This is my first post for a long long time but it's an important holiday today and I decided to celebrate in my own way.
Here in Bulgaria, 24 May is the Day of the Cyrillic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture. We celebrate the creation of our alphabet , books, literature and everything related to science, knowledge, education and more. It is a bright holiday which has a lot to do with the preservation and richness of the Bulgarian culture.
That made me thinking of my education and how I got to the idea that the technology and the free will can help solving many socio-economic issues, which exists for centuries - e.g. this the short story of my informal technocrat-leaning education, which I got mostly during the communist era in Bulgaria.
Well , I grew and graduated in times, when the Bulgaria education system was indoctrinated by communist propaganda and the state's socioeconomic matters were planned for 5 years ahead by the government. There were no private businesses or even no real business at all - just 5 years state-level plans with foggy goals, which nobody cared to achieve anyway.
Well of course I was not aware about the state matters at that time, as I was mostly interested in animations ( mostly russian ones ), sci-fi books, outdoor games and well girls at some point.
At the time my shy teenage moustache got noticeable, I started to be fascinated by the idea that the human body and mind limitations can be overcome by the use of proper technology.
The first story I was hit by, was the one where a small guy got instantly physically enhanced by utilizing proper chemical compounds called Popeye the sailor, where this guy was eating spinach to get stronger. I would say he was like a vintage instant Capitan America.
I guess this was my early crash into the idea that my biologically human body is not necessarily to be considered as a final verdict, which later developed as an everlasting interest into what is called transhumanism. And even though that for all those years the Holy Grail of the transhumanism, the singularity was and still lives in the future , I was and still feel optimistic.
Years passed , a plenty of technological breakthroughs are for real now and my interest in those areas never seized, which at that time in my mind was not connected to politics, economics or any other sociological matters. I was just an young technocrat leaning over cyberpunk, biologically, chemically and cyber enhanced bodies and souls and strong beliefs that the technology some day will give all the answers to the questions in my nerdy socially-challenged mind. Hm, I guess that was a weird hope to finally be able to get an algorithm on how to be more popular or just liked by these weird creatures with long hair and soft voices. Well... still looking for this algorithm.
Later on, I started working, dealing with business and technology and somehow got impressed by the libertarianist ideas ,where well all is decided by the market, by the individual. The libertarianist concept corresponded in my mind with the idea for freedom of will, endless opportunities, initiatives, innovation, which somehow for me were related to the cyberpunk idea.
And here we come to the moment, when I realized that may be those similarities between the two areas are not just delusions of my mind, but actually a field which some call "Libertarian transhumanism", which basically connects the dots between the two and pushing the idea of owning yourself even further - so that you can change and enhance yourself.
Even though the most interesting part for me was always the technology side, the impact of those technologies over the socio-economic flesh became quite interesting for me later, when my moustache got slightly lighter color.
So, still wondering how the communist education system made me indoctrinated with "Libertarian transhumanism" ideas. Well I think I was just naturally disgusted by that false propaganda for the power of the state, the false goals and the great bright future which will eventually happen one day.
Hm, so it seems that education system was actually successful - I learned a lot anyway.
So, happy 24 May!
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