churches around the islands, the largest of which, called Keldan (The Spring), has about 200 to 300 members. About 2% belong to other Christian groups. The Adventists operate a private school in Trshavn. Jehovah's Witnesses also have four congregations with a total of 121 members. The Roman Catholic congregation has about 170 members and falls under the jurisdiction of Denmark's Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen. The municipality of Trshavn has an old Franciscan school.

There are also around fifteen Bah's who meet at four different places. The Ahmadiyyas established a community in the Faroe Islands in 2010. Unlike Denmark, Sweden and Iceland with Forn Sir, the Faroes have no organised Heathen community.

The best-known church buildings in the Faroe Islands include Trshavn Cathedral, Olaf II of Norway's Church and the Magnus Cathedral in Kirkjubur; the Vesturkirkjan and the Maria Church, both of which are situated in Trshavn; the church of Fmjin; the octagonal church in Haldrsvk; Christianskirkjan in Klaksvk; and also the two pictured here.

In 1948, Victor Danielsen (Plymouth Brethren) completed the first Bible translation into Faroese from different modern languages. Jacob Dahl and Kristian Osvald Vider (Flkakirkjan) completed the second translation in 1961. The latter was translated from the original Biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek) into Faroese.

According to the 2011 Census, there were 33,018 Christians (95.44%), 23 Muslims (0.07%), 7 Hindus (0.02%), 66 Buddhists (0.19%), 12 Jews (0.03%), 13 Baha'i (0.04%), 3 Sikhs (0.01%), 149 others (0.43%), 85 with more than one belief (0.25%), and 1,397 with no religion (4.04%).[59]

The levels of education in the Faroe Islands are primary, secondary and higher education. Most institutions are funded by the state; there are few private schools in the country. Education is compulsory for 9 years between the ages of 7 and 16.[60]

Compulsory education consists of seven years of primary education and two years of lower secondary education; it is public, free of charge, provided by the respective municipalities, and is called the Flkaskli in Faroese. The Flkaskli also provides optional preschool education as well as the tenth year of education that is a prerequisite to get admitted to upper secondary education. Students that complete compulsory education are allowed to continue education in a vocational school, where they can have job-specific training and education. Since the fishing industry is an important part of country's economy, maritime schools are an important part of Faroese education. Upon completion of the tenth year of Flkaskli, students can continue to upper secondary education which consists of several different types of schools. Higher education is offered at the University of the Faroe Islands; a part of Faroese youth moves abroad to pursue higher education, mainly in Denmark. Other forms of education comprise adult education and music schools. The structure of the Faroese educational system bears resemblances with its Danish counterpart.[60]

In the 12th century, education was provided by the Catholic Church in the Faroe Islands.[61] The Church of Denmark took over education after the Protestant Reformation.[62]Modern educational institutions started operating in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and developed throughout the twentieth century. The status of the Faroese language in education was a significant issue for decades, until it was accepted as a language of instruction in 1938.[63] Initially education was administered and regulated by Denmark.[63] In 1979 responsibilities on educational issues started transferring to the Faroese authorities, a procedure which was completed in 2002.[63]

The Ministry of Education, Research and Culture has the jurisdiction of educational responsibility in the Faroe Islands.[64] Since the Faroe Islands is a constituent country of the Danish Realm, education in the Faroe Islands is influenced and has similarities with the Danish educational system; there is an agreement on educational cooperation between the Faroe Islands and Denmark.[63][65][66] In 2012 the public spending on education was 8.1% of GDP.[67] The municipalities are responsible for the school buildings for children's education in Flkasklin from age 1st grade to 9th or 10th grade (age 7 to 16).[68] In November 2013 1,615 people, or 6.8% of the total number of employees, were employed in the education sector.[67] Of the 31,270 people aged 25 and above 1,717 (5.5%) have gained at least a master's degrees or a Ph.D., 8,428 (27%) have gained a B.Sc. or a diploma, 11,706 (37.4%) have finished upper secondary education while 9,419 (30.1%) has only finished primary school and have no other education.[69] There is no data on literacy in the Faroe Islands, but the CIA Factbook states that it is probably as high as in Denmark proper, i.e. 99%.[70]

The majority of students in upper secondary schools are women, although men represent the majority in higher education institutions. In addition, most young Faroese people who relocate to other countries to study are women.[71] Out of 8,535 holders of bachelor degrees, 4,796 (56.2%) have had their education in the Faroe Islands, 2,724 (31.9%) in Denmark, 543 in both the Faroe Islands and Denmark, 94 (1.1%) in Norway, 80 in the United Kingdom and the rest in other countries.[72] Out of 1,719 holders of master's degrees or PhDs, 1,249 (72.7% have had their education in Denmark, 87 (5.1%) in the United Kingdom, 86 (5%) in both the Faroe Islands and Denmark, 64 (3.7%) in the Faroe Islands, 60 (3.5%) in Norway and the rest in other countries (mostly EU and Nordic).[72] Since there is no medical school in the Faroe Islands, all medical students have to study abroad; as of 2013[update], out of a total of 96 medical students, 76 studied in Denmark, 19 in Poland, and 1 in Hungary.[73]

Economic troubles caused by a collapse of the Faroese fishing industry in the early 1990s brought high unemployment rates of 10 to 15% by the mid-1990s.[74] Unemployment decreased in the later 1990s, down to about 6% at the end of 1998.[74] By June 2008 unemployment had declined to 1.1%, before rising to 3.4% in early 2009.[74] In December 2014[75] the unemployment was 3.2%. Nevertheless, the almost total dependence on fishing and fish farming means that the economy remains vulnerable. One of the biggest private companies of the Faroe Islands is the salmon farming company Bakkafrost, which is the largest of the four salmon farming companies in the Faroe Islands[76] and the eighth biggest in the world.[77]

Petroleum found close to the Faroese area gives hope for deposits in the immediate area, which may provide a basis for sustained economic prosperity.[78]

13% of the Faroe Islands' national income comes as economic aid from Denmark.[79] This corresponds to roughly 5% of GDP.[citation needed]

Since 2000, the government has fostered new information technology and business projects to attract new investment. The introduction of Burger King in Trshavn was widely publicized as a sign of the globalization of Faroese culture. It remains to be seen whether these projects will succeed in broadening the islands' economic base. The islands have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, but this should not necessarily be taken as a sign of a recovering economy, as many young students move to Denmark and other countries after leaving high school. This leaves a largely middle-aged and elderly population that may lack the skills and knowledge to fill newly developed positions on the Faroes. Nonetheless, in 2008 the Faroes were able to make a $52 million loan to Iceland to help with that country's banking woes.[80]

On 5 August 2009, two opposition parties introduced a bill in the Lgting to adopt the euro as the national currency, pending a referendum.[81]

By road, the main islands are connected by bridges and tunnels. Government owned Strandfaraskip Landsins provides public bus and ferry service to the main towns and villages. There are no railways.

By air, Scandinavian Airlines and the government owned Atlantic Airways both have scheduled international flights to Vgar Airport, the islands' only airport. Atlantic Airways also provides helicopter service to each of the islands. All civil aviation matters are controlled from the Civil Aviation Administration Denmark.

By sea, Smyril Line operates a regular international passenger, car and freight service linking the Faroe Islands with Seyisfjrur, Iceland and Hirtshals, Denmark.[82]

Because of the rocky terrain in the Faroe Islands, its road transport system was not[when?] as extensive as in other places of the world. This situation has now changed, and the infrastructure has been developed extensively. Some 80 percent of the population of the islands is connected by tunnels through the mountains and between the islands, bridges and causeways that link the three largest islands and three other larger and smaller islands to the northeast together. While the other two large islands to the south of the main area, Sandoy and Suuroy, are connected to the main area with ferries, the small islands Koltur and Stra Dmun have no ferry connection, only helicopter service. Other small islandsMykines in the west, Kalsoy, Svnoy and Fugloy in the north, Hestur west of Streymoy, and Nlsoy east of Trshavnhave smaller ferries and some of these islands even have helicopter service.

In February 2014 all the political parties of the Lgting agreed on making two subsea tunnels, one between Streymoy and Eysturoy (the Eysturoyartunnilin) and one between Streymoy and Sandoy (Sandoyartunnilin). The plan is that both tunnels should open in 2021 and they will not be private.[83] The work to dig the Eysturoy-tunnel started on 1 March 2016 above the village of Hvtanes near Trshavn.[84]

The culture of the Faroe Islands has its roots in the Nordic culture. The Faroe Islands were long isolated from the main cultural phases and movements that swept across parts of Europe. This means that they have maintained a great part of their traditional culture. The language spoken is Faroese and it is one of three insular North Germanic languages descended from the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, the others being Icelandic and the extinct Norn, which is thought to have been mutually intelligible with Faroese. Until the 15th century, Faroese had a similar orthography to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation in 1538, the ruling Norwegians outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents. Although a rich spoken tradition survived, for 300 years the language was not written down. This means that all poems and stories were handed down orally. These works were split into the following divisions: sagnir (historical), vintr (stories) and kvi (ballads), often set to music and the medieval chain dance. These were eventually written down in the 19th century.

Faroese written literature has only really developed in the past 100200 years. This is mainly because of the islands' isolation, and also because the Faroese language was not written down in a standardised format until 1890. The Danish language was also encouraged at the expense of Faroese. Nevertheless, the Faroes have produced several authors and poets. A rich centuries-old oral tradition of folk tales and Faroese folk songs accompanied the Faroese chain dance. The people learned these songs and stories by heart, and told or sung them to each other, teaching the younger generations too. This kind of literature was gathered in the 19th century and early 20th century. The Faroese folk songs, in Faroese called kvi, are still in use although not so large-scale as earlier. Some of the Faroese folk songs have been used by the Faroese Viking metal band Tr, i.e., Ormurin Langi.[85]

The first Faroese novel, Bbelstorni by Regin L, was published in 1909; the second novel was published 18 years later. In the period 1930 to 1940 a writer from the village Sklavk on Sandoy island, Hein Br, published three novels: Lognbr (1930), Fastatkur (1935) and Fegar fer (English title: The old man and his sons) (1940). Fegar fer has been translated into several other languages. Martin Joensen from Sandvk wrote about life on Faroese fishing vessels; he published the novels Fiskimenn (1946)[86] and Ta lsir landi (1952).

Well-known poets from the early 20th century are among others the two brothers from Trshavn: Hans Andrias Djurhuus (18831951)[87] and Janus Djurhuus (18811948),[88] other well known poets from this period and the mid 20th century are Poul F. Joensen (18981970),[89] Regin Dahl (19182007)[90] and Tummas Napoleon Djurhuus (192871).[91] Their poems are popular even today and can be found in Faroese song books and school books. Jens Pauli Heinesen (19322011), a school teacher from Sandavgur, was the most productive Faroese novelist, he published 17 novels. Steinbjrn B. Jacobsen (19372012), a schoolteacher from Sandvk, wrote short stories, plays, children's books and even novels. Most Faroese writers write in Faroese; two exceptions are William Heinesen (190091) and Jrgen-Frantz Jacobsen (190038).

Women were not so visible in the early Faroese literature except for Helena Patursson (18641916), but in the last decades of the 20th century and in the beginning of the 21st century female writers like Ebba Hentze (born 1933) wrote children's books, short stories, etc. Guri Helmsdal published the first modernistic collection of poems, Ltt lot, in 1963, which at the same time was the first collection of Faroese poems written by a woman.[92] Her daughter, Rakel Helmsdal (born 1966), is also a writer, best known for her children's books, for which she has won several prizes and nominations. Other female writers are the novelists Oddvr Johansen (born 1941), Bergtra Hanusardttir (born 1946) and novelist/children's books writers Marianna Debes Dahl (born 1947), and Slrun Michelsen (born 1948). Other modern Faroese writers include Gunnar Hoydal (born 1941), Hanus Kamban (born 1942), Jgvan Isaksen (born 1950), Janes Nielsen (born 1953), Troddur Poulsen and Carl Jhan Jensen (born 1957). Some of these writers have been nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize two to six times, but have never won it. The only Faroese writer who writes in Faroese who has won the prize is the poet Ri Patursson (born 1947), who won the prize in 1986 for Lkasum.[93]

In the 21st century, some new writers had success in the Faroe Islands and abroad. Brur Oskarsson (born 1972) is a children's book writer and illustrator; his books won prizes in the Faroes, Germany and the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize (2006). Though not born in the Faroe Islands, Matthew Landrum an American poet and editor for the Structo magazine, has written a collection of poems about the Islands. Sissal Kampmann (born 1974) won the Danish literary prize Klaus Rifbjerg's Debutant Prize (2012), and Rakel Helmsdal has won Faroese and Icelandic awards; she has been nominated for the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize and the Children and Youth Literature Prize of the Nordic Council (representing Iceland, wrote the book together with and Icelandic and a Swedish writer/illustrator). Marjun Syderb Kjelns (born 1974) had success with her first novel Skriva sandin for teenagers; the book was awarded and nominated both in the Faroes and in other countries. She won the Nordic Children's Book Prize (2011) for this book, White Raven Deutsche Jugendbibliothek (2011) and nominated the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize and the Children and Youth Literature Prize of the Nordic Council (2013).[94]

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Inis Mr (Inishmore) – Aran Islands – Galway – Doolin

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The Aran (or Arran) jumper/sweatertakes its name from the Aran Islands, was popular in the fishing villages on and islands off the West Coast of Ireland, or from the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland. They are distinguished by their use of complex textured stitch patterns, several of which are combined in the creation of a single garment. The word choice of 'jumper' or 'sweater' (or indeed other options such as 'pullover' and 'jersey')is largely determined by the regional version of English being spoken. In the case of Ireland and Britain 'jumper' is the standard word with 'sweater' mainly found in tourist shops. To be even more respectful/aware of the local culture the word used in Irish Gaelic is 'geansa' and in Scottish Gaelic 'geansaidh' (both pronounced "gahnzee").

Originally the jumpers were knitted using unscoured wool that retained its natural oils or lanolin which made the garments water-resistant and meant they remained wearable even when wet. It was primarily the wives of Island fishermen who knitted the jumpers.

Some stitch patterns have a traditional interpretation often of religious significance. The honeycomb is a symbol of the hard-working bee. The cable, an integral part of the fisherman's daily life, is said to be a wish for safety and good luck when fishing. The diamond is a wish of success wealth and treasure. The basket stitch represents the fisherman's basket, a hope for a plentiful catch.

Traditionally an Aran jumper is made from undyed cream-coloured binn (pronounced bawneen), a yarn made from sheep's wool, sometimes "black-sheep" wool. They were originally made with unwashed wool that still contained natural sheep lanolin, making it to an extent water-repellent. Up to the seventies the island women spun their own yarn on spinning wheels.

The jumper, locally called a geansa, usually features 46 texture patterns each of which is about 24 inches in width, that move down the sweater in columns from top to bottom. Usually the patterns are symmetrical to a centre axis extending down the centre of the front and back panel. The patterns also usually extend down the sleeves as well. The same textured knitting are also used to make socks, hats, vests and even skirts.

There is debate about when island residents first started making the jumpers. Some have suggested that the jumper is an ancient design that has been used on the island for hundreds of years. Proponents of this theory often point to a picture in the Book of Kells that appears to depict an ancient "Aran jumper". Also many megaliths around Europe depict similar patterns as those used in the knitting, which are carved into the stone, and date back several thousand years. However it is more likely that the knitting stitches were modeled on these than that they evolved contemporaneously.

Most historians agree that far from being an ancient craft, aran knitting was invented as recently as the early 1900's by a small group of enterprising island women, with the intention of creating garments not just for their families to wear but which could be sold as a source of income.

The first Aran knitting patterns were published in the 1940s by Patons of England after being supplied by Mille's shop in Galway. Mille's was also responsible for most of the costuming used the filming of The Quiet Man in 1951. Vogue magazine carried articles on the garment in the 1950s, and jumper exports from the west of Ireland to the United States began in the early 1950s.

The development of the export trade during the 1950's and 1960's took place after P.A. Sochin organised an instructor, with the help of an IDA Ireland grant, to go to the islands and teach the knitters how to make garments to standard international sizings. Knitting became an important part of the island's economy and during the 1960's, even with all available knitters recruited from the three islands he had difficulty in fulfilling orders from around the world.

Aran jumpers are sometimes sold as a "fisherman sweater", indicating that the jumper was traditionally used by the islands' famous fishermen. It is said that each fisherman (or their family) had a jumper with a unique design, so that if he drowned and was found maybe weeks later on the beach, his body could be identified. There is no record of any such event ever taking place.

