Russian transhumanists present at the Russian parliament

On March 21st, 2007 representatives of Russian Transhumanist Movement gave presentations in Russian State Duma (parliament) at a round table “Influence of science on political situation in Russia. A view into the future” organised by the Liberal-democratic party of Russia.

This was the first time transhumanists spoke at the State Duma! It’s great that Russian politicians finally had a chance to hear transhumanist forecasts. Three years ago Ray Kurzweil testified before a Congressional science committee. Nick Bostrom has presented to EU ethics committees. Wrye Sententia testified before the Presidential Bioethics Committee. Transhumanism has been discussed (negatively) in the House of Lords and the Europarliament issued a report with two pages on transhumanism. But transhumanists haven’t been in those fora nearly often enough.

left to right: Igor Kirilyuk (RTD),
Danila Medvedev (RTD), Valerija Pride (RTD),
Margarita Suhih (LDPR)

During the round table experts of the Russian Transhumanist Movement explained the current view on the scientific and technological progress and showed forecasts based on technology foresight and NBIC-convergence model. They described promising future technologies and their ongoing development in the world, as well as their socioeconomic consequences in the next 20 years, opportunities and strategic goals for Russia. Shocking but real prospects of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and robotics, their radical social and political consequences haven’t been seriously discussed in Russia until now.

Meanwhile, in the past decade many governments in the world have developed a complex vision of technology prospects. The Japanese megaproject to develop intelligent humanoid robots that was started in 1970s is nearing completion. Androids that now regularly appear in TV news will soon take place of retiring industrial and service workers.

South Korean government promises that by 2015-2020 every family in the country will have at least one robot in the house and by 2015 organ transplants from GM animals will become routine. Meanwhile the US Army expects that by 2015 one third of its fighting capacity will be provided by robots.