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FM-2030

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FM-2030
BornFereidoun M. Esfandiary
(1930-10-15)October 15, 1930
Brussels, Belgium
DiedJuly 8, 2000(2000-07-08) (aged 69)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting placeCryopreserved at Alcor Life Extension Foundation
OccupationWriter, philosopher, teacher, consultant
NationalityIranian-American
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles
GenreScience fiction, futurology
Literary movementTranshumanism
Notable worksAre You a Transhuman?
This article contains Persian text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

FM-2030 (originally born as Fereidoun M. Esfandiary; Persian: فریدون اسفندیاری; October 15, 1930 – July 8, 2000) was a Belgian-born Iranian-American [1] author, teacher, transhumanist philosopher, futurist, consultant, and Olympic athlete.[2]

He became notable as a transhumanist with the book Are You a Transhuman?: Monitoring and Stimulating Your Personal Rate of Growth in a Rapidly Changing World, published in 1989. In addition, he wrote a number of works of fiction under his original name F.M. Esfandiary.

Early life and education

FM-2030 was born Fereydoon M. Esfandiary on October 15, 1930 in Belgium to Iranian diplomat Abdol-Hossein “A. H.” Sadigh Esfandiary (1894-1986), who served from 1920 to 1960. [3] He travelled widely as a child, having lived in 17 countries including Iran, India, and Afghanistan, by age 11;[4] then, as a young man, he represented Iran as a basketball player and wrestler at the 1948 Olympic Games in London.[5] He then started his college education at the University of California, Berkeley, but later transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 1952.[6] Afterwards, he served on the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine from 1952 to 1954.[7]

Name change and views

In 1970, after publishing his book Optimism One,[8] F.M. Esfandiary legally[5] changed his name to FM-2030 for two main reasons: firstly, to reflect the hope and belief that he would live to celebrate his 100th birthday in 2030; secondly, and more importantly, to break free of the widespread practice of naming conventions that he saw as rooted in a collectivist mentality, and existing only as a relic of humankind's tribalistic past. He viewed traditional names as almost always stamping a label of collective identity – varying from gender to nationality – on the individual, thereby existing as prima facie elements of thought processes in the human cultural fabric, that tended to degenerate into stereotyping, factionalism, and discrimination. In his own words, "Conventional names define a person's past: ancestry, ethnicity, nationality, religion. I am not who I was ten years ago and certainly not who I will be in twenty years. [...] The name 2030 reflects my conviction that the years around 2030 will be a magical time. In 2030 we will be ageless and everyone will have an excellent chance to live forever. 2030 is a dream and a goal."[9]

In 1973, he published the political manifesto UpWingers: A Futurist Manifesto in which he views the ideological left and right as outdated and instead proposed a schema of UpWingers: those who looked into the sky and future and DownWingers, those who looked into the Earth and past. FM-2030 identified with the former. He argued that the nuclear family structure and the idea of a city would disappear, being replaced by modular social communities called mobilia, powered by communitarianism and would persist and then disappear.[10]

In terms of civilization, he stated: “No civilization of the past was great. “They were all primitive and persecutory, founded on mass subjugation and mass murder.” In terms of identity, he stated “The young modern is not losing his identity. He is gladly disencumbering himself of it.” He believed that eventually, nations would disappear and that identities would shift from cultural to personal. In a 1972 op-Ed in The New York Times, he wrote that the Arab-Israeli conflict had failed leadership, the warring sides “acting like adolescents, refuse to resolve their wasteful 25-year-old brawl” and believed that the World was “irreversibly evolving beyond the concept of national homeland.”[11]

Personal life

He was a lifelong vegetarian and said he would not eat anything that had a mother.[12] FM-2030 once said, "I am a 21st century person who was accidentally launched in the 20th. I have a deep nostalgia for the future."[13] As he spent much of his childhood in India, he was noted to have spoken a slight Indian accent.[14] He taught at The New School, University of California, Los Angeles, and Florida International University.[2] He worked as a corporate consultant for Lockheed and J. C. Penney.[2] He was also an atheist.[15] FM-2030 was, in his own words, a follower of "upwing" politics, in which he meant that he endorsed universal progress.[16][17] He had been in a non-exclusive "friendship" (his preferred term for relationship) with Flora Schnall, a lawyer and fellow Harvard Law Class of 1959 graduate with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from the 1960s until his death.[18]

