The question of the day is.... Will technology go too far? We've seen it in countless Hollywood movies; man builds robots, robots get too smart, man gets wiped out. With the ever increasing speed of technological advances where technology builds technology, will we allow it to get to that point?

Today's episode is my conversation with entrepreneur, politician, and transhumanist, Zoltan Istvan about what the future holds for mankind and their relationship with machines.

Zoltan is a big proponent of the merging of man with tech and as an optimist, he believes that the future is bright with endless possibilities of exoskeletons, superhuman abilities, and potentially immortality.

All that and much more on today's episode of The System is Down, "Transhumanism: The Next Evolution of Man w. Zoltan Istvan".

Question Everything and Stay Uncomfortable

Let's get weird!

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Transhumanism: The Next Evolution of Man w. Zoltan Istvan (Video Interview)

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Causes

On the surface, the most apparent cause of the Enlightenmentwas the Thirty Years War. This horribly destructivewar, which lasted from 1618 to 1648,compelled German writers to pen harsh criticisms regarding the ideasof nationalism and warfare. These authors, such as HugoGrotius and John Comenius, were some of thefirst Enlightenment minds to go against tradition and propose bettersolutions.

At the same time, European thinkers interest in the tangible worlddeveloped into scientific study, while greater exploration of theworld exposed Europe to other cultures and philosophies. Finally,centuries of mistreatment at the hands of monarchies and the churchbrought average citizens in Europe to a breaking point, and themost intelligent and vocal finally decided to speak out.

The Enlightenment developed through a snowball effect:small advances triggered larger ones, and before Europe and theworld knew it, almost two centuries of philosophizing and innovationhad ensued. These studies generally began in the fields of earthscience and astronomy, as notables such as Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei tookthe old, beloved truths of Aristotle and disproved them. Thinkerssuch as Ren Descartes and Francis Bacon revisedthe scientific method, setting the stage for Isaac Newton andhis landmark discoveries in physics.

From these discoveries emerged a system for observingthe world and making testable hypotheses based on thoseobservations. At the same time, however, scientists faced ever-increasingscorn and skepticism from people in the religious community, whofelt threatened by science and its attempts to explain matters offaith. Nevertheless, the progressive, rebellious spirit of thesescientists would inspire a centurys worth of thinkers.

The first major Enlightenment figure in Englandwas Thomas Hobbes, who caused great controversywith the release of his provocative treatise Leviathan (1651).Taking a sociological perspective, Hobbes felt that by nature, peoplewere self-serving and preoccupied with the gathering of a limitednumber of resources. To keep balance, Hobbes continued, it was essentialto have a single intimidating ruler. A half century later, JohnLocke came into the picture, promoting the opposite typeof governmenta representative governmentin his Two Treatisesof Government (1690).

Although Hobbes would be more influential among his contemporaries,it was clear that Lockes message was closer to the English peopleshearts and minds. Just before the turn of the century, in 1688,English Protestants helped overthrow the Catholic king JamesII and installed the Protestant monarchs William andMary. In the aftermath of this Glorious Revolution,the English government ratified a new Bill of Rights that grantedmore personal freedoms.

Many of the major French Enlightenment thinkers, or philosophes, wereborn in the years after the Glorious Revolution, so Frances Enlightenmentcame a bit later, in the mid-1700s.The philosophes, though varying in style and area of particularconcern, generally emphasized the power of reason and sought todiscover the natural laws governing human society. The Baronde Montesquieu tackled politics by elaborating upon Locke'swork, solidifying concepts such as the separation of power bymeans of divisions in government. Voltaire took a morecaustic approach, choosing to incite social and political changeby means of satire and criticism. Although Voltaires satires arguablysparked little in the way of concrete change, Voltaire neverthelesswas adept at exposing injustices and appealed to a wide range ofreaders. His short novel Candide is regarded as oneof the seminal works in history.

Denis Diderot, unlike Montesquieu and Voltaire,had no revolutionary aspirations; he was interested merely in collectingas much knowledge as possible for his mammoth Encyclopdie.The Encyclopdie, which ultimately weighed in atthirty-five volumes, would go on to spread Enlightenment knowledgeto other countries around the world.

