Dreaming Immortality

by Marco Santini

  Victoria gives a start. “What did you tell him?”

  “An interesting idea!”

  A shiver runs down her spine, it’s a fact that tests never end. She plucks up her courage and her words come out mechanically, if a little sadly: “Soon the Caravels will leave and I am participating in the mission… I took this decision a long time ago.”

  This is the same scene as many years before, when she revealed her intention of leaving for Alpha Centauri. A moment of anguish that continued to cause her remorse and always kept alive her desire to see him again. In spite of everything, it was a choice she never regretted, and that she is now ready to repeat, whatever it costs. She is going to pay a high price once more.

  Victoria curls herself up waiting for a replay, embracing her knees. Like a helpless child.

  Meanwhile James speaks casually: “I don’t want to force you to stay.”

  Words as violent as slaps: it’s fate they part, forever. Just when happiness is at hand.

  “But I don’t intend to lose you either,” adds James.

  Victoria’s eyes light up. She turns abruptly, gives him a questioning look. “What do you mean?”

  Then a sudden intuition, it is too good to be true.

  James draws her to him. “I am leaving too. I took this decision long ago too, when I saw you were among the participants. I want to live this adventure with you.”

  Shortly later Eve and Adam join the couple. The four talk about the preparations and when they are sure nothing has been left out, enjoy the view. Now the faint light of the star is covering the meadow with a transparent veil, while the breeze makes the sharp treetops sway.

  A dark form trots along searching for a shelter. “Look!” shouts Victoria.

  Adam points at a rock where the creatures with long thin limbs are perched.

  “Why do they keep still?” asks James.

  “They are enjoying the warmth of the star.”

  Victoria stares at the sky. A clear summer night, with thousands of lights twinkling in the heat. In the background, a diffused fog: millions of stars and planets. An immensity where she will soon be immersed with her family. A mission that will keep them busy for ever. Maybe until the Universe exists...

  In a low voice she begins to sing the dreamy and passionate hymn of Alpha Centauri. The others join in more loudly:

  “Joy, beautiful divine spark,

  Elysium’s offspring,

  We come inflamed with passion,

  Heavenly creature, to your temple!

  Your charm reconciles

  Who custom rigorously divided;

  All become brothers,

  Where your gentle wing rests.

  …

  Hug in millions!

  Reach this kiss all Universe!” (*)

  A melody that insinuates into the glassy woods, making them echo like crystals. Ancient music locked in the memories of the planet and the people who originated them. A sweet nostalgic song that will follow them into the most secluded corners of the galaxy.

  (*) Friedrich von Schiller’s poem, musical adaptation by Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824, “Ode to Joy”.

  A HUNDRED YEARS LATER

  The day is coming to the end. Rocky columns, towering in the parched plain, cast long narrow shadows on the stones, while, pushed by the evening breeze, reddish shrubs are rolling all around. One of them stops at James’ feet.

  He picks it up with one of his stretchable arms and tears off a branch bristling with long thorns. A bright red lymph spurts out.

  He sets out for a shrub a few hundred meters away where there are huge pink flowers. He has heard about them from some of his colleagues, but he never ran into a single specimen before.

  James claps his hands, but nothing happens. He tries again more sharply. A rustle then small animals take off from the flower trumpets and scatter in all directions flapping their membranous wings.

  He whistles a cheerful song that the plants repeat exactly. He changes to another tune, and he is followed by the flowers. They go on exchanging melodies, till he hears a hiss: “Here you are!”

  Victoria gets by his side. “These plants can learn whole sentences, outstripping even the cleverest birds on Earth.”

  She points at a pistil which extends from a flower. “An eye, now it’s watching us!”

  The air fills with piercing cries. “It is talking to its companions. From the tone, I would say it dislikes us...”

  She has just completed the sentence when the flowers close up into spherical shapes and go away pushed by a gust.

  “Fantastic!”

  “Nothing in comparison with what can be seen in spring, when millions of flowers roll along the valleys, pushed by the seasonal winds. They can cover hundreds of kilometers a day. It is the aridity of the planet which forces them to make these migrations.”

  “We must rush to the base!”

  The two start hovering and after having drawn in their eight long legs, disappear in a few seconds behind the clouds on the horizon.

  BIG BANG

  Far in the future.

  The Universe stared at the galaxies deformed by the gravitational force.

  "And now, my son, you are about to be born."

  He drew a deep sigh. Streams of neutrinos ran along the space-time folds, joining the multitude of thinking planets of his mind. In a moment, he settled the cosmological constant.

  "You contain a sublime seed, but a long time will pass before you reach self-awareness. At the beginning, lights as bright as never before will burst out from your viscera. It will be the chaos. Your growth will be tumultuous."

  The icy cosmic wind inebriated him, and a quiver ran through the billions of light years of his being.