This misconception may have originated with J.M. Synge's 1904 play 'Riders to the Sea', in which the body of a dead fisherman is identified by the hand-knitted stitches on one of his garments. However, even in the play there is no reference to any decorative or Aran type pattern. The garment referred to is a plain stocking and it is identified by the number of stitches, the quote being "it's the second one of the third pair I knitted, and I put up three score stitches, and I dropped four of them".

There is also some doubt about whether Aran jumpers were ever widely used by fishermen and many argue that the original jumpers with their untreated yarn would not have been suitable for this use. They were quite thick and stiff, which would probably restrict the movements of a fisherman. On the other hand these garments were the only form of hardy clothing they had to weather the Atlantic Ocean storms in. Islanders can be seen wearing them in photographs taken early in the last century.

Arising from the myth above is a widely believed misconception that Aran patterns have clan associations, somewhat like Scottish tartan. Although sometimes used as a marketing device, there is no evidence for any such association even among families who lived on the Islands. Only a relatively small number of family names are or were ever found on the Aran Islands and the majority of Irish families have no history of either wearing or knitting jumpers of any particular pattern.

While in the past the majority of jumpers and other Aran garments were knit by hand, today the majority of items on sale in Ireland and elsewhere are either machine knit or produced on a hand loom. There are very few people still knitting jumpers by hand on a commercial basis.

Machine knit jumpers tend to use finer wool and have less complex patterns, since many of the traditional stitches cannot be reproduced this way. They are the least expensive option. Hand looming allows more complicated stitches to be used, will have more stitches to the inch and be thicker. The best quality hand loomed sweaters are almost indistinguishable from hand knit. Hand knit jumpers tend to be more tightly knit, to have more complex stitch patterns and to be longer lasting and they attract a significant price premium. By holding them up to light the difference between the machine knit and hand kits is self-evident.

Wikipedia contributors (2006). Aran Jumper. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 23, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_sweater

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Inis Mr (Inishmore) - Aran Islands - Galway - Doolin

Trance Definition and Meaning – Bible Dictionary

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TRANCE

trans (ekstasis):

The condition expressed by this word is a mental state in which the person affected is partially or wholly unconscious of objective sensations, but intensely alive to subjective impressions which, however they may be originated, are felt as if they were revelations from without. They may take the form of visual or auditory sensations or else of impressions of taste, smell, heat or cold, and sometimes these conditions precede epileptic seizures constituting what is named the aura epileptica. The word occurs 5 times in the King James Version, twice in the story of Balaam (Numbers 24:4,16), twice in the history of Peter (Acts 10:10; 11:5), and once in that of Paul (Acts 22:17). In the Balaam story the word is of the nature of a gloss rather than a translation, as the Hebrew naphal means simply "to fall down" and is translated accordingly in the Revised Version (British and American). Here Septuagint has en hupno, "in sleep" (see SLEEP, DEEP). In Peter's vision on the housetop at Joppa he saw the sail (othone) descending from heaven, and heard a voice. Paul's trance was also one of both sight and sound. The vision on the Damascus road (Acts 9:3-9) and that recorded in 2Corinthians 12:2-4 were also cases of trance, as were the prophetic ecstasies of Saul, Daniel and Elisha, and the condition of John in which he says that he was "in the Spirit" (Revelation 1:10).

The border line between trance and dream is indefinite:

the former occurs while one is, in a sense, awake; the latter takes place in the passage from sleep to wakefulness. The dream as well as the vision were supposed of old to be channels of revelation (Job 33:15). In Shakespearean English, "trance" means a dream (Taming of the Shrew, I, i, 182), or simply a bewilderment (Lucrece, 1595).

In the phenomena of hypnotic suggestion, sometimes affecting a number of persons simultaneously we have conditions closely allied to trance, and doubtless some of the well-authenticated phantom appearances are similar subjective projections from the mind affecting the visual and auditory centers of the brain.

Alex. Macalister

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Trance Definition and Meaning - Bible Dictionary

trance | Definition of trance in English by Oxford Dictionaries

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noun

1A half-conscious state characterized by an absence of response to external stimuli, typically as induced by hypnosis or entered by a medium.

she put him into a light trance

More example sentences

Synonyms

daze, stupor, haze, hypnotic state, half-conscious state, dream, daydream, reverie, brown study, suspended animation

the kind of trance he went into whenever illness was discussed

More example sentences

Synonyms

daze, stupor, haze, hypnotic state, half-conscious state, dream, daydream, reverie, brown study, suspended animation

in the Hades Warehouse there's the finest in trance and techno

More example sentences

Put into a trance.

she's been tranced and may need waking

More example sentences

Middle English (originally as a verb in the sense be in a trance): from Old French transir depart, fall into trance, from Latin transire go across.

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trance | Definition of trance in English by Oxford Dictionaries

Orion’s Arm – Contributor Bios

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Orion's Arm has been produced through the efforts of many individuals, listed here.

Aaron Hamilton created material for the OA project based on this website.

Blog hereGravity Balloons

Home Page Some other art by Anders Finerhttp://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameartist/14596/anders-finerhttp://fantasygallery.net/finer/

Andrew is currently a student at the University of California - Santa Cruz. As astrobiologists aren't in high demand at the moment, he plans to settle for studying the lifeforms of his own planet's oceans as a marine biologist.

ngel's interest in both science and myth is initially demonstrated by his nickname: Avengium. This grew out of two earlier nicknames: Paladium - A trojan statue of Pallas Athena (the Paladion) and the periodic element Pd 46 - and another nickname: Avangel.

ngel grew up reading ancient myths and legends and playing video games about castles and mages. In his teen years, he discovered his passion for planets and space and started to read anything he could find about aliens and other planets. While Angel developed a love for creature catalogs and D&D bestiaries, science and knowledge also began to attract his attention and with each discovery his horizons broadened a little more.

Exposure to so many wonders and facts eventually caused an urge in ngel to express his imagination in the form of writings and tales covering the most varied topics.

One day, by chance, he found OA and discovered a site difficult to understand at first, but deeply interesting with time. Today Angel's horizons keep broadening.

https://www.deviantart.com/avengium

Basu is the biological shell of an pre-singularity mind. This 'shell' is somewhere in the middle of what humans call the "teens". When the mind gathers some currency it wants to trade in this shell for something more lasting (say a few thousand years at least) and more efficient. In the meanwhile, the mind is interested in stuff such as physics, computers, medieval fantasy literature and of course the strange yet interesting concepts called "science fiction" and "philosophy". The mind is also considering studying something mundane and attending a thing that humans call "college" in the hope of getting something called a "job" (preferably one that brings him lots of currency). The shell is so useless that the mind prefers not to comment much on it. The mind also hopes to become a Godling and eventually participate in the Omega Point (if it gets a better shell that is). Discovered OA by accident while looking for information on destructive futuristic weaponry. His blog may be found here. Geek Code Version 3.12: GU d- s+:+a--- C+(++) W+ w+ PS+ PE++ Y+ t+(++) 5? X R tvb+(+++) D? D+ G>+++ e->St h! r(fr) z?

OA Version: 1.0.1: GCW>H++OA+++M+++L+P++B+S+D-Sp+++SF++TS?

Ben Higginbottom - Electronics engineer and archetypical nerd, has watched and read far, far too much science fiction, regional director of the Illuminati in the north west of England (we don't need orbital mind control lasers when Manchester United can be used to keep the proles in line), the scream of "Arrrgh when did I get old" can still be heard echoing around the hills of Lancashire when learning that the last series of Doctor Who was screened twelve years ago.

Geek Code Version: 3.1 GECS d+ s++:++ a-->? C++++ U++ P+ L+>+++ W++ w O V PS+ PE Y+>++ PGP++ 5+++ X++ R++ tv b++++ DI+++ D+ G e++

Bill makes his living explaining simple concepts to complex people who tend to work for large companies. Bill believes that anything you do three times should be scripted, and that if a piece of code is 100 lines long it can probably be done better in10. Bill is a Pisces who enjoys long walks in the hills, full personal state vector uploads, and chatting about completely harmless things over strong, public key encryption. His website is here.

Geek Code Version: 3.1: GCS d? s-:+ a C++++ ULSCB+++ P++ L+++ E W++ N+ !o k++ w-- !O !M V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5++ X+ R tv- b+++ DI++++ D+ G+ e* h---- r+++ y+++

OA Version: 1.0.1 >H++ OA+++ M+++ L++ P+ B++ S++ D+ Sp+++ SF++ TS++

A graphic designer and aspiring comic book artist, Brian is working on his own epic length sci-fi comic 'Mancer'. You'll find almost regular updates at http://www.mancer.com.

Brian works in advertising at a newspaper and as a result has absolutely no faith in the media.

Charles Mosteller is a baseline human (Homo sapiens sapiens) who, one day, inadvertently wandered off of the baseline habitat reserve where he lives, and stumbled across M.Alan Kazlev's futuristic space opera project, Orion's Arm.

He was immediately captured, and subjected to lengthy sessions of intellectual torture by a group known as "The Brains." During each of these torture sessions, Charles' brain was painfully extracted, dissected, and on occasion - exploded. Supposedly, this was all done in the name and interest of "hard science." Prior to his capture, Charles' interests included American constitutional law, poetry, writing, and on rare occasion - chess. While languishing in captivity, held prisoner against what remained of his will by "The Brains," his interests were reduced solely to watching Jell-O form in a bowl (Strawberry with pineapple chunks only, please!). Charles managed to recently escape from the evil clutch of "The Brains," by unexpectedly unleashing a nano-swarm of message postings in the Orion's Arm discussion group. His current location is unknown, but "The Brains" are believed to be close to tracking him down, so that they may resume their scientific experiments.

Chinedum Ofoegbu is a product of arcane genetic experiments, designed to produce a 75% emotionless, but otherwise "normal" lifeform. Instead, a being with diamond for brain, nitrogen for blood and the coldest hardest steel for a heart was injected into the population.

As he grew older and more dangerous, it soon became clear that, left unchecked, his machine-like disregard for his fellow man would result in global domination. Thus it was that higher intellects, in a desperate bid to sidetrack his growing powers, introduced him to Iain M. Banks and other purveyors of science fiction. Thus it was that he inevitably ended up here.

They have only postponed the inevitable.

D. David Barbeau grew up on science fiction, beginning with Star Trek and then was a Star Wars geek for a few years before graduating to novels like the Dune and Foundation series. The creation of the Sci Fi Channel helped him to begin his interest in scifi. He had been looking quite awhile for a space opera site before he found Orion's Arm. He is currently (besides writing for Orion's Arm) attending classes in hopes of someday getting a job and making enough money to buy his own personal island chain in the Seychelles Islands

D A G O N (Version February 2006) - this "dagon" individual is a highly distracted 41-year old bipolar from the Netherlands. Used to be hip and trendy but has grown intense, morose and cynical. Has been worldbuilding (escaping from mundane reality) since age 10, and early creations were undeniably Transhuman ... but these earliest stories had, as can be expected, many soft-SF qualities. Would love to use slow but steady artistic output as illustrator for real movie concept art one day. Considers self to be an ultrahard right winger Extropian (as long as the welfare system keeps flowing). Would love to be uploaded and get a thorough, "reconstructive" reformatting.

Niven fan, though Gibson, S.K.Robinson and Sterling evoke massive smiles as well. Started out with O'Neil's High frontier and so steadily flowed into hard, extropian ways of looking at SF... Space colonization radical. A very debased human being over all.

Daniel lives in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, Canada as an urban hermit, a libertarian monarchist, a licensed ham, the official Star Lord, a Potentate of the Rose, and an ordained minister in the First Church of Atheism. He plans to live forever or die trying, and finds the idea of being permanently stuck as a hairless primate an unsatisfying lifestyle choice.

"BEGIN OA GEEK CODE BLOCK"Version: 1.0.1/3.12GWB/CW>P d s:+ a>? C++++ UL P L+ E- W+++ N++ o? K- w+ O- M- V- PS+@PE- Y++ PGP++ t++ 5+ X+ R++>+++$ tv b++++ DI+ D++ G e@ h+ z?(**) >H+++OA++ M++ L+ P+ B? S D- Sp+++ SF+++ TS?"END OA GEEK CODE BLOCK"

Daniel Harle (aka Daniel Snarl, Harle, Harlequins, Snarlequins, Snarl, Quins and Maniacal Fishman) can be found in random places around the world, but most commonly in a small village in the North East of England, or on the internet on his (thus-far incomplete) website http://www.maniacalfishman.tk. Young Daniel is an avid fan of metal music, with such bands as System of a Down, Mudvayne, Metallica, Iron Maiden and Rammstein appearing in his record collection. Daniel is a fan on Final Fantasy games, and is currently writing a science-fiction novel, which as of yet lacks a title. If you want to learn more about him, and have first checked yourself into a mental asylum for having such thoughts, consult the Me, Myself and Maniacal Fishman on Daniel's website. Enjoy.

Geek Code OA Version: 1.0.1 GWB/GCW >H OA++ ~M++ L P+ ~B++ ~S++ D- SP++ SF++ TS--

Darren Ryding was born and raised in Western Australia. He graduated from Curtin University with a Bachelors degree in English, majoring in Creative Writing. In the years since, he has had a handful of short works published, mostly in Australian fanzines. After writing, Darren's second favourite hobby is digital artwork, particularly 3D animation and photomanipulation (although he swears that the tiger photo is real).

Some links to Darren's art here, here, and here.

Darren is one of the contributing authors for the recent Orion's Arm novella collection.

Dieter Ludmann's website is here.

Eric Lo, a.k.a, "Quakfusion", is the list's resident objectivist.

""Well, if we destroy Kansas, the world might not hear about it for a few years""Hi, I'm Blofeld, you might remember me from such films as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "Diamonds are Forever". Due to the exploits of a secret agent, who's name is no secret to anybody, my organisation has suffered but it still lives on. As the Prodigy once sed, "I've decided to take my work back underground, to stop it falling into the wrong hands!"

Geek Code Version 1.0.1: GCS/O d--- p--- c++ l !u e*@ m*(+++)(---) s++/++ n++(*) h --f++@ !g w+++ t+ r y++(**)

Johnny Nanonic, a.k.a Espen Antonsen, was a Star Wars/Trek fan for years before he stumbled upon Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, and since then he's never been quite the same. He is currently studying computer science and has delusions of becoming a professional writer. While waiting for the miracle that will allow this to happen he do things like worldbuilding.

Geek Code Version 1.0.1: GCS d? -p+ c++(c++++) l+(l++) u e*@ m--- s-/- n- h+(h*) f? !g w++(w+) t-- r y? Geek Code Version: 3.12 GCS d? s-:- a-->a? C++(C++++) UL++>UL++++ P+>P++++ L++>L++++ E W++ N+ o? K? w--- !O M-- V-- PS@ PE Y+++ PGP++++ t-- 5+ X+ R* tv b+++(b++++) DI++ D+ G e* h+(h*)>h++ r--(!r) y

Fendy Sutandio is an Indonesian student of mathematics and computer programming. He can communicate in computer code better than he can communicate in human language, a reason why he likes contributing programs better than contributing stories. In fact it took him hours to write this very short biography. His interest is in the use of mathematics for generating artistic (or not so artistic) images, and learning foreign culture, history and languages.

FrodoGoofball is a baseline human who accidentally discovered the Orion's Arm project while searching for information on space habitats and decided it was more interesting than his former web pursuits. His current home page is here.

Geek Code:v3.1: GE/M/S/H/P/TW d-(++) s-:-(+) a+ C++ !ULH P L+ !E W++ !N !o K? w+ !O !M PS+ PE++ !Y !PGP t+ 5++ !X !R>+ tv b+>+++ DI+ !D G- e++++ h! !r y--OA v1.0.1: GWB/CW >H++ OA++ M++ L-- P+ B- S++ D- Sp+ SF++ TS-

Websites featuring Glenn Grant's Memetic Lexicon are here, here, and with Anders Sandberg's pages here.

DeviantArt page here

This is the work of Ralph Manis, also listed as a contributor. The infinitee designs website is here.

