Natasha Vita-More · Lablypedia

Early life and education

Vita-More was born in Bronxville, New York. Vita-More studied at Accademia di Belle Arti in Ravenna, Italy (1977) after graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art (1973). Returning to the United States, she started a commercial design firm in Telluride, Colorado (1972-1980). She completed Paralegal Certification from Blackstone School of Law in 1992. She earned a Master of Science in Future Studies at the University of Houston (2006) and a Master of Philosophy from University of Plymouth, UK. Faculty of Technology, School of Computers, Communications and Electronics, School of Communications and Media Studies M.Phil. Vita-More was awarded a Ph.D in Media Art and Design from the Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom. Her Ph.D thesis focused on human enhancement and radical life extension.

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Career

Vita-More is currently President Emeritus of Humanity+ Inc. From 2012 – 2014 she was a visiting scholar, 21st Century Medicine. Since 2012, she has been a professor and department chair at the for-profit University of Advancing Technology and a former chair of its graduate program.

Between 1987 and 1993 she was the host and producer of TransCentury Update a cable TV show that aired in Los Angeles and Telluride, Colorado. Between 2001 and 2004, she was the President of the Extropy Institute. She contributed the Cambridge Union Immortality Debate of 2017.

Work

In 1982, Vita-More wrote the "Transhumanist Manifesto", which was on board the Cassini–Huygens Saturn mission. It discussed the possibility for overcoming disease and extending lifespans and later she founded an organization Transhumanist Arts and Culture.

In 1997 she designed the first whole-body prosthetic, entitled Primo Posthuman, which depicted how a human might look in the future with technological enhancements such as color-changing skin. Her videos have been exhibited at the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Russia, her painting at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and other works of design compositions at the Telluride Film Festival.

She authored Create / Recreate: the 3rd Millennial Culture on the emerging cybernetic culture and the future of humanism and the arts and sciences. She is also author of Transhumanism: What is it? concerning the basic questions of the transhumanist philosophical, ethical and cultural worldview.

Her project "Primo 3M+ 2001" future physique 3D design for superlongevity in a tongue-in-cheek is based on nanotechnology and AI.

In 2014 she was the entrepreneur and scientific lead, together with Daniel Barranco from the Department of Cryobiology of the Spanish University of Seville, of research that proved, for the first time, that the use of cryonic technologies does not destroy the long-term memory of the simplest multi-cellular organisms.

In 2019, Aging Analytics named Vita-More one of the Top-50 Women Longevity Leaders.

Books and publications

Vita-More has written and contributed to numerous books, essays, and peer-reviewed papers addressing design, ethics, and the philosophy of human enhancement.

The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future (2013), co-edited with Max More.
Unbounded Existence: AI, Nanorobots, and Computational Simulation (2023).
How We Became: Bodies, Beings, and Beyond (2021).
D’Homo Sapient à Homo Sapient (2024).
Love Story on Longevity, featured in the Louvre Museum’s event and publication 100,000 Years of Beauty (2009).

Selected academic works

"Designing for Human Evolution", Technoetic Arts Journal (2018).
"Designing a New Humanity", Metaverse Creativity (2012).
"Morphological Freedom and the Future Human", H+ Magazine (2015).
"The Aesthetics of Human Enhancement", Journal of Evolution and Technology (2017).
"Transhumanist Design: A New Methodology for the Future Human", International Journal of Design Futures (2020).

Personal life

As of 2020, she lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Her husband is philosopher and futurist Max More.