Join the Immortality Institute Jan 6th, 2008 for a Sunday Evening Chat with James Clement, the new Executive Director for World Transhumanist Association, as we discuss WTA's new direction and challenge grant.

Chat Room: http://www.imminst.org/chat

4:30 Pacific
5:30 Mountain
6:30 Central
7:30 Eastern
[timezone help]

Chat Archive

More background info on James Clement here. (also, is the Anne Corwin on the WTA page the same "Anne" that is a member here?)

If you have any potential questions for Mr. Clement, please bring them up in this thread in preparation for the Sunday Night Chat.

Yes.

I found out for the first time last Sunday night during the chat with Shannon (very enlightening) that some Mormons are big supporters of transhumanism and I see that the Mormon WTA site has a prominent statement of support for Mr. Clement. Given that most transhumanists are atheists or agnostics, I want to ask James Clement how he feels about religion and transhumanism and if he has had much contact with the Mormon WTA branch.

James Clement is awesome.

One of my favorite questions is "how/when did you get involved with futurist movements?" Like transhumanism, immortalism, cryonics, etc... I am always interested to find out if there was a single crystallizing moment or a gradual transformation/acceptance.

Heh, I just found out about the MTA in the last few days as well. Given my Mormon background, and my own back-and-forth struggle over the years to reconcile my faith and my scientific/rational mind, it was a welcome discovery.

Mind, I can't seem to get into the chat room, so please make sure that someone asks this question.

I have not been able to log on either:

[INFO] Connecting to irc://irc.lucifer.com/ (irc://irc.lucifer.com/)... [Cancel]
[ERROR] Connection to irc://irc.lucifer.com/ (irc://irc.lucifer.com/) timed out. [Help] Reconnecting in 15 seconds. [Cancel]

Arrggg! Same trouble on my end. I'll see if Bruce can do anything about it.

Looks like server is down... thinking of having chat another Sun.

Or we can do Skype...

James can join us Sun Jan 7th, 2009 so we'll reschedule then.

Regrettably, the chat feature is experiencing technical defects. The chat cannot take place as planned. Mind and BJ are these minutes deliberating with James Clement, about an alternative date.

Sorry!

Looks like the chat will be re-scheduled for January 6th....same time.

Oh! my questions will remain frozen till february. I am going on vacation during January.

The IRC server is back up if anyone is still around.

Surprised how unstable this server is !

I am surprised as well Matt. Hopefully we will find a stable alternative in the future.

Just a reminder that James Clement will be our guest at the Sunday Evening Chat tomorrow. Find out how the challenge grant is going. Find out how WTA plans to re-vamp for 2008. I am sure James will have a lot of interesting information.

Alright. I checked the chat room just now and it is working. Remember to stop on by at 00:30 GMT.

I hate to miss this one, but I'm heading to a Willie Nelson concert tonight.

Considering the WTA elections start tomorrow, I guess timing couldn't be better.

The chat room is working and the guest has arrived. Have your questions ready. Like Shepard mentioned, this will be a good opportunity to ask James about the upcoming elections.

Starting in 8 minutes

Starting with some discussion of James' historical involvement in life extension

Talking more about the future of the WTA now

Now open to all questions

Talking a bit about the surprising Mormon WTA chapter

Here is a log of the chat. James Clement was a interesting and delightful chat guest. He answered many questions about the WTA including a question about some of the past trials and tribulations within the organization.

With the upcoming WTA Board elections, the chat with Mr. Clement helped allay some of my fears about the direction of the organization. I have heard nice things about Mr. Clement from other people who know him personally, and this chat opportunity only strengthened those impressions.

I notice that fewer people are attending these chats. I strongly support the continuation of these chats and hope more forum members might set aside time for them.

This post has been edited by Richard Leis: 6-Jan 2008, 10:03 PM

Since I was not able to catch any sleep, I did join the chat. I think Mr. Clement has a healthy view, with a good balance between short term realism and required goals for outreach.

It is my view that the current situation, were many small initiatives are being developed, could be served with an umbrella organisation that has a realistic view on short and mid term possible developments in the field. Providing synergy between these small initiatives is crucial, i.e. the critical success factor for the next few years.

This post has been edited by brainbox: 7-Jan 2008, 05:23 AM

Richard, I think the technical difficulties we experienced on a couple of the chats. Once with Dr. Rose (who many people were excited to hear from) and then the first time with Mr. Clement may have caused a drop-off in attendance. Both of these events plus a chat with no high profile guest (on the 30th) may have caused a lull in participation. Even with only a couple dozen participants, I still see great utility in holding the chats as the log can be read afterward by many people.

Also, if anyone has ideas for chat guests, please add your request here. I have been busy contacting many of the people on the list. What helps greatly is if a member knows the guest personally (mitkat helped me get in contact with Dvorsky, thanks man!). So if anyone personally knows Paris Hilton.....

Also, what would help out tremendously is to have a VOIP chat. I have been looking around at some possibilities. Skypecasts (100 people at a time) would be great if they worked, grrr, they are still having technical difficulties. Oovoo has video chat but only for 6 people at a time. A regular skype conference call only allows 9 participants....not enough. Googletalk apparently allows an unlimited number of participants, however, I don't think it offers anyway to moderate the chat (bad), not sure how to record googletalk conversations either. Still I have hope.

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