Extropianism
Encyclopedia
Extropianism, also referred to as the philosophy of "Extropy", is an evolving framework of values and standards for continuously improving the human condition.
Extropians believe that advances in science and technology will some day let people live indefinitely. An extropian may wish to contribute to this goal, e.g. by doing research and development or volunteering to test new technology.
Extropianism describes a pragmatic consilience
of transhumanist thought guided by a proactionary approach
to human evolution
and progress
.
Originated by a set of principles developed by Dr. Max More
, The Principles of Extropy, extropian thinking places strong emphasis on rational thinking and practical optimism
. According to More, these principles "do not specify particular beliefs, technologies, or policies". Extropians share an optimistic view of the future
, expecting considerable advances in computational power, life extension
, nanotechnology
and the like. Many extropians foresee the eventual realization of unlimited maximum life span
s, and the recovery, thanks to future advances in biomedical technology, of those whose bodies/brains have been preserved by means of cryonics
.
, has been used frequently in academic literature. Perhaps coincidentally, the term was used in a 1967 academic volume discussing cryogenics
and in a 1978 academic volume of cybernetics
. Diane Duane
was the first to use the term "extropy" to signify a potential transhuman destiny for humanity.
Extropy, as coined by Tom Bell (T.O. Morrow) and defined by Max More
in 1988, is "the extent of a living or organizational system's intelligence, functional order, vitality, energy
, life
, experience
, and capacity and drive for improvement and growth." Extropy is not a rigorously defined technical term in philosophy or science; in a metaphor
ical sense, it simply expresses the opposite of entropy
.
In the philosophy of digital probabilistic physics
, the extropy of a physical system
is defined to be the self-information
of the Markov chain
probability of the physical system at a moment in time. This was to distinguish the probability of the Markov state of the physical system from the probability defined by entropy which creates ensembles of equivalent microstates.
.
In 1988, Extropy: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought was first published. This brought together thinkers with interests in artificial intelligence
, nanotechnology
, genetic engineering
, life extension
, mind uploading
, idea futures, robotics
, space exploration
, memetics
, and the politics and economics of transhumanism. Alternative media organizations soon began reviewing the magazine, and it attracted interest from likeminded thinkers. Later, More and Bell co-founded the Extropy Institute, a non-profit
501(c)(3) educational organization. "ExI" was formed as a transhumanist networking and information center to use current scientific understanding along with critical and creative thinking to define a small set of principles or values that could help make sense of new capabilities opening up to humanity.
The Extropy Institute's email list was launched in 1991 (and, as of August 2009, continues to exist as "Extropy-Chat"), and in 1992 the institute began producing the first conferences on transhumanism. Affiliate members throughout the world began organizing their own transhumanist groups. Extro Conferences, meetings, parties, on-line debates, and documentaries continue to spread transhumanism to the public.
The Internet soon became the most fertile breeding ground for people interested in exploring transhumanist ideas, with the availability of websites for such organizations that have joined the Extropy Institute in developing and advocating transhumanist (and related) ideas. These include Humanity+, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
, the Life Extension Foundation
, Foresight Institute
, Transhumanist Arts & Culture, The Extropist Examiner, the Immortality Institute, Betterhumans, Aleph in Sweden, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
.
In 2006 the board of directors of the Extropy Institute made a decision to close the organisation, stating that its mission was "essentially completed."
philosophy of Extropianism. It follows in the same tradition, hence the similarity of name, but has been revised to better suit the paradigms of the 21st century. As introduced in The Extropist Manifesto, it promotes an optimistic
futuristic philosophy that can be summed up in the following five phrases, which spell out the word "EXTROPISM":
These five key points, when taken together, formulate a philosophy and world view which embraces bio-ethical abolitionism
, life extension
, singularitarianism
, technogaianism
, freedom of information
and several other related disciplines and philosophies. While it does not make a firm political stance, it is most closely related to libertarian socialism
(given that it supports the abolition of money and property). Philosophically, it draws from the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham
and utilitarianism
.
Extropists desire to prolong their life span to a near-immortal state and exist in a world where artificial intelligence
and robotics
have made work irrelevant. As in utilitarianism, the purpose of one's life should be to increase the overall happiness
of all creatures on Earth through cooperation
.
