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Today we discussed flyers, flyers, flyers, and getting funding for flyers.

Flyers

• Eonl brought copies of flyers he designed.
• They are ready for posting.
• Future flyers - definitions of transhumanism, singularity, immortalism.
• Distribute flyers to departments around campus, mindful of their specific rules.
• If flyers don't work well, we can (1.) reach out to specific individuals, like the people in the audience image from the Aubrey de Grey talk; (2.) Advertise big events (ie. SENS discussions, John Schloendorn).
• We will request money for more professional flyers and posters.

Meeting Ideas

• Eon suggested presentations should include book reviews (none of us have time to read all the great books on various interesting topics).
• At our first real meeting we will lay down some down rules about presentations and meeting format.

Action Items

(Let me know if I have assigned these correctly. I suggested one or two week deadlines, but let me know if more time is necessary.)

• Eon and Richard - distribute flyers to departments - Due Wednesday, September 20, 2006 and then ongoing.

Calendar

• Next meeting: Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 12:00 pm, in the Presidio conference room on the fourth floor of the Student Union

[Back to Meetings]

Today we discussed getting a room, getting new members, getting flyers, and how a planet getting terraformed is a bad idea.

Room Request

• Our Student Union room request was submitted after the meeting. It will probably not take as long as I thought, but it is first come first serve. Our request went to the bottom of what appeared to be a relatively short stack of requests.
• We are considering using the ILC for the remaining meetings until we have a permanent location.

New Members and Marketing

• We prefer to, at least initially, reach out to other transhumanists, immortalists, and singularitarians. This could also include fence sitters with some knowledge of the topics and science backgrounds.
• Flyers
  • Eon will work on 50 flyers we can post in department bulletin boards.
  • These flyers will take a soft sell approach to club membership.
  • "Do you want to run a mile in 30 seconds?" "Do you want to rappel cliffs on Mars?� Etc.
  • The coolness of transhumanism versus physical immortality.
  • The hard sell is "If you want to do any of these things, then we first need physical immortality."
  • We may also want to eventually have more professional flyers, posters, brochures, and other marketing material.
• Surveys
  • Gage interest in classroom with surveys (will need professor permission, of course.
  • Fyodor Trestoyevsky could conduct surveys in relevant classes he is taking.
• Reach out to the potential Math/Tech Frat?
• Wildcat press release for official launch of h+.
• University press release through Lori Stiles?
• Business cards?

Why Terraforming is a Bad Idea

It seems more reasonable with the advent of transhumanists technologies to focus on changing human explorers to adapt to different conditions on other planets and bodies in the solar system, rather than spending time terraforming the new location for modern human inhabitation. Terraforming destroys the naturalness of the destination, which is one of the reasons why we want to visit other destinations in the first place. Even after exploration of the pristine location, it makes little sense to terraform the location for colonies. Lifeforms may more easily adapt to changing conditions than planets.

Action Items

(Let me know if I have assigned these correctly. I suggested one or two week deadlines, but let me know if more time is necessary.)

• Eon - 50 flyers about an upcoming meeting to be delivered to departments around campus for posting on their bulletin boards - Due Wednesday, September 13, 2006
• Richard - Write to LPL department for flyer posting guidelines - Completed
• Richard - Submit room request form - Completed
• Richard - Come up with some graphic designs for new flyers, posters, etc. - Due Wednesday, September 20, 2006
• Richard - Create new discussion topics for flyers, press releases, surveys - Due Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Calendar

• Next meeting: Wednesday, September 13, 2006, 12:00 pm, potentially in the ILC

[Back to Meetings]

Today we finished up the last few steps for university recognition, clarified the direction for h+, and welcomed two new members.

University Recognition

• Contact information for both the President and Treasurer completed the application.
• The application was submitted successfully and Richard and Daniel attended a mandatory assembly as the final step for university recognition.
• After some discussion, the h+ Constitution was completed and submitted.

H+ Goals

1. To provide the University of Arizona a forum for the presentation and discussion of innovative ideas about transhumanism and related topics such as longevity research, Artificial Intelligence, and the Singularity. We think this is timely especially since there are recent courses and a series of Templeton Foundation lectures on transhumanism at ASU.
2. To provide networking between student and faculty technology progressives such as transhumanists, immortalists, and singularitarians.

These two goals highlight h+ as a journal club. Members may also organize and participate in other activities, such as public outreach, defining transhumanism and related terms for a general audience, supporting transhumanist organizations, etc. These activities will be secondary to the two primary goals listed above, and club members are not required to participate. We briefly discussed affiliation with the World Transhumanist Association, but there appears to be little support for this idea at this time. We also discussed how best to market h+ and obtain new members. Fyodor Trestoyevsky has discussed h+ with a few other potential interested individuals. John Schloendorn may travel to Tucson and present to h+ at some point. Fyodor Trestoyevsky suggested planning upcoming presentations. Eon suggested we list the relevant non-fiction and fiction books we have available for others to borrow (a dedicated forum has been set up on the h+ forum for this purpose). We discussed uploading, risk management, DNA sequencing, technological replacements of human biological systems and other interesting topics during the meeting.

Action Items

(Let me know if I have assigned these correctly. I suggested one or two week deadlines, but let me know if more time is necessary.)