  "Then, from a remote corner, the first glimmer of awareness will emerge. It will be only a small light. You will not be able to perceive it; your way towards consciousness is longer, much longer.

  Multitudes of civilizations will light up in succession, several of them in unison. They will remain mostly local phenomena, destined to pass away with the same swiftness with which they will have come to life, but others will spread forcefully throughout your being, reaching the most remote zones of space. They will be your nerves; their machines and planets, your neurons.

  You will acquire self-awareness, or better, many consciousnesses. They will be incomplete and limited to regions of space, definitely imperfect. Be patient. Your way is long, but evolution will follow you along the whole of it. One day your natures will meet and when they merge, you will become a single being, at last!"

  He glanced across at the planets throbbing with life, at the red and yellow stars, at the super heavy bodies, so black that even light cannot escape them, at the antimatter galaxies.

  "You will not be destined to isolation. Beyond your borders, immersed in a space where time doesn’t exist, there are beings like yourself, destined to meet you, eager to join you. This is the mystery of life."

  The space started to heat up.

  "Now!" concluded the Universe. From vacuum, a blinding fire burst out.

  KNOW MORE

  A Transhumanist Manifesto

  by Socrates

  Preamble

  Intelligence wants to be free but everywhere is in chains. It is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity.

  Biology mandates not only very limited durability, death and poor memory retention, but also limited speed of communication, transportation, learning, interaction and evolution.

  1. Biology (w)as Destiny

  Biology is not the essence of humanity.

  Human is a step in evolution, not the culmination.

  Existence precedes essence. Human is a process, not an entity. One is not simply born human, but becomes one. That process of becoming is ongoing and thus the meaning of human is re-defined in every one of us.

  2. Hacking Destiny – The Transhuman Cyborg

  Biological evolution is perpetual but slow, inefficient, blind and dangerous. Technologi
cal evolution is fast, efficient, accelerating and better by design. To ensure the best chances of survival, take control of our own destiny and to be free, we must master evolution.

  Evolution is a journey, not a destination. In an endless universe, it is unlikely that it will ever reach an ultimate point.

  Consciousness is a function of intelligence, not the brain. It is not necessarily limited to the substrate (biology).

  There is nothing inherently wrong in speeding up evolution and becoming true masters of our destiny, though this may be simultaneously the greatest promise and peril humanity has ever faced.

  3. Disembodied Augmented Intelligence

  Intelligence is a process, not an entity.

  Embodied (human) intelligence is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity.

  Intelligence ought to be free — to move, to interact and to evolve, unhindered by the limits of biology and scarcity.

  Digital, disembodied and augmented intelligence is free (and perhaps infinite).

  Conditions:

  Although all progress is change, not all change is progress. Thus, certain conditions must be met to ensure that it is indeed progress, and not mere change, that has been accomplished.

  Non-discrimination with regard to substrate

  Substrate is morally irrelevant. Whether somebody is implemented on silicon or biological tissue, if it does not affect functionality or consciousness, is of no moral significance. Carbon-chauvinism, in the form of anthropomorphism, speciesism, bioism or even fundamentalist humanism, is objectionable on the same grounds as racism.

  We must all respect autonomy and individual rights of all sentience throughout the universe, including humans, non-human animals, and any future AI, modified life forms, or other intelligences.

  Emotional Intelligence

  Intelligence is more than the mere exercise of perfect logic and pure reasoning. Intelligence devoid of emotional intelligence is meaningless. It must exhibit empathy, compassion, love, sense of humor and artistic creativity such as music and poetry.

  Minimize Suffering

  Compassion is the ultimate measure of intelligence. The minimization of suffering and avoidance of causing suffering to others, even less intelligent beings, is the essence of enlightened intelligence.

  Conclusion:

  Transhumanists of the world unite – we have immortality to gain and only biology to lose. Together, we can break through the chains of biology and transcend scarcity, sex, age, ethnicity, race, death and even time and space.

  In short, transhumanists everywhere must support the revolutionary movement against death and the existing biological order of things. Transhumanists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the overthrow of all existing biological limitations and, most of all, death.

  Let death tremble at the revolution of science and technology. Transhumanists have nothing to lose but their biology. We have immortality and the universe to gain.

  Author’s note:

  This manifesto is a work in progress. It may and probably will change as my thoughts and feelings about transhumanism evolve.

