Why are you Transhuman (ist)?

For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated with everything about the world and my perception of it. My late father read to me from his science and medical books when I was a prelingual infant—the result being was that my first word, at age 18 months, was Tyrannosaurus. (Really.) At the age of seven I asked my parents if traveling in a spacecraft at transluminal speed would allow me—after slowing down to subluminal speed—to observe my vehicle, and thereby myself, arriving. (No, I hadn’t yet heard of Einstein.) One year later I was fascinated by my immediate realization that the perception of a rotated black-and-white wheel rotated at high speed would produce color on a monochrome television—meaning that the perceived color was generated in my brain. These epiphanies proliferated, leading to my autodidactic polymath voyage of merging imagination and intuition with science, technology and our species’ cognitive capabilities and diverse behaviors—a perspective and commitment culminating in recognizing Transhumans as negentropic beings on an accelerating trajectory towards the fusion and transcendence of biology and technology.

Biography

Mason Dambrot is a Transdisciplinary Researcher, Theorist, Strategic Futurist, and Author; Research Fellow at AGI Society and BMI Research Consortium; Board Member at Artificial General Intelligence Inc.; Transinopia Ideator/Architect; and volunteer at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) on the Digital Reality Initiative Steering Committee, IEEE SmartAg Initiative Executive Committee, and Standards Association (Neurotechnologies for Brain-Machine Interfacing). His primary interest is transdisciplinary convergent and emergent science, technology and societal futures including Transhumanism, artificial general intelligence, neuroscience, neural networks, synthetic genomics, counterfactual quantum entanglement and communications, brain-machine interfaces, bionanotechnology, and biomorphic robotics.

Mason’s recent publications include Theoretical pathways to real-time neuromorphic AGI ecosystems and beyond (Elsevier Procedia Computer Science, In Press); Emerging and Future Science and Technology, in Transdisciplinary SMC, Part 2 (IEEE Systems, Man, & Cybernetics Magazine, 2019); Preliminary Mediated Artificial Superintelligence Study, Experimental Framework, and Definitions for an Independent Core Observer Model Cognitive Architecture-based System (ResearchGate, 2019); Artificial Intelligence: Emergence and Evolution (Mondo Digitale, February 2019); Emerging and Future Science and Technology: Factors in Envisioning, Designing, and Implementing Hypothetical and Theoretical Transdisciplinary Systems (IEEE Xplore, 2019);  ReGene: Blockchain backup of genome data and restoration of pre-engineered expressed phenotype (IEEE Xplore, 2019); Enplants: Genomically engineered neural tissue with neuroprosthetic and communications functionality (IEEE Xplore, 2018); Neuroprosthetics: Past, Present, and Future, Chapter 6 in Brain Computer Interfaces Handbook: Technological and Theoretical Advances (Taylor & Francis Group, 2018); World’s Largest Brain/Vision Hackathon Melds Minds and Machines at the 2016 IEEE SMC Brain-Machine Interface Workshop (IEEE The Institute, 2017); Exocortical Cognition: Heads in the Cloud—A transdisciplinary framework for augmenting human high-level cognitive processes (IEEE Xplore, 2017); Of Mind and Money: Post-scarcity Economics and Human Nature, Chapter 6 in Envisioning Politics 2.0 (Transpolitica, 2015); The Zeitgeist of Change: The Role of Evolutionary Neurobiology in Political Systems, Chapter 8 in Anticipating Tomorrow’s Politics (Transpolitica, 2015); and Will Transhumans Be Transocial? (Humanity+, 2013).

Previously, Mason covered Transhumanism and Singularity research and trends for H+ Magazine; published reviews of over 200 scientific and medical peer-reviewed papers at Phys.org | Medical Xpress, a leading science, research and technology web news service covering physics, medicine, oncology, neuroscience, nanotechnology, electronics, space, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and other areas; ChemMatters American Chemical Society articles for high school educational curricula; coverage of complexity theory at Santa Fe Institute; technology and engineering R&D analysis and reporting at The Briefing Science; and as Japan Correspondent published articles for Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Science, IEEE Spectrum, Photonics Spectra, New Scientist, Scientific American, Chemical Week, Electronics, 01 Informatique, Columbia University 21stC, PC/AI, EE Times, Financial Times, Economist, International Herald Tribune, Asian Venture Capital Journal, and Japan Times.

Mason is the ideator and architect of Transinopia, a technology-based proof-of-concept post-scarcity community prototype; creator and host of Critical Thought | TV, an Internet-based online discussion channel focused on the sciences, arts and humanities; and has been an invited speaker at Stonybrook University, City University of New York, Cooper-Union, New York Academy of Sciences, World Technology Summit, Extreme Futures Technology and Forecasting Conference, Science House, Singularity NYC, and numerous other conferences and venues. He also has a related background in providing Strategic Futures and Technology Product/Service Naming consulting to technology organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 corporations, the latter including Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Adaptec, NTT DoCoMo USA Labs, Dow Jones Financial Services, and GreyDirect Advertising Agency.

Mason’s present and past affiliations include American Association for the Advancement of Science, Center for Inquiry, Lifeboat Foundation Advisory Board, Linnaean Society, New York Academy of Sciences, New York Futurist Society, and the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. He holds an Interdisciplinary degree in physiological psychology comprising neuroscience, artificial intelligence, neural networks, cognitive psychology, linguistics, ethics, and complexity theory, followed by Graduate Studies in Technology Forecasting and Interdisciplinary Science Studies. He lives in New York City where he pursues his interests in art, design, architecture, literature, music, dance, theater, cinema, and birding.

Related Web Properties

• https://humanityplus.org/
• http://www.ArtificialGeneralIntelligenceInc.com
• https://www.youtube.com/user/CriticalThoughtTV
• http://criticalthought.com/scimeme/
• https://www.ieee.org/

At BICA 2019 – Others at this conference include David Kelley, Tom Ross, and Kyrtin Atreides.

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