Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Technoliberation Update

Well, it's been a week since I posted here to say that a technoprogressive list had been created called "technoliberation."

Since then, the list has attracted more than two dozen new members, and the list has already seen well over a hundred posts. There is a fledgling technoliberation wiki to collaborate in, and there is a wonderfully diverse and provocative resource library of online texts on technoprogressive topics to dive into for inspiration and conversational fodder. Plans for an online bookclub and technoprogressive talking points compendium/frame-shop are afoot as well.

In an early post to the list I offered up this little prayer for the newly-hatched technoliberation list:
Here's how I personally hope the technoliberation list will differ from some others on offer: [one] technoliberation will be the list where technocentrics are not afraid to say libertarians and retro-futurist conservatives are sociopaths and recommend they move on when they want to start squawking here, [two] it will be the list where there is no expectation that a technoprogressive will automatically be considered a "transhumanist," [three] a list where we will conjoin discussion of the politics of morphological freedom, discussion of copyfight/p2p, discussion of global rights and sustainable development, discussion of antiracist, antisexist, antiheterosexist pro-science politics, rather than focusing on just one of these, and [four] a list where our commitment to diversity means we will actively outreach to women, people of color, non-Americans, and people of all age-groups until our community actually reflects that commitment.

Well, outreach starts at home, and so, ye manifold Mundyites out there in the cyberspatial sprawl, answer my prayer.... by joining the technoliberation list, joining in on the conversation there and otherwise contributing to the aborning community if this sounds like a congenial concatenation of folks and issues to you! Note the very handy button that takes you there at the top of my blogroll to your left.

Here's some of the text (to which I am happy to say I contributed) on the front page of the wiki, another nice evocation of the whole technoliberationist vibe that's afoot thereabouts I think Mundyites might take a shine to:
Technoliberation is a rainbow coalition that extends beyond the visible spectrum. Our participants belong to different communities, work on different problems, bring different histories, temperaments, and hopes to the work we share, emphasize different pieces of the technoprogressive puzzle. We are gathered together to trade ideas, tell stories, make plans, mobilize efforts, identify threats, facilitate progressive developmental outcomes, and share our differences.

Many of us are post-naturalist Greens and champions of sustainable development. Many of us are secular humanists and post-humanist humanitarians. Many of us are pro-choice feminists and morphological freedom fighters, defending consensual personal genetic, prosthetic, and cognitive practices of self-creation. Many of us are atheists, aesthetes, and nonjudgmental people of many faiths and spiritual practices. Many of us are transgendered, queer theorists, biopunks, democratic transhumanists, and psychedelic experimentalists. Many of us are copyfighters, defenders of the creative and genomic commons, enthusiasts of social software tools, free software, open source, peer-to-peer democracy. Many of us are policy wonks, technocrats, world federalists, human rights activists, election reformers, advocates of basic income guarantees and universal health care, leapfroggers, and space enthusiasts. Many of us are champions of consensus science, of genetic science and evolutionary theory, but none of us are genetic determinists or Social Darwinists. None of us are all of these things, of course, but many of us are many of them, and we are all of us inspired and provoked by the connections we find among these struggles and celebrations.

Bioconservatives, market libertarians, religious fundamentalists, and retro-futurists are not welcome among us. There are plenty of places online and off where we can argue with you, just as there are plenty of occasions to contemplate the real-world consequences of your ideas and values. Technoliberation is not the place for you. Feel free to listen and lurk and learn, but pick your fights with us elsewhere. This is a safe space for technoprogressives of all kinds and commitments.

We are focused here on the extraordinary threats and promises of ongoing and upcoming technological transformations of what has come to be thought of as the human condition. We are all champions of democracy here and we are all progressives. We are technoprogressives and we demand nothing short of Technoliberation!

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