The Tech-FAQ Manifesto 1.1
The Basic Principles of a Transhumanist Individualist
We love technology. We embrace it as part of who we are or aspire to be. We recognize human history as that of constantly increasing co-dependence and co-evolution with technology, perpetually replacing the old paradigms with the new ones. We see a universe of possibilities unfolding as a result of that process.
We are the universe turned to bits of conscious thought, and nothing but the universe itself should be our limit. To aspire towards transcendence of current limitations is human. The following are our basic principles.
1. The universe is in bits and pieces.
The universe consists of fundamental particles, but it knows itself as bits of information within conscious minds.
Everything that exists or can exist is just a specific structure of particles or events. A conscious mind only needs to posses the right bits of information regarding these structures to be able to create anything that can exist in the universe.
Mystery is only the undiscovered, not the undiscoverable. The difference between power and powerlessness is the difference between knowledge and ignorance.
2. Science applied is technology.
Science is the process of attaining knowledge. Technology is the process of turning knowledge into power.
3. Technology is not at odds with being human.
Science and technology are enabled by our nature as human beings. You can no more deny a human its technology than you can deny a bird its feathers.
4. We are machines just like everything else in nature.
We are as much a part of the universe as anything else in existence. We are a specific structure of particles brought into form by a specific chain of events. We are a functioning sum of our parts just like everything else in nature, including the machines we create ourselves.
5. There is no such thing as too much technology if it empowers you.
All life strives to extend itself. All beings strive towards maximum self-expression allowed them by their nature as themselves. There is no such thing as too many feathers on a bird capable of striving to fly higher, longer and faster. If a technology empowers you to be the most of what you aspire to be, it is not an excess.
6. Technology should empower individuals.
Reality is built from the bottom up. Communities are consisted of individuals. The good of the individual is the good of the community. The only way a community can be empowered is by the empowerment of individuals. The only way an entire community can benefit is through the maximum empowerment of each and every individual. To support centralization of technological power in the hands of the few is to risk being among the majority of the disadvantaged.
7. Technology is neutral, neither good nor evil.
The use of a tool is a means to an end. The tool itself, unused, is not. The means or the end can include disempowerment of individuals, but the tool itself remains nothing more than a physical structure incapable of directing its own purpose.
Only technology evolved to conscious machines which can direct their own purpose can be good or evil.
8. Technology can help us overcome all economic and social ills.
We create technology to open up possibilities that previously were not available, and exceed previous limitations. This gives us more power, including more power to create. It is a self-reinforcing feedback loop that results in continuous co-evolution of both the creator and the created.
9. Be genuinely yourself. Use technology to amplify rather than diminish yourself.
Given that technology is neutral it will only aid in the disempowerment of those who contradict their own values. Maximum self-expression rather than self-contradiction and ultimate self-diminishment require honesty and a daring to be extraordinary. Pretension and conformism for its own sake are self-destructive.
10. Give value to others and they will give value to you.
When maximally self-expressive and extraordinary individuals meet, they create amazing synergy. They do not seek to diminish each other precisely because they do not seek to diminish themselves. They understand that voluntary giving is conducive to voluntary receiving. They understand that empowering others empowers themselves.
Given that knowledge is conducive to power, sharing the right bits of information can be the ultimate act of empowerment.