In New Bottles for New Wine, London: Chatto & Windus, 1957, pp. 13-17

As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future. This cosmic self-awareness is being realized in one tiny fragment of the universe in a few of us human beings. Perhaps it has been realized elsewhere too, through the evolution of conscious living creatures on the planets of other stars. But on this our planet, it has never happened before.

Evolution on this planet is a history of the realization of ever new possibilities by the stuff of which earth (and the rest of the universe) is made life; strength, speed and awareness the flight of birds and the social polities of bees and ants; the emergence of mind, long before man was ever dreamt of, with the production of colour, beauty, communication, maternal care, and the beginnings of intelligence and insight. And finally, during the last few ticks of the cosmic clock, something wholly new and revolutionary, human beings with their capacities for conceptual thought and language, for self-conscious awareness and purpose, for accumulating and pooling conscious experience. For do not let us forget that the human species is as radically different from any of the microscopic single-celled animals that lived a thousand million years ago as they were from a fragment of stone or metal.

The new understanding of the universe has come about through the new knowledge amassed in the last hundred yearsby psychologists, biologists, and other scientists, by archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians. It has defined mans responsibility and destinyto be an agent for the rest of the world in the job of realizing its inherent potentialities as fully as possible.

It is as if man had been suddenly appointed managing director of the biggest business of all, the business of evolution appointed without being asked if he wanted it, and without proper warning and preparation. What is more, he cant refuse the job. Whether he wants to or not, whether he is conscious of what he is doing or not, he is in point of fact determining the future direction of evolution on this earth. That is his inescapable destiny, and the sooner he realizes it and starts believing in it, the better for all concerned.

What the job really boils down to is thisthe fullest realization of mans possibilities, whether by the individual, by the community, or by the species in its processional adventure along the corridors of time. Every man-jack of us begins as a mere speck of potentiality, a spherical and microscopic egg-cell. During the nine months before birth, this automatically unfolds into a truly miraculous range of organization: after birth, in addition to continuing automatic growth and development, the individual begins to realize his mental possibilitiesby building up a personality, by developing special talents, by acquiring knowledge and skills of various kinds, by playing his part in keeping society going. This post-natal process is not an automatic or a predetermined one. It may proceed in very different ways according to circumstances and according to the individuals own efforts. The degree to which capacities are realized can be more or less complete. The end-result can be satisfactory or very much the reverse: in particular, the personality may grievously fail in attaining any real wholeness. One thing is certain, that the well-developed, well-integrated personality is the highest product of evolution, the fullest realization we know of in the universe.

The first thing that the human species has to do to prepare itself for the cosmic office to which it finds itself appointed is to explore human nature, to find out what are the possibilities open to it (including, of course, its limitations, whether inherent or imposed by the facts of external nature). We have pretty well finished the geographical exploration of the earth; we have pushed the scientific exploration of nature, both lifeless and living, to a point at which its main outlines have become clear; but the exploration of human nature and its possibilities has scarcely begun. A vast New World of uncharted possibilities awaits its Columbus.

The great men of the past have given us glimpses of what is possible in the way of personality, of intellectual understanding, of spiritual achievement, of artistic creation. But these are scarcely more than Pisgah glimpses. We need to explore and map the whole realm of human possibility, as the realm of physical geography has been explored and mapped. How to create new possibilities for ordinary living? What can be done to bring out the latent capacities of the ordinary man and woman for understanding and enjoyment; to teach people the techniques of achieving spiritual experience (after all, one can acquire the technique of dancing or tennis, so why not of mystical ecstasy or spiritual peace?); to develop native talent and intelligence in the growing child, Instead of frustrating or distorting them? Already we know that painting and thinking, music and mathematics, acting and science can come to mean something very real to quite ordinary average boys and girls provided only that the fright methods are adopted for bringing out the childrens possibilities. We are beginning to realize that even the most fortunate people are living far below capacity, and that most human beings develop not more than a small fraction of their potential mental and spiritual efficiency. The human race, in fact, is surrounded by a large area of unrealized possibilities, a challenge to the spirit of exploration.

