About
H+ Tucson is a transhumanist club at the University of Arizona. We meet most Fridays at 4:00 PM on campus in the Tubac Room on the fourth floor of the Student Union, to present and discuss innovative ideas about transhumanism, radical life extension, Artificial Intelligence, the Technological Singularity, and many other topics. Those who want to extend healthy lifespan indefinitely through scientific and technological advances, those who want to ensure the freedom to "upgrade" their bodies, and those who hope to shape the hypothetical Technological Singularity into an event that is friendly, safe, and fruitful - all immortalists, transhumanists, singularitarians, and other sympathetic technology progressives are welcome to join!
Officers
- President: Simone Syed
- Treasurer: Matthew R. Goodman
- Adviser: Richard Leis, Jr.
- President (2006/2007): Kent Kemmish
- Treasurer (2006/2007): Daniel Wood
History
In the summer of 2006 Richard Leis, Jr. was contacted by another Immortality Institute member who also happened to live in Tucson, AZ. After meeting for lunch once a week and meeting other people interested in radical life extension and other transhumanist ideas, a core group of five founders started h+. After a series of Founders' Meetings to discuss organization, University of Arizona club recognition and other logistics, the first official h+ meeting was held on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 with a presentation on "Paths to the Singularity."
Over the next two semesters the club membership grew slowly with the occasional posting of flyers around the University of Arizona campus. In addition to meetings, a core group of regular attendees decided to start getting together for movie nights and dinner (and occasionally racquetball.) Even when the 2006/2007 school year came to an end, movie nights continued into the summer. H+ returned to holding regular meetings even before the next school year started.
In Fall 2007 some h+ members attended the University of Arizona club fair to answer questions about our club and hand out flyers to students who stopped by our table to learn more. The event proved to be a success, leading to our current regular attendance at meetings of about 20 people!
Image Caption: h+ members meet and greet interested University of Arizona students and other passersby at the Fall 2007 Club Fair.
The h+ website has gone through many changes over the past year. The content has now been moved to WordPress content management software, and opened up to local club members to post whatever they deem appropriate for a transhumanist club. We have also created online presences on Facebook, Transhumanists.org, and Meetup.com.
We have also recently had the opportunity to interact with others transhumanists around the country, some of them that we knew well from their interesting content online. With all of this new online and real world activity, think of h+ as a local club that participates globally. We have made much of our marketing content, including posters and flyers, available for other transhumanist-related clubs and organizations to use.
Image Credit: One of the posters we created to market our club. "Do You Want To Die?" has been a very effective conversation starter and was used during our club fair appearance.
Timeline
- August and September 2007: Founders' Meetings
- September 20, 2007 (Wednesday): First official h+ meeting
- By the end of the first semester we had about 5 to 7 regular meeting attendees
- During the Fall 2007 semester we had about 15 to 20 regular meeting attendees
- October 30, 2007 (Tuesday): First official h+ leadership meeting
- Summer 2008: Affiliated with the Acceleration Studies Foundation (ASF) Future Salon Network
Contact
Feel free to leave comments on h+ Tucson posts and articles, or write to hadmin (at) hplusclub (dot) com.
Events
A list of "Upcoming Events" is listed on the front page of the h+ Tucson site. The complete list is located on the Meetings pages.
Software Used
- WordPress MU 2.6
- WordPress Plugins: