I’ve been thinking about manifestos as visions of the future and I asked the people who follow me on twitter for manifesto suggestions. I decided to do a bit of research on them and present them here! For this second one, I present…

Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto via @johnbaichtal and @lukewestra

Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations. I like them. This manifesto is something I can really relate to. Here are some of my favorite parts.

4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

18. Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world.

22. Make your own tools. Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

Which statements resonate with you? Which one’s don’t?

I’ve been thinking about manifestos as visions of the future and I asked the people who follow me on twitter for manifesto suggestions. I decided to do a bit of research on them and present them here! For this first one, I present…

The Hedonistic Imperative Via Enkido

This first manifesto featured paints a picture of engineered happiness. Here are some quotes from the essay-like manifesto.

“This manifesto outlines a strategy to eradicate suffering in all sentient life. The abolitionist project is ambitious, implausible, but technically feasible. It is defended here on ethical utilitarian grounds. Genetic engineering and nanotechnology allow Homo sapiens to discard the legacy-wetware of our evolutionary past. Our post-human successors will rewrite the vertebrate genome, redesign the global ecosystem, and abolish suffering throughout the living world.”

“As an exercise, the reader may care briefly to summon up the most delightful fantasy (s)he can personally conceive. Agreeable as this may be, states of divine happiness orders of magnitude more beautiful than anything the contemporary mind can access will pervade the very fabric of reality in generations to come. Even the most virile of imaginations can apprehend in only the barest and formal sense the ravishing splendour that lies ahead.”

So what would life be like if you could just be happy?

For me I’m happy when I achieve something I set out to do. In fact, I’m basically addicted to projects because I love the rush of working, collaborating, and completing them. This version of happiness, while interacting with the psychological and pharmaceutical biology of my brain, is rooted in my drive to make things happen and I don’t think I could get the happiness and satisfaction that I get from making things from biotechnological or pharmaceutical enhancement.

While I can’t pretend to be an expert on all the layers presented in this manifesto, I think we’re actually on track to making  this dream of evolving humanity to be dependent on engineering for happiness into a reality.

The hedonistic imperative is a rather complicated manifesto with a lot of loft conceptual words that are long. I wish it was simpler! If you dig into this, I’d love to hear about what attracts you to this manifesto and what your opinion of it is!