The Extropist Manifesto, written by Breki Tomasson and Hank Hyena of The Extropist Examiner in January 2010 (site since discontinued) , details the ways in which Extropism has evolved away from, while building upon the original tenets of Extropianism. For example, it moves away from the original Extropian Principles by placing a significant focus on the need to abolish and/or restrict the current use of surveillance
, copyright
and patent
laws. This philosophy, inspired in part by the philosophy of the International Pirate Party
, is one of the five basic tenets of the Extropist philosophy, falling under the category "Overcoming Property". Other noteworthy topics that appear frequently in Extropist writings is the focus on equal rights for LGBT couples and individuals and a general distaste for organized religiosity
.
Extropians believe that advances in science and technology will some day let people live indefinitely. An extropian may wish to contribute to this goal, e.g. by doing research and development or volunteering to test new technology.
Extropianism describes a pragmatic consilience
Consilience
Consilience, or the unity of knowledge , has its roots in the ancient Greek concept of an intrinsic orderliness that governs our cosmos, inherently comprehensible by logical process, a vision at odds with mystical views in many cultures that surrounded the Hellenes...
of transhumanist thought guided by a proactionary approach
Proactionary principle
An ethical and decision-making principle, the proactionary principle is formulated by the extropian philosopher Max More as follows:People’s freedom to innovate technologically is highly valuable, even critical, to humanity. This implies several imperatives when restrictive measures are proposed:...
to human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
and progress
Social progress
Social progress is the idea that societies can or do improve in terms of their social, political, and economic structures. This may happen as a result of direct human action, as in social enterprise or through social activism, or as a natural part of sociocultural evolution...
.
Originated by a set of principles developed by Dr. Max More
Max More
Max More is a philosopher and futurist who writes, speaks, and consults on advanced decision-making about emerging technologies....
, The Principles of Extropy, extropian thinking places strong emphasis on rational thinking and practical optimism
Optimism
The Oxford English Dictionary defines optimism as having "hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view." The word is originally derived from the Latin optimum, meaning "best." Being optimistic, in the typical sense...
. According to More, these principles "do not specify particular beliefs, technologies, or policies". Extropians share an optimistic view of the future
Future
The future is the indefinite time period after the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the nature of the reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist is temporary and will come...
, expecting considerable advances in computational power, life extension
Life extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
, nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
and the like. Many extropians foresee the eventual realization of unlimited maximum life span
Maximum life span
Maximum life span is a measure of the maximum amount of time one or more members of a population has been observed to survive between birth and death.Most living species have at least one upper limit on the number of times cells can divide...
s, and the recovery, thanks to future advances in biomedical technology, of those whose bodies/brains have been preserved by means of cryonics
Cryonics
Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
.
Extropy
The term extropy, as an antonym to entropyEntropy
Entropy is a thermodynamic property that can be used to determine the energy available for useful work in a thermodynamic process, such as in energy conversion devices, engines, or machines. Such devices can only be driven by convertible energy, and have a theoretical maximum efficiency when...
, has been used frequently in academic literature. Perhaps coincidentally, the term was used in a 1967 academic volume discussing cryogenics
Cryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
and in a 1978 academic volume of cybernetics
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
. Diane Duane
Diane Duane
Diane Duane is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her works include the Young Wizards young adult fantasy series and the Rihannsu Star Trek novels.-Biography :...
was the first to use the term "extropy" to signify a potential transhuman destiny for humanity.
Extropy, as coined by Tom Bell (T.O. Morrow) and defined by Max More
Max More
Max More is a philosopher and futurist who writes, speaks, and consults on advanced decision-making about emerging technologies....
in 1988, is "the extent of a living or organizational system's intelligence, functional order, vitality, energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
, life
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
, experience
Experience
Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
, and capacity and drive for improvement and growth." Extropy is not a rigorously defined technical term in philosophy or science; in a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ical sense, it simply expresses the opposite of entropy
Information entropy
In information theory, entropy is a measure of the uncertainty associated with a random variable. In this context, the term usually refers to the Shannon entropy, which quantifies the expected value of the information contained in a message, usually in units such as bits...
.
In the philosophy of digital probabilistic physics
Digital probabilistic physics
Digital probabilistic physics is a branch of digital philosophy which holds that the universe exists as a nondeterministic state machine. The notion of the universe existing as a state machine was first postulated by Konrad Zuse's book Rechnender Raum...
