I recently spoke to the guys making this series, looks promising – and I hope they reach their KickStarter target! It is important to expose transhumanist ideas to the public in a way which is easily consumable. These videos look like they will do just that. Check out their first video below:

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PostHuman: An Introduction to Transhumanism

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Where philosophy meets technology – there’s transhumanism. We investigate some of the most fascinating and urgent ideas around today.

Through a combination of light-hearted animation and a thought-provoking script, this introduction to transhumanism offers an informative, concise overview of one of the most exciting and terrifying areas of human thought. The first part of the video concerns itself with the broadest premises of transhumanism in general – focusing on the disparity between our world-shaping technological advances and our almost unchanged Darwinian biology. After this, it sub-divides into three of the main areas commonly associated with transhumanist thought, which the makers of the video dub ‘the three supers’: super-longevity, super-intelligence and super-wellbeing. Within each of the three areas the main intuitions surrounding each area are swiftly brought forward and examined – so, for example, the fact that ageing kills 100,000 people every day yet it is seen as justified and natural, unlike any other killer of this magnitude. Each section also includes a nod to prominent thinkers working in each field and their views in relation to the issues that have been drawn out. These are Aubrey de Grey (super-longevity), Ray Kurzweil (super-intelligence) and David Pearce (super-wellbeing, each of which the creators aim to interview if their project gets underway. In addition to just providing information, the video also raises some of the most troublesome and serious objections to the ideas being discussed, with the implication being that the success of the Kickstarter project will yield a rigorous and detailed examination of these concerns.

Episode 0 – PostHuman: An Introduction to Transhumanism [YouTube]





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Crowd Funding

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Writers Marco Vega and Peter Brietbart (that’s us!) have shared a passion for philosophy since we first met at Sussex University five years ago. Over time, we became frustrated with the classical, removed armchair philosophy, and began to look for philosophically sophisticated ideas with real human impact. Transhumanism stood out as a practical, far-seeing, radical and urgent field, informed by science and guided by moral philosophy.

We soon realised that our philosophy buddies and lecturers had barely heard of it, though the ideas involved were exciting and familiar. The problem for us is that even though transhumanism is incredibly relevant, it’s practically invisible in mainstream thought.

Influenced by YouTubers like QualiaSoup, 3vid3nc3, CGPGrey, RSA Animate, TheraminTrees, Vsauce, CrashCourse and many more, we saw that complex ideas can be made accessible, entertaining and educational.

Our dream is to make this project – the culmination of five years of thought, reflection and research – a reality.

We’ve just released the first video – PostHuman: An Introduction to Transhumanism. We made it over the course of a year, in volunteered time, paid with favours and fuelled by enthusiasm. Now we need your help to keep going.

Where philosophy meets technology – there’s transhumanism. We investigate some of the most fascinating and urgent ideas around today.

Want more? We need your help to make it happen. See our Kickstarter at http://kck.st/Huitjs

We investigate three dominant areas of transhumanism: super longevity, super intelligence and super wellbeing, and briefly cover the ideas of thinkers Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil and David Pearce.

PostHuman: An Introduction to Transhumanism is the first of our planned video series on transhumanism, titled PostHuman.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biopsuk

Google+: http://gplus.to/biops

Twitter: https://twitter.com/biopsuk

Website: http://biops.co.uk

Written by: Peter Brietbart and Marco Vega

Animations: Many Artists Who Do One Thing

Animation Script: Mihai Badic and Peter Brietbart

Narrated by: Holly Hagan-Walker

Music and SFX: Steven Gamble