The scientific and technical explorations have given the Common Man all over the world a notion of physical possibilities. Thanks to science, the under-privileged are coming to believe that no one need be underfed or chronically diseased, or deprived of the benefits of its technical and practical applications.

The worlds unrest is largely due to this new belief. People are determined not to put up with a subnormal standard of physical health and material living now that science has revealed the possibility of raising it. The unrest will produce some unpleasant consequences before it is dissipated; but it is in essence a beneficent unrest, a dynamic force which will not be stilled until it has laid the physiological foundations of human destiny.

Once we have explored the possibilities open to consciousness and personality, and the knowledge of them has become Common property, a new source of unrest will have emerged, will realize and believe that if proper measures are taken, no one need be starved of true satisfaction, or condemned to sub-standard fulfillment. This process too will begin by being unpleasant, and end by being beneficent. It will begin by destroying the ideas and the institutions that stand in the way of our realizing our possibilities (or even deny that the possibilities are there to be realized), and will go on by at least making a start with the actual construction of true human destiny.

Up till now human life has generally been, as Hobbes described it, nasty, brutish and short; the great majority of human beings (if they have not already died young) have been afflicted with misery in one form or anotherpoverty, disease, ill-health, over-work, cruelty, or oppression. They have attempted to lighten their misery by means of their hopes and their ideals. The trouble has been that the hopes have generally been unjustified, the ideals have generally failed to correspond with reality.

The zestful but scientific exploration of possibilities and of the techniques for realizing them will make our hopes rational, and will set our ideals within the framework of reality, by showing how much of them are indeed realizable. Already, we can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted. We are already justified in the conviction that human life as we know it in history is a wretched makeshift, rooted in ignorance; and that it could be transcended by a state of existence based on the illumination of knowledge and comprehension, just as our modern control of physical nature based on science transcends the tentative fumblings of our ancestors, that were rooted in superstition and professional secrecy.

To do this, we must study the possibilities of creating a more favourable social environment, as we have already done in large measure with our physical environment. We shall start from new premises. For instance, that beauty (something to enjoy and something to be proud of) is indispensable, and therefore that ugly or depressing towns are immoral; that quality of people, not mere quantity, is what we must aim at, and therefore that a concerted policy is required to prevent the present flood of population-increase from wrecking all our hopes for a better world; that true understanding and enjoyment are ends in themselves, as well as tools for or relaxations from a job, and that therefore we must explore and make fully available the techniques of education and self-education; that the most ultimate satisfaction comes from a depth and wholeness of the inner life, and therefore that we must explore and make fully available the techniques of spiritual development; above all, that there are two complementary parts of our cosmic duty one to ourselves, to be fulfilled in the realization and enjoyment of our capacities, the other to others, to be fulfilled in service to the community and in promoting the welfare of the generations to come and the advancement of our species as a whole.

The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.

I believe in transhumanism: once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Pekin man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.

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Transhumanism by Julian Huxley (1957)

Transhumanism r en internationell intellektuell och kulturell rrelse som fresprkar anvndandet av teknik fr att frbttra och utka mnniskans mentala och fysiska egenskaper. Enligt transhumanismen har mnniskan ondiga svagheter som leder till handikapp, lidande, sjukdom, ldrande och dd. Det r dessa svagheter man vill vervinna. Transhumanistiska tnkare studerar utvecklingen och anvndandet av teknik som kan anvndas fr att frbttra mnniskan, samt vilka mjligheter och konsekvenser som r frknippade med detta.[1]

Transhumanism ses ofta som en synonym till mnsklig frbttring och rrelsen symboliseras ibland med tecknen >h eller h+.[2] ven om den frsta knda anvndningen av termen "transhumanism" r frn 1957, etablerades begreppets nutida betydelse under 1980-talet, nr futurister i USA brjade organisera vad som sedan dess har vuxit till den transhumanistiska rrelsen. Enligt transhumanistiska tnkare kan mnniskan s smningom komma att f s pass utkade frmgor att termen post-mnniska blir mer lmplig n mnniska.[1] Alternativa begrepp fr transhumanism r drfr "posthumanism" eller en form av transformationell aktivism inspirerad av posthumanistiska ideal.[3]

