Adventure

Tomorrow, for approximately 13 hours, I will be at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA attending the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies "Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights" conference.

This certainly represents an adventure for me -- quite honestly, I'm the sort of person who Doesn't Get Out Much. But I am extremely excited about this conference, and will be writing as extensively as possible about it when I return. I will bring my camera as well, though I'm not sure what I'm going to be taking pictures of -- maybe the sorts of people I'm likely to share the future with if all goes well?

That's something I'm incredibly curious about, actually. I think, and write, and talk all the time about the incredible potential we have as sentient beings to deliberately evolve, and I've communicated with a few people online who seem similarly enthused. But I have no idea what they're like in person. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow in some regards.

I decided to attend this conference a few weeks ago when I was sitting at my desk at work, thinking about, well, the future. A lot of this "transhumanist stuff" still feels almost dreamlike when I think about it, mainly because while I have found a few like-minded folks online, I haven't actually seen any of them.

And while I truly believe in the existence of Internet People -- that is, I believe that there are real humans behind the text I read, I expect it will be a wonderfully surreal experience to actually be in the same room as people who are likely to, say, seriously consider cryonics...or bionic eyes that allow us to see the extremes of the electromagnetic spectrum...or extremely long lives that actually allow us to see projects through and reflect upon eons of history.

So, here's to new adventures. Next entry will be a report on the conference.