FM-2030 One of the Spearheading Transhumanists.

It was a lazy sunny summer morning on the canals in Venice, California in 1981. My coffee was cooling down a bit and I glanced leisurely at Thursday’s edition of the L.A. Reader magazine. Wondering if I should check out the week’s events, I thought maybe not. I simply wanted to drop out and take in the surroundings without having to get into an automobile. But then, what if I miss something important?

I looked again at the man’s face on the cover of the Reader magazine. Intriguing. I skimmed the story about the headlined futurist who defied death—this self-possessed, ageless, global futurist—and picked up the telephone — 411. He was listed, the line was open, he answered the phone, and his voice was rich, calm with an accent I couldn’t distinguish.

I met FM a few days later and from that moment on we have remained very dear friends. His graciousness is a quality that I want to have around forever. FM became the mentor for many of us at the University of California Los Angeles futurist courses. I am very fortunate to have known FM, to have been his partner and colleague, and to have enjoyed the many visionary ideas he shared with the world.

That day, when we met, I had no intention of publishing the interview of FM, and that is the truth of the matter. I knew it was just the tip of an iceberg and that there would be years ahead of us with which to explore the future. But to put the record straight, I will reflect on our first meeting and on his thoughts months before his suspension.

Natasha Vita-More

An excerpt from a conversation for an article I wrote prior to FM's suspension.

FM, when did you first become interested in the idea of transhuman?

It started sometime in the early 1960s, during the space program, seeing fellow humans in extraterrestrial space. The thought flashed on my screen, that we have been earth-based, terrestrial organisms and now we are starting to spread out beyond our planet. We can no longer be considered specifically human. In the 1970s, genetic engineering began to take off and this reinforced the perception that we are in fact evolving beyond human.

In my courses at the New School University in the mid 1960s, I suggested that the designation "human" was no longer valid—that we were in the process of evolving into something more advanced. It must have been while teaching at the New School that I hit upon the word transhuman. In Optimism One and Up-Wingers, there are references to this. In the second part of Up-Wingers, I talk about the fact that we are transcending our limitations of time and space, that we are deanimalizing our bodies and deplanetizing.

In 1972, Maggie Tripp, a writer, called to ask me to contribute a chapter for an anthology she was preparing titled Woman, Year 2000. I immediately thought that by the year 2000, there would be no emphasis on gender distinctions. The most revolutionary thoughts around the year 2000 would be ideas far more advanced, and that is transhuman. I came up with "Transhuman 2000," the title of my chapter of the book.

In your opinion, who are transhumans?

Transhumans are people with new body parts, those who have died and been brought back, people who are in suspension, people who are out in space. Transhumans are not a movement.

What I am talking about is evolution and evolutionary rampages through extraordinary ways. Transhuman—trans—are not necessarily the progressives. Trans are the earliest manifestation of evolutionary beings. What is happening on this planet with our species is perturbation. We are outgrowing our origins.

And Transhumanity?

This is not to say that people, future oriented people, and 21st Century activists cannot accelerate the pace toward transhumanity. For example, by accelerating the pace toward space colonization and immortality. In this way, we are advancing our transhuman evolution. Some scientists who are creating transgenic [introducing genes from one species to another] may not know the long range potential of what they are doing. We [transhumanists] are providing the philosophical framework to these scientific and technological breakthroughs. And that is another of our contributions.

You were the first lecturer to teach transhuman courses.

I taught at The New School in the 1960s, but in the late ’70s and ’80s, at University of Southern California. The classes, which came to be known as "21st Century gatherings" attracted close to 200 people. The core group, around thirty people, would often rendezvous—until the early hours of dawn—discussing far reaching ideas: multi-tracking, intelligence enhancements, biological-technological interfacing, space travel and indefinite lifespans. You remember, you were there.

One quality of many I admire is your sense of play.

I remember in the 1980s we, you and I, and others, took transhuman ideas seriously. We also laughed about them, joked about them and had a lot of fun.

What Now?

These days I am at work on 2 sets of ideas. First, in the 1960s and 70s I attempted to develop and launch an overview of the social, educational, economic, and political infrastructures of the postindustrial world. I presented these agendas and models in books, in New York Times articles and at seminars at the New School University and at UCLA. It turned out these efforts were premature. There was not yet a framework in which to file these new concepts.

Today at the beginning of the 21st century these ideas are beginning to c rystallize.If the nuclear family is in fact coming apart, what specifically is replacing it? What is replacing school-based education? What is replacing hospital-based medicine? What will eventually replace capitalism and socialism? What will take the place of elective government? Today more than ever people want hard answers to these pressing questions. I am offering a specific agenda for the postindustrial world that is this very day unfolding everywhere.

Second, I am also at work developing a new set of ideas for the coming decades. Specifically who are transhumans? How do they differ from humans? When will we emerge as posthumans? Specifically how will posthumans be more advanced than humans?

I expect to develop detailed profiles of transhumans and posthumans.

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