Natasha Vita-More

An expert on emerging technology and humanity’s future. She is the author and co-editor of The Transhumanist Reader, Transhumanism: What is it? and the seminal designer of Primo Posthuman, and an international speaker on human enhancement, radical life extension, and humanity’s future. She is the former President of the Extropy Institute and current Executive Director of Humanity+. Natasha is a professor at the University of Advancing Technology and former Graduate Program Chair. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Media Arts, University of Plymouth, UK) and doctoral dissertation is on Life Expansion. She holds a Master of Science (School of Engineering, Communication, and Technology, University of Plymouth, UK), and a Master of Science in Future Studies (Social Science & Humanities Department, University of Houston, US

Personal Life

Dr. Natasha Vita-More wrote the “Transhuman Manifesto” in 1983, hosted and produced “TransCentury UPdate” cable TV show in 1988-1992, and developed Transhumanist Arts & Culture in 1992. She also authored the Transhumanist Statement in 1995. She has been an advocate of radical life extension for many years. Natasha was a close friend of FM-2030 until his death/cryonic suspension in 2000. Today she is married to Max More, the CEO of Alcor. Together, they pioneered the worldwide movement of transhumanism.

History

In 1983, after authoring the Transhuman Manifesto, she developed events in Los Angeles that focused on life extension. In 1986, she produced and was the host of TransCentury Update, a cable TV show on the future. In 1992, she signed up for cryonics.

In 1992, Natasha (operating under her previous name, Nancie Clark) was elected to the County Council of the Green Party of Los Angeles County, representing the 28th State Senate district. She resigned her seat in 1993.

In 1996, Vita-More innovated the concept of a whole-body prosthesis. With a team of experts (Marvin Minsky (AI), Hans Moravec (robotics) and Ralph Merkle (nanotechnology)), she designed the first future body design as a wearable system. This is known as Primo Posthuman, a vision for a highly modified transhuman body.

In 2004 she briefly set up an early alliance of transhumanist organizations in the form of the Transhumanist Cooperative Colloquium.

In 2015, Natasha demonstrated that long-term memory of the nematode worm C. elegans can be sustained after cryonic suspension and reviving. The published paper and received more than 16,000 downloads in the first month.

As an ‘icon’ of transhumanism, she is the first Female Philosopher of Transhumanism and Author of the Transhuman Manifesto (1983)

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9 Comments Add yours

  1. Certainly we can say that an individual is dead even if they are cryonically suspended. Current technology only allows for the preservation of the body and would kill the person even if they were alive when frozen. So they are dead not only in the legal sense but also in a real physiological sense. If, as is hoped, we manage to bring people back in the future it will require essentially rebuilding parts of the body that were damaged to cause the initial death and whatever additional functional damage was done by the cryogenic methods that were used. This will be more akin to a resurrection than a mere resuscitation.

  2. David Kelley says:

    Sure, but we might also just reconstruct them in a digital environment. It really is a matter of perspective I think. while I agree with you it is not wrong from a certain perspective that vitrified or frozen people could be considered still alive.

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