Humanity+ is a non-profit organisation that promotes ethical use of new technologies to improve human capabilities.[1][2][3][4]

History

 
 

Humanity+ (Humanity plus) was founded 1998 and legally incorporated as 2002 as the World Transhumanist Association (WTA) by Nick Bostrom and David Pearce to provide a more inclusive transhumanist view compared to other earlier transhumanist views such as Extropianism and to better engage with academics. The first Transhumanist Declaration was created at this time by both members of WTA and Extropy Institute and formed a shared set of values between different groups of transhumanists.

In 2002 James Hughes was elected secretary of the World Transhumanist Association, formalised its structures and began building up a international network of local groups and volunteers[5]

The archived WTA site can be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20161012051150/http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/hvcs/

In 2008 the organisation rebranded to Humanity+ and adopted a stylised h+ logo. The rebranding was due to political differences among members of WTA. [6]

Resources

Humanity+ has maintained core documents about transhumanism:

Humanity+ publishes the web magazine h+ Magazine.

Humanity+ operates Humanity+ Press, a nonprofit publisher "focused on works that promote understanding, interest and participation in fields of emerging innovation with strong potential to lead to a radically better future". Humanity+ Press has published six books to date.

Historically, Humanity+ began co-hosting the TransVision series of conferences after the first two conferences put on by Aleph and De:Trans.

Executive Director

From time to time, Humanity+ appoints an Executive Director to serve as the principal executive officer of the organisation.

Natasha Vita-More was appointed as Executive Director in February 2018. Previously Vita-More at various times held a number of Board roles including Chair and Secretary.

Previous Executive Directors have included, in historical order, James Hughes, Giulio Prisco, James Clement, Alex Lightman and Luke Robert Mason.

Board and advisors

As of September 2019 the board was comprised of[7]:

The advisers are [8]:

Membership

The operation of Humanity+ is governed by a set of Bylaws.

Humanity+ is supported financially by membership fees:

  • Full Member annual fees are $60, reduced to $30 for students, and for people in developing countries
  • Plus Member annual fees are $360, reduced to $276 per year for students and people in developing countries
  • Sponsor Member annual fees are $1,000.

Humanity+ also loosely coordinates a series of 'chapters' worldwide.

Chapters

Humanity+ chapters can be either locale-specific or interest-specific.

In either case, the chapter is set up and championed by Humanity+ members as a specialisation of the overall Humanity+ organisation.

Active Humanity+ chapters include the following:

Australia

Brazil

Canada

China

Croatia

Denmark

France

Finland

Germany

Italy

Japan

Netherlands

Portugal

= Russia

South America and Spanish speaking

UK

External links

References

  1. "About Humanity+". Humanity+. Retrieved 29 December 2017. "Humanity+ is a non-profit 501(c)3 educational organization dedicated to elevating the human condition."
  2. Dvorsky, George. "Humanity+ @ San Francisco conference starts next week — and io9 will be there!". io9. Gizmodo. Retrieved 29 December 2017. "Humanity+, an organization that advocates the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities, is holding their annual conference next weekend from December 1-2 at the Seven Hills Conference Center at SF State in San Francisco."
  3. "Transhumanism Meets Design". The New School. Retrieved 29 December 2017. "Humanity+, the world's leading nonprofit organization advocating the ethical use of technology to expand human capabilities, today announced its first conference in partnership with Parsons The New School for Design, a leading art and design school in New York City dedicated to the advancement of design thinking and education."
  4. "Humanity+". The Petrie-Flom Center. Harvard. Retrieved 29 December 2017. "Formerly the World Transhumanist Association, this is an international organization which advocates the ethical use of emerging technologies to enhance human capacities."
  5. A HISTORY OF TRANSHUMANIST THOUGHT
  6. adopted
  7. Humanity+ Board
  8. Humanity+ Advisors