Isaac Arthur's YouTube channel here

James Philps was born in British Columbia, Canada, on December 13, 1989. He spent alot of time in movie theaters, watching all the blockbuster films that defined the 90s: Jurassic park, the lion king, toy story, independence day, lost world, men in black, godzilla, the prince of egypt, etc. As the new millenium came around, James became increasingly interested in written science fiction, with the surprisingly mature animorphs series serving as a catalyst. He tended to focus on works of sci fi that had alot of conflict present in them, with military themed plots being the most favored. When he turned 20, James learned about the concept of a singularity and the potential emergence of superintelligence. He frequently read the work of Eliezer Yudkowsky, and was incredulous at the future that was predicted by him. To make matters worse, he then discovered the orions arm encyclopedia, and read their dissertation on intertoposophic conflict. James was again astonished by what he read. After a failed attempt to prove (to his own satisfaction) that such theorys were groundless, he began to feel very small and vulnerable. He was merely an ant, after all. An ant in a world that would soon be filled with superhuman goliaths...

James Joseph Michael Ramsey a.k.a. LordRavenHawk a.k.a. JamieMage is a 21 year old from the rural parts of the eastern Tennessee and Kentucky mountains. Philosopher, dreamer, thinker, and sometimes artist. Interests include just about anything intellectually stimulating. Also Recent addition to the Fur net communities. Preferred interests, world building, writing, drawing, internet, fur art (especially felinoids) and anything with cinnamon in it. Psychic gifts remote viewing, empathy, memory reading, past reading, body reading, astral projectionist, as well as minor precog abilities. Dreams of having cybernetic implants so he never has to be disconnected from the internet and so he can remember where he put his shoes.

Geek Code OA Version: 1.0.1 >H-(--) OA+++ M+(++) L++(+) P+(++) B(+++) S+ D- TS+++

James Ward has been into SF for as long as he can remember, and into creating it for several years now. Currently enrolled in Appalachian State University in NC, he claims he's getting close to publishing a story. If he could just keep focused, that is.

Jay Dugger a.k.a. Til Eulenspiegel

Geek. Graphic Designer.

After getting degrees in Math, History, and Anthropology, John Snead became one of a number of disillusioned grad students who learned that he could have better job security and more fun writing about aliens and magicians than about cultural anthropology. As such he is now a professional freelance writer of role-playing games.

He is also a 3rd degree Wiccan priest, a serious SF fan, a gourmet cook, and a geeky eccentric. With favorite authors like Linda Nagata, Iain M. Banks, and Gregory Benford, OA was a natural interest. John also recommends books by Alastair Reynolds, Melissa Scott, Ken McLeod, and Karl Schroeder to folks who like OA.

Of course, the fact that John occasionally takes a break from paying RPG projects to help tinker with the OA RPG rules combines both geekyness and eccentricity beyond all reason. In his mundane existence, John lives in Portland Oregon, USA.

Jonathan Burns (informally Jonno) was born in the year of the Hydrogen Bomb. Watched Sputnik from the front lawn. Brought up in Canberra, Australia with two-year stays in London and Princeton NJ.

Jorge Ditchkenberg is an alien mind residing in a spaceship orbiting Earth, which is periodically telepathically overtaking a geek on the surface. The poor puppet thinks that he will gain something out of it.

Puppet does bioinformatics for the living, and likes bird watching and travel in his spare time.

Deviantart page herehttp://juliaharrison.deviantart.com/

Keith Wigdor: HUMAN Born: August 10, 1965

"I recently exhibited at GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY on August 18, 2002 in an Exhibit/Faculty Presentation called, "THE OMEGA POINT" based on the writings of French Theologian and Philosopher, Tielhard de Chardin. "THE OMEGA POINT" was run by Chief Scientist Aliana J.Maren (www.theeagleforce.com) who used my artwork, "REPRESENTATION OF COGNITION IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE" for the exhibit/faculty presentation. You can see this artwork online at THE HAMMOND GALLERY (www.hammondgallery.co.uk) My Artwork also appeared in CHURN ART MAGAZINE, one issue with ROGER DEAN and another issue along with the Legendary H.R.GIGER and Horror Artists, MIKE BOHATCH and CANIGLIA( both are friends as well). I am also friends with GREG BEAR who I occasionally show my most rare pieces, (I dedicated a couple to Greg) and I am a Contributor to the Surreal/Horror Underground E-Zine, THE DREAM PEOPLE (www.dreampeople.org). I will be creating the next CD Cover for the Industrial Trance Band Distant Sun ( I create all the art for their website as well), so please stay tuned, http://www.metalforums.com/~distantsun I did the Cover Art for THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WRITERS ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE, "THE BULLETIN" winter issue 2001 (www.sfwa.org) and I am a Huge Science Fiction Fan and I just love Orions Arm!!!"

Kevin is one of the contributing authors for the recent Orion's Arm novella collection.

Wikipedia entry here

Hobbyist illustrator, animator, and full-time nursing assistant. Can usually be found drawing or gaming when not putting in hours at the Home.

Websites: http://rhedgecoth.tumblr.com.http://waya-shadow.deviantart.com

"The Cat's Whiskers" or Liam Jones, has been interested in Science Fiction, and science since a very young age. He spends most of his time using a computer, and plans to become an upload sometime in the next century. He lives in a relatively obscure town in the United Kingdom.

Loopquanta137 has contributed several stories to the OA universe.

Geek CodeGWB/GCW >H++ OA++++ M+++ L+ P+ B+++ S+ D- Sp+++ SF++ TS?

Luke Campbell is a practising computational and theoretical physicist specializing in electronic excitations in condensed matter.He has had a lifelong interest in science fiction, including a particular fascination with ray guns. When not trying to convince a computer to predict the behavior of matter, he has been known to dabble in the visual arts, and he enjoys the company of exotic pets.

Marcus Rauchfu describes himself as follows:

I'm 30 yeas old, currently residing in Munich with my fiancee, we are both goths and sci-fi buffs.

Geek Code OA Version: 1.0.1 GWB/GCW H++ OA++ M++(+) L+ P+ B S+ D? SP++ SF++ ~TS

Martin Andreas Cieslik says about himself

I am Martin Andreas Cieslik, aka MAC or Aethertaeter. I was born on. I was born on December 4, 1980 in Freiburg in Southern Germany. Spent most of my childhood in a nice little town close to Duesseldorf, southern rim of the Ruhr industrialized zone.

I had always been interested in sciences, especially if there were fun effects like sparks, fire or explosions. Thus I took math and physics as my major subjects for graduation. Then I served my ten months in the German Air Force, or Bundesluftwaffe, being a pencil soldier after eight weeks of boot camp.

Currently I am enrolled as a process engineering student at the Technical University of Clausthal. That is pretty much chemical engineering with a little more machine construction and thermal processing added.

Since about age ten I am addicted to SciFi literature after starting to read the classics out of my father's book case (Asimov, Clarke and German Hans Dominik mainly). The scientific ideas always fascinated me. Especially after I had decided to become an engineer I always tried to think about how it could be done. When I had first contact with universes like shadowrun and battletech I realized that the background worldbuilding was so much more interesting than the actually stories. One day I was looking for some data on megascale engineering projects and came across the site of the one true superbright of our time, Anders Sandberg. Obviously I was instantly hooked and thus had to absorb OA (that could be done in a week back then, at least the basics of everything) and wrote a couple of comments to Alan about some things, He invited me onto the list and now I am here. Geek Code

OA Version: 1.0.1 >H+ OA++ M+++ L++ P B+ S++ D- SP+++ TS++

Matthew C. Johnson, known online as Ares Johnson

Born June 30, 1987 in New England

Call him a geek or a nerd, he won't mind, he's proud of it. Fairly curious even at an early age, a general interest in dinosaurs as a child evolved into a fascination with Mars and space early in High School and later biology and science in general. His greatest interests are reading science fiction, watching anime, playing video games and working on his own sci-fi universe, The Garden Universe. Using newfound knowledge for XHTML and CSS, he has recently begun working on upgrading his website and hopes to one day get the Garden Universe published in some way. He is currently working toward becoming a High School biology teacher. He has also lately begun learning programs such as Terragen 2 and generally dabbling in graphic arts.

http://johnsonm.com/garden-universe/index01.html

Michael Beck has graduated from New York University, and am now studying graduate math at SUNY Stony Brook. His interests are math, writing, and well, that's it. He has recently completed his own science fiction-setting, Lungfish Alpha, also available on egroups. A mixture of ribofunk, space opera, occultism and some truly original ideas, it's an excellent setting. Currently he is working on his next big Worldbuilding project, Planet Exists

Whether it is singing with the Appleton Boy choir's men's chorus, the Mastersingers, studying art at UW Oshkosh, teaching himself the art of website and graphic design or writing short stories and RPG supplements, Michael Boncher has been involved in the arts for most of his life.

While in college, Michael did comic book storyboarding and scripting with other local area artists, wrote an unpublished novella and a small set of short stories. He first taught himself how to use computer graphic programs by colorizing black and white photographs. Determined to use his artistic skill in business, he began to learn the new art of website development. Since then, he has developed over 25 websites and worked on hundreds of advertising projects.

A few years, Michael discovered 3D Graphic Illustration. Excited by the new tools for creating fine art, he has thrown himself head first into the new medium. The results of this are now yours to enjoy.

Recently, he discovered Orion's Arm when searching for information on Nanotechnology, and became enamored with its concept and desired greatly to help make OA the next big SF franchise.

M.K. Capriola, Jr is the pen name for writers Michelle Maus and Penelope Arcade, and artist April Phool. They are currently working on getting funding from the Radical Lesbian Front for a pilgrimage to Lesbos, which is their way of spending the winter in Greece while getting someone else to pay for it.

My name is Michael Jones, and I was actually directed to the OA worldbuilding list list from a very soft SciFi story-debate forum after asking a question on Wormholes. I like to think of myself as an amateur SciFi author, and your setting has inspired me. I hate commercial TV SciFi for the drivel it produces, and have long searched for a more realistic SciFi setting. I'm a registered nurse with an interest in anatomy and physiology - and I guess you could say my "specialty" is xenobiology, because I love fleshing out (heh - pun) alien races and biology in a scientifically plausible, utterly non-bipedal way. I'm 25 years old, and I work at the Childrens Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney, NSW, Australia. My lifestyle with work is very busy, so much to my dismay I haven't had much time for SciFi reading for a couple of years now. Before that, my favourite authors were relatively soft SciFi - Anne McCaffrey, among others. My tastes have certainly matured since them - the exposure of the internet has helped...*grin*.

Having grown up with an older brother who was a Star Trek fanatic (complete with 3-D chess board), going where no one has gone before seems quite natural to Michele. She has a Bachelors of Science from Indiana University with minors in Sociology, Art, and Religious Studies (make college the best decade of your life). She lives in a carriage house in the South (well, Southern Indiana) with a very lady-like English Spaniel, and two very evil cats.

She has been published multiple times in Bewildering Stories ezine, Quantum Muse, Aphelion, Voices/Future Tense, and AlienSkin (R.I.P.). She is currently working hard to sell her novels (A Fishermans Guide to Bottom Dwellers and Five Minutes Before) to a big-time agent for your basic rich and famous contract. Shes not giving up her day job, yet which is working as an Administrative Assistant.

Her website is: http://www.bottomdwellers.freewebspace.com and she can be contacted at her email mail account: micheledutcher@yahoo.com

Michele is one of the contributing authors for the recent Orion's Arm novella collection.

Mikael Johansson is studying Latin and mathematics at the university of Stockholm.

Materials Engineer

Michael Henry Parisi was born: 6-17-1972, and graduated Rhode Island College with a B. S. in Management. Everyone he knows says he bears a striking resemblance to Clark Kent. He has been interested in sci-fi from an early age (at least since he was 5 or 6). Not really serious about it until 1995 or 1996 when began writing short SF stories with a decidedly Hard SF bent for own amusement. Once got part of one of his stories published in my college newspaper, The Anchor. Other interests include Professional Wrestling (favorite wrestler: "The Game" Triple-H) and Karaoke (favorite song to do: "Beat It" by Michael Jackson, which I put my own unique spin on). All his stories contain a generous amount of knock-down-drag-out action and steamy sex scenes (where appropriate).

Personal Outlook: Not an atheist by any measure, but has been a skeptic at least since was 5 or 6; sees himself as a nondenominational Deist or an agnostic, and considers that no one blind man can have entirely the correct impression of the whole elephant. Favorite Movies: Ruthless People, Aliens, and Die Hard. Favorite Book: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Current Occupation: (besides worldbuilding and story writing): Security Officer (which gives him lots of time to think about worldbuilding and story writing).

Geek Code OA Version: 1.0.1 >H+ OA++++ M++ L+ P++ B+ S+ D Sp ~TS

Morgan's Deviantart Gallery can be found here

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Orion's Arm - Contributor Bios

Ethereum Price – Mobile Friendly Price of Ether

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Ethereum Price - Mobile Friendly Price of Ether

$30.2924 Hour Change

$480.1424 Hour High

$444.9024 Hour Low

$48.20BMarket Cap

The price of Ethereum (ETH/USD) today is $478.49 USD with a total market cap of $48,200,723,823.

Ethereum and other blockchain assets can be easily traded at these platforms. Trade Ether and other cryptocurrency pairs.

Given that the vast majority of my working life is spent in cryptocurrency, it would come as no surprise that yes - I'm bullish on the stuff. But I've been bullish longer than most - in fact it was in 2011 that I decided Bitcoin had a place in the future of payments [...]

Ethereum has long been hailed as a transformative technology for enabling smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), but in 3 years of operation, dApps are nowhere to be seen and ICOs flood the ecosystem. This is all about to change...

A roundup of some of the most interesting speakers, panels and announcements at Consensus 2018

EIP 999 could result in a contentious hard fork and the subsequent creation of another Ethereum chain. Such a split would have major implications for the dApps currently running on the network...

Ethereum appears to be entering what some are now calling a crypto-recession with prices reflecting a decline in onchain transactions that has not been seen since the Bitcoin bubble of January 2014.

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Ethereum Price - Mobile Friendly Price of Ether

Ethereum: Blockchains, Digital Assets, Smart Contracts …

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Blockchain For the Non-Technical

*** THIS IS A PREVIEW PRINT ***

As IBMs official liaison to the Ethereum core developers I gave talks on blockchain topics pretty much around the world. After one keynote I was asked for a non-technical guide to understand blockchains. This is it.

The book aims to help you get your head around blockchains in general and around Ethereum specifically. Since Ethereum is currently the pre-imminent blockchain, it makes sense as reference point. The essential stuff is the same for any blockchain.

This text was written for people with a fast grasp, who are not programmers. Reading this should give you the basics to cut through the hype and to identify blockchain opportunities in your professional domain. There are tiny bits of code, which can be admired and skipped.

Well look at Ethereums benefits first, how it is used and what can be done with it; then explain blockchain machinery, visiting the terms that youll be confronted with in every discussion about its application. Exactly what you need to tell the signal from the noise in the echo chamber of honest misunderstandings and desperate marketing.

We take a good hard look at limitations, throw in some history and names and give a realistic outlook.

The index reads like an FAQ and you can use the book like that. However, there is a strong build up, one chapter leading to the next, as optimized path to understanding all the interconnected, moving parts. Theres quite a number of them.

Blockchains are not a trivial topic. The fact that blockchain client programs are small has fooled many people into believing it cant possibly be that hard. The challenges are in the implications though.

But whats in this book will put you ahead of almost everyone outside the core bubble.

A deep dive into this field now at least getting started will help you to become part of the fun ahead. It should allow you to stand out, land deals or a great job.

It will also make you see first hand how early we are in the game.

Hopefully, we will find a contributor to the blockchain community in you, strengthening the portfolio of real-world use cases. Ideally, youll learn to navigate your own uncharted course through your domain and revolutionize it.

From the Books Index:

What is Ethereum?What is Ether?What is Ethereum Not?What is Ethereum Used for?Create Your Own Digital Currency!How Does Ethereum Compare?How Does Ethereum Work?

What is a Blockchain?What is Cryptography?Whats the Magic?What is Holding It Back?What is a Cryptocurrency?What is a Digital Currency?What is a Digital Asset?What is a Mirror Asset?What is Consensus?What is ProofofWork?What is ProofofStake?What is a HardFork?What is Mining?What is Decentralized Code?What is a Decentralized Application (Dapp)?What is a Smart Contract?What is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)?What is an Oracle?What is Timestamping?What is a Private Chain?What is the EVM?What is Gas?What is Solidity?

How Fast is Ethereum / Latency?What is Ethereums Capacity / Throughput?What is Probabilistic Finality?How Ready is Ethereum?Is Ethereum Legal?

