Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Censorship in Transhumanism: Technoprogressive List, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), & Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET)

As I have previously reported, the freedom of speech is not respected in many cryonics publications. Unfortunately, I have to report that this also applies to the wider transhumanist community. In both cases, certain ideas are suppressed, because they contradict the beliefs of persons in power.

To summarize the below:
I asked to be removed from the Technoprogressive List after being censored. I then discovered I was being secretly censored on the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) website. Around the same time, communications about an article that had been submitted to the Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET) went dead. I then started looking for an other publication outlet. A few months later, a lame "rejection notice" came. My interpretation is that this was the absolute longest delay that could appear at all reasonable for "internal review." In other words, the article was stalled for as long as possible in the hopes I wouldn't immediately send it somewhere else. Comparing the quality of my article with what usually appears in JET will confirm this analysis. One of the positive reviews of the article posted to the Cryonics Institute List:

It is clear that you have given much thought to the question of the future of cryonics and cryonics marketing.  I suggest that all the CI current candidates for office, and present Directors, read this document, if they have not already done so. (Jim Yount, 11 August 2013)


PS: I have not included all dates, etc. in the below. Feel free to request the mails I exchanged with the responsible, which fully document my statements:
James J. Hughes <director@ieet.org>
Kris Notaro <krisnotaro@gmail.com>
Marcelo Rinesi <marcelo.rinesi@gmail.com>
Russell Kenneth Blackford <russellblackford@bigpond.com>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In the cases I report here, the criticism of Buddhism has apparently triggered the censorship. The Technoprogressive List, the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) website, and the Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET) are all edited by James J. Hughes. He "is working on a second book tentatively titled Cyborg Buddha." I recently read that Hughes had been a Buddhist Monk. I am not the first person to express doubts about the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, which publishes the IEET website and JET.

My banning from the Technoprogressive List apparently was triggered by this message, even though it was ascribed to another issue. (I say this because I had several times earlier expressed my opinion on the "global warming" issue, even earlier criticizing the Moderator for attempting to limit discussion on that topic.):

Subject: Re: [tp] Why the Dalai Lama is a Marxist

On 2 Oct 2012, at 4:42 PM, Hughes, James J. wrote:
>Stuart Smithers is chair of the religion department at the University of Puget Sound, director of the Smoke Farm Institute, and a contributing editor to Tricycle.

I read about half of this nonsense. 


The facts that everyone should know about Buddhism are:


:it is a totalitarian theocracy headed by a God-King.


:it systematically abuses women -

I was a Tantric sex slave



:the people on the bottom eat the shit of the people on the top.  Also literally, according to -




dss



The exchange that resulted in my leaving the The Technoprogressive List:

Subject: RE: [tp] CEPR: Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change

On 6 Feb 2013, at 5:49 PM, Hughes, James J. wrote:
>The paper notes that while some amount of climate change is inevitable, the amount of warming is very much under our control.

When is the promotion of anti-humanist nonsense by "progressives" going to stop?





Even NASA leading cheerleader for "Global Warming" has admitted that there has been no warming for a decade:


James Hansen: The most iconic scientist in global warming / climate change establishment is James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies (NASA-GISS). With two colleagues he published a paper this week stating: "The 5-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade, which we interpret as a combination of natural variability and a slowdown in the growth rate of the net climate forcing."



More:



dss



Subject: RE: [tp] CEPR: Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change


On 6 Feb 2013, at 8:10 PM, Hughes, James J. wrote:
> Even NASA leading cheerleader for "Global Warming"! has admitted that there has been no warming for a decade:

David

I consider climate change denialism on IEET lists to be trolling, so this is a warning.

The existence of anthropogenic climate change is a given on our lists. If you want to fight about it go someplace else.

--------


Subject: RE: [tp] CEPR: Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change

If you are not going to allow free speech, then remove me from the List.


dss



Subject: RE: [tp] CEPR: Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change

> If you are not going to allow free speech, then remove me from the List.

Since most of your contributions are of the trolling variety I'll be happy to.

--------
====================================


Sometime later, I added a short comment to the IEET website, which either never appeared or disappeared without any notice to me - comments are moderated. However, I did receive a notice when some else added a comment to that same article:

Subject: Someone just responded to your comment

Someone just responded to the entry you subscribed to at:
Multimedia

The title of the entry is:
Dark Matter of Transhumanism

You can see the comment at the following URL:

--------

Subject: Comment?

Why hasn't the comment I posted to this page appeared?



dss


Subject: Re: Comment?

On 9 Apr 2013, at 12:15 AM, Kris Notaro wrote:

>I am not the only person who moderates the comments.

>What was the comment?

See appended. The response, however, is not to my Comment. My Comment itself was a few lines correcting some methodological errors and linking to some blog pages.


dss


I received no responses whatsoever to these:


Subject: Re: Comment?


Has this been resolved?

dss

On 9 Apr 2013, at 12:15 AM, Kris Notaro wrote:


do you have a username and password with the IEET?




Subject: Fwd: Comment?

