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Rating: 
Summary: Biotech Needs "The ImmorTalist Manifesto"
Review: Brian Alexander mentions "The ImmorTalist Manifesto" by Elixxir (also on Amazon) in his book. And rightly calls it a "classic."
What is lacking so far for biotech is a new worldview which makes sense of it. And which explains its benefits, and its potential to help us achieve humankind's oldest dream -- the conquest of Old Age and Death.
"The ImmorTalist Manifesto" is this new post-Mortalist worldview we've been waiting for.
Read for yourself. This is the book the neo-Luddites, the Vatican, and the Christian Fundamentalist are afraid of. I find it brilliant and breathtaking and inspiring. Brian Alexander was right to call "The ImmmorTalist Manifesto" -- even this early on -- a "classic." It has the potential to do to the new Biotech age what the "Wealth of Nations" and "The Communist Manifesto" did for the Industrial Age.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not "religious" if you can do it
Review: Brian Alexander writes about many people I happen to know. In fact, his description of the Extropian movement in the early 1990's made me rather nostalgic. But he doesn't seem to understand why people would want to conquer aging and death, and he performs a disservice by characterizing the movement as a "religion," by which he means a belief system that's impractical or lacking factual support. Scientists have radically extended the lives of certain species of laboratory animals in apparent good health. Because of the conservative nature of the genome across species, similar biochemical pathways probably exist in humans that we might be able to use to retard aging and greatly extend our healthy lives well past 120 years. Religions, by contrast, don't have anything like an animal model to demonstrate that their beliefs can send animals' "souls" to otherworldly heavens, much less human "souls." So comparing physical immortalism with a religion is patently absurd. Still, I gave the book three stars because Alexander provides some valuable information and historical insight into a social movement that promises to revolutionize the human condition, unless the Kassian "Yuck" faction succeeds in suppressing it.
Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant history of scientific & spiritual thought
Review: I know many of the people outlined in this book and am deeply involved in cloning. Alexander's portrayal of me and my activities was accurate & pithy but was unduly one-dimensional.
However, this is a brilliant work which ties together ideas that have combined within the past decade or so to become a movement called Transhumanism.
By connecting the thoughts of early scientific dreamers with the realities of modern day biotechnology, Brian Alexander deserves the glowing cover blurb by Glen McGee:
"Brian Alexander has turned the most important scientific revolution since Galileo into an adventure story that touches your mind and soul. No writer has ever dug this deep or looked forward this imaginatively. With Rapture, Alexander has become the voice of biotechnology for the 21st Century."
As a cloning activist, I usually end up debating McGee on the air. However, he is right on target here. Alexander is quite right that science and biotechnology have become a new religion for disparate groups that believe in cryonics, cloning, life extension, etc. Many don't like the label "religion" because religionists are usually the ones persecuting them. The historic philosophical roots of this religion versus science debate provide a useful perspective to the new debates we are having in this new age.
If I could give it ten stars, I would. It is really the most informative "connecting" book I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant history of scientific & spiritual thought
Review: I know many of the people outlined in this book and am deeply involved in cloning. Alexander's portrayal of me and my activities was accurate & pithy but was unduly one-dimensional.
However, this is a brilliant work which ties together ideas that have combined within the past decade or so to become a movement called Transhumanism.
By connecting the thoughts of early scientific dreamers with the realities of modern day biotechnology, Brian Alexander deserves the glowing cover blurb by Glen McGee:
"Brian Alexander has turned the most important scientific revolution since Galileo into an adventure story that touches your mind and soul. No writer has ever dug this deep or looked forward this imaginatively. With Rapture, Alexander has become the voice of biotechnology for the 21st Century."
As a cloning activist, I usually end up debating McGee on the air. However, he is right on target here. Alexander is quite right that science and biotechnology have become a new religion for disparate groups that believe in cryonics, cloning, life extension, etc. Many don't like the label "religion" because religionists are usually the ones persecuting them. The historic philosophical roots of this religion versus science debate provide a useful perspective to the new debates we are having in this new age.
If I could give it ten stars, I would. It is really the most informative "connecting" book I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book - Noteworthy History of Transhumanism
Review: This book has got the buzz and the facts clear. It is a book about the "pioneers" of transhumanism and what they did early on that has set the pace for the futurists today. Who else is going to tell the story but a writer that admires the ideas of transhumanists and also can laugh with us? If you cannot laugh at yourself, what is the point of living a long and enjoyable life? There isn't, and this is to Brian Alexander's credit. We owe a lot to the Los Angeles Transhumanists - FM Esfandiary, Natasha Vita-More, Eric Drexler, Max More, Ralph Merkle, Greg Fahy - the entire gang. If you want to read a book that literally gets you to go to the frig and get a beer, kick back on the sofa, and dream of a long life - this is the book! Left of Center - but thinking toward the future. Jason Jefferson
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book - Noteworthy History of Transhumanism
Review: This book has got the buzz and the facts clear. It is a book about the "pioneers" of transhumanism and what they did early on that has set the pace for the futurists today. Who else is going to tell the story but a writer that admires the ideas of transhumanists and also can laugh with us? If you cannot laugh at yourself, what is the point of living a long and enjoyable life? There isn't, and this is to Brian Alexander's credit. We owe a lot to the Los Angeles Transhumanists - FM Esfandiary, Natasha Vita-More, Eric Drexler, Max More, Ralph Merkle, Greg Fahy - the entire gang. If you want to read a book that literally gets you to go to the frig and get a beer, kick back on the sofa, and dream of a long life - this is the book! Left of Center - but thinking toward the future. Jason Jefferson
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