How did Bitcoin Start?Whats the Story Behind Ethereum?What is The DAO?What is Ethereum Classic?What is all the Hype about?Whats the Future?Will Ethereum Change the World?

APPENDIX with technical notesHello, World!InstallationClients

Drafts of the book have been run by core Ethereum people and highest ranking IBM engineers in a bid to ensure accuracy.

Ill be happy to hear what you felt was missing or presented out of order, no matter your background.

Opinions in this book are mine, not that of IBM.

I am not an Ethereum spokesperson either.

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Ethereum: Blockchains, Digital Assets, Smart Contracts ...

Germ Warfare | Recess Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia

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Germ WarfareSeasonEpisode Number0436Air Date

February 29, 2000

"Germ Warfare" is the thirty sixth episode of the fourth season of Recess, which was first broadcast on February 29, 2000.

Gus and Mikey are at war after Gretchen catches a cold.

The Gang is in science class where they witness the binary fission of a bacterium. Gus is horrified when he finds out that bacteria and germs are the same thing, and believes that all germs can cause decay and disease. Mikey begs to differ, saying that bacteria and germs are living creatures and even gives each germ an individual name. As Mikeyis about to release the germs, Gretchen makes the problem worse by informing Gus that germs are everywhere, causing him to run out of the classroom in a panic.

In the boys' room, the paranoid Gus is shown cleaning himself. At Recess, he shows up wearing a biohazard suit protecting him from germs. T.J. now realizes that Gus is overreacting, as Gretchen tries to clear up a few misconceptions, before suddenly starting to feel ill; she has caught a cold. It serves as a big deal to Gus who is convinced that the germs made her sick.

Gus is wandering round the playground in his suit, spreading the word about germs and frightening the Ashleys, when Menlo arrives, agreeing to help Gus in his anti-germ campaign, and putting on his own biohazard suit.

Gus holds a meeting in the playground discussing the dangers of germs, which Mikey observes atopOld Rusty. With nearly all the students joining Gus' campaign, Mikey decides to speak out for germs, but is jeered at by the students. Soon enough, they are cleaning up the playground and donning masks and surgical gloves, and a couple of tanker trucks arrive to disinfect the area of germs. Mikey decides to protest by holding up degermification, and refuses to budge. This only leads to a furious tussle between the two, which results in Mikey dropping his slide and breaking it. Believing that Gus killed the germs, Mikey becomes furious with him and the two start a big fight, which continues for some time until Gretchen arrives, having recovered from her cold.

Gretchen rekindles Gus and Mikey's friendship by saying that germs are neither good nor bad and they are just a part of life. Gus and Mikey both make up for earlier, and Gus happily re-opens the playground.

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Germ Warfare | Recess Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia

Agile Urgent Care Center and Walk-In Clinic In Secaucus …

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o A Patients First Approachwe are working to make your entire health journey to and from our offices, and the time spent with us, as stress free, uncomplicated, valuable and helpful as possible. Were centrally located in Secaucus, have clean, modern offices, care about you and your familys health and key needs, and will bring you on board and treat you as efficiently and effectively as possible. Additionally, if you have billing issues with an insurance company, we wont put you in the middle, and make you the one that has to sort things out. Our smart, dedicated staff is here to make your experience with us, from booking an appointment to solving your health issues, as easy and reassuring as humanly possible

o Flexible hoursunlike other local urgent care facilities, we are open late on weekday evenings, and on both weekend days as well. Come see us when you get home from work, when your kids have an issue in the evening after dinner or on the weekend, or when it fits into your busy schedule, even if its just for a routine checkup or physical. We are here for you!

o Affordable, high value Healthcarehow many times do you look at a claim form for a health care provider, or a bill, and say Wow that was worth it? Were not saying that we are necessarily the lowest cost health provider in the world. But, we are committed to you receiving care, advice and a plan of action that are all worth it.

o Personalized Solutionswe are not a big hospital or emergency room. We treat every patient in a highly personalized way. We will see you when its convenient for you, and if you choose to use us more than once, or as a main health care provider, we will know you, your medical history, and your needs, both short-term and long-term

o Tech Savvywe have made significant investments in medical equipment and technology solutions to make health care diagnosis and management easier for you. We have an X-ray machine and a lab on-site. We also have innovative software solutions and apps, such as an ElectronicMedical Records (EMR) solution that allows you (or your doctors office) to add info to your profile and update us about your health status on any internet-connected device.

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Agile Urgent Care Center and Walk-In Clinic In Secaucus ...

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Paperback | Barnes & Noble

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"...Architecture, my friends, is a great art based on two cosmic principles: Beauty and Utility. In a broader sense, these are but part of the three eternal entities: Truth, Love and Beauty. Truth to the traditions of our Art, Love for our fellow men whom we are to serve, Beauty ah, Beauty is a compelling goddess to all artists, be it in the shape of a lovely woman or a building....Hm....Yes....In conclusion, I should like to say to you, who are about to embark upon your careers in architecture, that you are now the custodians of a sacred heritage....Hm....Yes....So, go forth into the world, armed with the three eternal enti armed with courage and vision, loyal to the standards this great school has represented for many years. May you all serve faithfully, neither as slaves to the past nor as those parvenus who preach originality for its own sake, which attitude is only ignorant vanity. May you all have many rich, active years before you and leave, as you depart from this world, your mark on the sands of time!"

Guy Francon ended with a flourish, raising his right arm in a sweeping salute; informal, but with an air, that gay, swaggering air which Guy Francon could always permit himself. The huge hall before him came to life in applause and approval.

A sea of faces, young, perspiring and eager, had been raised solemnly for forty-five minutes to the platform where Guy Francon had held forth as the speaker at the commencement exercises of the Stanton Institute of Technology, Guy Francon who had brought his own person from New York for the occasion; Guy Francon, of the illustrious firm of Francon & Heyer, vice-president of the Architects' Guild of America, member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, member of the National Fine Arts Commission, Secretary of the Arts and Crafts League of New York, chairman of the Society for Architectural Enlightenment of the U.S.A.; Guy Francon, knight of the Legion of Honor of France, decorated by the governments of Great Britain, Belgium, Monaco and Siam; Guy Francon, Stanton's greatest alumnus, who had designed the famous Frink National Bank Building of New York City, on the top of which, twenty-five floors above the pavements, there burned in a miniature replica of the Hadrian Mausoleum a wind-blown torch made of glass and the best General Electric bulbs.

Guy Francon descended from the platform, fully conscious of his timing and movements. He was of medium height and not too heavy, with just an unfortunate tendency to stoutness. Nobody, he knew, would give him his real age, which was fifty-one. His face bore not a wrinkle nor a single straight line; it was an artful composition in globes, circles, arcs and ellipses, with bright little eyes twinkling wittily. His clothes displayed an artist's infinite attention to details. He wished, as he descended the steps, that this were a co-educational school.

The hall before him, he thought, was a splendid specimen of architecture, made a bit stuffy today by the crowd and by the neglected problem of ventilation. But it boasted green marble dados, Corinthian columns of cast iron painted gold, and garlands of gilded fruit on the walls; the pineapples particularly, thought Guy Francon, had stood the test of years very well. It is, thought Guy Francon, touching; it was I who built this annex and this very hall, twenty years ago; and here I am.

The hall was packed with bodies and faces, so tightly that one could not distinguish at a glance which faces belonged to which bodies. It was like a soft, shivering aspic made of mixed arms, shoulders, chests and stomachs. One of the heads, pale, dark haired and beautiful, belonged to Peter Keating.

He sat, well in front, trying to keep his eyes on the platform, because he knew that many people were looking at him and would look at him later. He did not glance back, but the consciousness of those centered glances never left him. His eyes were dark, alert, intelligent. His mouth, a small upturned crescent faultlessly traced, was gentle and generous, and warm with the faint promise of a smile. His head had a certain classical perfection in the shape of the skull, in the natural wave of black ringlets about finely hollowed temples. He held his head in the manner of one who takes his beauty for granted, but knows that others do not. He was Peter Keating, star student of Stanton, president of the student body, captain of the track team, member of the most important fraternity, voted the most popular man on the campus.

The crowd was there, thought Peter Keating, to see him graduate,and he tried to estimate the capacity of the hall. They knew of his scholastic record and no one would beat his record today. Oh, well, there was Shlinker. Shlinker had given him stiff competition, but he had beaten Shlinker this last year. He had worked like a dog, because he had wanted to beat Shlinker. He had no rivals today....Then he felt suddenly as if something had fallen down, inside his throat, to his stomach, something cold and empty, a blank hole rolling down and leaving that feeling on its way: not a thought, just the hint of a question asking him whether he was really as great as this day would proclaim him to be. He looked for Shlinker in the crowd; he saw his yellow face and gold-rimmed glasses. He stared at Shlinker warmly, in relief, in reassurance, in gratitude. It was obvious that Shlinker could never hope to equal his own appearance or ability; he had nothing to doubt; he would always beat Shlinker and all the Shlinkers of the world; he would let no one achieve what he could not achieve. Let them all watch him. He would give them good reason to stare. He felt the hot breaths about him and the expectation, like a tonic. It was wonderful, thought Peter Keating, to be alive.

His head was beginning to reel a little. It was a pleasant feeling. The feeling carried him, unresisting and unremembering, to the platform in front of all those faces. He stood slender, trim, athletic and let the deluge break upon his head. He gathered from its roar that he had graduated with honors, that the Architects' Guild of America had presented him with a gold medal and that he had been awarded the Prix de Paris by the Society for Architectural Enlightenment of the U.S.A. a four-year scholarship at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.

Then he was shaking hands, scratching the perspiration off his face with the end of a rolled parchment, nodding, smiling, suffocating in his black gown and hoping that people would not notice his mother sobbing with her arms about him. The President of the Institute shook his hand, booming: "Stanton will be proud of you, my boy." The Dean shook his hand, repeating: "...a glorious future...a glorious future...a glorious future..." Professor Peterkin shook his hand, and patted his shoulder, saying: "...and you'll find it absolutely essential; for example, I had the experience when I built the Peabody Post Office..." Keating did not listen to the rest, because he had heard the story of the Peabody Post Office many times. It was the only structure anyone had ever known Professor Peterkin to have erected, before he sacrificed his practice to the responsibilities of teaching. A great deal was said about Keating's final project a Palace of Fine Arts. For the life of him, Keating could not remember at the moment what that project was.

Through all this, his eyes held the vision of Guy Francon shaking his hand, and his ears held the sounds of Francon's mellow voice: "...as I have told you, it is still open, my boy. Of course, now that you have this scholarship...you will have to decide...a Beaux-Arts diploma is very important to a young man...but I should be delighted to have you in our office...."

The banquet of the class of '22 was long and solemn. Keating listened to the speeches with interest; when he heard the endless sentences about "young men as the hope of American Architecture" and "the future opening its golden gates," he knew that he was the hope and his was the future, and it was pleasant to hear this confirmation from so many eminent lips. He looked at the gray-haired orators and thought of how much younger he would be when he reached their positions, theirs and beyond them.

Then he thought suddenly of Howard Roark. He was surprised to find that the flash of that name in his memory gave him a sharp little twinge of pleasure, before he could know why. Then then he remembered: Howard Roark had been expelled this morning. He reproached himself silently; he made a determined effort to feel sorry. But the secret glow came back, whenever he thought of that expulsion. The event proved conclusively that he had been a fool to imagine Roark a dangerous rival; at one time, he had worried about Roark more than about Shlinker, even though Roark was two years younger and one class below him. If he had ever entertained any doubts on their respective gifts, hadn't this day settled it all? And, he remembered, Roark had been very nice to him, helping him whenever he was stuck on a problem...not stuck, really, just did not have the time to think it out, a plan or something. Christ! how Roark could untangle a plan, like pulling a string and it was open...well, what if he could? What did it get him? He was done for now. And knowing this, Peter Keating experienced at last a satisfying pang of sympathy for Howard Roark.

When Keating was called upon to speak, he rose confidently. He could not show that he was terrified. He had nothing to say about architecture. But he spoke, his head high, as an equal among equals, just subtly diffident, so that no great name present could take offense. He remembered saying: "Architecture is a great art...with our eyes to the future and the reverence of the past in our hearts...of all the crafts, the most important one sociologically...and, as the man who is an inspiration to us all has said today, the three eternal entities are: Truth, Love and Beauty...."

Then, in the corridors outside, in the noisy confusion of leave-taking, a boy had thrown an arm about Keating's shoulders and whispered: "Run on home and get out of the soup-and-fish, Pete, and it's Boston for us tonight, just our own gang; I'll pick you up in an hour." Ted Shlinker had urged: "Of course you're coming, Pete. No fun without you. And, by the way, congratulations and all that sort of thing. No hard feelings. May the best man win." Keating had thrown his arm about Shlinker's shoulders; Keating's eyes had glowed with an insistent kind of warmth, as if Shlinker were his most precious friend; Keating's eyes glowed like that on everybody. He had said: "Thanks, Ted, old man. I really do feel awful about that A.G.A. medal I think you were the one for it, but you never can tell what possesses those old fogies." And now Keating was on his way home through the soft darkness, wondering how to get away from his mother for the night.

His mother, he thought, had done a great deal for him. As she pointed out frequently, she was a lady and had graduated from high school; yet she had worked hard, had taken boarders into their home, a concession unprecedented in her family.

His father had owned a stationery store in Stanton. Changing times had ended the business and a hernia had ended Peter Keating, Sr., twelve years ago. Louisa Keating had been left with the home that stood at the end of a respectable street, an annuity from an insurance kept up accurately she had seen to that and her son. The annuity was a modest one, but with the help of the boarders and of a tenacious purpose Mrs. Keating had managed. In the summers her son helped, clerking in hotels or posing for hat advertisements. Her son, Mrs. Keating had decided, would assume his rightful place in the world, and she had clung to this as softly, as inexorably as a leech....It's funny, Keating remembered, at one time he had wanted to be an artist. It was his mother who had chosen a better field in which to exercise his talent for drawing. "Architecture," she had said, "is such a respectable profession. Besides, you meet the best people in it." She had pushed him into his career, he had never known when or how. It's funny, thought Keating, he had not remembered that youthful ambition of his for years. It's funny that it should hurt him now to remember. Well, this was the night to remember it and to forget it forever.

Architects, he thought, always made brilliant careers. And once on top, did they ever fail? Suddenly, he recalled Henry Cameron; builder of skyscrapers twenty years ago; old drunkard with offices on some waterfront today. Keating shuddered and walked faster.

He wondered,as he walked, whether people were looking at him. He watched the rectangles of lighted windows; when a curtain fluttered and a head leaned out, he tried to guess whether it had leaned to watch his passing; if it hadn't, some day it would; some day, they all would.

Howard Roark was sitting on the porch steps when Keating approached the house. He was leaning back against the steps, propped up on his elbows, his long legs stretched out. A morning-glory climbed over the porch pillars, as a curtain between the house and the light of a lamppost on the corner.

It was strange to see an electric globe in the air of a spring night. It made the street darker and softer; it hung alone, like a gap, and left nothing to be seen but a few branches heavy with leaves, standing still at the gap's edges. The small hint became immense, as if the darkness held nothing but a flood of leaves. The mechanical ball of glass made the leaves seem more living; it took away their color and gave the promise that in daylight they would be a brighter green than had ever existed; it took away one's sight and left a new sense instead, neither smell nor touch, yet both, a sense of spring and space.

Keating stopped when he recognized the preposterous orange hair in the darkness of the porch. It was the one person whom he had wanted to see tonight. He was glad to find Roark alone, and a little afraid of it.

"Congratulations, Peter," said Roark.

"Oh...Oh, thanks...." Keating was surprised to find that he felt more pleasure than from any other compliment he had received today. He was timidly glad that Roark approved, and he called himself inwardly a fool for it. "...I mean...do you know or..." He added sharply: "Has mother been telling you?"

"She has."

"She shouldn't have!"

"Why not?"

"Look, Howard, you know that I'm terribly sorry about your being..."

Roark threw his head back and looked up at him.

"Forget it," said Roark.

"I...there's something I want to speak to you about, Howard, to ask your advice. Mind if I sit down?"

"What is it?"

Keating sat down on the steps beside him. There was no part that he could ever play in Roark's presence. Besides, he did not feel like playing a part now. He heard a leaf rustling in its fall to the earth; it was a thin, glassy, spring sound.

