🚀 go-pugleaf

My favorite movie of all time (to date :-) is the sequel, "2010".  One
scene that comes to mind is when the Dave Bowman entity(?) pays a visit
to his former wife, who had thought him to be dead.  "Dave, is that you?"
she asks.  "I'm not sure.  I remember Dave Bowman, and everything about
him," he responds.  "All that Dave Bowman really was, is still a part of me."
Sounds like Bowman got uploaded, and possibly merged with another (alien)
entity.

(Getting off the transhumanist subject for a moment, there's another scene
later in the movie where the monolith begins to eat up Jupiter, replicating
exponentially.  Could Clarke have foreseen gray goo? ....)

What defines a "transhumanist" movie?  Would any movie with cyborgs in it
qualify?  Even if it's well done (and there's a lot of lame cyborg movies out
there), I don't think so.  One thing I've noticed in the majority of sci-fi
films is a tendency to portray technology as evil, or something evil people
use, or as having bad consequences.  "The Fortress," "Lawnmower Man," and
"Freejack" immediately come to mind.  For me, a transhumanist film does not
portray technology as _inherently_ evil.  "2001" has a bit of both sides,
the homicidal HAL being countered by examples of how technology can be an
improvement.  (The space station depictions, Dave's "journey," and the star-
ship Discovery itself.)

"Star Trek:  The Next Generation" has become a sci-fi hit on TV, likely
because there aren't too many substitutes.  :-)  It usually has a positive
portrayal of technology, although they don't take a kind view to immortalist-
style life extension.  (You'd think that with all that wonderful technology
they'd have lifetimes of millenia, at least.)  However, there is one episode
I'm particularly fond of, "The Nth Degree."  In it, the shy, introverted Lt.
Barkley has an encounter with an alien probe that must be every extropian's
dream.  :-)  It alters his brain to give him an intelligence boost far
beyond anything previously known.  He gradually becomes a master in every-
thing from acting to warp fields, and uses his super-genius to solve a
critical problem at a science station array.  Unfortunately the crew grows
extremely nervous at his new-found capabilities.  Eventually his brain grows
so complex & intelligent that he builds a neural interface into the main
computer, where he moves most of his higher brain functions.  His IQ easily
soars into the thousands.

On a related note, everyone's favorite TV uploaded personality, Max Headroom,
is returning next January to the Bravo cable channel.

A genre that features a lot of transhumanism is sci-fi anime.  (Anime is
Japanese animation, and no, I ain't talking about Speed Racer!!)  "Bubble
Gum Crisis" is a cyberpunk anime series about 4 female mercenaries who use
powered combat suits to fight out-of-control androids called Boomers.  One
of them, Sylia, over time comes to realize that she is herself an AI.  Their
arch-enemy, Largo, is also an andriod AI.  He seeks to create a new, post-
human civilization (with himself in control) and to rise above both humans,
with their superior minds, and Boomers, with their superior bodies and capa-
bilities.

The cyberpunk anime film "Akira" features a teenager, Tetsuo, endowed with
various psychic powers.  (Flying, powerful telekinesis, teleport, etc.)
These powers grow over time, and Tetsuo gradually begins to lose control of
both his powers and himself.  In the end he grows so powerful that he is
consumed by his powers, and is transcended to another plane of existence--
but not before doing horrendous damage.  At one point in the movie he is
compared to an amoeba which has been given the intellect (and power) of a
human.

Going back to big-screen movies, I've heard of several transhuman movies on
the drawing board, including "Hammerheads," "AI" (I think this is a Kubric
film), William Gibson's "Neuromancer," and Carl Sagan's "Contact."  I think
"Contact"'s been shelved for now, and I haven't heard anything about "Hammer-
heads" or "Neuromancer" for some time now either, unfortunately.

If any of you are interested in seeing "Akira" or "BGC" (I also have the
ST:TNG episode), and if I'm not swamped with requests, :-) email me & we
could work something out.
--
Andrew Trapp 					dreamer@uiuc.edu

"The age of humans is coming to an end.  Now a new era begins on Earth....
Humans are merely transients on the long road of evolution." -- Invid Regis