Transhumanist FAQ
The Transhumanist FAQ is an important document in the history of transhumanism, covering many key matters of philosophy, politics and technology.
It has been developed collaboratively since the mid-1990's to the present day by a large number of transhumanists.
- An archive of v3 of the document, copied from the Humanity+ website, is available at Transhumanist FAQ Version 3.
- A newer version, evolved and maintained by the H+Pedia project, is available at Transhumanist FAQ Live.
History of the Transhumanist FAQ
The following information is adapted from the introductory section of Transhumanist FAQ Version 3.
The Transhumanist FAQ was developed in the mid-1990s and in 1998 became a formal FAQ through the work of transhumanists, including Alexander Chislenko, Max More, Anders Sandberg, Natasha Vita-More, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Arjen Kamphius, and many others.
Several people contributed to the definition of transhumanism, which was originated by Max More. Greg Burch, David Pearce, Kathryn Aegis, and Anders Sandberg kindly offered extensive editorial comments.
The presentation in the cryonics section was, and still is, directly inspired by an article by Ralph Merkle.
Ideas, criticisms, questions, phrases, and sentences to the original version were contributed by (in alphabetical order): Kathryn Aegis, Alex (intech@intsar.com), Brent Allsop, Brian Atkins, Scott Badger, Doug Bailey, Harmony Baldwin, Damien Broderick, Greg Burch, David Cary, John K Clark, Dan Clemensen, Damon Davis, Jeff Dee, Jean-Michel Delhotel, Dylan Evans, EvMick@aol.com, Daniel Fabulich, Frank Forman, Robin Hanson, Andrew Hennessey, Tony Hollick, Joe Jenkins, William John, Michelle Jones, Arjen Kamphius, Henri Kluytmans, Eugene Leitl, Michael Lorrey, mark@unicorn.com, Peter C. McCluskey, Erik Moeller, J. R. Molloy, Max More, Bryan Moss, Harvey Newstrom, Michael Nielsen, John S. Novak III, Dalibor van den Otter, David Pearce, pilgrim@cyberdude.com, Thom Quinn, Anders Sandberg, Wesley R. Schwein, Shakehip@aol.com, Allen Smith, Geoff Smith, Randy Smith, Dennis Stevens, Derek Strong, Remi Sussan, Natasha Vita-More, Michael Wiik, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and zebo@pro-ns.net
Over the years, this FAQ has been updated to provide a substantial account of transhumanism. Extropy Institute (ExI) was a source of information for the first version of the Transhumanist FAQ, version 1.0 in the 1990s. WTA adopted the FAQ in 2001 and Nick Bostrom added substantial information about future scenarios. However, with the contributions of close to hundred people from ExI, Aleph, Transcedo, and WTA, and the UK Transhumanist Association. New material has been added and many old sections have been substantially reworked.
In the preparation of version 2.0, the following people have been especially helpful: Eliezer Yudkowsky, who provided editorial assistance with comments on particular issues of substance; Dale Carrico who proofread the first half of the text; and Michael LaTorra who did the same for the second half; and “Reason” who then went over the whole document again, as did Frank Forman, and Sarah Banks Forman. Useful comments of either substance or form have also been contributed by (in alphabetical order): Michael Anissimov, Samantha Atkins, Milan Cirkovic, José Luis Cordeiro, George Dvorsky, James Hughes, G.E. Jordan, Vasso Kambourelli, Michael LaTorra, Eugen Leitl, Juan Meridalva, Harvey Newstrom, Emlyn O’Reagan, Christine Peterson, Giulio Prisco, Reason, Rafal Smigrodzki, Simon Smith, Mike Treder, and Mark Walker.
Many others have over the years offered questions or reflections that have in some way helped shape this document.
Archives of earlier versions
- 1999 - The Transhumanist FAQ as of May 13, 1999, can be found on an archive of the WTA website, https://web.archive.org/web/20020213221116/http://www.transhumanism.org/resources/faq.html.
- 2003 - A PDF identifying itself as v2.1 of the Transhumanist FAQ, dated October 2003, can be found on the website of Nick Bostrom, http://www.nickbostrom.com/views/transhumanist.pdf.
- 2003 - The Extropy Institute maintained its own version of the Transhumanist FAQ. A version from December 2003 can be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20031208110203/http://extropy.org/faq.htm. That document contains the following historical note:
8.1 When was the FAQ written? The FAQ is a compilation of transhumanist writings since 1989. Many of the ideas of transhumanity were covered in Extropy Institute's Extropy The Journal of Transhumanist Thought from the late 1980s through the late 1990s, and which have been referenced in our FAQ. In order to provide state-of-the-art reliability, ExI's FAQ has been revised over the years to provide accurate answers to the crucial questions about transhumanity and the role of extropy since its earliest beginnings and its far future.
8.2 Who created the FAQ? Members of Extropy Institute have provided information for the FAQ. Special thanks goes to Dr. Max More, Greg Burch, Natasha Vita-More, Harvey Newstrom, Riley Jones, Prof. Tom Bell, Christine Peterson, Dr. Eric Drexler, Prof. Marvin Minsky, Dave Krieger, E. Shaun Russell, Ziana Astralos, Anand and [many others to be included here.]
8.3 Is it the only Transhumanist FAQ? There are many transhumanist FAQs available on the Internet. As the original transhumanist organization, Extropy Institute's goal is to provide an accurate and reliable FAQ for the growing culture of transhumanity.