The second transhumanism seminar laid the foundation for practical work

On February 19, 2005 Russian Transhumanist Movement in co-operation with the Library-Museum of N. Fedorov organised the second interdisciplinary seminar on immortalism and transhumanism. About 20 participants attended the seminar.

The following presentations were given and discussed:

1. International transhumanist movement, D. Medvedev (St. Petersburg)
2. Future studies — goals, methods and current practice, D. Medvedev
3. Classification of approaches to life extension, I. Artyukhov

The discussion on the seminar primarily concerned the nature of transhumanist views. The philosophical movement of Russian cosmism was discussed and considered the precursor of transhumanism. Particularly interesting in this regard is the co-operation between Russian transhumanists and the followers of N. Fedorov. The seminar participants noted the inclusive nature of transhumanism, a worldview based on positive attitude towards new technologies, that encompasses many different movements within itself.

A filming crew from “Profession — reporter” programme was present at the seminar lead by the programme host Andrey Loshak. The seminar was briefly covered in the episode “A cure for death” about life extension and cryonics, aired at 19:40, on March 5, 2005 on Russian television channel NTV (http://2005.ntv.ru/next.jsp?pid=3022&mid=720&iid=34249&pn=1).

Many possibilities for future co-operation were discussed at the seminar. During the following two days a number of meetings were held, were specific project ideas were discussed. Among these projects are:

• translation and publishing of a wide range of popular transhumanist books
• preparation of seminars and educational materials on life extension and transhumanism for schools and universities
• organisation of seminars
• organisation of a cryonics company in Russia
• collection and systematisation of information on ageing

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The Russian Transhumanist Movement was organised in December 2003 with the goal of readying the society for the emergence of transhumanist technologies. Since then the members of the Movement has participated in several scientific conferences, presenting papers on different aspects of transhumanism. The Movement is promoted at related seminars with immortalist and transhumanist materials distributed.

Official site: http://www.transhumanism.ru
Related site: http://www.bessmertie.ru (bessmйrtie means “immortality” in Russian)
Mailing lists: http://subscribe.ru/catalog/rest.interesting.bessmertie, http://subscribe.ru/catalog/science.news.bessmertie
For additional information please contact: Danila Medvedev, danila.medvedev@mail.ru