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Celestial mechanics. History of celestial mechanics[edit] Modern analytic celestial mechanics started over 300 years ago with Isaac Newton's Principia of 1687.

Celestial mechanics

The name "celestial mechanics" is more recent than that. Newton wrote that the field should be called "rational mechanics. " The term "dynamics" came in a little later with Gottfried Leibniz, and over a century after Newton, Pierre-Simon Laplace introduced the term "celestial mechanics. " Technogaianism. Technogaianism (a portmanteau word combining "techno-" for technology and "gaian" for Gaia philosophy) is a bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies to help restore Earth's environment.

Technogaianism

Technogaians argue that developing safe, clean, alternative technology should be an important goal of environmentalists.[1] Theory[edit] This point of view is different from the default position of radical environmentalists and a common opinion that all technology necessarily degrades the environment, and that environmental restoration can therefore occur only with reduced reliance on technology.

Technogaians argue that technology gets cleaner and more efficient with time. They would also point to such things as hydrogen fuel cells to demonstrate that developments do not have to come at the environment's expense. Human enhancement. Cyberware. Cyberware is a relatively new and unknown field (a proto-science, or more adequately a “proto-technology”).

Cyberware

In science fiction circles, however, it is commonly known to mean the hardware or machine parts implanted in the human body and acting as an interface between the central nervous system and the computers or machinery connected to it. More formally: Cyberware is technology that attempts to create a working interface between machines/computers and the human nervous system, including (but not limited to) the brain. Examples of potential cyberware cover a wide range, but current research tends to approach the field from one of two different angles: Interfaces or Prosthetics. Life extension. The sale of putative anti-aging products such as nutrition, physical fitness, skin care, hormone replacements, vitamins, supplements and herbs is a lucrative global industry, with the US market generating about $50 billion of revenue each year.[2] Some medical experts state that the use of such products has not been proven to affect the aging process, and many claims of anti-aging medicine advocates have been roundly criticized by medical experts, including the American Medical Association.[2][3][4][5][6] Public opinion[edit] Life extension is a controversial topic due to fear of overpopulation and possible effects on society.[10] Religious people are no more likely to oppose life extension than the unaffiliated,[11] though some variation exists between religious denominations.

Life extension

A Spring 2013 Pew Research poll in the United States found that 38% of Americans would want life extension treatments, and 56% would reject it. Biological immortality. Transhumanist art. Transhumanist art is an art movement which focuses on the concept of transhumanity, a transitional stage in a perceived progression from human to transhuman to posthuman.

Transhumanist art

Transhumanist art claimed a role for artists as purveyors of futuristic aspiration and visionary thinking in an era of scientific and technological challenge,[1] questioning traditional roles of the artist, the era of modern art and conventional aesthetics. Instead its proponents advocate a future-oriented aesthetics, often reflecting transdisciplinary works in art, science and technology. Transhumanist Arts is an art period reflecting creative works of transhumanity. Schismatrix. Schismatrix /skɪˈzmætrɪks/[1] is a science fiction novel by Bruce Sterling, originally published in 1985.

Schismatrix

The story was Sterling's only novel-length treatment of the Shaper/Mechanist universe. Five short stories preceded the novel. Schismatrix was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1985,[2] and the British Science Fiction Award in 1986.[3] Plot summary[edit] The main character, Abélard Lindsay, is born in the ancient lunar colony Mare Serenitatis Circumlunar Corporate Republic, into a family of aristocratic Mechanists, but after being sent to the Shaper’s Ring Council, he receives specialized and experimental diplomatic training and gives his loyalty to the Shapers' cause.

Simulated reality. Simulated reality is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality.

Simulated reality

It could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation. This is quite different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality. Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of actuality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to separate from "true" reality. There has been much debate over this topic, ranging from philosophical discourse to practical applications in computing.

Types of simulation[edit] Omega Point. The Omega Point is the purported maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which some theorize the universe is evolving.

Omega Point

The term was coined by the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955). According to Teilhard the universe is constantly evolving towards higher levels of material complexity and consciousness, a hypothesis that Teilhard called the Law of Complexity/Consciousness. Cyborg. A cyborg (short for "cybernetic organism") is a theoretical or fictional being with both organic and biomechatronic parts.

Cyborg

The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.[1] D. S. Brain–computer interface. A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a mind-machine interface (MMI), direct neural interface (DNI), synthetic telepathy interface (STI) or brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device.

Brain–computer interface

BCIs are often directed at assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. Research on BCIs began in the 1970s at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) under a grant from the National Science Foundation, followed by a contract from DARPA.[1][2] The papers published after this research also mark the first appearance of the expression brain–computer interface in scientific literature. The field of BCI research and development has since focused primarily on neuroprosthetics applications that aim at restoring damaged hearing, sight and movement. History[edit] Berger's first recording device was very rudimentary. Transhumanism.

Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.[1] Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the ethics of developing and using such technologies. They speculate that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".[1] History[edit] Telepathy. There is no scientific evidence that telepathy is a real phenomenon. Many studies seeking to detect, understand, and utilize telepathy have been done, but no replicable results from well-controlled experiments exist.[6][7][8][9] Telepathy is a common theme in modern fiction and science fiction, with many extraterrestrials, superheroes and supervillains having the telepathic ability.

Origins of the concept[edit] Abolitionism (bioethics) Abolitionism is a bioethical school and movement that promotes the use of biotechnology to maximise happiness and eliminate suffering. The term “abolition” is used for the name of the movement, in the context of “the abolition of suffering". The term “abolitionism,” used to describe the use of biotechnology to eliminate suffering, was first proposed by Lewis Mancini in 1986, in a paper published in the journal Medical Hypotheses.

[citation needed] Abolitionism makes no distinction among sentient creatures— all are deemed worthy of being saved from suffering by biotechnological intervention. [citation needed] Abolitionists propose paradise engineering,[1][2] the use of technologies like psychopharmaceuticals and genetic engineering, to replace the signalling role of pain as it exists today with information-signalling gradients of pleasure.

[citation needed] FM-2030. FM-2030 (October 15, 1930, Brussels – July 8, 2000, New York) was an author, teacher, transhumanist philosopher, futurist and consultant.[1] FM-2030 was born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary (Persian: فریدون اسفندیاری‎). He became notable as a transhumanist with the book Are You a Transhuman? : Monitoring and Stimulating Your Personal Rate of Growth in a Rapidly Changing World, published in 1989. The World's Most Dangerous Ideas. The World's Most Dangerous Ideas is a September/October 2004 special report published in the bimonthly American magazine Foreign Policy.

Parsec. Antares. VY Canis Majoris. Hellfire Club. Marquis de Sade. Life[edit] Early life and education[edit] Total depravity. Libertine. A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour sanctified by the larger society.[1][2] Libertines place value on physical pleasures, meaning those experienced through the senses. As a philosophy, libertinism gained new-found adherents in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, particularly in France and Great Britain.

Notable among these were John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, and the Marquis de Sade. Hedonism. Individualism.