Education
University of Southern California. Street Anne"s College.
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Max More
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Born in Bristol, England, More has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Street Anne"s College, Oxford (1987). His 1995 University of Southern California doctoral dissertation The Diachronic Self: Identity, Continuity, and Transformation examined several issues that concern transhumanists, including the nature of death, and what it is about each individual that continues despite great change over time. More is also noted for his writings about the impact of new and emerging technologies on businesses and other organizations.
His "Proactionary Principle" is intended as a balanced guide to the risks and benefits of technological innovation.
At the start of 2011, Max More became president and Chief Executive Officer of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, an organization he joined in 1986. Immortality is next." — Max More, On becoming posthuman.
"Number more gods, no more faith, no more timid holding back. Let us blast out of our old forms, our ignorance, our weakness, and our mortality.
The future belongs to posthumanity." — Max More, On becoming posthuman.
"People's freedom to innovate technologically is highly valuable, even critical, to humanity. This implies a range of responsibilities for those considering whether and how to develop, deploy, or restrict new technologies. Assess risks and opportunities using an objective, open, and comprehensive, yet simple decision process based on science rather than collective emotional reactions.
Account for the costs of restrictions and lost opportunities as fully as direct effects.
Favor measures that are proportionate to the probability and magnitude of impacts, and that have the highest payoff relative to their costs. Give a high priority to people’s freedom to learn, innovate, and advance." — Max More, The Proactionary Principle.
Achievements
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Founder of the Extropy Institute, Max More has written many articles espousing the philosophy of transhumanism and the transhumanist philosophy of Extropianism, most importantly his Principles of Extropy (currently version 311). "We have achieved two of the three alchemists" dreams: We have transmuted the elements and learned to fly.
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In a 1990 essay "Transhumanism: Toward a Futurist Philosophy", he introduced the term "transhumanism" in its modern sense.
Quotations:
"We have achieved two of the three alchemists" dreams: We have transmuted the elements and learned to fly. Immortality is next." — Max More, On becoming posthuman.
"Number more gods, no more faith, no more timid holding back. Let us blast out of our old forms, our ignorance, our weakness, and our mortality.
The future belongs to posthumanity." — Max More, On becoming posthuman.
"People's freedom to innovate technologically is highly valuable, even critical, to humanity.
This implies a range of responsibilities for those considering whether and how to develop, deploy, or restrict new technologies. Assess risks and opportunities using an objective, open, and comprehensive, yet simple decision process based on science rather than collective emotional reactions.
Account for the costs of restrictions and lost opportunities as fully as direct effects. Favor measures that are proportionate to the probability and magnitude of impacts, and that have the highest payoff relative to their costs.
Give a high priority to people’s freedom to learn, innovate, and advance." — Max More, The Proactionary Principle.