In reaction to the rather empirical philosophiesof Voltaire and others, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote TheSocial Contract (1762),a work championing a form of government based on small, direct democracy thatdirectly reflects the will of the population. Later, at the endof his career, he would write Confessions, a deeplypersonal reflection on his life. The unprecedented intimate perspectivethat Rousseau provided contributed to a burgeoning Romantic erathat would be defined by an emphasis on emotion and instinct insteadof reason.

Another undercurrent that threatened the prevailing principlesof the Enlightenment was skepticism. Skeptics questionedwhether human society could really be perfected through the useof reason and denied the ability of rational thought to reveal universaltruths. Their philosophies revolved around the idea that the perceived worldis relative to the beholder and, as such, no one can be sure whetherany truths actually exist.

Immanuel Kant, working in Germany duringthe late eighteenth century, took skepticism to its greatest lengths,arguing that man could truly know neither observed objects nor metaphysicalconcepts; rather, the experience of such things depends upon thepsyche of the observer, thus rendering universal truths impossible. Thetheories of Kant, along with those of other skeptics such as DavidHume, were influential enough to change the nature of European thoughtand effectively end the Enlightenment.

Ultimately, the Enlightenment fell victim to competingideas from several sources. Romanticism was more appealing to less-educated commonfolk and pulled them away from the empirical, scientific ideas ofearlier Enlightenment philosophers. Similarly, the theories of skepticismcame into direct conflict with the reason-based assertions of theEnlightenment and gained a following of their own.

What ultimately and abruptly killed the Enlightenment,however, was the French Revolution. Begun with thebest intentions by French citizens inspired by Enlightenment thought,the revolution attempted to implement orderly representative assembliesbut quickly degraded into chaos and violence. Many people citedthe Enlightenment-induced breakdown of norms as the root cause of theinstability and saw the violence as proof that the masses could notbe trusted to govern themselves. Nonetheless, the discoveries andtheories of the Enlightenment philosophers continued to influenceWestern society for centuries.

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SparkNotes: The Enlightenment (16501800): Brief Overview

Anthony Gottliebs landmark The Dream of Reason and its sequel challenge Bertrand Russells classic as the definitive history of Western philosophy.

Western philosophy is now two and a half millennia old, but much of it came in just two staccato bursts, each lasting only about 150 years. In his landmark survey of Western philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance, The Dream of Reason, Anthony Gottlieb documented the first burst, which came in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Now, in his sequel, The Dream of Enlightenment, Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short periodfrom the early 1640s to the eve of the French RevolutionDescartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy.

As Gottlieb explains, all these men were amateurs: none had much to do with any university. They tried to fathom the implications of the new science and of religious upheaval, which led them to question traditional teachings and attitudes. What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and for our ideas of God? How should a government deal with religious diversityand what, actually, is government for? Such questions remain our questions, which is why Descartes, Hobbes, and the others are still pondered today.

Yet it is because we still want to hear them that we can easily get these philosophers wrong. It is tempting to think they speak our language and live in our world; but to understand them properly, we must step back into their shoes. Gottlieb puts readers in the minds of these frequently misinterpreted figures, elucidating the history of their times and the development of scientific ideas while engagingly explaining their arguments and assessing their legacy in lively prose.

With chapters focusing on Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Pierre Bayle, Leibniz, Hume, Rousseau, and Voltaireand many walk-on partsThe Dream of Enlightenment creates a sweeping account of what the Enlightenment amounted to, and why we are still in its debt.

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Amazon.com: The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern ...

Please enjoy this repost of one of my most popular essays (originally written in 2005):

For many people, the main appeal of George Lucas Star Wars movies is the Jedi Way, the philosophy/religion that guides the mystical Jedi knights. But where does this philosophy come from, and does it hold up under scrutiny?

At root, the Jedi Way is a synthesis of three Eastern religions or philosophies, with an overlay of courtly behavior drawn from the medieval knights of Europe.