• No new items this week

Calendar

• Next meeting: Wednesday, September 06, 2006, 12:00 pm at the Park Student Union cafeteria (NOT the Student Union as usual). This may be less crowded. We are working on a more permanent location for our meetings (hopefully a conference room in the Student Union).

Miscellaneous

• Tim Spriggs and Daniel Wood (our new Treasurer) attended this meeting. There were 7 members in attendance.

[Back to Meetings]

Today we were joined by a new member - Guy McArthur - and we discussed Fermi's Pardox, the self, and uploading.

The paperwork for university recognition is coming along.

University Recognition

• Active Students - We need at least two active students, one to serve as president and one to serve as treasurer. We need their contact information to finish filling out the registration form.
• Constitution - We still need to edit the constitution.
• Mission Statement - We already have a good start on a mission statement.

Action Items

(Let me know if I have assigned these correctly. I suggested one or two week deadlines, but let me know if more time is necessary.)

• No new action items

Calendar

• Next meeting: Wednesday, August 23, 2006, 12:00 pm
• Richard will be out of town Friday, August 18 through Sunday, August 27 (will miss the Wednesday, August 23 meeting)

[Back to Meetings]

Today we discussed what steps are next for h+ university recognition, faculty adviser suggestions, and Eon uploading everyone without permission.

University Recognition

• Adviser - We agreed after the meeting that Richard will be adviser unless we come up with a good reason for a faculty adviser. We still may want to look into faculty involvement, but we can get the club started with this step.
• Active Students - We need at least two active students, one to serve as president and one to serve as treasurer. Fyodor Trestoyevsky should be able to bring in other students.
• Constitution - Clubs are required to keep a constitution on file. Richard will put a template constitution online so we can begin putting one together.
• Mission Statement - We already have a good start on a mission statement.

Faculty Adviser Suggestions

See above.

What We Did This Week

(Do we need this section every week? If so, can you expand on your own activities, if you wish to share? I did not take very good notes about this part of the meeting.)

• Richard - h+ brainstorming, read uploading information provided by eon, explored Second Life
• Eon - Lab work, read, explored Second Life, h+ forum discussion, dreamed
• Eon - Lab work, problem solution

We discussed AGI, uploading, DNA sequencing, and other interesting topics during the meeting.

Action Items

(Let me know if I have assigned these correctly. I suggested one or two week deadlines, but let me know if more time is necessary.)

• Richard - create Constitution page online and forum for discussion and editing suggestions - Due Wednesday, August 16, 2006
• Richard - email LPL grad and postgrads about h+ - Due Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Calendar

• Next meeting: Wednesday, August 16, 2006, 12:00 pm
• Fyodor Trestoyevsky will be gone for the next week.
• Richard will be out of town Friday, August 18 through Sunday, August 27 (will miss the Wednesday, August 23 meeting)

Miscellaneous

• Tim Spriggs will probably participate in our meeting next week.
• I am going to mention h+ to one of the computer programmer I work with to see if he might be interested.

[Back to Meetings]

Today we discussed potential future members, meeting schedule and structure, and what we need to do to move forward with h+.

Potential Future Members

(Please correct my spelling.)

• Alex Jenkins - neurosurgeon
• M. Stein - Tucson-area computer millionaire
• Tim Spriggs

Meeting Schedule and Location

• For now we agreed to keep our current meeting time - Wednesdays at 12:00 pm in the food court.
• Other possible times were mentioned, including evenings and alternate days of the week.
• Meeting rooms in the Student Union are best so we can grab food and bring to the meeting.
• As a recognized student organization we would have access to two meeting rooms per week "at no charge, with a two hour limit per meeting."
• Additional time and other rooms are available for daily fees.
• Reservations are by "Room Reservation Request Form" which can be filled out for an entire semester.

Meeting Structure

• It was mentioned that the goal of h+ should be to lead sympathetic persons to immortalist action, via education, networking, and discussion.
• We should have a set start time for our meetings but an open ending time.
• Meetings begin with short, 5 to 10 minute long presentations, followed by informal discussion.
• Occassionally we can have longer presentations.
• Time to describe quickly what each person has done that week toward the goal of physical immortality.
• Show-and-tell/networking - describe your current research and activities.
• Debate strategies for technologies like physical immortality and uploading - short introductions followed by debate?
• Video podcast of meetings?

Action Items

(Let me know if I have assigned these correctly. I suggested one or two week deadlines, but let me know if more time is necessary.)

• Fyodor Trestoyevsky - Let the group know the steps required to request university recognition of h+ - Due Wednesday, August 16, 2006
• All - submit advisor suggestions to Fyodor Trestoyevsky - Due Wednesday, August 16, 2006
  • Vischer (sp)
  • Faculty computer scientists
• Richard - Set up forum software on website - http://www.frontierchannel.com/h+/ - for testing purposes to see if this solution meets our contact and documentation needs (otherwise, we might use Yahoo! Groups or similar services) - Due Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Calendar

• Next meeting: Wednesday, August 09, 2006, 12:00 pm
• Fyodor Trestoyevsky will be gone for the next two weeks.
• Richard will be out of town Friday, August 18 through Sunday, August 27 (will miss the Wednesday, August 23 meeting)