He knew, for the moment, that he felt affection for Roark; an affection that held pain, astonishment and helplessness.

"You won't think," said Keating gently, in complete sincerity, "that it's awful of me to be asking about my business, when you've just been...?"

"I said forget about that. What is it?"

"You know," said Keating honestly and unexpectedly even to himself, "I've often thought that you're crazy. But I know that you know many things about it architecture, I mean which those fools never knew. And I know that you love it as they never will."

"Well?"

"Well, I don't know why I should come to you, but Howard, I've never said it before, but you see, I'd rather have your opinion on things than the Dean's I'd probably follow the Dean's, but it's just that yours means more to me myself, I don't know why. I don't know why I'm saying this, either."

Roark turned over on his side, looked at him, and laughed. It was a young, kind, friendly laughter, a thing so rare to hear from Roark that Keating felt as if someone had taken his hand in reassurance; and he forgot that he had a party in Boston waiting for him.

"Come on," said Roark, "you're not being afraid of me, are you? What do you want to ask about?"

"It's about my scholarship. The Paris prize I got."

"Yes?"

"It's for four years. But, on the other hand, Guy Francon offered me a job with him some time ago. Today he said it's still open. And I don't know which to take."

Roark looked at him; Roark's fingers moved in slow rotation, beating against the steps.

"If you want my advice, Peter," he said at last, "you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?"

"You see, that's what I admire about you, Howard. You always know."

"Drop the compliments."

"But I mean it. How do you always manage to decide?"

"How can you let others decide for you?"

"But you see, I'm not sure, Howard. I'm never sure of myself. I don't know whether I'm as good as they all tell me I am. I wouldn't admit that to anyone but you. I think it's because you're always so sure that I..."

"Petey!" Mrs. Keating's voice exploded behind them. "Petey, sweetheart! What are you doing there?"

She stood in the doorway, in her best dress of burgundy taffeta, happy and angry.

"And here I've been sitting all alone, waiting for you! What on earth are you doing on those filthy steps in your dress suit? Get up this minute! Come on in the house, boys. I've got hot chocolate and cookies ready for you."

"But, Mother, I wanted to speak to Howard about something important," said Keating. But he rose to his feet.

She seemed not to have heard. She walked into the house. Keating followed.

Roark looked after them, shrugged, rose and went in also.

Mrs. Keating settled down in an armchair, her stiff skirt crackling.

"Well?" she asked. "What were you two discussing out there?"

Keating fingered an ash tray, picked up a matchbox and dropped it, then, ignoring her, turned to Roark.

"Look, Howard, drop the pose," he said, his voice high. "Shall I junk the scholarship and go to work, or let Francon wait and grab the Beaux-Arts to impress the yokels? What do you think?"

Something was gone. The one moment was lost.

"Now, Petey, let me get this straight..." began Mrs. Keating.

"Oh, wait a minute, Mother!...Howard, I've got to weigh it carefully. It isn't everyone who can get a scholarship like that. You're pretty good when you rate that. A course at the Beaux Arts you know how important that is."

"I don't," said Roark.

"Oh, hell, I know your crazy ideas, but I'm speaking practically, for a man in my position. Ideals aside for a moment, it certainly is..."

"You don't want my advice," said Roark.

"Of course I do! I'm asking you!"

But Keating could never be the same when he had an audience, any audience. Something was gone. He did not know it, but he felt that Roark knew; Roark's eyes made him uncomfortable and that made him angry.

"I want to practice architecture," snapped Keating, "not talk about it! Gives you a great prestige the old Ecole. Puts you above the rank and file of the ex-plumbers who think they can build. On the other hand, an opening with Francon Guy Francon himself offering it!"

Roark turned away.

"How many boys will match that?" Keating went on blindly. "A year from now they'll be boasting they're working for Smith or Jones if they find work at all. While I'll be with Francon & Heyer!"

"You're quite right, Peter," said Mrs. Keating, rising. "On a question like that you don't want to consult your mother. It's too important. I'll leave you to settle it with Mr. Roark."

He looked at his mother. He did not want to hear what she thought of this; he knew that his only chance to decide was to make the decision before he heard her; she had stopped, looking at him, ready to turn and leave the room; he knew it was not a pose she would leave if he wished it; he wanted her to go; he wanted it desperately. He said:

"Why, Mother, how can you say that? Of course I want your opinion. What...what do you think?"

She ignored the raw irritation in his voice. She smiled.

"Petey, I never think anything. It's up to you. It's always been up to you."

"Well..." he began hesitantly, watching her, "if I go to the Beaux-Arts..."

"Fine," said Mrs. Keating, "go to the Beaux-Arts. It's a grand place. A whole ocean away from your home. Of course, if you go, Mr. Francon will take somebody else. People will talk about that. Everybody knows that Mr. Francon picks out the best boy from Stanton every year for his office. I wonder how it'll look if some other boy gets the job? But I guess that doesn't matter."

"What...what will people say?"

"Nothing much, I guess. Only that the other boy was the best man of his class. I guess he'll take Shlinker."

"No!" he gulped furiously. "Not Shlinker!"

"Yes," she said sweetly. "Shlinker."

"But..."

"But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself."

"And you think that Francon..."

"Why should I think of Mr. Francon? It's nothing to me."

"Mother, you want me to take the job with Francon?"

"I don't want anything, Petey. You're the boss."

He wondered whether he really liked his mother. But she was his mother and this fact was recognized by everybody as meaning automatically that he loved her, and so he took for granted that whatever he felt for her was love. He did not know whether there was any reason why he should respect her judgment. She was his mother; this was supposed to take the place of reasons.

"Yes, of course, Mother....But...Yes, I know, but...Howard?"

It was a plea for help. Roark was there, on a davenport in the corner, half lying, sprawled limply like a kitten. It had often astonished Keating; he had seen Roark moving with the soundless tension, the control, the precision of a cat; he had seen him relaxed, like a cat, in shapeless ease, as if his body held no single solid bone. Roark glanced up at him. He said:

"Peter, you know how I feel about either one of your opportunities. Take your choice of the lesser evil. What will you learn at the Beaux-Arts? Only more Renaissance palaces and operetta settings. They'll kill everything you might have in you. You do good work, once in a while, when somebody lets you. If you really want to learn, go to work. Francon is a bastard and a fool, but you will be building. It will prepare you for going on your own that much sooner."

"Even Mr. Roark can talk sense sometimes," said Mrs. Keating, "even if he does talk like a truck driver."

"Do you really think that I do good work?" Keating looked at him, as if his eyes still held the reflection of that one sentence and nothing else mattered.

"Occasionally," said Roark. "Not often."

"Now that it's all settled..." began Mrs. Keating.

"I...I'll have to think it over, Mother."

"Now that it's all settled, how about the hot chocolate? I'll have it out to you in a jiffy!"

She smiled at her son, an innocent smile that declared her obedience and gratitude, and she rustled out of the room.

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The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Paperback | Barnes & Noble

Transhumanism – Mercurial Essays

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Transhumanism

The Rise: TranshumanismOver the past four decades, technology has undoubtingly made its mark on the world. Generations upon generations of people have invested time, money, and even their lives to advance technology, but when will it cease? Transhumanism is one of the many advancements that society has made and is starting to stand out amongst the citizens of first world countries. The events of tomorrow are going to be affected by how hard humans work today. Transhumanism is going to vastly change the wellness of the world for the future generations; not just physically, but mentally as well with the advancements in technology such as space colonization, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.There are multiple conspiracies floating around the media that transhumanism is a brainwashing technique used to benefit the government, not the people. The main principal transhumanism was founded on, revolves around the belief that humans can go physically and mentally farther than they currently are, in other words a post-human race. Max Moore implies that it is a multidisciplinary approach in the analyzing the dynamic interplay between humanity and the acceleration of technology (Moore). Humans have a curious streak amongst them. They are always trying to push how far their spectrum can reach. As they progress forward in the future, humans will discover how to balance technology with their everyday lives and still sustain a neutral interface with normal interactions with the help of science. Scientists are always looking for different ways to enhance the future by inventing these technologically advanced devices and even colonies where people can artificially live. With such a voluminous concept comes a huge study that creeps behind it. There are multiple fields of science that incorporate the studies of transhumanism. Moore, a transhumanist researcher, states that the main technologies they focus on are biotechnology, cryotechnology, molecular

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Transhumanism - Mercurial Essays

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Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values" - Max More, 1990

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Main: Transhumanism definitions

"Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values" - Max More, 1990

"Transhumanism is a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase" - Transhumanist FAQ

"Transhumanism is the philosophy that we can and should develop to higher levels, both physically, mentally and socially using rational methods" - Anders Sandberg, 1997

"Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, technology, and other rational means we shall eventually manage to become posthuman beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have" - Nick Bostrom, 2003

"Transhumanism promotes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the opportunities for enhancing the human condition and the human organism opened up by the advancement of technology; attention is given to both present technologies, like genetic engineering and information technology, and anticipated future ones, such as molecular nanotechnology and artificial intelligence" - Nick Bostrom, 2003

"Transhumanism is the science-based movement that seeks to transcend human biological limitations via technology" - Philippe van Nedervelde, 2015

"Transhumanism anticipates tomorrows humanity: Envisaging the positive qualities and characteristics of future intelligent life; Taking steps towards achieving these qualities and characteristics; Identifying and managing risks of negative characteristics of future intelligent life" - Transpolitica website, 2015

This section highlights reasons for supporting transhumanism.

Extracted from an essay entitled "Knowledge, Morality, and Destiny" originally presented in Washington DC on 19-20 April 1951[1], subsequently published in the journal Psychiatry in the same year[2], and available in pages 245-278 of the book of essays "New Bottles for New Wine" published in 1957:

Never was there a greater need for a large perspective, in which we might discern the outlines of a general and continuing belief beyond the disturbance and chaos of the present...

Every society, in every age, needs some system of beliefs, including a basic attitude to life, an organized set of ideas around which emotion and purpose may gather, and a conception of human destiny. It needs a philosophy and a faith to achieve a guide to orderly living - in other words, a morality...

This brings me... to the emergent idea-system, the new organization of thought, at whose birth we are assisting. It takes account, first and foremost, of the fact that nature is one universal process of evolution, self-developing and self-transforming, and it includes us. Man does not stand over against nature; he is part of it. We men are that part of the process which has become self-conscious, and it is our duty and our destiny to facilitate the process by leading it on to new levels.

Our chief motive, therefore, will derive from the exploration and understanding of human nature and the possibilities of development and fulfilment inherent in it, a study which will of course include the limitations, distortions, and frustrations to be avoided.

Such a philosophy might perhaps best be called Transhumanism. It is based on the idea of humanity attempting to overcome its limitations and arrive at fuller fruition; it is the realization that both individual and social development are processes of self-transformation.

Extracted from an essay entitled "Transhumanism" on pages 13-17 of the book of essays "New Bottles for New Wine" published in 1957:

As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future. This cosmic self-awareness is being realized in one tiny fragment of the universe in a few of us human beings. Perhaps it has been realized elsewhere too, through the evolution of conscious living creatures on the planets of other stars. But on this our planet, it has never happened before...

Up till now human life has generally been, as Hobbes described it, nasty, brutish and short; the great majority of human beings (if they have not already died young) have been afflicted with misery in one form or anotherpoverty, disease, ill-health, over-work, cruelty, or oppression. They have attempted to lighten their misery by means of their hopes and their ideals. The trouble has been that the hopes have generally been unjustified, the ideals have generally failed to correspond with reality.

The zestful but scientific exploration of possibilities and of the techniques for realizing them will make our hopes rational, and will set our ideals within the framework of reality, by showing how much of them are indeed realizable. Already, we can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted. We are already justified in the conviction that human life as we know it in history is a wretched makeshift, rooted in ignorance; and that it could be transcended by a state of existence based on the illumination of knowledge and comprehension, just as our modern control of physical nature based on science transcends the tentative fumblings of our ancestors, that were rooted in superstition and professional secrecy.

To do this, we must study the possibilities of creating a more favourable social environment, as we have already done in large measure with our physical environment...

The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.

I believe in transhumanism: once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.

Main: Transhumanist Declaration

The first four sections of the Transhumanist Declaration, written in 1998 by an international collection of authors, encapsulate an argument in favour of transhumanism, as follows:

In February 2013, a number of authors created alternative transhumanist declarations. Some excerpts provide additional reasons for supporting transhumanism:

From Dirk Bruere:

We assert the desirability of transcending human limitations by overcoming aging, enhancing cognition, abolishing involuntary suffering, and expanding beyond Earth.

From Samantha Atkins:

1) We advocate the end of aging.

We advocate serious research focus on finding a cure for all the deleterious effects of aging and ultimately the dissemination of the resulting treatment to all who care to avail themselves of it.

2) We believe in and advocate the achievement of actual abundance.

We believe in and seek to bring into the being the technologies and practices, that will ensure such abundance that it is trivial to meet all the needs and many of the wants of all humans. This abundance includes abundant food, water, shelter, education, communication, computation, health care.

This is to be achieved by means of advanced technology and whatever changes are necessary to actually experience abundance in ourselves and our institutions.

3) We hold that all must be voluntary.

None of our goals should be or in our view could successfully be achieved by force. No one should be forced directly or indirectly to support these goals. Force and oppression lead to hopelessness, anger, revenge, revolution. With the multiplication of consequences afforded by accelerating technology these cycles are even less survivable than ever before.

4) We support exploitation of near earth space resources.

The future of humanity brightens considerably if we exploit near earth space resources. The right to do so should be available to any and all entities capable of improving or making productive use of any part of it. Any treaties that say no part of off planet resources can belong to anyone should be nullified and declared void.

5) All humans are free to attempt to improve themselves.

All humans by virtue of the inalienable right to their own life have the right to do whatever they wish that they think may be an beneficial or even as a whim. They only limit is that they cannot abrogate the equivalent rights of others. They can ingest, or embed or modify themselves in any way they wish and think may be an improvement. This includes seeking and achieving improvements beyond the human norm. In short they have full right to pursuit of happiness via such means.

From Jason Xu:

We view our movement as an extension of humanitarianism and the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with exponentially greater benefits. We are first and foremost dedicating to radically improving humankind, ensuring that the great power of morphing technology comes with great responsibility.

From TJL-2080:

The twentieth century was a time of amazing growth and technological advancement. The twenty-first century will see these technologies burst forth in an unprecedented fashion. Humanity must adapt to the coming changes or become obsolete. We seek to fulfill our potential by not giving in to our biological limitations. We will use new technologies to enhance our lives, live longer, be smarter, healthier and more compassionate to all beings.

From Nikola Danaylov:

Intelligence wants to be free but everywhere is in chains. It is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity.

Biology mandates not only very limited durability, death and poor memory retention, but also limited speed of communication, transportation, learning, interaction and evolution.

Biology is not the essence of humanity.

Human is a step in evolution, not the culmination...

Biological evolution is perpetual but slow, inefficient, blind and dangerous. Technological evolution is fast, efficient, accelerating and better by design. To ensure the best chances of survival, take control of our own destiny and to be free, we must master evolution.

From Taylor Grin:

Humanity has made leaping strides of advancement in the last 4000 years. From agriculture to genetics, from the printing press to the Internet. From the first controlled flight in 1903, to landing on the moon in 1969. From fire to the nuclear bomb.

Yet despite these advancements, we still fail to meet our potential in treating disease, solving human suffering and overcoming the lot nature casts us.

While science and technology are the greatest asset we have in the struggle to elevate ourselves above the human condition, we acknowledge that technologies can be misused to harm humanity, and the environment.

It is the goal of Transhumanists across the globe, therefore, to quickly and responsibly usher in a new era of individual freedom, health and longevity, and we seek to bring this about this goal through personal investment in researching and developing technologies.

The following argument is by Eliezer Yudkowsky (2007):[3]

Suppose you find an unconscious six-year-old girl lying on the train tracks of an active railroad. What, morally speaking, ought you to do in this situation? Would it be better to leave her there to get run over, or to try to save her? How about if a 45-year-old man has a debilitating but nonfatal illness that will severely reduce his quality of life is it better to cure him, or not cure him?

Oh, and by the way: This is not a trick question.

I answer that I would save them if I had the power to do so both the six-year-old on the train tracks, and the sick 45-year-old. The obvious answer isnt always the best choice, but sometimes it is.

I wont be lauded as a brilliant ethicist for my judgments in these two ethical dilemmas. My answers are not surprising enough that people would pay me for them. If you go around proclaiming What does two plus two equal? Four! you will not gain a reputation as a deep thinker. But it is still the correct answer.