The most important source for the Jedi Way is Taoism, an ancient Chinese philosophy whose name is generally translated as the Way or as the Way of Nature. The two main goals of Taoism are to achieve balance and to exist in harmony with nature (and with all living beings). There is no deity as such in Taoism, which conceptualizes ultimate reality as a primal energy. This energy is expressed in the world in the form of two equal and opposing forces, the yin or passive female force, and the yang or active male force. These forces are neither good nor evil, and what is desirable is that they be in balance at all times.

The tension between yin and yang creates qi (pronounced chee and sometimes transliterated as chi) or life energy. Qi is found in all things, but particularly living creatures. The manipulation of qi is at the root of many traditional Chinese practices including acupuncture, feng shui and tai chi. According to legend, command of qi flow (as practiced by qigong masters) brings many mystical powers similar to those of the Jedi, such as the ability to move objects with the mind. In the movies, the name of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin is probably a deliberate reference to qi gong.

(Since Taoism is more of a philosophy than a religion, it is often combined together with religious beliefs from other traditions, such as Buddhism or Christianity.)

The second major source of the Jedi Way is Buddhism, specifically Zen, a variant found largely in Japan. As with most forms of Buddhism, Zen preaches non-attachment, the letting go of emotional bonds to people, places and things. The ultimate goal is to reach a selfless state of dispassionate compassion for all living things. Like the Jedi knights, Buddhist monks are ascetic and celibate. Zen monks are known, at least in the popular imagination, for developing a particular ability or craft to the point where it can be practiced with no conscious effort and nearly superhuman skill.

The third major source for the Jedi worldview is Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion which viewed the world as an eternal battlefield between the forces of good and evil. Although Zoroastrianism has only small pockets of practitioners left in the modern world, it was a major influence on many other philosophies and religions. Echoes of it are present in many places, including the way many modern Christians conceptualize the devil as a force opposite and nearly equal to God.

Finally, the Jedi philosophy is overlaid with a code of chivalry based on that practiced by the medieval knights of Europe, who operated by a code of ethics including strict rules for combat, high standards of courtesy, warrior virtues such as honor, loyalty and bravery and a veneration of courtly love. The knightly facet of the Jedi is exemplified in the movies by their preference for the elegant light sabers as opposed to the barbaric blasters.

The remarkable synthesis Lucas achieved in placing together these disparate elements has proved compelling for more than one generation of viewers. However, as a workable philosophy it has major flaws.

The first and most subtle of these is the conflict between Taoism and Buddhism. Although often linked in real life, Taoism and Buddhism do not always line up. In the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching (the chief text of Taoism) it says let go of desires in order to observe the source, but allow yourself desires in order to observe the manifestations. This indicates that both attachment and nonattachment are seen as having value in Taoism, as opposed to Buddhism. In addition, the Buddhist seeks to transcend the world and earthly existence, whereas the Taoist seeks to be fully integrated into the world as a part of nature and natural existence. In the movies, this becomes an issue in the way that the Jedi Council is aloof and independent from politics, yet simultaneously also deeply involved in the galactic political landscape.

The second conflict is between Taoism and Zoroastrianism. There is no good and evil in Taoism, only balance and imbalance. Neither Yin nor Yang is preferable, and both are necessary, as apposed to Zoroastrianism, where the ultimate goal is the triumph of good and the eradication of evil. This disconnect shows up as a major plot point in the second series of movies (I, II & III), where the prophecy of balance in the Force may possibly mean the rise of evil.

The third conflict is between Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. Again, the concept of a fight between good and evil is somewhat alien to Buddhism. A fallen Buddhist would not be an equal and opposite force to a good Buddhist, but simply someone who had become too caught up in the illusions and the material temptations of the ordinary world. A person of this sort might be cruel, venal and selfish, but would not be expected to have any particular spiritual power. This creates a paradox in the movies, in that the Jedi draw power from controlling their emotions, but the Sith draw power from their inability to control their emotions. In addition it creates another instance of cognitive dissonance as the wise and dispassionate Jedi choose over and over again to resolve their problems through violence.

The final conflict is between Buddhism and chivalry. Buddhism preaches non-attachment, but one of the key characteristics of the medieval knights was passionate attachment. Loyalty to ones lord and to ones comrades-in-arms was among the highest virtues, and a courtly, romantic (and theoretically chaste) love between a knight and his lady was celebrated as an ideal. Also, in as much as chivalry stems from Christianity, it carries the idea of love as a powerful redemptive force.

