Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
*another one. (Thanks, spellcheck!)
  

    
The stuff most loved or at least talked about within transhumanist
culture...

Novels: Lots of stuff by Vernor Vinge, who basically first proposed
the notion of an AI based technological singularity...  Marooned in
Realtime, A Fire Upon the Deep. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and
Huxley's Brave New World are dystopian novels to measure yourself
against, in a sense. Lots of stuff by Charlie Stross, who is a
strident critic and satirist of the culture, particularly the
Singularitarian strain. His novel Accelerando was being given away
at the first Humanity+ Convention I attended (despite its satirical
edge). Lots of stuff by Rudy Rucker. 

Films: There's a lot of love for the first The Matrix film and
Gattaca gets pretty high marks. I bump into Watchmen references
(movie and comic book)pretty frequently. There are a lot of these
rather ridiculous ones like Lucy and (ahem!) Transcendence.  X-Men
seem to be the favored fantasy superhero reference point.  

TV shows: Black Mirror is an excellent British show available on
Netflix that deals with wildly nightmarish transhuman...ish themes.
Battlestar Galactica was loved and missed. Orphan Black has
Neolution... an evil transhumanist cult headed by the now deceased
Aldous Leekie, Person of Interest for advanced AI...  

Almost anything in SF or in superhero is going to have intimations
at least of transhumanism...  and it's huge in gaming, but since I
don't game, I'll leave that there.

I'm sure there's something intrinsically transhumanist in the works
of Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno but I don't think those are
reference points.

There's a Mexican/Mexican-American performance artist Guillermo
Gomez-Pena who has identified himself or his performances with
cyberpunk and transhumanism but official transhumanism doesn't know
jack shit about him, of course...  

That's off the top then...
  

    
I haven't read him, but Greg Egan has written some well-received SF
about AI, mind uploading, and post-humanism.
  

    
We should give special mention to the X-men, and other mutant
superheroes...

Our two week conversation is formally finished, though it's always
okay to hang out and add more here in Inkwell. No locks on the
doors!

Many thanks to R.U. Sirius and Jay Cornell for taking this time with
us.

Reminder that _Transcendence_ is in release; here's an Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Transcendence-Disinformation-Encyclopedia-Transhumanism-
Singularity/dp/1938875095/  You can buy it there - or (better) read about it there and buy it from your local bookstore.
  

    
The Robert Charles Wilson "Spin" series concludes with "Vortex",
which features a very heavy transhumanist theme.  There are hints
all the way through the series but the conclusion takes it about as
far you can go.
  

    
Thanks Jon and everybody. Do look into the book and buy it! I think
you will all find it interesting... and entertaining.
  

    
Thanks, everyone. I'll check in periodically, or as long as my pass
lasts.
  

    
I am pleased to see Guillermo Gomez-Pena mentioned. I think there's quite 
a lot of transhumanism in the performing arts but am not really qualified 
to mention any specifics; I don't even know what transhumanism means. (And 
I have read the topic.)