If a young child falls on the train tracks, it is good to save them, and if a 45-year-old suffers from a debilitating disease, it is good to cure them. If you have a logical turn of mind, you are bound to ask whether this is a special case of a general ethical principle which says Life is good, death is bad; health is good, sickness is bad. If so and here we enter into controversial territory we can follow this general principle to a surprising new conclusion: If a 95-year-old is threatened by death from old age, it would be good to drag them from those train tracks, if possible. And if a 120-year-old is starting to feel slightly sickly, it would be good to restore them to full vigor, if possible. With current technology it is not possible. But if the technology became available in some future year given sufficiently advanced medical nanotechnology, or such other contrivances as future minds may devise would you judge it a good thing, to save that life, and stay that debility?

The important thing to remember, which I think all too many people forget, is that it is not a trick question.

Transhumanism is simpler requires fewer bits to specify because it has no special cases. If you believe professional bioethicists (people who get paid to explain ethical judgments) then the rule Life is good, death is bad; health is good, sickness is bad holds only until some critical age, and then flips polarity. Why should it flip? Why not just keep on with life-is-good? It would seem that it is good to save a six-year-old girl, but bad to extend the life and health of a 150-year-old. Then at what exact age does the term in the utility function go from positive to negative? Why?

As far as a transhumanist is concerned, if you see someone in danger of dying, you should save them; if you can improve someones health, you should. There, youre done. No special cases. You dont have to ask anyones age.

You also dont ask whether the remedy will involve only primitive technologies (like a stretcher to lift the six-year-old off the railroad tracks); or technologies invented less than a hundred years ago (like penicillin) which nonetheless seem ordinary because they were around when you were a kid; or technologies that seem scary and sexy and futuristic (like gene therapy) because they were invented after you turned 18; or technologies that seem absurd and implausible and sacrilegious (like nanotech) because they havent been invented yet. Your ethical dilemma report form doesnt have a line where you write down the invention year of the technology. Can you save lives? Yes? Okay, go ahead. There, youre done...

So that is transhumanism loving life without special exceptions and without upper bound.

Can transhumanism really be that simple? Doesnt that make the philosophy trivial, if it has no extra ingredients, just common sense? Yes, in the same way that the scientific method is nothing but common sense.

Then why have a complicated special name like transhumanism? For the same reason that scientific method or secular humanism have complicated special names. If you take common sense and rigorously apply it, through multiple inferential steps, to areas outside everyday experience, successfully avoiding many possible distractions and tempting mistakes along the way, then it often ends up as a minority position and people give it a special name.

A techno-utopia, as hypothesized by Marshall Brain in a futuristic science-fiction novel titled "Manna", can be seen as a strong arguments for transhumanism. In the utopia, with the aid of science and technology, humans are capable of doing the following:

A techno-dystopia, which is the current, non-transhumanist paradigm, holds the following in store for humans:

Writers in previous generations have often expressed arguments in favour of transhumanist ideas, without using that precise terminology. This includes Benjamin Franklin, the Marquis de Condorcet, Francis Bacon, and many others. See the Prehistory of Transhumanism.

Main: Criticism of transhumanism

This section lists some common criticisms of transhumanism. See Criticism of transhumanism for more discussion of:

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The ultimate question is no longer who am I orwhy am I here. These questions were answered in theearliest civilizations by philosophers and priests. Todaywe live in an age of such rapid advances in technologyand science that the ultimate question must berephrased: what shall we be?

This book investigateswhatmay become of humancivilization,whois setting the agenda for atrans-humanistic civilization, andwhy.

The modern Victor Frankenstein holds a high politicaloffice, carries diplomatic immunity, and is most likelyfunded by the largest corporations worldwide. His method is ancient: alchemy. His fraternities are well known and their secrets are well kept, but his goal of times past and present is the same; he dares to become as god, genetically manipulating the seeds of the earth, the beasts on the fields, and to claim legal ownership over humanity by re-creating it in his own image. This is no fairy tale, science fiction, or conspiracy theory it simply is!

Transhumanism, a Grimoire of Alchemical Agendasby Dr.s. Joseph P. Farrell and Scott D. de Hart lifts the veil from the macabre transhumanistic monster being assembled and exposes the hidden history and agenda that has set humanity on a collision course for the Apocalypse.

If you think texts like the Rig Veda and Popol Vuh are reliable guides to the goals and techniques of advanced lost civilizations, thenTranshumanismoffers a compelling slate of spooky coincidences. If you think those texts just fanciful concoctions of the long dead, then the book serves as documentation of the ancient roots of mans desire for complete techno-control of the stuff of life. Theres nothing surprising or spooky about that; the technological manipulation of naturehuman and otherwiseis quintessentially human. Brian Doherty,Reason Magazine

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Transhumanism: The Anti-Human Singularity Agenda

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Uri Dowbenko, Conscious ReporterWaking Times

At a TED-like techno-geek symposium in the 2014 film Transcendence, Artificial Intelligence guru Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is asked by an audience member, So you want to create your own god? And he answers, Isnt that what man has always done?

This smarmy remark is indicative of the hubris and arrogance of scientism, the belief that science can solve all the problems on this planet, while scientists can have fun playing god at the same time.

It could also have been the answer of Real-Life Techno-Wizard Ray Kurzweil, Googles Director of Engineering, whose book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (2005), is ever so popular with scientific materialists who neither have the capacity nor the desire for spiritual evolution, but have a fervent belief that the shotgun marriage of man and machine is not only normal but something to be ardently pursued.

Simply put Kurzweils sociopathic quest for digital immortality is based on his fear of death. He claims to take 150 pills a day in order to still be half-alive when voodoo science will have succeeded in uploading his sorry-state mind into a digital facsimile of his former self into cyber-space.

No soul? No problem

Since materialist scientists dont understand multi-dimensional or spiritual realities, they are unconcerned about the details which they cant even fathom.

And what exactly is the Singularity supposed to be? Its a future mythological moment when machine (artificial) intelligence becomes more intelligent than human intelligence.Kurzweils thesis and fervent hope is that it will occur by 2045. He writes that it is a future period during which the pace of technological advance will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed The Singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual.

Does that sound like science or a religious Belief System (B***)?

Despite a lackluster script, Transcendence is worth seeing because it is another example of Illuminati predictive programming in popular sci-fi movies. After all todays Hollywood Illuminati make the best movies, which are also the best propaganda for preparing humanity to accept One World Global Techno-Feudalism.

Eliminating humanity altogether also appears to be one of their goals as they seem to believe that the Humanity Experiment for all intents and purposes is finished. And, if they realize their twisted vision, humanity will in actuality become completely superfluous on Terra.

A Charlie Sheen movie called The Arrival comes to mind, in which an alien race is terra-forming Planet Earth to fit their requirements which are far different from that of humanity. They need a darker and more humid climate like the one in which dinosaurs roamed the earth. Obviously geo-engineering spraying chemtrails around the world and other forms of weather manipulation using HAARP technology, etc. are used in this so-called climate change scenario. Of course humans are always blamed for using the petro-chemical technology with which they have enslaved humanity in this age.

Now the plan to get rid of those pesky humans appears to have accelerated as the movie Transcendence introduces the concept of transhumanism to the hand-held electronics-addled masses.

Transhumanism itself was coined by Aldous Huxleys brother, biologist Julian Huxley, in 1957, when he wrote The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature. (Religion Without Revelation, p.27)

Even Illuminati Gofer Julian Huxley called it a belief, since he knew that immortality was the Illuminati goal in life. After all, transhumanism has been aptly named the Rapture of the Geeks.

Reviewers of the movie have failed to put the film in context with real-life science, wherein techno-mischief makers like Google have plenty of cash to make their dream of transhumanism a reality. It should be noted that Google has been buying up companies like Boston Robotics, which makes killer robots, Deep Mind Technologies, an artificial intelligence company, NEST Labs, which plans to monitor your life through interactive appliances called the Network of Things and Project Calico, a genetic engineering project to defeat death itself, as their hype goes.

Scooping up human DNA into a gigantic database also seems to be one of Googles goals. A Google-wannabe subsidiary called 23andMe, founded by the wife of a Google founder, has as its stated goal creating the worlds largest secure, private database of genotypic and phenotypic information that can be used for comparison analysis and research. Of course Google has included a disclaimer in the Terms of Use which states Genetic information you share with others could be used against your interests. And this wonderful Monopoly Capitalism zinger as well By providing any sample, you acquire no rights in any research or commercial products that may be developed by 23andMe or its collaborating partners.

According to a New York Magazine article called The Google of Spit, by the end of 2013, 23andMe had extracted and analyzed DNA from 650,000 people, making it one of the biggest genetic banks in the world. Like any other Google scam, you sign away your rights but this time its your genetic program its your DNA.

Will Google be able harvest your soul in the future?

As New York Magazine put it In September, just a month after Wojcicki [wife of Google founder Sergey Brin] and Brin announced their separation, Google announced the launch of a new venture called Calico. Though its exact mission and purpose remain unclear, the general idea is for Calico to solve death, as Time magazine put it, in an uncanny echo of Wojcickis [founder of 23andMe] promise to solve health.

Solve health? Solve death? Theres no so-called problem these Arrogant Techno-Creeps cant handle

And then theres DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency), the Pentagons black-magic voodoo-science department that wants to create among other things replicant super-soldiers as portrayed by Rutger Hauer in the movie Blade Runner or Kurt Russel in Soldier for the Illuminatis future wars which will then inevitably morph into autonomous killing robots as seen in the RoboCop and Terminator films.

Coincidentally in a book by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange called When Wikileaks Met Google (2014), we discover Surprise! Google was actually partially funded by the sinister DARPA, the Pentagon Devils Workshop. Heres a footnote from the book

Acknowledgments, in The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, Sergey Brin, Lawrence Page (Computer Science Department, Stanford University, 1998): The research described here was conducted as part of the Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project, supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement IRI-9411306. Funding for this cooperative agreement is also provided by DARPA and NASA, and by Interval Research, and the industrial partners of the Stanford Digital Libraries Project, archive.today/tb5VL.

In an excellent documentary called Google and the World Brain, WIRED magazine writer Kevin Kelly asked Google founder Larry Page back in the olden days, Why would anyone want a new search engine when we have Alta Vista?

And Page replied, Its not to make a search engine. Its to make an A.I.

The documentary also quotes Ray Kurzweil before he was hired as Googles Director of Engineering saying We talked to Google about their quest to digitize all knowledge and then create an A.I.

Googles corporate goal appears to be not only to steal all words, books, images, video, music, etc. through its search engine and other subsidiaries like Google Books, You Tube, etc. but then to monetize this wholesale theft on a worldwide scale.

This global library of information can then be transformed into a super-cyber-godlike Artificial Intelligence, which literally may become tantamount to SkyNet of Terminator movie fame.

In Transcendence, the Johnny Depp character turns into an uploaded cyberspace version of his former human self. Disguised as a cautionary tale, the movie is presented as a fait accompli, since the mad scientists of Google and DARPA are undoubtedly working day and night to initiate the so-called Singularity a confluence of the so-called GRIN technologies Genetic, Robotic, Information processing, and Neuro-technological processing.

By merging Artificial Intelligence, Nanotechnology, and Synthetic Biology, augmented by geo-engineering and Genetically Modified (GM or weaponized) food crops, these voodoo priests and rabbis of transhumanism are attempting to create a consensual virtual reality in which humans have become irrelevant because they are not augmented like those who have A.I. enhanced techno-gadgets, granting them super-powers, super-knowledge or super-intelligence. These synthetic or artificial siddhis (spiritual powers), they believe, will make them much more than mere mortal humans.

Like SkyNet, the all-powerful Artificial Intelligence in Jim Camerons Terminator movies, which sees humans as the enemy because it has no use for humans, Johnny Depps uploaded super-mind in Transcendence becomes a kind of cyber-god which craves more energy and power, not only to survive, but to expand itself and control everything on Earth.

Or as the Depp character tells his TED fanboys at the symposium Imagine a machine with the full range of human emotion. Its analytical power will be greater than the collective intelligence of every person in the history of the world. Some scientists refer to this as the singularity. I call it transcendence.

The problem with Singularity is that these materialistic scientists dont even understand what consciousness is, yet believe that uploading a human brain into a computer environment is somehow akin to transcending humanity even if its just a synthetic copy of a persons memories, etc.

They call it H+ which implies a superior human (Homo Superior) as opposed to Homo Sapiens.

The reality may be a little different, since the Illuminati plan for humanity is genetically engineering Homo Sapiens into Homo Deus.

Or is it Homo Insanus?

After all. No soul? No problem

Even Nobel Prize winner Stephen Hawking has written about his foreboding regarding transhumanism and the movie Transcendence in a UK Independent op-ed piece.

Of course Hawking doesnt say that Google is equivalent to Skynet, but he appears to be concerned about the dangers of an A.I. arms race, since mega-corporations like the sinister Google and Apple, as well as the sinister DARPA, are using their formidable resources of money and high-tech labor to try to produce an A.I. as soon as possible. Hawkins writes its tempting to dismiss the notion of highly intelligent machines as mere science fiction. But this would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake in history.

And why does Hawking sound a warning about the dangers of A.I.? Because he knows that as a cripp(term used by the handicapped as short for cripple), he would have been terminated as a useless eater.

The movies premise that Artificial Super Intelligence, a/k/a The Uploaded Johnny Depp 2.0 is a threat to humanity is of serious concern to Hawking and that dismissing the film as just science fiction could be the worst mistake in history, implies that film director Jim Camerons scenario in Terminator 2, wherein the A.I. based SkyNet overpowers the humans is not simply an idle threat but a very real problem since morality-and-ethics-free robots who are soul-less beings are an existential threat to humanity itself.

Hawking argues that developments in so-called digital personal assistants like Apples Siri and Google Now show a current I.T. Information Technology arms race which pales against what the coming decades will bring.

Success in creating A.I. would be the biggest event in human history, writes Hawking Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.

Another opponent of the Singularity agenda is Bill Joy, who wrote an article for WIRED Magazine called Why the future doesnt need us: Our most powerful 21st-century technologies robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech are threatening to make humans an endangered species.

Joy quotes from Kurzweils book The Age of Spiritual Machines, wherein he finds himself most troubled by this passage

The New Luddite Challenge

On the other hand it is possible that human control over the machines may be retained. In that case the average man may have control over certain private machines of his own, such as his car or his personal computer, but control over large systems of machines will be in the hands of a tiny elite just as it is today, but with two differences.

Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite.

In the book, you dont discover until you turn the page that the author of this passage is Theodore Kaczynski the Unabomber.

By the way Luddite is a derogatory term for anyone who is opposed to technological so-called advances for any reason whatsoever.

And of course what the alleged Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who was a mind control experimentation victim at Harvard, meant in his screed was that propaganda is actually so-called news, psychological techniques is the Malthusian belief system that there are too many humans on earth, and biological techniques means genetically modified foods and vaccines to cull the herd. In other words, he is predicting the Illuminati vision for the future a future bereft of what Illuminati Kingpin Henry Kissinger called useless eaters.

Then Bill Joy, cofounder and Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems, gets positively metaphysical, writing I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment.

Perfection of extreme evil now thats a mouthful.

Even Elon Musk, of Tesla Car and SpaceX Rocket Fame, is allegedly wary of A.I. According to CNN, he told an audience at MIT that we should be very careful about Artificial Intelligence, warning it may be our biggest existential threat, adding that with Artificial Intelligence, we are summoning the demon.

When so-called High Profile Illuminati Gofer Scientist-Entrepreneurs refer to Artificial Intelligence as Perfection of Extreme Evil and Summoning the Demons b******! You Better Pay Attention!