This disconnect creates some of the most powerful paradoxes in the movies. In the first series (IV, V & VI) Yoda and Obi-Wan counsel control of emotions, and warn Luke against the dangers of his affection for his friends, and his unreasonable love for his father. Yet it is Lukes decision to ignore this seemingly wise advice that provides most of the high points of the first series. In the end, Luke is proven right when his ill-advised love for his father finally uncovers the good left in Darth Vader, and brings about the final end to the Sith. Therefore, love is ultimately shown to be even more powerful than the light side of the Force (which failed to conquer its counterpart in all five chronologically previous movies).

Conversely, the second series suffers from taking its doctrine of non-attachment too seriously. The Jedi Council consequently comes across as cold and uncaring a fact which drives Anakin into the more hot-blooded arms of the Dark Side. In addition, this set of movies is in the strange position of positing love as the enemy. Although Anakin clearly has psychotic tendencies, the movie insists on blaming his moments of indiscriminate slaughter on his love for his mother and his wife. Even Obi-Wans platonic love for his padawan does nothing except cloud his judgment.

It is this too-fully-realized disdain for emotion that, more than anything else, makes the second series inferior to the first.

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Jedi Philosophy The Pop Culture Philosopher

We all know that diet and exercise are the most important factors to be healthy and in good shape.

But if that result is not appealing enough, here is another benefit: eating healthy and exercising are also a form of heart disease prevention.

Diet and exercise are the perfect match for heart disease prevention

I was reading a magazine recently, that stated something like: "To keep the heart in good health we need to focus on increasing the energy consumption by doing healthy physical activity, besides eating the right foods, but there is an idea of physical activity that is similar to that of drug therapy, which is mistakenly considered more documented. Physical activity, however, if conducted on a regular basis, is like a medicine".

The same magazine was saying that with 30 min of physical activity a day we can highly reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Walking, which is the easiest physical activity, provides the following benefits, assuming that you do it for at least 30 to 60 minutes, 3 to 5 times a week:

All this thanks to the ability of heart and lungs to use oxygen to produce energy, and to remove it from the blood by making organs work more and with less effort.

Don't just do-it-yourself though, don't start running/biking/swimming like crazy out of the blue.

It is important to do a medical examination before you start your diet and exercise. Always stop if you experience sharp pain or tightness in the chest, stomach pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, tachycardia, excessive fatigue or severe headache.

These are usually signs that something is not right and you shouldn't push your body that far.

When it comes to heart disease prevention, one of the best things we can do is follow a healthy diet to keep our blood levels, especially cholesterol levels, within the healthy range.

Those who practice sport should follow a balanced diet, but it also needs to be proportionate to the sport they play. It's not healthy to eat too much, but it's also not recommended to run out of energy.

Try to calculate your caloric needs based on gender, age, intensity and duration of physical activity

Remember that you need proteins for the muscles (to develop them and to repair the damaged fibers).

Carbohydrates are the source of energy in the first phase of physical activity, while fat is the reserve of energy used for aerobic activities of long duration.

As diet and exercise have to work together for heart disease prevention, the question comes natural: which foods should I eat when I do sports or physical activity?

If you're training your strenght and you are doing weight lifting to build muscle, then you need a high protein intake to promote muscle growth. This article that I was reading suggested a 55-25-20 diet type (55% carbs, 25% protein, 20% fat).

Honestly, I think a 40-40-20 diet works best, at least for me. If you tend to gain weight easily, definitely go for a 40-40-20.

For other sports that require speed and sprints like athletics, biking, swim race, ski race, long jump etc. it's important to have lots of energy, which translates into higher carbs intake in your diet.

Carbs provide quick and long-lasting energy, therefore the best diet for these kinds of sport is a 60-20-20 balance.

The last type of physical activity is resistance. For sports like long distance running, biking, swimming, cross country ski, you need more carbs and fats to guarantee lots of energy reserve, and low-fat protein foods like milk, yogurt, lean meat, ham, eggs, fish and legumes.

