How are human beings exceptional? Compare a human being to a turtle. Just to make it interesting, we will exclude obvious physical and cognitive differences between the two species for the time being. It still leaves some really interesting questions.

1. How much has the typical life of the typical turtle changed over the past 50,000 years? How much has the typical life of the typical human being changed over that same period? (Interestingly, if the turtle’s life has changed at all, it’s probably due to something that humans have done.)

2. How much is the typical life of the typical turtle likely to change over the next couple hundred years? How much is the typical life of the typical human likely to change over that same period? (Once again, if the turtle’s life changes at all…)

3. How different would the world be if all turtles went extinct 10,000 years ago? How different would the world be if all human beings went extinct 10,000 years ago?

You can substitute any species for turtles and the results will be pretty much the same. We’re exceptional. Putting aside any arguments about the existence of the soul or a special role for human beings as defined by religious belief, there is still no getting around the rapidly changing nature of humanity or its undeniable impact on…everything:

We are transformers of the world, but beyond that, we are the transformation of the world. We are the making and remaking of everything around us. We are the defining, and redefining, of every concept that our minds can entertain.

Please do read the whole thing.

(Turtle image via Wikimedia Commons.)

Image via Wikipedia

Humanity Plus has announced that registration is open for their latest conference, December 4-5 at Caltech.

From the Humanity Plus blog:

Today, Humanity+ officially opens registration for its next conference, Humanity+ @ Caltech: Redefining Humanity in the Era of Radical Technological Change. Humanity+ @ Caltech will take place on December 4-5 (Saturday/Sunday), at the Beckman Institute at Caltech in Los Angeles, California. Speakers
will include many of the top visionaries and leaders of the
transhumanist community, as well as new voices from the worlds of
science, art, media and business.

The Humanity+ @ Caltech program will be divided into four main sessions, each one of which will cover a key area of transhumanist thought:

* Re-Imagining Humans: Mind, Media and Methods (Saturday morning)
* Radically Increasing the Human Healthspan (Saturday afternoon)
* Redefining Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence, Intelligence Enhancement and Substrate-Independent Minds (Sunday morning)
* Business and Economy in the Era of Radical Technomorphosis (Sunday afternoon)

Tickets for the conference will be $299 per person ($179 for students). If you register before November 1st,
you will be eligible for a discounted, Early Registration price of $249
($149 for students), so register today! There will also be a special banquet for conference attendees after the end of the first day, on Saturday evening. Tickets for the banquet are $39; space is limited, so register soon to ensure your seat. (Breakfast and lunch are included free for both days.)

Humanity+ conferences are open to everyone, but there is a discount for members.
If you are a full member of Humanity+, you can get a 10% discount on
conference registration, as well as discounts on future conferences.
Humanity+ is also launching a new membership program, Plus membership,
for transhumanist enthusiasts. Plus members will get a 50% discount on
Humanity+ @ Caltech registration, and free or heavily discounted
tickets to future conferences. We also expect to announce additional
benefits for Plus members over the next year.

If you are already a member of Humanity+, the discount code for
conference registration should be emailed to you shortly. If you’re not
a member of Humanity+, it’s not too late to join! Follow this link to join Humanity+ before November 1st, and you can receive all of the benefits of membership, including conference discounts.

If you are too far away or otherwise unable to make it to L.A., don’t worry! Humanity+ has chapters all over the world, and many of them hold free local meetups for transhumanists in their area. We’ve also set up a Twitter feed,
so that you can be informed when a Humanity+ meetup is happening near
you. If you or your friends are holding a meetup, just email us at info@humanityplus.org to let us know, and we’ll help you get the word out.

Humanity+ @ CalTech is hosted by the California Institute of Technology and ab|inventio, the invention factory behind QLess, Whozat, SocialDiligence and MyNew.TV. Sponsorship is also provided by TechZulu and Vokle.