James Hughes,


If I have no response by April 22nd, I will be forced to conclude that this is a result of arbitrary censorship.


dss


(I have deleted large amounts of quoted text above to avoid repetition.)

====================================


I had already submitted my draft, "The Decline of Cryonics: An Overview" to the Journal of Evolution and Technology:

Subject: Re: The Decline of Cryonics: An Overview 

David,

Thanks! - Kris

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 5:30 PM, David Stodolsky <dss@secureid.net> wrote:
I am proofing this now and can submit it within a few days:


Abstract

We predict the failure of the Cryonics Industry and the likely destruction of those in storage. Two failure modes are considered, organizational decline and political attack. The strategic direction of the Industry is analyzed by applying well known principles of marketing and organization theory. Two alternative strategies are suggested that could minimize failure risk by reversing the stagnation of the Industry and integrating it into the mainstream.

dss


Subject: [JET] Submission Acknowledgement
Date: 30 March 2013

David Sanders Stodolsky:

Thank you for submitting the manuscript, "The Decline of Cryonics: An
Overview" to Journal of Evolution and Technology. With the online journal
management system that we are using, you will be able to track its progress
through the editorial process by logging in to the journal web site:

Username: davidstodolsky

If you have any questions, please contact me. Thank you for considering this
journal as a venue for your work.

James J. Hughes
Journal of Evolution and Technology


From: Marcelo Rinesi <marcelo.rinesi@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Author ID?
Date: 30 March 2013 8:50:09 PM GMT+01:00
To: David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org>

I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.


On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 12:29 PM, David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org> wrote:
If I am supposed to submit via the Web, I don't see how to do it.


dss

On 28 Mar 2013, at 2:35 AM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:

Thanks.

And, yes, that'd be useful.

best,
Marcelo


On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 4:10 PM, David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org> wrote:
This page


has inconsistent info for punctuation of "et al"


Do you need a draft without author identity?


dss

From: Marcelo Rinesi <marcelo.rinesi@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Author ID?
Date: 31 March 2013 12:10:37 AM GMT+01:00
To: David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org>

Great, thanks.


On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 5:23 PM, David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org> wrote:

On 30 Mar 2013, at 8:50 PM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:

I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

I have uploaded the anonymized article and the two bit-mapped images. 

Find attached the unanonymized PDF, which includes my Bio. This replaces the previously sent PDF. 


dss



Subject: Re: Author ID?
Date: 11 April 2013 

What is the status of this paper?

dss

On 30 Mar 2013, at 8:50 PM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:
I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

I have uploaded the anonymized article and the two bit-mapped images. 

Find attached the unanonymized PDF, which includes my Bio. This replaces the previously sent PDF. 


dss



From: Marcelo Rinesi <marcelo.rinesi@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Author ID?
Date: 12 April 2013 3:40:25 PM GMT+02:00
To: David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org>

It's being internally pre-reviewed, and we're contacting potential external reviewers with domain-specific expertise.


On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 5:28 PM, David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org> wrote:
What is the status of this paper?

dss

On 30 Mar 2013, at 8:50 PM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:

I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

I have uploaded the anonymized article and the two bit-mapped images. 

Find attached the unanonymized PDF, which includes my Bio. This replaces the previously sent PDF. 


dss



Subject: Paper?
Date: 24 April 2013

What is the status of this paper?

dss

On 30 Mar 2013, at 8:50 PM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:
I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

I have uploaded the anonymized article and the two bit-mapped images. 


dss



(I received no response to the above request, so about a month later I began investigating other publication outlets. After investigating a few other possibilities, the below arrived:)






Subject: [JET] Your submission re the decline of cryonics
Date: 4 August 2013

Dear Dr. Stodolsky,

Thank you for your submission to The Journal of Evolution and Technology
entitled "The Decline of Cryonics: An Overview."

We were very interested in your submission, as the viability of, and the
possible prospects for, the cryonics industry certainly fall into the
journal's remit. We would be interested in publishing a critique of the
cryonics industry or an authoritative study of its long-term viability and
prospects.

In the end, however, we were not sufficiently persuaded to pass this
particular paper on to our next step, which is external peer review (we
reject many papers prior to external review, but seldom accept a paper
without it).

We would be interested in looking at future papers that you might write
within this general area, but we ultimately thought this "overview" paper
was not sufficiently compelling in its structure and logic, and in the rigor
of the research in some of the sections, for that purpose.

For example, your analysis of the marketing methods currently used in the
cryonics industry may or may not be correct, but we don't think enough has
been done to substantiate it. This sort of problem might be fixable if it
had occurred in only one section of the paper, but it happens enough
throughout to require considerably more research. This might lead to either
a new paper or perhaps a series of shorter papers focused more closely on
particular aspects of the industry's problems, climate of operation, and
future prospects.

Once again, thank you for thinking of JET, and we wish you well in your
further research on the issues faced by the cryonics industry.

Yours sincerely,

Russell Blackford
Editor-in-Chief

No comments:

Post a Comment