The balance of this type of diet should be 50-15-25

The final step of this diet and exercise guideline is about drinking. What and how much should we drink?

Water is the essential drink for pre and post workout or exercise, but not during exercise.

This may sound shocking to you, but here is the reason: drinking during exercise increases sweating (with possible further loss of minerals) and it may cause cramps, muscle fatigue and lower muscle response.

So what to do when you're at gym sweating like crazy, craving a glass of water?

Well, I don't care if I sweat (you know, showers are fortunately available!). Actually I am lucky, I don't sweat at all, maybe because they keep the temperature quite low at the gym where I go...but anyways...I like to have my bottle when I work out.

I don't drink plane water, I mix it with something called Xtend, which contains minerals and glutamine, very useful to recover fast during exercise.

Another good advice is to drink vitamin C, like orange juices (made from real oranges) to increase immune system, always at risk for who practices sport activity. In fact breathing with your mouth wide open increases the chances to catch viruses and germs.

Return from Diet and Exercise to Diet Types

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Originally posted here:
Diet and Exercise for Heart Disease Prevention

The CRON-diet (Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition)[1] is a nutrient-rich, reduced calorie diet developed by Roy Walford, Lisa Walford, and Brian M. Delaney.[2] The CRON-diet involves calorie restriction in the hope that the practice will improve health and retard aging, while still attempting to provide the recommended daily amounts of various nutrients. Other names include CR-diet, Longevity diet, and Anti-Aging Plan. The Walfords and Delaney, among others, founded the CR Society International to promote the CRON-diet.

The CRON-diet was developed from data Walford compiled during his participation in Biosphere 2.[3]

Proponents of the CRON-diet believe that everyone has what they call a "set-point": a weight, specific to an individual, at which each naturally stays when they eat their usual daily diet. Proponents believe that the set-point is determined through heredity and childhood eating habits. Proponents recommend that adherents remain 1025% under their set-point, suggesting that this is necessary for the diet to be maximally effective.[4]

A guideline that proponents use to determine an individual's set-point is to measure that person's body fat content. Proponents state that this should be 1015% for females and 610% for males.[5] Proponents suggest the use of skinfold test tools (they specifically recommend the "Fat-O-Meter"), certain digital scales, densiometry, and/or bioelectrical impedance analysis to determine the body fat content. Proponents then use the current weight and body fat content to determine the goal weight (below the set point), and plan and follow a preliminary diet until the goal weight is reached.

Next, the proponent determines the level of caloric restriction they wish to implement in their regular eating pattern. Proponents recommend a goal of restricting intake by 20%.[5] The actual daily amount eaten depends on the adherent's basal metabolic rate (BMR). A common daily intake is 1800 calories per day.[6]

The Walfords propose three meals in their book, but variation is possible. Adherents can vary the number of meals they eat per day in order to fit their schedules: typically, this is achieved by combining calorie-dense and calorie-lean foods in different ways.[7] Proponents also use "supplements", which refers to vitamin pills as well as certain high-nutrition foods (which are necessarily calorie-lean).[8] The Walfords describe these foods as "nutrient super-chargers"; examples include kombu, brewers yeast, wheat bran, wheat germ, shiitake mushrooms, non-fat dry milk, soybeans, and tofu. These "nutrient super-chargers" are used frequently to boost meals' nutritional density.[7]

The Walfords propose that adherents eat three meals per day. They suggest that adherents cook eight meals on a specific day of the week, and then freeze these meals to use during the entire week. They refer to this process as the "Quantity-Cook-and Freeze Option", and the meals themselves as "One-a-day MegaMeals". They suggest that adherents use two "Free-Choice Recipes" for the other two courses per day.

Adherents may compose their own meals. The Walfords caution that such meals must be planned exactly and contain all the required RDA nutrients. There are computer tools available to plan meals, including the official Dr. Walfords Interactive Diet Planner and the unofficial CRON-o-Meter.

Link:
CRON-diet - Wikipedia

Cryogenic pods. Computer illustration of people in cryogenic pods. Their bodies are being preserved by storing them at very low temperatures. They will remain frozen until a time when the technology might exist to resurrect the dead, a technique known as cryonics. Alternatively a new body may be cloned from their tissue. Some companies offer to store dead peoples bodies.

