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Tucson, Arizona immortalist/transhumanist club: h+


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#1 zerowave

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Posted 26 July 2006 - 11:14 PM


Hi. There are about 5 of us here in Tucson that are interested in starting an immortalist/transhumanist/journal club at the University of Arizona and we thought this would be a good place to start getting things more organized and known. There will probably will be about 10 members when we have our first meeting, sometime around the beginning of the fall semester. If you live in Tucson and are interested in this topic (and since you're on this forum I imagine you are), please let us know, and post on this topic, or meet us for club meetings!

Since this is just starting out, we are looking for advice and recommendations on how to make this a success. Perhaps there already exists a club that we could do a charter from?

Why start a club when we have imminst and others? Technology is not yet to the state where one can communicate more than in person, in most regards.

The purpose of the club as we envision it is to foster more understanding of current research in transhumanist-related fields (there are quite a few of them). We could do presentations on papers, record that to video, and put that up on imminst for others to see and digest as well. Of course, interesting discussions!

Ideas for names for this club have resulted in a consensus on: h+, but that was from a pool of 5 ideas.

So let's here from you Tucsonans or anyone else with comments, etc!

#2 Mind

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Posted 27 July 2006 - 01:00 PM

Just wanted to say thanks for taking this initiative zerowave. Clubs and social organizations are great ways to break through apathy of the general culture....and a good way to make new friends.

#3 Live Forever

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Posted 27 July 2006 - 01:16 PM

If you wanted, you could become an official chapter of the Transhumanist Student Network.

They have templates and stuff for flyers as well, and a Yahoo group where members keep each other up to date with whats going on.

Just a thought...

Edited by Live Forever, 28 July 2006 - 03:23 AM.


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#4 Richard Leis

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Posted 28 July 2006 - 02:49 AM

Should h+ be interested in public outreach as well? I do quite a bit of public outreach for HiRISE...presentations to 4th graders, the public during Mars Mania, and upcoming events at a women's prison and a Jewish organization. It would be nice to gently introduce physical immortality and other topics to a variety of groups.

If the format for h+ is primarily a student journal club, then public outreach probably is not a big consideration. Just curious.

Some other ideas (probably way down the road, if ever):

* The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies recently presented in Second Life while beta testing Vivox software for voice-enabled group discussion in virtual worlds. MLB broadcast the All Star game into Second Life. I can image setting up a MacBook Pro and iSight to capture video from our meetings and broadcasting it into Second Life or other virtual worlds.
* Invite the wide network of participants here to visit us and perhaps speak should they ever visit Tucson.
* H+ website.
* MySpace and other social networks?
* Marketing and graphic design (h+ is ripe with possibility).
* A conference highlighting undergraduate and graduate research in related fields (like GeoDaze - the Geosciences department's annual event).
* Field trips to Kronos, Alcor, ASU, to collect soil samples for John Schloendorn, etc.

#5 kent23

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Posted 01 August 2006 - 03:54 AM

Holy shit, how we dream. All those ideas sound like a full plate, Richard. We can't eat half of what we've got.

You're going to outlast me in Tucson, and your vision sounds like something that could be worked out with time. For me, it's another year of school, then I hope a summer helping Schloendorn et al, then search for a grad school.

But if I can help you get started with a weekly meeting at an acceptable time, then... I have a ton of other things to do, but robust social networking in Tucson sounds like a why-the-hell-not sort of thing.

I'd like to present an anti-aging paper in a Journal Club format sometime in the next two months. Minimally, we need a room with white boards, and maybe a projector for PowerPoint (maybe not). If you can hook us up with broadcasting that into the Matrix, then by all means... It might take you a year or so. Who knows. You probably have more geek cred and contact than I.

We're still on for this Wednesday at noon? Any and all Tucson-area imminsters can show up by Chick-fil-A in the food court of the UA student union this Wednesday, Aug. 2nd. Just hover around and you'll see us.

We can probably formulate a schedule for presentations and discussions this week. Does anyone volunteer to be secretary? I'll do it as a last resort- I'm not well-organized but I might learn to be. Also this week we should talk in some detail about each idea on your list (Second Life, couchsurfing and speaker invites, website, myspace, marketing, conference, field trips, etc..) If everyone can swing $300 maybe we can also attend the upcoming Alcor conference as a group.

#6 John Schloendorn

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Posted 01 August 2006 - 06:13 AM

I hope a summer helping Schloendorn

Ahh, that's good news [lol]

#7 Richard Leis

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Posted 01 August 2006 - 04:06 PM

Starting a journal club would be great. The rest was just brainstorming.

If we meet at 1 PM on Wednesday, then another person can join us. I will take notes.

#8 Richard Leis

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Posted 02 September 2006 - 09:57 PM

We recently completed and submitted the required paperwork to obtain University of Arizona recognition of h+, our local transhumanist and immortalist journal club. Now we are in the process of reserving a conference room for our weekly meeting and an official launch in a few weeks.

This has been a fantastic opportunity to get to know some truly great people. Thanks to zerowave, kent23, w+, and our new treasurer, h+ has finally become a reality. I also finally have a local and in-person outlet for my interests! :)

If anyone is ever in the Tucson, AZ area and would like to attend or present at our meetings, you are most welcome! Our website is located at http://hplusclub.com/, our forum at http://hplusclub.com/forum/, and the h+ email address is admin at hplusclub dot com.




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