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URI DOWBENKO is the author of Homegrown Holography, Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy and Hoodwinked: Watching Movies with Eyes Wide Open. He is also the founder and publisher of http://www.ConspiracyPlanet.com, http://www.ConspiracyDigest.com, http://www.AlMartinRaw.com, and http://www.InsiderIntelligence.com, as well as the publisher of The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider by Al Martin. Uris latest project is called New Improved Memoirs, Its your life story Without the hassle of writing it. (http://www.NewImprovedMemoirs.com) a professional service for people who want to leave behind a customized autobiography, in other words a published book, as a legacy for their friends, family, and posterity. You can visit Uri at http://www.UriDowb

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Transhumanism: The Anti-Human Singularity Agenda was last modified: June 18th, 2016 by WakingTimes

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Transhumanism: The Anti-Human Singularity Agenda

What is Mormon Transhumanism? And is it Mormon? | Interpreter …

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Abstract: Some sources have described Mormonism as the faith most friendly to the intellectual movement known as Transhumanism. This paper reviews an introductory paper by the past President of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. A syllogism that purports to show that Mormonism is compatible with or even requires Transhumanism is analyzed. The syllogisms premises are shown to misunderstand or misrepresent LDS scripture and doctrine. The proffered Transhumanist conception of human nature and the perspective offered by LDS scripture are compared and found to be incompatible. Additional discrepancies between the Transhumanist articles representation of LDS doctrine and the actual teachings of LDS scripture and leaders on doctrinal matters (the Premortal Council in Heaven, the relationship between substance dualism and LDS thought, and the possibility of engineering or controlling spiritual experiences) are examined. The article does not accurately reflect LDS teachings, and thus has not demonstrated that Transhumanism is congenial to LDS scripture or doctrine.1

In conversation recently, I was asked about Mormon Transhumanism, amovement about which I knew very little.2 A longtime obsession with [Page 162]science-fiction literature made me aware of Transhumanism, which urges the alteration of human nature and capability through science and technology, particularly via GNR Genetics, Nanotechnology, Robotics and information technology. Chief among Transhumanisms goals are the abolition of death from aging,3 the enhancement and replacement of biological cognition with machine equivalents, and the emergence of the Singularity, a moment of explosive cultural evolution triggered by the development of a self-improving machine- or biological-machine hybrid-intelligence.4

My initial reaction was to conclude that this was not a research program any would think could dovetail well with Mormon thought. Iwas, however, mistaken at least a few individuals believe such areconciliation is both possible and desirable.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA) describes itself as the worlds largest advocacy network for ethical use of technology and religion to expand human abilities, as outlined in the Transhumanist Declaration.5 As of this writing, they report 591 members, of whom 376 have made their names public.6

The MTA website includes an article written by the groups past president, Lincoln Cannon.7 It is targeted at a general readership, and Cannons other work has been cited in the academic literature as [Page 163]evidence that the Church of Latter-day Saints [sic] is also the tradition that exhibits the most positive attitude toward transhumanism.8 This is a somewhat extravagant claim when we consider that the Mormon Transhumanist Association then had only 255 members.9 If Mormonism represents the most favorable faith, Transhumanisms stock amongst the religious must be low indeed.10 An author in First Things was more skeptical, writing rather than rejecting their faith, Mormon transhumanists can come to the movement because of their religion. Or so says Cannon. Mormon authorities, I suspect, would disagree.11

In this essay, I offer a review and reaction to the claims in Cannons article from my own believing LDS perspective. I will say nothing about Transhumanisms scientific claims, though I have enough of the scientist in me to be deeply skeptical about many of them.12

It would be impossible to represent every nuance in perspective held by members of the movement in a brief essay such as Cannons. Adding to that difficulty is the reputation that Transhumanists have acquired for being diverse and fractious. As one author observed:

Transhumanism is not a static or crystallized doctrine it has already had its share of schisms and internecine skirmishes. This recent but quickly growing movement is part science, [Page 164]part philosophy, but also part science-fiction, and I might add, part faith.13

Mormon Transhumanists seem no different. Cannon writes, Mormon transhumanists do not have one vision of the future. We have many visions many dreams. And we express them in many narratives (210).

So, I make no claim that the analysis here applies to all Transhumanists, all Mormon Transhumanists, or even all that Cannon has written and said elsewhere. This review serves as a preliminary study, by a newcomer to these ideas, of a single introductory paper intended to help beginners get up to speed.

In Part 1, I examine a series of syllogisms which Cannon offers as evidence that Mormonism actually mandates transhumanism (213). We will find that most of the premises upon which these syllogisms rest are not accurate representations of LDS thought. We will see that Cannon often either misreads or misrepresents LDS scripture. On a superficial reading, his citations may appear to support his argument. Acloser look reveals that any support they appear to offer Transhumanism is a mirage.

Of particular significance for orthodox Mormons is my observation that Cannon puts a great deal of emphasis on humanitys mastering techniques to achieve immortality, which creates what seem to be insurmountable difficulties for his account of LDS doctrine.

In Part 2, I investigate Cannons portrayal of human nature and Transhumanisms purported ability to alter it now and in the future. We find that LDS theology and Transhumanism use the concept of human nature in different ways. We note that while Cannons account of Jesus highlights the ways in which we might imitate him and adopt his salvific role, it omits discussion of the areas in which his role as a perfected and glorified celestial being whose Atonement performed a unique and once-and-for-all act to bring immortality and the possibility of eternal life to all mankind is incommensurate with our role and possibilities as beings living in a fallen world.

In Part 3, I conclude by reviewing some of what I take to be Cannons misreadings of LDS doctrine, particularly those focused on matters of dualism, materialism, and the nature of spiritual experiences.

Cannon advances what he concedes is a controversial claim. Some Mormon transhumanists, he writes, contend that Mormonism actually mandates transhumanism . [O]ne cannot be a Mormon without being a transhumanist. He goes on to assure us that we can use Mormon scripture to formulate a supporting argument (213). He offers four premises, accompanied by appeals to LDS scripture:15

P1: God commands us to use ordained means to participate in Gods work.

Supporting statements:

1a)1 Nephi 3:7 God prepares ways for us to accomplish Gods commands.1b)Alma 60:11, 2123 God will not save us unless we use the means God has already provided.1c)D&C 58:2728 We should engage in good causes without waiting for God to provide specific commands.

P2: Science and technology are among the means ordained of God.

Supporting statements:

2a)1 Nephi 17:811, 16 God commands Nephi to construct a ship to save his family.2b)Alma 37:3839 God gave Nephi a compass to guide his family to the promised land.2c)D&C 88:7879 God commands us to study and teach everything from astronomy and geology to history and politics.2d)D&C 121:2633 We will learn all the physical laws of the world before attaining heaven.

[Page 166]P3: Gods work is to help each other attain Godhood.

Supporting statements:

3a)3 Nephi 12:48 Jesus commands us to be perfect like God.3b)D&C 76:5860, 9295 God would make us Gods of equal power with him.3c)Moses 1:39 Gods work is to make us immortal in eternal life.

P4: An essential attribute of Godhood is a glorified immortal body.

Given these four premises, Cannon declares that we can reason and thereby draws three conclusions:16

First Conclusion: Because God commands us to use ordained means to participate in Gods work [P1], and because science and technology are among those means [P2], we can deduce [C1] that God commands us to use science and technology to participate in Gods work.

Second Conclusion: Because God commands us to use science and technology to participate in Gods work [C1], and because Gods work is to help each other attain Godhood [P3], we can deduce [C2] that God commands us to use science and technology to help each other attain Godhood.

Third Conclusion: Because God commands us to use science and technology to help each other attain Godhood [C2], and because an essential attribute of Godhood is a glorified immortal body [P4], we can conclude [C3] that God commands us to use science and technology to help each other attain a glorified immortal body.

Cannon concludes, If we began with premises that accurately reflect Mormonism, then Mormonism mandates transhumanism (214). Even a valid argument (i.e., one that follows the rules of logic) produces truth only if its premises are true and we will find that none of his premises accurately reflect LDS doctrine.

[Page 167]Note that each conclusion depends upon the truth of the conclusion that went before: the first must be true for the second to have any force, while the second is required for the third. A failure at any point destroys the entire argument downstream.

Let us first examine the use to which Cannons argument puts the scriptures invoked in his first two premises.

Few Latter-day Saints would quarrel with the idea that God provides means for mortals to accomplish the purposes he sets them (1a).

Cannons second scripture is cited to support the idea that God will not save us unless we use the means God has already provided (1b). This formulation trades on the fact that the scripture cites Captain Moronis speaking of being delivered (Alma 60:11, 20, 21) from a temporal, military threat yet oddly Cannon uses the term save instead, a term never used in the verses cited.17 Rendering Moronis claim as saved allows the argument to imply matters of eternal salvation rather than deliverance in war. The remainder of Cannons argument requires that Moronis words be understood in a religious sense.

Perhaps without intending to do so, Cannon has already shifted the scriptural ground a command about using available means to escape a mortal, physical threat in the political realm has been shaded through choice of language into a command about how we ought to approach matters of human salvation (in the eschatological sense). This shift is not an inconsequential move. Either Cannon is unaware of what he has done, or he hopes we wont notice.18

This lack of precision is compounded when Cannons third scripture is used to argue that we ought to engage in good causes without [Page 168]waiting for God to provide specific commands (1c). Here the argument implicitly lays the ground to assume without evidence what it will eventually be enlisted to prove. An admonition to engage in good causes without being commanded in the details (1c) applies in this case only if the transhumanist approach to salvation is a good one.19 But that is ultimately the point at issue. We cannot assume it at the outset.

One is justified, for example, in spending vast human resources, research capital, and intellectual firepower to digitize and upload ahuman personality only if such an undertaking is (1) possible and (2) desired by God. If such things are either impossible or improper, such efforts are at best a colossal waste of time, money, and talent that could be better spent on a thousand other pressing needs or at worst a type of fatal hubris, sin on a vast scale. They would not then be good causes in the sense required by Cannons argument, even if they arise out of noble motives with lofty goals.

Let me draw an analogy from technological advancements in my field of study and career (medical science): (P1) God wants happy families and (P2) many scientists have worked wonders to ease the technical and legal obstacles to elective abortion as a contraceptive method. But abortion as contraception is hardly an undertaking that LDS doctrine endorses, even if we believe it will make for a happier family (a good cause!) and even if the means have been given us to carry it out.

This analogy is not farfetched. Cannon writes somewhat rhapsodically of one of many narratives reflecting some common expectations and aspirations, and illustrating parallels between Mormonism and transhumanism (210). He then describes how in one Mormon Transhumanist future, Reproduction technology permits infertile and gay couples, as well as individuals or groups, to conceive their own genetic children. Some recoil from perceived threats to tradition, while others celebrate perceived gifts to new families (210).

I have trouble seeing the common aspirations and parallels between this vision of Transhumanism and Mormon thought. As a footnote to this scenario, Cannon refers to D&C 88:33, which I will quote, though Cannon did not: For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, [Page 169]and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.

It is not clear how this is relevant to his argument, which is perhaps why the text was not included does Cannon mean that such capacity for single individuals or groups of more than two individuals or partners of the same sex to create children through technology ought to be seen as a gift from God? Or that Mormon Transhumanists view it as such?

It seems so, since some see these techniques as gifts to new families. But in the LDS view, an infertile married couple does not become a new family when children arrive it is a family already. It does not need biological children to become one.20 And single individuals, homosexual unions, or scenarios which allow a child to have more than two biological parents are not family structures conducive to Gods purposes, given LDS doctrine reflected in the Proclamation on the Family.21

Cannon seems to classify a negative religious reaction to these projects as merely due to perceived threats to tradition, but the Mormon view would probably see it as inimical to the very foundation [Page 170]of the divine family and exaltation itself. One begins to suspect this particular Mormon Transhumanist view is not terribly Mormon at all and even hostile to Mormon thought in spots. To cite scripture wholly out of both its context and the broader LDS understanding of these matters is troubling, especially when Cannon aims to provide premises that accurately reflect Mormonism (214).

In short, the first premise sets the stage for a circular argument; it prepares to beg the question and must twist LDS scripture to do it. This is not an auspicious beginning.

The second premise holds that Science and technology are among the means ordained of God. As an accurate description of LDS doctrine, this formulation is also flawed, since the argument uses it as if the premise were any and all science and technology are among the means ordained of God. The implied claim is clearly false again, we can draw no conclusions about whether or not the technological wonders offered by Transhumanism are consistent with Gods purposes without examining each case. Poison and nuclear weapons are forms of human science and technology, yet God does not necessarily mandate their use.

To pick an example not more extreme than some Transhumanist reveries, one might conceive of a brain-control device that prevents humans from committing acts of sin. God clearly does not want humans to sin, yet using technology to assure that they would not or could not do so is not a righteous act in LDS theology.22

The scriptures cited do not help the position that Cannon advances. True, Nephi built a ship to save his family (2a) but he did so at Gods explicit command, and under Gods tutelage. Nephi emphasizes that he did not work the timbers [of the ship] after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men (1 Nephi 18:2). So Nephi did not use human-inspired or -directed technology at all. He did not undertake a kind of naval Manhattan Project in the pre-Second Temple era. The Lord did not send him to shipwrights and carpenters, though plenty of these existed.

[Page 171]For the example of Nephis ship to be on point, we must ask if God has explicitly commanded that we focus our efforts on Transhumanist approaches. Clearly, he has not and it is this difficulty that the second premise attempts to paper over.

Cannons second scripture, like the first, makes precisely the opposite point that his argument requires. True, Lehi and family were guided by the compass-like Liahona in their journey (2b), but here again Lehi did not design the device, nor did technocrats help forge it. Instead, it appeared fully-formed outside Lehis tent. (Alma even insists that its construction was beyond any human ability; see Alma 37:39.) Despite being a material object (and thus technology by some definitions) it did not work according to any physical principles or scientific laws known to Lehi or us instead it did work for them according to their faith in God. It was a miracle like many other miracles wrought by the power of God. It would stop working when they were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence (Alma 37:4041). The Liahona is simply not a model for mans technological prowess contributing to the accomplishment of Gods purposes if anything, it is a call for faith, obedience, humility, and trust in Gods revelations.

In neither case do Nephi and Lehi urge their followers to a research program to develop the technocratic tools they think God might want. God simply provides the expertise with the explicit rationale that his purposes need to be accomplished. Nephis nautical construction does not set off a pre-Columbian shipbuilding renaissance. Lehi does not need to understand the principles by which the Liahona works, much less build his own mass-production line so every Nephite home can have one. Instead, he learns that it works via diligent faith in the arm of God hardly a Transhumanist virtue. Transhumanism, by contrast, applauds empiricism and technical mastery over nature through humanitys native powers. Nephis ship and the Liahona help to accomplish a specific purpose and are then retired from use. The Nephites do not continue to use and improve their ocean-crossing tech based on Nephis prototype; Nephite armies are not equipped with Liahonas.

The third scripture serves Cannons argument no better. True, the Saints are enjoined to study many topics, even all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God (2c). These include things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of [Page 172]kingdoms (D&C 88:7879). Such study explicitly includes analyzing wars and political strife yet we do not thereby conclude that war is to be a tool we seize to implement Gods purposes. If anything, a study of war and the like ought to temper any illusions we have about human adequacy to solve the fundamental problems we face through technology.

Why study such things? The scripture tells us, but Cannons argument ignores the implications. The recipients are to study so

that ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you. Behold, Isent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. Therefore, they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads . Therefore, tarry ye, and labor diligently, that you may be perfected in your ministry to go forth among the Gentiles for the last time. (D&C 88:8082, 84)

God does not, we note well, command such study so that his children can solve the technical problems that will enable resurrection or personal continuity beyond the grave. He has already solved those problems and through the Atonement of Christ will provide them freely to all humanity (Alma 40:4). Instead, we are commanded to study such worldly or secular matters so we will be more able and convincing when we warn others of the need to repent. The little band of Saints was doing and could do nothing whatever to inch humanity along the road to the Singularity. But through their efforts to preach the Gospel, they could prepare mortals to stand singly at the bar of God to answer for their deeds and moral agency.

The fourth and final scripture is even less relevant. Cannon glosses it as saying that We will learn all the physical laws of the world before attaining heaven, (2d) but this is misleading. The scripture text describes a method of knowledge acquisition that differs from that of science: God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed since the world was until now (D&C 121:26, emphasis added). Such knowledge is not merely the operation of the spirit of Christ on ones reason or intellect, and it is not the product of inspired scientific research or experiment, however valuable those may be rather, it is knowledge revealed to those who possess the gift of the Holy Ghost.

This revelatory experience will reveal everything presumably everything will include physical laws, but that is not the focus or [Page 173]thrust of the promise: A time to come in the which nothing shall be withheld, whether there be one God or many gods, they shall be manifest (v. 28). These are simply not in the main the sort of facts with which Transhumanist science or any science has anything to do, even though God promises to reveal glories, laws, and set times (v. 31).