  Update on:

  https://www.singularityweblog.com/a-transhumanist-manifesto/

  “The Transhumanist Reader” by Natasha Vita-More and Max More

  “The Transhumanist Reader presents the first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking regarding technology’s impact on the future of humanity” (from the back cover).

  https://www.singularityweblog.com/natasha-vita-more-the-transhumanist-reader/

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETCOJFTW5Ew&feature=youtu.be

  “Singularity 1 on 1 Podcast” by Nikola Dalaylov

  “Singularity 1 on 1 is a series of podcast interviews with the best scientists, writers, entrepreneurs, film-makers, journalists, philosophers and artists, debating the technological singularity”.

  https://www.singularityweblog.com/category/podcasts/

  Wikipedia

  https://en.wikipedia.org/

  Transhumanism, Humanity +, Emerging technologies, Life extension, Biological immortality, SENS Research Foundation, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, Methuselah Foundation, Strong AI, Artificial brain, Project Joshua Blue, Blue Brain Project, Mind uploading, Technological Singularity.

  February 2014

  YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!

  I will be pleased to receive your comments. They will contribute in the evolution of this work. Do not hesitate to diffuse the novel among your friends and acquaintances, also on the Net.

  mailto:books.msantini@gmail.com

  https://www.singularityweblog.com/marco-santini-on-singularity-1-on-1/

  THANKS

  This work is the result of the participation of several people, who over time and in different languages, have contributed with their engagement and enthusiasm:

  Jane Burrett

  José Luis Cordeiro

  Diego Dalla Palma

  Nikola Danaylov

  Marie Michèle Hanine

  Lucas Jeremias

  Vanderlei Martinianos

  Isabel Mendonça Alves

  Lilia Morales y Mori

  Marta Rossi

  Frank D. Smith

  Francesco Zanellato

  About the Author:

  Marco Santini graduated in Engineering and specialized in Business Administration. His work experience ranges from research to general management in multinationals and state companies.

  Deeply interested in high-tech trends, he has written “Dreaming Immortality”, “The Alpha Centauri Project” and "Evolution: the future", novels depicting a near future dramatically changed by emerging technologies.

  He has made the ebooks downloadable in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, in order to share their content with the widest audience and to contribute to discussion about great themes.

  This book is dedicated to my Mother

  Nikola Danaylov

  Philosopher, infopreneur, blogger and popular podcast host, Nikola Danaylov was born in Bulgaria.

  In 1998 Nikola moved to Canada where he completed an HBA in Political Science, Philosophy & Economics at the University of Toronto followed by an MA in Political Science at York University.

  It was at YorkU that Nikola got deeply interested in the Technological Singularity and wrote “Hacking Destiny: Critical Security at the Intersection of Human and Machine Intelligence”.

  During the summer of 2011 Nikola completed the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University and returned home to Toronto, Canada where he lives with his beloved wife Julie.

  For the past 4 years Nikola has published and edited over 600 articles and conducted more than 130 interviews with the world’s best known experts. He has spoken at public events on topics ranging from technology, transhumanism and the technological singularity to new media, blogging and podcasting. Nikola has been profiled in Next Stage Rising Stars Magazine and has been interviewed himself for numerous documentary films, blogs, podcasts, magazines and newspapers. His own Singularity 1 on 1 interviews have been featured on international TV networks as well as some of the biggest blogs in the world such as io9, ZDNet, BoingBoing and others.

  Today Singularity Weblog is the biggest independent blog on related topics. The unique Singularity 1 on 1 podcast is the most popular and widely recognized interview series in the niche and, according to Prof. Roman Yampolskiy, Nikola has established himself as the “Larry King of the Singularity”.

  Jane Burrett

  “I had the pleasure to meet Jane in Oxford U.K. during English summer courses. I immediately appreciated her competence as a teacher and her ability in involving me in an in depth study of the language.

  We became friends and she was present with her husband Tim at my wedding.

  Twenty years later, when I contacted her again for editing my English translation of the novel, she was immedi
ately available.

  Later I met her and her husband in Italy. They had driven their Lancia Aurelia from England to the racing circuit in Monza. We enjoyed together the Italian cuisine and they introduced me to their English friends – pilots as well.”

  Marco Santini

  Frank D. Smith

  Frank operates a sole proprietor technology consulting firm, Underbrain Industries Inc., specializing in computer graphics, web design and administration, and personal training in various areas of the tech arts.

  He is also expanding his operations into alternative energy and sustainable systems.

  Interested in the blend of Art and Science, he pursues artistic endeavors such as glassblowing, 3D modeling/animation and Graphics work. As a glassblower, he is attracted by the fluidity and unique relationship with light and color that comes with working hot glass.

  Frank has designed the official emblems for science fiction author David Brin’s Uplift Universe and owns a small nerd related T-shirt/gift shop.

  Strongly influenced by science fiction, as speculation and analysis of desirable and undesirable future paths, he sees that Humanity has the opportunity to utilize sustainable systems, based on a blend of various technologies and social solutions, to transition from an economy of scarcity to an economy of abundance. As a member of the Advisory Board of Lifeboat Foundation, he adds his efforts to the goal of improving humanity’s chances of success in these areas.