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Extropy Institute ISSN 1057-1035 Issue #14 (vol.7, no.1) 1st Quarter 1995 $4.95 1 EXTROPY #14 (7:1) First Quarter 1995 EXTROPY: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought is a journal of ideas, dedicated to discussing and developing themes in the follow- ing areas: • Transhumanism and futurist philosophy • Life extension, immortalism and cryonics • Smart drugs (nootropics) and intelligence increase technologies • Machine intelligence, personality uploading, and Artificial life • Nanocomputers and nanotechnology • Memetics (ideas as viruses) ExtropyExtropy InstituteInstitute • Experimental free communities in space, on the oceans, and within computer networks • Effective thinking and information filtering EXTROPY (ISSN 1057-1035) is published approx. quarterly by • Self-transformative psychology Extropy Institute (ExI), an educational tax-exempt corporation, • Spontaneous orders (free markets, neural 13428 Maxella Avenue, #273, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292. Phone: networks, evolutionary processes, etc) (310) 398-0375. • Digital economy (privacy technologies, E-mail to: [email protected] digital money and electronic markets) or: [email protected] • Rational, market-based environmentalism Copyright ©1994 by Extropy Institute and the respective writers. • Probing the ultimate limits of physics Distributed by Armadillo, Los Angeles, CA; Desert Moon Periodicals, Sante Fe, NM; Fine Print, Austin, TX; Inland, East Haven, CT; IPD, Solana Beach, CA; Small Changes, Seattle, WA; Ubiquity, Brooklyn, NY; & Tower EDITORIAL TEAM Magazines, W. Sacramento, CA; and in the UK by Counter Productions, London, UK. EDITOR: Max More, MA, Extropy Institute Writers: Contact the editor for submission details. ART DIRECTOR: Nancie Clark SUBSCRIPTIONS (4 issues): Communications: Russell E. Whitaker, Taos Mountain Soft- USA: $18 ware Canada and Mexico*: $22 Overseas*: $32 (air); $24 (surface) Computing, Simon D. Levy, MA, Univ. of Tennessee Linguistics: Institutions: USA: $40, Canada, Mexico: $44 Overseas: $60/$44 (air/surface) Cosmology: Michael C. Price, M.Sc. BACK ISSUES: See p.40 for contents Cryonics & Michael R. Perry, Ph.D; Director, Society Immortalism: for Venturism #s 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9,10,11,12,13: $5 each Fuzzy Logic & Bart Kosko, Ph.D; University of Southern Neurocomputing: California EXTROPY INSTITUTE (See p.37 for details) Membership (Includes one year subscription to Ex- Law, Politics: Tom Morrow, MA, J.D., Extropy Institute tropy and to eight issues of the ExI newsletter Expo- Memetics: Keith Henson, Founder, L-5 nent), plus discounts on electronic fora, conferences, Society tapes, T-shirts, software, and books, and invitations Nanotechnology: J. Storrs Hall, Ph.D. Rutgers University, to festivals, and local meetings, and other gatherings: Laboratory for Computer Science Research USA: $45 Canada/Mexico*: $50 Philosophy, Max More, MA, Extropy Institute Overseas*: $55/$67 (Extropy by surface/air) Politics: Physics: Prof. Gregory Benford, Ph.D., Physics Dept., Sustaining: $100 (receive Extropy first class) University of California, Irvine Benefactor: $300 Sponsor: $1000 Science: David Krieger, MLS, Agorics, Inc. Biotechnology: Ray Sahelian, M.D. Make checks payable to “Extropy Institute.” *We can now accept payment in your own currency, Transhumanities: Mark Plus, MS converted from the amount in dollars. EXTROPY #14 (7:1) First Quarter 1995 2 3 EXTROPY #14 (7:1) First Quarter 1995 CONTENTSCONTENTS 07 Utility Fog, Part Two (nanotech) J. Storrs Hall, Ph.D. 20 Evolutionary Architecture and Extropian Consciousness Fred Stitt 30 Lilliputian Uploads Robin Hanson ð 36 Biotech Enhancement: Prozac — And the Next Generation Dr. Ray ñ ö Cover image by Nancie Clark EXTROPY #14 (7:1) First Quarter 1995 4 14 Methuselah’s Kitchen An Interview with Roy Walford, M.D. (Part One) EXTROPY #14 by David Krieger First Quarter 1995 (vol.7, no.1) with Max More THE TRANSHUMAN TASTE (reviews) The Physics of Immortality (Frank Tipler) Reviewed by Michael C. Price 42 Morals by Agreement (David Gauthier) Reviewed by Eric Watt Forste 46 Consciousness: Spontaneous Order and Selectional Systems: Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of Mind (Gerald Edelman) Review essay by Reilly Jones 49 Extro2 Conference 29 Readers’ Survey 33 Extropy Institute 39 Back Issues 40 5 Years ago in Extropy 41 Tapes For Sale 32,56 Contributors 55 5 EXTROPY #14 (7:1) First Quarter 1995 EDITORIAL ð Architecture is not a business, not a career, but a crusade and a ñ consecration to a joy that justifies the existence of the earth. ö [Henry Cameron in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, p.81] ð ñ ö Our desire to live up to our name — Extropy — ingenuity, and sheer thrill ð impels us to continuously break new ground. In this of the ideas always comes ñ issue we do that in two ways: first, a slicker look helps 1. By extending the range of topics covered. cognitive digestion