I’m not really sure.
It might be because of Soviet Union cultural influence, the whole “let’s build the future ourselves which will be significantly different from our current reality” idea. And also there was a Russian cosmism movement which still has some followers, even though it currently looks more like an art movement than anything substantial.
Yes I have noticed that too. My impression/hunch is that parts of the Russian intellectual class seem to be interested in ideas seen to be far out (and have been so for a long time). That might be one explanatory factor.
Checking in: I’m Slava and I’d be glad to answer any further questions. Jason, thanks for writing this post!
Transhumanism seems to have a decently large Russian presence. Any ideas why that might be?
I’m not really sure. It might be because of Soviet Union cultural influence, the whole “let’s build the future ourselves which will be significantly different from our current reality” idea. And also there was a Russian cosmism movement which still has some followers, even though it currently looks more like an art movement than anything substantial.
It might also be because a few people managed to start KrioRus (cryonics company) and Russian Transhumanist Movement 10-15 years ago.
Of course, these two reasons are not mutually exclusive.
Yes I have noticed that too. My impression/hunch is that parts of the Russian intellectual class seem to be interested in ideas seen to be far out (and have been so for a long time). That might be one explanatory factor.