Death

On July 8, 2000, FM-2030 died from pancreatic cancer and was placed in cryonic suspension at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona, where his body remains today. He did not yet have remote standby arrangements, so no Alcor team member was present at his death, but FM-2030 was the first person to be vitrified, rather than simply frozen as previous cryonics patients had been.[12] FM-2030 was survived by four sisters and one brother.[5]

Published works

Fiction
  • The Day of Sacrifice (1959) available as an eBook
  • The Beggar (1965)
  • Identity Card (1966) (ISBN 0-460-03843-5) available as an eBook
Non-fiction
  • Optimism one; the emerging radicalism (1970) (ISBN 0-393-08611-9)
  • UpWingers: A Futurist Manifesto (1973) (ISBN 0-381-98243-2) (pbk.) Available as an eBook ISBN FW00007527, Publisher: e-reads, Pub. Date: Jan 1973, File Size: 153K
  • Telespheres (1977) (ISBN 0-445-04115-3)
  • Are You a Transhuman?: Monitoring and Stimulating Your Personal Rate of Growth in a Rapidly Changing World (1989) (ISBN 0-446-38806-8).

Cultural references

  • In Dan Brown's novel Inferno, fictional transhumanists who admire FM-2030 pay tribute to him by adopting his naming convention and taking names such as FS2080.[19]
  • Several musical artists, such as the Reptaliens, Dataport, Ghosthack, Vorja, Gavin Osborn and Philip Sumner have created songs and albums named after FM-2030.[20][21]
  • A film titled 2030 released in 2020, which explored the possibility of FM-2030's future revival.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ https://archives.nypl.org/mss/4846
  2. ^ a b c Martin, Douglas (July 11, 2000). "Futurist Known as FM-2030 Is Dead at 69". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-08-25.
  3. ^ https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/10/obituaries/a-s-esfandiary-dies-at-91-a-longtime-iranian-diplomat.html
  4. ^ "The Future Takes Forever: Becoming FM-2030".
  5. ^ a b c "Futurist Known as FM-2030 Is Dead at 69". The New York Times. July 11, 2000. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  6. ^ http://archives.nypl.org/mss/4846. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ^ "F. M. Esfandiary / FM-2030 Papers : 1943-2000" (PDF). May 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-26.
  8. ^ https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/4x3kjj/the-frozen-father-of-moden-transhumanism
  9. ^ All Things Considered (2000-07-11). "Fm-2030". NPR. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
  10. ^ https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/4x3kjj/the-frozen-father-of-moden-transhumanism
  11. ^ "The Future Takes Forever: Becoming FM-2030".
  12. ^ a b Chamberlain, Fred (Winter 2000). "A Tribute to FM-2030" (PDF). Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Retrieved 2009-08-25.
  13. ^ Greenwich Village Gazette (A New1.com Publication). "Greenwich Village Gazette: Columns: Gay Today: Jack Nichols". Nycny.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-14. Retrieved 2011-03-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ https://www.alcor.org/docs/alcor-patient-profile-FM-2030.pdf
  15. ^ Esfandiary, F.M. Upwingers: A Futurist Manifesto. p. 185.
  16. ^ "Ninety-degree revolution: Right and Left are fading away. The real question in politics will be: do you look to the earth or aspire to the skies?".
  17. ^ "Empowerment Politics: Left Wing, Right Wing, and Up Wing".
  18. ^ Lithwick, Dahlia (21 July 2020). "The Class of RBG". Slate. Graham Holding Company. Slate Group. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  19. ^ Tonkin, Boyd (May 14, 2013). "Review: Inferno - Dan Brown's Dante-inspired novel is clunky but clever and will undoubtedly heat up pundits". The Independent.
  20. ^ "REVIEW: Reptaliens - FM-2030". ThrdCoast. October 19, 2017.
  21. ^ "Gavin Osborn biography". Last.fm.
  22. ^ Rodriguez, Liz (January 27, 2020). ""2030" Releases Through Random Media". Movie Marker.
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