A group of people that have met through the ExtroBritannia events
have come together to relaunch the British Transhumanist
Association. Due to legal restrictions on the use of the
word "British" in registering a not-for-profit company, the
relaunched organisation will be known as the UK Transhumanist
Association. UKTA was registered on the 26th of June 2004 and its
members are presently busy organising resources to begin a programme
of activities.

Our aim is to inject a healthy dose of transhumanist* memes into all
levels of British society through a mix of lobbying,
outreach/education, and networking.

*we have adopted the Transhumanist Declaration as our definition of
"transhumanism":
http://www.transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/declaration/

Lobbying
Decisions in areas such as stem cells research, biotechnology and
nanotechnology are too important to a be left to the (unaided)
politicians. There is no shortage of pressure groups that have both a
technophobic agenda and the ear of politicians sitting on crucial
parliamentary committees. We aim to provide an alternative and
positive approach with targeted position statements delivered where
they are likely to have the most impact, i.e. the government and
civil society institutions where those matters are discussed and
decisions are taken.

Outreach / education
Increasingly, the prospect of a "posthuman future" is debated in the
media. However, there is an abundance of misconceptions regarding the
use of technology for the enhancement of the human condition, as seen
in the confusion generated by the ongoing cloning debate. We aim to
provide expert-speakers to interested parties, professional
organisations, etc, able to clarify the issues, highlight the
potential benefits and dangers, and generally outline a roadmap to
the future. Furthermore, we aim to organise events that provide the
general public with an opportunity to find out more about cutting-
edge technologies and their impact on individuals and society.

Networking
We aim to create networking opportunities for UK-based professionals
in the relevant enabling technologies with the aim of fostering
employment opportunities and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

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While not directly linked to any other transhumanist organisation, we
have friendly and cooperative relations with the World Transhumanist
Association and the Extropy Institute and we are working towards
building further constructive relationships with other, similar,
groups.

Join us!

If you have the enthusiasm for helping with lobbying or arranging
educational or networking activities, or if you have a project in
mind which you think would benefit from taking place under the
banner of the UK Transhumanist Association, then please do one or
more of the following:

Join the UKTA mailing list. This is an open list for the discussion
and planning of campaign activities
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UKTA/

Join UKTA's free e-membership scheme which allows you to keep in
touch with our activities. You will receive a monthly newsletter and
any special announcements.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UKTAnews/

Join UKTA. We rely on membership fees to cover our expenses, such as
those associated with sending regular press releases, targeted
mailshots (for example to MPs) and arranging meeting venues. If you
would like to support this work, then please consider joining.
Membership costs £30 per year and will enable you to vote for the
Board of Directors or stand for election yourself. Donations are also
welcomed. Please contact Simeon Bamford on 07941 054837,
sim@...