, the extropy of a physical system
Physical system
In physics, the word system has a technical meaning, namely, it is the portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment, which in analysis is ignored except for its effects on the system. The cut between system and the world is a free...
is defined to be the self-information
Self-information
In information theory, self-information is a measure of the information content associated with the outcome of a random variable. It is expressed in a unit of information, for example bits,nats,or...
of the Markov chain
Markov chain
A Markov chain, named after Andrey Markov, is a mathematical system that undergoes transitions from one state to another, between a finite or countable number of possible states. It is a random process characterized as memoryless: the next state depends only on the current state and not on the...
probability of the physical system at a moment in time. This was to distinguish the probability of the Markov state of the physical system from the probability defined by entropy which creates ensembles of equivalent microstates.
The Extropy Institute
In 1987, Max More moved to Los Angeles from Oxford University in England, where he had helped to establish (along with Michael Price, Garret Smyth and Luigi Warren) the first European cryonics organization, known as Mizar Limited (later Alcor UK), to work on his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
.
In 1988, Extropy: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought was first published. This brought together thinkers with interests in artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
, genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
, life extension
Life extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
, mind uploading
Mind transfer
Whole brain emulation or mind uploading is the hypothetical process of transferring or copying a conscious mind from a brain to a non-biological substrate by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system or another computational device...
, idea futures, robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
, space exploration
Space exploration
Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
, memetics
Memetics
Memetics is a theory of mental content based on an analogy with Darwinian evolution, originating from Richard Dawkins' 1976 book The Selfish Gene. It purports to be an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer. A meme, analogous to a gene, is essentially a "unit of...
, and the politics and economics of transhumanism. Alternative media organizations soon began reviewing the magazine, and it attracted interest from likeminded thinkers. Later, More and Bell co-founded the Extropy Institute, a non-profit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
501(c)(3) educational organization. "ExI" was formed as a transhumanist networking and information center to use current scientific understanding along with critical and creative thinking to define a small set of principles or values that could help make sense of new capabilities opening up to humanity.
The Extropy Institute's email list was launched in 1991 (and, as of August 2009, continues to exist as "Extropy-Chat"), and in 1992 the institute began producing the first conferences on transhumanism. Affiliate members throughout the world began organizing their own transhumanist groups. Extro Conferences, meetings, parties, on-line debates, and documentaries continue to spread transhumanism to the public.
The Internet soon became the most fertile breeding ground for people interested in exploring transhumanist ideas, with the availability of websites for such organizations that have joined the Extropy Institute in developing and advocating transhumanist (and related) ideas. These include Humanity+, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is a Scottsdale, Arizona, USA-based nonprofit company that researches, advocates for and performs cryonics, the preservation of humans in liquid nitrogen after legal death, with hopes of restoring them to full health when new...
, the Life Extension Foundation
Life Extension Foundation
The Life Extension Foundation is a non-profit research-based foundation headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, established by co-founders Saul Kent and William Faloon in 1980...
, Foresight Institute
Foresight Institute
The Foresight Institute is a Palo Alto, California-based nonprofit organization for promoting transformative technologies. They sponsor conferences on molecular nanotechnology, publish reports, and produce a newsletter....
, Transhumanist Arts & Culture, The Extropist Examiner, the Immortality Institute, Betterhumans, Aleph in Sweden, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies was founded in 2004 by philosopher Nick Bostrom and bioethicist James Hughes. Incorporated in the United States as a non-profit 501 organization, the IEET is a self-described "technoprogressive think tank" that seeks to contribute to understanding...
.
In 2006 the board of directors of the Extropy Institute made a decision to close the organisation, stating that its mission was "essentially completed."
Extropism
Extropism is a modern derivative of the transhumanistTranshumanism
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
philosophy of Extropianism. It follows in the same tradition, hence the similarity of name, but has been revised to better suit the paradigms of the 21st century. As introduced in The Extropist Manifesto, it promotes an optimistic
Optimism
The Oxford English Dictionary defines optimism as having "hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view." The word is originally derived from the Latin optimum, meaning "best." Being optimistic, in the typical sense...
futuristic philosophy that can be summed up in the following five phrases, which spell out the word "EXTROPISM":
- Endless eXtension
- Transcending Restriction
- Overcoming Property
- Intelligence
- Smart Machines
These five key points, when taken together, formulate a philosophy and world view which embraces bio-ethical abolitionism
Abolitionism (bioethics)
Abolitionism is a bioethical school and movement which proposes the use of biotechnology to maximize happiness and minimize suffering while working towards the abolition of involuntary suffering...