and ö Understanding and creating a future fit for makes it more likely new ð posthumans requires more than thinking about life readers will pick up the ñ extension, expansion into space, and skyrocketing publication. ö computer power. Fred Stitt’s “Evolutionary Archi- The graphical upgrade Photo by Nanc Clark ð tecture and Extropian Consciousness” introduces results from several ð a whole new area of endeavor to be analyzed from sources. Readers’ comments resulted in the size of ñ ñ extropic standpoints. Extropian individuals want to the type growing to improve legibility, and the ö ö ð bring order out of chaos, shaping and defining both number of fonts being restrained from boundless ð ñ their own bodies and minds and the outside world. expansion. I am also delighted to welcome on board ñ ö The same drive might be expected to lead us to our new Art Director, Nancie Clark, whose skills design the environments in which we work and play and resources have added to the visual dimension ö ð optimally to assist and reward us. We have pre- of this issue. ð ñ sented writing on the aesthetic aspects of an I want to draw your attention to the Readers’ ñ ö extropic life in the past, and I intend to devote more Survey. FIlling it out and returning it will help us ö ð space to these topics, bringing more balance to our acquire more advertising to keep this publication ð ñ coverage. alive and thriving. Dave Krieger (who put it together) ñ ö We always appreciate your feedback on topics and I will be grateful to those who send this in. ö ð yet to be covered. In upcoming issues we expect to Finally, we welcome all the new readers this ð ñ cover future possibilities for composing transhuman issue, may of whom heard about Extropy in the ñ ö and posthuman children and new family struc- recent “Meet the Extropians” article in Wired. The tures; bodily modifications; a state-of-the-art life back issue listing on p.40 will give you an idea of our ö ð extension program; genetic imperatives and range of coverage. ð ñ transhuman possibilities for restructuring relation- ñ ö Upward and Outward! ships; and plenty more on computers, nanotech, ö ð uploading, economic and political processes and Max More ð ñ structures too. ñ ö 2. As a glance through the issue will reveal, P.S. We’ve chosen a location for the Extro-2 conference, Extropy is also leaping forward in terms of graphic and we have secured an eminent Keynote Speaker. See ö ð ð appeal. While the insight, boldness, optimism, elsewhere in this issue for details. ñ EXTR 1ñ EXTROPY — a measure of intelligence, information, energy, life, experience, diversity, opportunity and growth. Extropians are those who consciously seek to increase extropy. The Extropian Principles are: (1) Boundless Expansion; (2) Self- Transformation; (3) Dynamic Optimism; (4) Intelligent Technology; (5) Spontaneous Order. [See Extropy #11 for Extropian Principles v.2.5] TRANSHUMANISM — Philosophies of life (such as Extropianism) 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, while avoiding dogma and mysticism. [See Extropy #6] EXTROPY #14 (7:1) First Quarter 1995 6 NANOTECHNOLOGY UTILITY FOG Part Two Copyright ©1994 J. Storrs Hall, Ph.D. To recapitulate Part One: Active, polymorphic material (“Utility Fog”) can be designed as a conglomeration of 100-micron robotic cells (“foglets”). Such robots could be built with the techniques of molecular nanotechnology. An appropriate mass of Utility Fog can be programmed to simulate most of the physical properties of any macroscopic object (including air and water), to roughly the same precision those properties are measured by human senses. The major exceptions are taste, smell, and transparency. The computing power represented by Fog is sufficient for uploading into a relatively small batch, by most estimates. An intelligence uploaded into Fog could take on any physical form it pleased, and vary that form at will. In an environment filled with Fog, objects (including intelligent ones) can have virtual existence, moving as patterns instead of existing as a collection of specific Foglets. Foglets and Fog elements, forming the major component of its mass, could be made of aluminum oxide and/or quartz, refractory compounds Compared with a true molecular assembler, a Foglet will be huge using common elements. The structural elements form an and overpowered, able to control its motions to no better than a exoskeleton, which besides being a good mechanical design tenth of a micron instead of a tenth of a nanometer. It will have allows us to have an evacuated interior in which more sensitive an armspread on the order of microns or more. A 10 micron armspread is about as small as it would be feasible to make a Foglet. There is no obvious upper bound on size, except to reduce A Foglet the resolution and verisimilitude of the simulation. ‘Foglets” whose appearance didn’t matter and which were simply to manipulate objects, could be on the order of inches or even feet.
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