Transhumanism (also abbreviated as H+) is a philosophical movement which advocates for technology not only enhancing human life, but to take over human life by merging human and machine. The idea is that in one future day, humans will be vastly more intelligent, healthy, and physically powerful. In fact, much of this movement is based upon the notion that death is not an option with a focus to improve the somatic body and make humans immortal.

Certainly, there are those in the movement who espouse the most extreme virtues of transhumanism such as replacing perfectly healthy body parts with artificial limbs. But medical ethicists raise this and other issues as the reason why transhumanism is so dangerous to humans when what is considered acceptable life-enhancement has virtually no checks and balances over who gets a say when we go too far. For instance, Kevin Warwick of Coventry University, a cybernetics expert, asked the Guardian, What is wrong with replacing imperfect bits of your body with artificial parts that will allow you to perform better or which might allow you to live longer? while another doctor stated that he would have no part in such surgeries. There is, after all, a difference between placing a pacemaker or performing laser eye surgery on the body to prolong human life and lend a greater degree of quality to human life, and that of treating the human body as a tabula rasa upon which to rewrite what is, effectively, the natural course of human life.

A largely intellectual movement whose aim is to transform humanity through the development of a panoply of technologies which ostensibly enhance human intellect, physiology, and the very legal status of what being human means, transhumanism is a social project whose inspiration can be dated back to 19th century continental European philosophy and later through the writings of J. B. S. Haldane, a British scientist and Marxist, who in 1923 delivered a speech at the Heretics Society, an intellectual club at Cambridge University, entitled Daedalus or, Science and the Future which foretold the future of the end of ofcoalfor power generation in Britain while proposing a network of windmills which would be used for the electrolytic decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen (they would generate hydrogen). According to many transhumanists, this is one of the founding projects of the movement. To read this one might think this was a precursor to the contemporary ecological movement.

The philosophical tenets, academic theories, and institutional practices of transhumanism are well-known.Max More, a British philosopher and leader of the extropian movement claims that transhumanism is the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values. This very definition, however, is a paradox since the ethos of this movement is to promote life through that which is not life, even by removing pieces of life, to create something billed as meta-life. Indeed, it is clear that transhumanism banks on its own contradiction: that life is deficient as is, yet can be bettered by prolonging life even to the detriment of life.

Stefan Lorenz Sorgneris a German philosopher and bioethicist who has written widely on the ethical implications of transhumanism to include writings on cryonics and longevity of human life, all of which which go against most ecological principles given the amount of resources needed to keep a body in suspended animation post-death. At the heart of Sorgners writings, like those of Kyle Munkittrick, invoke an almost nave rejection of death, noting that death is neither natural nor a part of human evolution. In fact, much of the writings on transhumanism take a radical approach to technology: anyone who dare question that cutting off healthy limbs to make make way for a super-Olympian sportsperson would be called a Luddite, anti-technology. But that is a false dichotomy since most critics of transhumanism are not against all technology, but question the ethics of any technology that interferes with the human rights of humans.

Take for instance the recent push by many on the ostensible Left who favor surrogacy as a step on the transhumanist ladder, with many publications on this subject, none so far which address the human rights of women who are not only part of this equation, but whose bodies are being used in the this faux-futurist vision of life without the mention of female bodies. Versos publication of a troubling piece by Sophie Lewis earlier this year, aptly titled Gestators of All Genders Unite speaks to the lack of ethics in a field that seems to be grasping at straws in removing the very mention of the bodies which reproduce and give birth to human life: females. In eliminating the specificity of the female body, Lewis attempts to stitch together a utopian future where genders are having children, even though the reality of reproduction across the Mammalia class demonstrates that sex, not gender, determines where life is gestated and birthed. What Lewis attempts in fictionalizing a world of dreamy hopefulness actually resembles more an episode of The Handmaids Tale where this writer has lost sense of any irony. Of course pregnancy is not about gender. It is uniquely about sex and the class of gestators are females under erasure by this dystopian movement anxious to pursue a vision of a world without women.

