Transhumanism: What Geeks Can Learn From Gurus
Robert Tercek – a friend, colleague and futurist – crafted a fascinating how-to on Transhumanism (i.e., “human enhancement”) movement marketing for the recent H+ Summit at Harvard.
Robert’s take was how today’s lifestyle gurus – Oprah (Tercek’s recent role was running digital media for her OWN network), Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins and the like – all drive humanity forward with their respective and well communicated platforms.
Subtitled “Lessons for the Transhumanist Movement from the Self Help Industry,” the talk walked through media/culture’s take on transhumanism: from other political movement comparables to mass-culture film memes – 2001, Blade Runner, T2, X-Men, Gattaca, The Island and Brazil – and into other memes like unfair advantages (steroids), hybrid (larger-than-life animals) and into a self help outline (slide 47 onwards) that suggests humanizing the marketing around Transhumanism, so to speak.
In many ways, Robert’s talk was probably a breath of fresh air for the citizen-scientists, showing how very mainstream lifestyle brands were making a difference, and how transhumanism could move beyond Asimov-inspired fiction.
Transhumanism in whatever form of research it follows needs to become more relational or day-to-day to the everyman, aging human. Of particular note, I just finished Greg Critser’s Eternity Soup: Inside the Quest to End Aging, which is recommended by and reads like Michael Pollan. Engaging fare on lifespan extension or micro-immortality.
Below, the outline and slides from the H+ SlideShare page:
1. Make It Easy To Follow
- A. Define What You Stand For.
- B. Make It Easy… To Understand To Join To Start Immediately
- C. Provide Facts And Data
- D. Break It Down Into Chunks And Small Steps.
- E. Be Honest About The Challenges.
2. Establish Rapport
- A. No Jargon. No Freaks. No Weirdness.
- B. [NA]
- C. Emphasize Practical Benefits.
- D. Relate It To Common Experience.
- E. Tell The Human Story via Success Cases and Real People
- F. Link Your Values To Existing Values.
3. Harness Emotional Energy
- A. Appeal To Emotional Instinct, Not Intellect
- B. Respect Legitimate Fears
- C. Convert Resistance Into Fuel For Change
- D. Leverage Pain And Pleasure
4. Inspire Action
- A. Talk About Today, Not Just The Future. Realistic Timeline.
- B. Show How Today’s Action Leads To Tomorrow’s Bright Future.
- C. Serve As A Role Model.
- D. Link Today’s Action To Humanity At Large.
- E. Convey A Mission That Is Larger Than Life.
Very interesting to understand the content and/or marketing links between transmedia and transhumanism. Telling stories outside of the main story (research gains) to create a wider story net.
Per Wikipedia:
Transhumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities. The movement regards aspects of the human condition, such as disability, suffering, disease, aging, and involuntary death as unnecessary and undesirable. Transhumanists look to biotechnologies and other emerging technologies for these purposes. Dangers, as well as benefits, are also of concern to the transhumanist movement.
The term “transhumanism” is symbolized by H+ or h+ and is often used as a synonym for “human enhancement”. Although the first known use of the term dates from 1957, the contemporary meaning is a product of the 1980s when futurists in the United States began to organize what has since grown into the transhumanist movement. Transhumanist thinkers predict that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label “posthuman”. Transhumanism is therefore sometimes referred to as “posthumanism” or a form of transformational activism influenced by posthumanist ideals.
thanks for mentioning my book. best regards greg