Frgan kring hur en transformerad framtida mnsklighet i s fall kommer att se ut i har intresserat en rad anhngare och kritiker frn ett antal olika perspektiv och discipliner. Transhumanism har av en kritiker, Francis Fukuyama, beskrivits som vrldens farligaste id,[4] vilket bemttes med uttalandet att det r en "rrelse som r ett idealt exempel p de mest vghalsiga, modiga, fantasifulla och idealistiska strvandena hos mnskligheten".[5]

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Transhumanism Wikipedia

Transhumanism, social and philosophical movement devoted to promoting the research and development of robust human-enhancement technologies. Such technologies would augment or increase human sensory reception, emotive ability, or cognitive capacity as well as radically improve human health and extend human life spans. Such modifications resulting from the addition of biological or physical technologies would be more or less permanent and integrated into the human body.

The term transhumanism was originally coined by English biologist and philosopher Julian Huxley in his 1957 essay of the same name. Huxley refered principally to improving the human condition through social and cultural change, but the essay and the name have been adopted as seminal by the transhumanism movement, which emphasizes material technology. Huxley held that, although humanity had naturally evolved, it was now possible for social institutions to supplant evolution in refining and improving the species. The ethos of Huxleys essayif not its lettercan be located in transhumanisms commitment to assuming the work of evolution, but through technology rather than society.

The movements adherents tend to be libertarian and employed in high technology or in academia. Its principal proponents have been prominent technologists like American computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil and scientists like Austrian-born Canadian computer scientist and roboticist Hans Moravec and American nanotechnology researcher Eric Drexler, with the addition of a small but influential contingent of thinkers such as American philosopher James Hughes and Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. The movement has evolved since its beginnings as a loose association of groups dedicated to extropianism (a philosophy devoted to the transcendence of human limits). Transhumanism is principally divided between adherents of two visions of post-humanityone in which technological and genetic improvements have created a distinct species of radically enhanced humans and the other in which greater-than-human machine intelligence emerges.

The membership of the transhumanist movement tends to split in an additional way. One prominent strain of transhumanism argues that social and cultural institutionsincluding national and international governmental organizationswill be largely irrelevant to the trajectory of technological development. Market forces and the nature of technological progress will drive humanity to approximately the same end point regardless of social and cultural influences. That end point is often referred to as the singularity, a metaphor drawn from astrophysics and referring to the point of hyperdense material at the centre of a black hole which generates its intense gravitational pull. Among transhumanists, the singularity is understood as the point at which artificial intelligence surpasses that of humanity, which will allow the convergence of human and machine consciousness. That convergence will herald the increase in human consciousness, physical strength, emotional well-being, and overall health and greatly extend the length of human lifetimes.

The second strain of transhumanism holds a contrasting view, that social institutions (such as religion, traditional notions of marriage and child rearing, and Western perspectives of freedom) not only can influence the trajectory of technological development but could ultimately retard or halt it. Bostrom and American philosopher David Pearce founded the World Transhumanist Association in 1998 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with those social institutions to promote and guide the development of human-enhancement technologies and to combat those social forces seemingly dedicated to halting such technological progress.

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transhumanism | social and philosophical movement | Britannica.com

Journal of Marketing Research

Description: Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) concentrates on the subject of marketing research, from its philosophy, concepts, and theories to its methods, techniques, and applications. This quarterly, peer-reviewed journal is published for technically-oriented research analysts, educators, and statisticians. JMR addresses concepts, methods, and applications of marketing research that present new techniques, contribute to knowledge based on experimental or descriptive methods, and review developments and concepts in related fields that have bearing on the research industry and practice. Articles pertain to applications of new and current marketing research methods and techniques, clarifications of marketing research methodology and practice, and analysis of the state of the art marketing research. JMR publishes articles representing the entire spectrum of research in marketing, ranging from analytical models of marketing phenomena to descriptive studies using ethnographic methodologies. Most research published in JMR fits into two categories: (1) empirical research that tests a theory or describes and evaluates a management practice and (2) methodological research that presents new approaches for analyzing data or addressing marketing research problems. JMR has a wide and experienced editorial review board that is composed of leading academics in the field.