, life extension
Life extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
, singularitarianism
Singularitarianism
Singularitarianism is a technocentric ideology and social movement defined by the belief that a technological singularity—the creation of a superintelligence—will likely happen in the medium future, and that deliberate action ought to be taken to ensure that the Singularity benefits...
, technogaianism
Technogaianism
Technogaianism is a bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies to help restore Earth's environment...
, freedom of information
Freedom of information
Freedom of information refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the Internet and information technology . Freedom of information may also concern censorship in an information technology context, i.e...
and several other related disciplines and philosophies. While it does not make a firm political stance, it is most closely related to libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...
(given that it supports the abolition of money and property). Philosophically, it draws from the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
and utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall "happiness", by whatever means necessary. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can...
.
Extropists desire to prolong their life span to a near-immortal state and exist in a world where artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
have made work irrelevant. As in utilitarianism, the purpose of one's life should be to increase the overall happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
of all creatures on Earth through cooperation
Cooperation
Cooperation or co-operation is the process of working or acting together. In its simplest form it involves things working in harmony, side by side, while in its more complicated forms, it can involve something as complex as the inner workings of a human being or even the social patterns of a...
.
The Extropist Manifesto, written by Breki Tomasson and Hank Hyena of The Extropist Examiner in January 2010 (site since discontinued) , details the ways in which Extropism has evolved away from, while building upon the original tenets of Extropianism. For example, it moves away from the original Extropian Principles by placing a significant focus on the need to abolish and/or restrict the current use of surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
, copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
and patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
laws. This philosophy, inspired in part by the philosophy of the International Pirate Party
Pirate Party
The Pirate Party is a political party in Sweden founded in 2006. Its sudden popularity has given rise to parties with the same name and similar goals in Europe and worldwide, forming the international Pirate Party movement....
, is one of the five basic tenets of the Extropist philosophy, falling under the category "Overcoming Property". Other noteworthy topics that appear frequently in Extropist writings is the focus on equal rights for LGBT couples and individuals and a general distaste for organized religiosity
Religiosity
Religiosity, in its broadest sense, is a comprehensive sociological term used to refer to the numerous aspects of religious activity, dedication, and belief . Another term that would work equally well, though is less often used, is religiousness...
.
See also
- Democratic transhumanismDemocratic transhumanismDemocratic transhumanism, a term coined by Dr. James Hughes in 2002, refers to the stance of transhumanists who espouse liberal, social and/or radical democratic political views....
- Digital probabilistic physicsDigital probabilistic physicsDigital probabilistic physics is a branch of digital philosophy which holds that the universe exists as a nondeterministic state machine. The notion of the universe existing as a state machine was first postulated by Konrad Zuse's book Rechnender Raum...
- HolismHolismHolism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...
- Law of Complexity/ConsciousnessLaw of Complexity/ConsciousnessThe Law of Complexity/Consciousness is the tendency in matter to become more complex over time and at the same time to become more conscious. The law was first formulated by Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin....
- NegentropyNegentropyThe negentropy, also negative entropy or syntropy, of a living system is the entropy that it exports to keep its own entropy low; it lies at the intersection of entropy and life...
- Proactionary PrincipleProactionary principleAn ethical and decision-making principle, the proactionary principle is formulated by the extropian philosopher Max More as follows:People’s freedom to innovate technologically is highly valuable, even critical, to humanity. This implies several imperatives when restrictive measures are proposed:...
- SustainabilitySustainabilitySustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
- Systems thinkingSystems thinkingSystems thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish...
- Systems philosophySystems PhilosophySystems philosophy is the study of the development of systems, with an emphasis on design and root cause analysis. Systems philosophy is a form of systems thinking....
External links
- Kevin Kelly on Extropy - Kevin Kelly at The Technium , August 29, 2009