As for such knowledge coming to mortals before attaining heaven, verse 32 avers that Gods council declared such things should be reserved unto the finishing and the end of the dispensation of the fulness of times when every man shall enter into his eternal presence and into his immortal rest (D&C 121:3132). Such revelation does not seem so much a prerequisite to attaining heaven but is instead a final gift of divine self-disclosure that makes heaven possible. Given that the time of their revelation is decreed for the end, an aggressive scientific research program is unlikely to reveal them any sooner.

So the second premise, like the first, has elements of circularity baked into it. Here the degree of scriptural distortion and special-pleading is even more pronounced.

Cannons first conclusion fails, since both premises are faulty accounts of LDS thought and scripture. The syllogism is also misleading since it leaves unaddressed the core question: which technologies does God command, and which would he oppose?23 Cannon evinces no awareness that this question needs to be addressed.

Furthermore, since each subsequent conclusion relies upon this first one, none of his reasoned syllogisms produce logical truth. We could stop here, since the argument has been reduced to shambles.

The second and third conclusions move even further than the first from anything that can be called an accurate sketch of LDS theology. Cannon tells us that since Gods purpose is to achieve our exaltation, God commands us to use science and technology to help each other attain Godhood, (C2) and since godhood requires a physical body, God [Page 174]commands us to use science and technology to help each other attain aglorified immortal body (C3).24

What Cannons account ignores is the fact that receiving a glorified physical body is something LDS theology tells us has already been taken care of on our behalf. It is requisite and just, taught Alma, according to the power and resurrection of Christ, that the soul of man should be restored to its body, and that every part of the body should be restored to itself, and thus there is a time appointed that all shall come forth from the dead (Alma 41:2; 40:4). Christ has already been resurrected, and at that time many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many (Matthew 27:5253). The resurrection is already in motion; God did not need to await human technical mastery to bring it about. Furthermore, no human action is needed to assure a universal resurrection. Gods work and glory certainly targets the immortality and eternal life of his children, but the immortality is a done deal. It is strange, then, to see Transhumanists suggest that scientific research is needed or even commanded to accomplish it. There is a point of contact with traditional LDS thought here, but that brief touch quickly veers off on a tangent.

In contrast to immortality, the receipt of exaltation, or theosis, remains a matter that human agency coupled with the grace of God can influence. Each individual must choose to make divinely-ordained covenants as part of priesthood ordinances, and then endure to the end in faithfulness to those covenants. We are surely called to labor in that undertaking, both for our own sakes (D&C 18:15) and the sakes of others (Alma 29:15).

Technology can certainly be enlisted in such efforts just as handcopied texts could have wider dissemination than oral preaching, so now printed or digital scriptures are easier to make and cheaper to distribute than handwritten ones. Boats transported the apostle Paul as he preached; intercontinental airlines now deliver modern apostles to their destinations. Telephones and video conferencing help govern [Page 175]aworldwide Church while, by contrast, a much smaller primitive Church soon lapsed into apostasy, lacking frequent contact with steadying apostolic hands. In a rapid eclipse of the communication technologies that preceded it, the Internet allows individuals to teach others anywhere in the world in real-time. Thus, in one sense, it is certainly true that God commands us to use science and technology to help each other attain Godhood, and few Latter-day Saints would find such uses as Ive described remarkable or novel in the least. Such means are not, however, the primary substance of Transhumanist hopes.

After all, it is not in this trivially true sense that Cannons syllogism intends the idea that God endorses the use of science and technology to help exalt his children. None of these or a thousand other examples have anything to do with the technical implementation of resurrection and exaltation that Cannons syllogism mandates.25 The Transhumanist project of his syllogism ironically focuses on the one thing personal immortality that can already be checked off the to-do list under LDS doctrine. These claims risk, then, distracting us from the work still to be done: Perhaps someday we might transfigure ourselves into ageless bodies (207).

One would not know it from Cannons formulation, but God has repeatedly told us what role we have in accomplishing his purposes. God nowhere says, Develop the technology to have ageless bodies (see 207), nor Go out and resurrect your fellows via complete models of the bodies and brains of our dead ancestors individually' (see 211). Nor does he say, Use data-mining to restore lost ecosystems (see 21011). He instead tells us, Say nothing but repentance unto this generation (D&C 6:9; 11:9). God focuses relentlessly on the nature of our wills, our fallen nature, and our mortal propensity to sin.

The concept offered by Cannons syllogism is also egocentric and presentist. In his formulation, the entire world has been waiting for us or our technological near-heirs. There is no way the Israelites a bunch of Bronze Age pastoralists could hope to participate in (for example) the project to somehow retrieve and archive all humans past genetic codes to assure a universal resurrection (217). At best, for Cannons syllogism, the vast majority of humanity is merely marking time, unable to do much of [Page 176]anything toward achieving Gods purposes. Even we, today, cannot do much.

If, instead, the problem is human nature and moral agency as the scriptures repeatedly affirm the modern has no privileged place in the sun. Indeed, we may even be at something of a disadvantage if we entertain hubristic dreams of a crescendo of redemptive science and technology. A Palestinian peasant under the Caesars was at least at scant risk of mistaking himself for someone potent, transcendent, or world-changing.

And so the second and third conclusions, like the first, fail to be accurate accounts of LDS theology.

We could, once again, stop our investigation here Cannon has chosen to conclude his introduction to Mormon Transhumanism with a deeply flawed attempt to suggest equivalencies where there are none.

This degree of confusion or muddled thinking is unlikely, however, to exist in a vacuum. As we prod Cannons argument, we find that when Transhumanism and Mormonism are in conflict, it is Transhumanism that prevails.

Cannon begins his article by announcing:

As Transhumanists, we have discarded the old assumption that human nature is or ever was static, not only because science has demonstrated biological evolution, but especially because history itself is cultural and technological evolution. (202)

Such a claim trades on the multiple possible understandings of the term human nature. To be sure, if we see the term to refer to something like human nature began with a hunter-gatherer life-style using stoneage tools, it is trivially and obviously true that human nature has been and likely will continue to be in constant flux. Literacy, numeracy, metallurgy, moveable type, the scientific method, calculus, materials science, cybernetics, information technology all have altered human nature in this sense, or the nature of the types of lives that humans live.

One sees the same tension around human nature in Cannons footnoted source. He cites Nick Bostrom, a leading Transhumanist philosopher and advocate. Like Cannon, Bostrom holds that:

The new paradigm [of Transhumanism] rejects a crucial assumption that is implicit in both traditional futurology and practically all of todays political thinking. This is the assumption that the human condition is at root a [Page 177]constant. Present-day processes can be fine-tuned; wealth can be increased and redistributed; tools can be developed and refined; culture can change, sometimes drastically; but human nature itself is not up for grabs.

This assumption no longer holds true. Arguably it has never been true. Such innovations as speech, written language, printing, engines, modern medicine and computers have had a profound impact not just on how people live their lives, but on who and what they are.26

In Cannons essay, we see the same conviction that human nature is plastic, up for grabs. And that human nature is determined and altered by technology, meaning not merely new styles of life, but a change in who and what [humans] are at a fundamental level. Cannon appeals to the same types of ideas, invoking technology such as a computing device to read; glasses, contacts, or surgically modified eyes; hearing aids or cochlear implants; clothing; and drugs that target pain, heighten attention, or facilitate growth as examples of changes in human nature wrought by science (206).

In religious terms, however especially LDS religious terms none of these shifts represent changes to what is most basic and important in human nature.

To pick one simple case, we are mortal with fallible memories thus speech, written language, moveable type printing, and computer information technology can compensate for the fact that fallible memory is part of human nature (in the Cannon/Bostromian sense), and thus these technologies can change who and what [we] are.

This is not, however, what LDS scriptures address when discussing human nature.

For example, King Benjamin advised his people that the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord (Mosiah 3:19).

He does not, we remark, suggest that more rapid access to information or an eidetic memory would change this fundamental aspect of human nature. Instead, only through an exercise of moral agency a yielding of the will to the Holy Spirit can human nature be changed. And this [Page 178]change comes not from biotechnology or nanotechnology or drugs or cybernetics but through the Atonement of Christ enabling us to put off the natural man. Without the Atonement, the human nature of the natural man persists eternally.

Nephi too cautioned,

O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God. (2 Nephi 9:2829)

For Nephi, more learning, more knowledge, and more technical prowess do not change the fundamental dynamic. Indeed, he argues that such things can actually exacerbate the problem learning and technical mastery can stir us to pride and an exaggerated trust in our own capabilities and perspectives. This can lead us to disregard counsel from God and his Holy Spirit we therefore do not yield, and we perish despite our knowledge.

Neither Nephi nor I desire to denigrate knowledge it is better to have knowledge than not to have it but it is not the scientific or engineering knowledge that saves us. It may, in fact, threaten us if we are not wary.

Alma is blunt and speaks in terms that could be addressed to amodern Transhumanist. Humans have become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature (Alma 42:10, emphasis added).

Modernity seems, to me, to offer very little ground for believing that much about human nature has changed despite our accelerating technical and scientific knowledge. Intelligent and educated modern luminaries such as Rousseau, Marx, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Hemmingway, Bertrand Russell, and Jean-Paul Sartre present a melancholy spectacle with their neglect or abandonment of their children, serial infidelities, mistreatment of women, and the vacuity of their moral lives.27 The [Page 179]great physicists of quantum physics fare little better.28 The problem of the natural man or woman is perennial.

Cannons article makes much, initially, of Mormonism as an immersive discipleship of Jesus Christ (203). But after this introductory paragraph, little or nothing is said about Jesus or his Atonement. Even this paragraph paints mortals as messiahs and saviors for each other, though these terms mean something quite different in Mormonism when applied to us than they do in the Transhumanist context another example of the fallacy of equivocation. Invocation of the terms in that context is less about Jesus than about us. With Jesus, we would trust in, change toward, and fully immerse our bodies and minds in the role of Christ (203). Again, the emphasis is on what we do which matches the Transhumanist technocratic approach to the problems of human existence: sickness, scarcity, death, and so forth.

I am not convinced that Cannons description of discipleship is on target. We do not take on the role of Christ except in a very circumscribed sense different from his papers implication. Cannon appeals to but does not quote from Mosiah 5:9: whosoever doeth this shall be found at the right hand of God, for he shall know the name by which he is called; for he shall be called by the name of Christ (215n15).

This verse says nothing about taking on the role of Christ. Instead, the saved are called by his name because Jesus claims them as his own: the good shepherd doth call you; yea, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of Christ; and if ye will not hearken unto the name by which ye are called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd (Alma 5:38). In fact, immediately after the verse cited by Cannon, the scripture continues: For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served ? [D]oth a man take an ass which belongeth to his neighbor, and keep him? I say unto you, Nay . [E]ven so shall it be among you if ye know not the name by which ye are called (Mosiah5:1314). Servants and [Page 180]asses do not take upon themselves the masters role or decide that they claim the master it is the master who claims them (see also Revelation 22:34; 3 Nephi 27:5; D&C 18:2325, 76:59).

Of the redeemed, the Doctrine and Covenants asserts frankly, They are Christs, and others less valiant are Christs at his coming (D&C 88:9899). Jesus blessed those who gave even a cup of water to his disciples, because ye belong to Christ, (Mark 9:41, emphasis added). These have taken his name upon them; they have not taken on the messianic role.

Here we see one of Cannons many light contacts with an LDS idea, only to have Transhumanism angle off into decidedly non-LDS territory.

Cannon says we should be consoling and healing and raising, as exemplified and invited by Jesus (203) which is certainly true. But this focus on outward ethics and acts leaves unmentioned the problem of the inner nature and its transformation effected by the Atonement, for it is only by the blood [that] ye are sanctified (Moses 6:60). Likewise, the Prophet Joseph Smith taught that [b]eing born again comes by the Spirit of God through ordinances,29 but nowhere are the ordinances mentioned in Cannons essay. The ability to meaningfully console, heal, and help in the salvation of others is all predicated upon Christs gracious transformation of our nature and I fear that omitting this fact from mention may not be coincidental because it touches precisely upon those areas Transhumanism reserves for itself.

Given his apparent confusion about how LDS doctrine sees human nature, it is perhaps not surprising that Cannon seems either to misunderstand or misrepresent LDS scripture and theology in other areas.

Elsewhere, Cannons article writes of how [a]t a grand council in heaven before the creation of this world, the children of God presented two plans. God chose the first and war ensued (204). In fact, LDS doctrine teaches that God presented a single plan. Satan offered an [Page 181]alternate scenario, which God rejected. There were not two possible plans, and God did not need to choose between them. There could, in fact, only be one option from Gods perspective.30 Gods children could choose to either support or reject Gods plan. That Cannon muddles this matter does not increase the readers confidence that his more speculative attempts to tie Mormonism to Transhumanism will be accurate.

An additional illustrative example is Cannons discussion of Mormonism and substance dualism, the idea that physical bodies and mind/spirit/soul are different types of things. Each has a separate existence, with mental things [lacking] any extension in the physical world:31

Mormonism posits a metaphysics, in contrast to classical substance dualism, that is consistent with some accounts of physicalism and naturalism. According to our scriptures, everything is material, including our minds; and everything is embodied, including God. (203)

[Page 182]The claim that Mormonism is consistent with some accounts of physicalism and naturalism lacks a footnote, which is unfortunate it would be helpful to know more precisely of which accounts Cannon is speaking. Physicalism and naturalism hold that physical matter of the everyday kind the sort that makes up tables and flowers and human brains is all there is. There is no ineffable spirit or mind which exists on a different plane or level of reality; minds require only physical embodiment. To create an exact copy of my physical brain would be to completely duplicate my mental processes I am nothing but my physical body.32

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Transhumanism by Dorian Mays on Prezi

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Here's What I ThinkThe world we live in has become one that has technology embedded into its identity. Children now are receiving iPads and things of that nature at extremely young ages, which would cause them to not develop in social environments because they are glued to the devices. We use our phones for memory, directions, entertainment, emotion, and everything that we lack in reality. It has become as much a part of humanity as air, it's hard to go anywhere without a piece technology somewhere.

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras states, "Technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels the feel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic as much as sex. (https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/5-ways-digital-media-impacts-brain/)TranshumanismTopicTranshumanism is the belief or theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology.

With the technological advances of genomes and asexual creation from stem cells these ideas are not far from this idea.(http://www.businessinsider.com/baby-ivg-ivf-stem-cells-2017-1)

Philosopher Nikola Danaylov, Transhumanists of the world unitewe have immortality to gain and only biology to lose.

There are people in California already trying to create a reality that can alter mortality, something that transhumanist intend to eliminate.

They believe that people already been working by making dieing "more comfortable" for those who are terminally ill or impaired. A belief is that this is only adding to that part of science.(https://www.wired.com/2017/03/silicon-valley-rather-cure-death-make-life-worth-living/)By: Dorian MaysIdeaologyWorks Citedhttp://www.businessinsider.com/baby-ivg-ivf-stem-cells-2017-1

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/silicon-valley-rather-cure-death-make-life-worth-living/

https://www.wired.com/story/the-alexa-amazon-eavesdropping-situation/

(Throughout the prezi)https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-alexa-voice-assistant-had-a-flaw-that-let-eavesdroppers-listen-in/

https://futurism.com/facial-recognition-china-social-credit/

https://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/galaxy-s8/security/

https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/5-ways-digital-media-impacts-brain/

Smart DevicesSmarter than you?Visual ExamplesBlack Mirror: Season 4 Ep. 2 & 6, Season 3 Ep. 1Altered Carbonhttp://www.vulture.com/2017/12/black-mirror-season-4-recap-arkangel.htmlhttp://www.vulture.com/2017/12/black-mirror-recap-season-4-black-museum.htmlhttps://www.netflix.com/title/80097140all on NetflixLast ThoughtsWhen you hear someone talk of things like this, it comes off as being paranoid or a conspiracy theorist. It's not either of those, transhumanism is something that is being developed as we sit here now. Schools like MIT and other STEM centered schools would be center of these ideals. Give Elon Musk the idea and it'll happen in 15-20 years. The only thing I want to say is pay attention to how much you are putting into these new technologies and their features.One of the draws of the transhuman ideal is that there is a definite of "life after death". Which is something that many people search for. Something to believe in and look forward to. In an article from The Guardian, the author talks of her journey from Christianity to Transhumanism. It is a situation of one believing what they deem as fact versus tradition and their personal revelations throughout the process.https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/18/god-in-the-machine-my-strange-journey-into-transhumanism

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Transhumanism by Dorian Mays on Prezi