Coverage: 1964-2010 (Vol. 1, No. 1 - Vol. 47, No. 6)

The "moving wall" represents the time period between the last issue available in JSTOR and the most recently published issue of a journal. Moving walls are generally represented in years. In rare instances, a publisher has elected to have a "zero" moving wall, so their current issues are available in JSTOR shortly after publication. Note: In calculating the moving wall, the current year is not counted. For example, if the current year is 2008 and a journal has a 5 year moving wall, articles from the year 2002 are available.

ISSN: 00222437

Subjects: Business & Economics, Marketing & Advertising, Business

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MTD Sales Training Courses | Open & In-House Sales Courses

Sales excellence and the comfort zone freeze

Sales reps and their comfort zones

Sometimes great short-term sales success can be a bad predictive of future sales excellence. Lets look at why that might be and examine the consequences.

There are a number of market and company-specific reasons why this dilemma tends to materialize at various times. In most cases when these factors are the source of the problem, sales reps have very limited ability to manage and correct the problem. However, there is an alternative source of the problem that is directly related to sales repsand is one they can manage and correct. Its all about the comfort zone freeze.

Some sales reps achieve success and avoid failure by sticking to the tried and true. They stay in their comfort zone. They dont, for example, sell the innovative solution because it requires work to get smart about the particulars or because it is risky due to potential hiccups in implementation that cant immediately be solved.

Another permutation of the comfort zone freeze is the sales rep that assumes a cautious attitude simply because its safer from a financial perspective Id rather have less of a commission on a sure thing vs. going for a big hit and losing it all.

Whats wrong with tried and true or a cautious attitude? Isnt there a lot to be said for the old axiom better safe than sorry? But Sales in 2016 is going to be about disruption which has implications for staying within ones comfort zone. Lets look at two specifics:

What are the consequences? Some will say there are none because this characterization of the future as world of constant change is a story heard many times before that has never produced the projected dire results. Possible but the suggested market disruptions look like the real deal. So if they are, what are the likely consequences of staying within comfort zones?

Today, buyers are changing the expectations they have about the people on the other side of the table. They want sales reps who are trusted advisors not product facilitators. The rep or company that adopts the lets just stay the course approach is likely to continuously erode their competitive advantage. Tried and trueand cautious attitude are likely to reemerge as sorry and sad.

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Sales Momentum

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Sales Training - Rapid Learning Institute

What do you love about your job?

I love watching sales people get excited about selling once they start learning the skills. I also like seeing CEOs and business owners see how applying sales processes and methodologies increase their sales.

What or who inspired you to start your own business?

I have been in sales since I was 10 years old. I think I was the first person to say, "You want fries with that?"

Describe your most memorable project.

I was hired by a company where the CEO was doing most of the selling. In order to grow, he needed to onboard sales people. I wrote a sales playbook for his company and interviewed sales candidates. He hired one. They worked through the sales playbook and the new rep is now closing deals. Because he has a repeatable process via the Sales Playbook, future hires will be more productive and more quick.

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10 Best Sales Training Instructors in Atlanta, GA

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Sales Training

Are you excited about selling, or are you frustrated and disappointed? When you can educate your prospects about the benefits that they will receive from your products or services, selling gets very exciting! However, if your sales presentation is ineffective, your results will not reflect your hard work. You may have a wonderful product, a great business opportunity, or a fantastic service to offer, but if you fail to communicate the message effectively, your sales and your business will not grow. We have the solutions and sales strategies you need to achieve sales success and help you take a quantum leap!

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Would you like to get past the fear of selling that keeps you from following through with prospects and closing sales? Would you be willing to step out of your comfort zone and learn how to identify the prospects you should contact (and those you should ignore because they will not be open to your offer)? The coaching and sales training courses offered by Sales Coach Now will get you the results you've only been dreaming about!

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