Bridging the Trans Gap - Speculations on ways to bring Transgender and Transhuman together.

There is clearly a gap between the Transhuman and Transgender groups despite their having some significant common ground. Although having no clear central authority or even cohesion among these very broad categories there still seems to be little space in which they interact. This continues to be an odd phenomena and an interesting sociological conundrum. There seem to be some key aspects to this that are worth considering. While these are highly speculative with little hard data in direct support they nevertheless are points that may help to find bridges to help support common ground.

Perhaps the largest issue that keeps these two communities apart is the simple fact that they often do not interact with each other. Most people who are Trans and perhaps even majority of people in general simply have not heard of Transhumanism to begin with. Trashumanists and Transgender individuals tend to be somewhat insure to begin with and while very few people in the world now are unaware of Transgenderism and its related issues there is nevertheless a great deal of difficulty in getting people to reach out in either direction.

How the communities are couched is part of this problem as well. Transgenderism is often not seen as a technical problem. It is usually defined primarily in terms of its social aspects. How are people who express this identity treated and what sort of social and psychological support is desired. Transgender communities also tend to be close knit exhibiting a certain degree of desire for isolation from the larger world. This desire for privacy connected with a sense that they are not well understood in the world leads to a higher degree of insularity than might be found in the wider populace. Transhumanism also has its own drivers of isolation but they come from a different direction. Transhumanists by and large fall within what might best be described as a 'technophile' background. These are people who are deeply interested in technology and what can be done with it. Indeed Transhumanism as a movement sprang from such people getting together and talking about the future and then publishing various works both fictional and academic speculating about the future of technology. It results in many interesting topics and useful insights however it creates a certain limited space around itself. Few Transhumanists seem to want to go back to basics and try and explain the jargon and ideas that are foundational to Transhumanism to neophytes. Indeed most become frustrated even when they try as usually their audiences do not share their enthusiasm for seemingly abstract concepts.

To counter this it is important to try and get people talking and engaging more. Transhumanists would probably be quite happy to have more discussions with people who could find reason to get excited about some of their favorite technologies. It would help to overcome some of the frustration that is occasionally expressed regarding peoples disinterest or outright rejection of some of the most foundational principles such as human modification. Likewise Transgender individuals may find it refreshing to meet people who, while not necessarily interested in gender specific issues, are deeply interested in improving lives by finding ways to make radical body modifications more available and more accepted. Building this as a common ground may well help to make clearer one of the most important common spaces.

So how to we broach these issues such that both grounds can find greater reason to talk to each other? First it certainly behooves Transhumanists to make themselves more visible and more accessible. Transhumanism remains a fringe group in almost every way. There needs to be a more concerted effort to get futurist ideas into the common mindset not just as some curiosity of intellectuals but as a real and meaningful social movement toward a brighter future. It also has to be a positive approach such that people are eager to engage. This is especially important given the dark future and cyberpunk media that is currently dominant regarding most H+ subjects. In addition to changing the media with a powerful emphasis on creating it themselves then Transhumanists ought to open up more and talk about H+ with people on a regular basis. It is also important to create more local interaction between Transhumanists to give people a direct link to the movement where one does not frequently exist at this time. A greater emphasis in Transhumanism of the areas that go beyond the technology would likely help as well. After all most Transhumanists would agree that rights to the self and freedom to develop technologies are vital to a successful human future. Such a world must also treat people equally and as individuals and this also is an area of connection that is too often overlooked.

From the other side Transgender individuals and groups might benefit from being a little more open to novel approaches. A little more flexibility among some groups and willingness to network with technologists would be excellent. After all it is through developments in technology and medicine that transitions have gotten so far as they have. An increased degree of curiosity with efforts to learn as much as possible about relevant topics is desirable. Efforts to proactively campaign in favor of supporting technologies to achieve better outcomes would be a mutual goal and make visible more of the points of connection to Transhumanists than may be readily apparent to many at this time.

There is much to recommend more interconnection between these movements and shared ideas and goals can be helped along by creating more dialog between them.