Sean Redmond

"In my opinion, Mother Nature is a psychopathic bitch, and she is out to get you," nanotech researcher and engineer Tihamer Toth-Fejel comments offhand during his presentation on the potentials of future technology. "[You have to] adapt, change or die." His words are stern, but the audience hardly bats a collective eye. After all, he’s preaching to the choir—this is TransVision 2007, where transhumanists the world over gather to discuss issues such as immortality, space colonization and the emergence of the post-human. The convention is hosted annually by the World Transhumanist Association, a group devoted to the use of emerging technologies to enhance mankind’s physical and mental capabilities to their maximum possible extent. And while this all may sound like a bunch of sci-fi hoo-ha, don’t be fooled—these guys are for real, and they mean business.

The conference lasts three days, beginning with a focus on "Inner Space" and self-transformation and moving gradually to a broader scope, exploring the universe and humanity’s continual forays into the great unknown. The crowd is small but dedicated—which is unsurprising, considering the standard ticket price of more than five hundred big ones. But for the transhuman enthusiast, the convention is la crème de la crème of what’s new and noteworthy on the future-tech front. With big names like bioethicist Aubrey de Grey, author/inventor Ray Kurzweil and the one and only William Shatner—along with twenty-seven other acclaimed presenters—the event is a veritable who’s-who of leading transhumanist intellectuals (except Shatner, of course).

Yet, as the minute hand moves a good half hour beyond Captain Kirk’s scheduled time of arrival, it’s clear that an excited anticipation has swept over the growing crowd. And while the audience only swells to fill half the small Field Museum auditorium, it’s still noticeably larger than for any of the day’s previous presentations. Finally, a speaker approaches the stage to introduce the man of the hour, and after a short, bizarre video featuring a "Star Trek"/James Bond mash-up to transhumanist lyrics like "We can live forever and make everything better!" Shatner takes the stage.

It doesn’t take long for his cool demeanor and slight self-deprecation to get the audience laughing, and it provides a welcome shot of levity into an otherwise far-too-serious afternoon. Whereas speakers like Philippe Van Nedervelde warned of futuristic Unabombers who would blow the planet to pieces with nanotech nukes—and then went on to propose the use of microscopic cameras to perpetually monitor the population and preemptively exterminate "dangerous" individuals—Shatner keeps it lighthearted (and a lot less horrifying). "Why should any of you care about a science-fiction series?" he asks the crowd before coming up with his own response: "This whole vision of the World Transhumanist Association…very Trek-like."

(2007-07-31)

Also by Sean Redmond

Filibusting
"This is what we call a rapid response action," explains MoveOn.org volunteer Sylvia Wilkerson as a handful of middle- to older-aged women mill about the tiny memorial situated at the intersection of Belmont, Ashland and Lincoln. The protest is about to start, and the group expects a good fifty to sixty participants to show up for the "counter-filibuster," organized in response to a filibuster Republican senators held to prevent a vote on the Levin-Reed amendment
(2007-07-24)

Tip of the Week
In 1965, off in that exotic tropical realm of South America that is Brazil, the brothers Arnaldo Baptista and Sergio Dias joined with Rita Lee to create what would become the legendary psychedelic group Os Mutantes
(2007-07-02)

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