While many transhumanist ideals remain purely theoretical in scope, what is clear is that females are the class of humans who are being theorised out of social and political discourse. Indeed, much of the social philosophy surrounding transhumanist projects sets out to eliminate genderin the human species through the application of advanced biotechnology andassisted reproductive technologies, ultimately inspired by Shulamith Firestone'sThe Dialectic of Sex and much of Donna Haraways writing on cyborgs. From parthenogenesisto the creation ofartificial wombs, this movement seeks to remove the specificity of not gender, but sex, through the elision of medical terminology and procedures which portend to advance a technological human-cyborg built on the ideals of a post-sex model.

The problem, however, is that women are quite aware that sex-based inequality has zilch to do with anything other than their somatic sex. And nothing transhumanist theories can propose will wash away the reality of the sexed human body upon which social stereotypes are plied.

More here:
The Ethics Of Transhumanism And The Cult Of Futurist Biotech

No other figure in history has played a bigger part in opening the West to Buddhism than the eminent Zen author, D.T. Suzuki, and in this reissue of his best work readers are given the very heart of Zen teaching. Zen Buddhism, which sold more than 125,000 as an Anchor paperback after its publication in 1956, includes a basic historical background as well as a thorough overview of the techniques for Zen practice. Concepts and terminology such as satori, zazen, and koans, as well as the various elements of this philosophy are all given clear explanations. But while Suzuki takes nothing for granted in the reader's understanding of the fundamentals, he does not give a merely rudimentary overview. Each of the essays included here, particularly those on the unconscious mind and the relation of Zen to Western philosophy, go far beyond other sources for their penetrating insights and timeless wisdom.

What is most important about D.T. Suzuki's work, however--and what comes across so powerfully in these selections--is his unparalleled ability to communicate the experiential aspect of Zen. The intensity here with which Zen philosophy comes to life is without parallel in the canon of Buddhist literature. Suzuki stands apart from all teachers before or since because of his exceptional ability to eloquently capture in words the seemingly inexpressible essence of Zen.

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Amazon.com: Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T ...

New to Yoga?

If you are looking for an attainable way to begin yoga in the comfort of your own home, yoga for beginners is for you. It is essential to begin with balancing your body, mind, emotion and energy and creating an inner atmosphere of joy. Yoga for beginners is an easy, safe, and fun way to start your journey towards good health and wellbeing. Having physical agility and having previous experience is not a requirement for yoga for beginners. These simple practices from the ancient science of yoga, have been designed by Sadhguru a world-renowned yogi, mystic, and one of the foremost authorities on yoga.

You can choose to learn yoga from any one of these videos:

A powerful practice that nurtures the physical, psychological and energy dimensions of a human being that takes just 8 10 minutes a day and is done in a standing position. Benefits of this practice include activating the lumbar region of the spine, and strengthening the muscles around the spine to prevent collapsing of the spine that can occur with aging, and for overall wellbeing.

Learn Yoga Namaskar for Free

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This practice cleanses the nadis which are the pathways through which pranic energy flows. This is a gentle practice that can be done any time of the day for 4 minutes and is done in a sitting position. Benefits include balancing the system and psychological well-being. It alsoaids with insomnia.

Learn Nadi Shuddhifor Free

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The yoga of sound allows you to utter sounds that create complete balance in the energy system and foster an inner atmosphere of joy. This gentle practice is done in a sitting position and takes just 12 minutes. Benefits include an increase in energy levels and improved mental clarity.

Learn Nada Yogafor Free

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You can try this free guided meditation at a space youre comfortable in and at any time you wish. This is the convenience of doing a free online guided meditation. Any time youre feeling stressed, anxious or depressed, you can try this easy-to-follow guided meditation. After this guided meditation, you will feel refreshed, relaxed, and capable of handling day-to-day life situations. This free online guided meditation takes only 12-18 minutes and is an easy to learn step-by-step process that you can do at home, work, or wherever you are. This is a short guided meditation that anyone can do at their own convenience. The instructions for this short guided meditation are very simple, involving your breathing and thought process. This meditation can be practiced sitting on a chair.

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Yoga for Beginners - Inner Engineering Pages