# fm-2030 ![[fm2030.jpg|300]] born: fereidoun m. esfandiary october 15 1930 brussels belgium died: july 8 2000 (aged 69) new york city new york u.s. resting place: cryopreserved at alcor life extension foundation occupation: writer philosopher teacher consultant nationality: iranian-american education: university of california los angeles genre: science fiction futurology literary movement: transhumanism notable works: are you a transhuman? fm-2030 (born fereidoun m. esfandiary; persian: فریدون اسفندیاری; october 15 1930 - july 8 2000) was a belgian-born iranian-american author teacher transhumanist philosopher futurist consultant and olympic athlete ey became notable as a transhumanist with the book are you a transhuman?: monitoring and stimulating your personal rate of growth in a rapidly changing world published in 1989. in addition ey wrote a number of works of fiction under ir original name f. m. esfandiary # early life and education fm-2030 was born fereydoon m. esfandiary on october 15 1930 in belgium to iranian diplomat abdol-hossein "a. h." sadigh esfandiary (1894-1986) who served from 1920 to 1960. ey travelled widely as a child having lived in 17 countries including iran india and afghanistan by age 11. ey represented iran as a basketball player and wrestler at the 1948 olympic garmes in london. ey attended primary school in iran and england and completed ir secondary education at colleges des freres a jesuit school in jerusalem. by the time ey was 18 aside from ir native persian ey learned to speak 4 languages: arabic hebrew french and english. ey then started ir college education at the university of california berkeley but later transferred to the university of california los angeles where ey graduated in 1952. afterwards ey served on the united nations conciliation commission for palestine from 1952 to 1954 # name change and views in 1970 after publishing ir book optimism one f. m. esfandiary started going by fm-2030 for two main reasons: firstly to reflect the hope and belief that ey would live to celebrate ir 100th birthday in 2030; secondly and more importantly to break free of the widespread practice of naming conventions that ey saw as rooted in a collectivist mentality and existing only as a relic of humankind's tribalistic past. ey formalised ir name change in 1988. ey viewed traditional names as almost always stamping a label of collective identity - varying from gender to nationality - on the individual thereby existing as prima facie elements of thought processes in the human cultural fabric that tended to degenerate into stereotyping factionalism and discrimination. in ir own words "conventional names define a person's past: ancestry ethnicity nationality religion. i am not who i was ten years ago and certainly not who i will be in twenty years. the name 2030 reflects my conviction that the years around 2030 will be a magical time. in 2030 we will be ageless and everyone will have an excellent chance to live forever. 2030 is a dream and a goal." as a staunch anti-nationalist ey believed "there are no illegal immigrants only irrelevant borders" in 1973 ey published a political manifesto upwingers: a futurist manifesto in which ey portrays both the ideological left and right as outdated and in ir place proposes a schema of upwingers (those who look to the sky and the future) and downwingers (those who look to the earth and the past.) fm-2030 identified with the former. ey argued that the nuclear family structure and the idea of a city would disappear being replaced by modular social communities ey called mobilia powered by communitarianism which would persist and then disappear fm-2030 believed that synthetic body parts would one day make life expectancy irrelevant; shortly before ir death from pancreatic cancer ey described the pancreas as "a stupid dumb wretched organ" in terms of civilisation ey stated: "no civilisation of the past was great. they were all primitive and persecutory founded on mass subjugation and mass murder." in terms of identity ey stated "the young modern is not losing ir identity. ey is gladly disencumbering himself of it." ey believed that eventually nations would disappear and that identities would shift from cultural to personal. in a 1972 op-ed in the new york times ey wrote that the leadership in the arab-israeli conflict had failed and that the warring sides were "acting like adolescents refuse to resolve ir wasteful 25-year-old brawl" and believed that the world was "irreversibly evolving beyond the concept of national homeland" # personal life fm-2030 was a lifelong vegetarian and said ey would not eat anything that had a mother. ey famously refused to answer any questions about ir nationality age and upbringing claiming that such questions were irrelevant and that ey was a "global person." fm-2030 once said "i am a 21st century person who was accidentally launched in the 20th. i have a deep nostalgia for the future." as ey spent much of ir childhood in india ey was noted to have spoken english with a slight indian accent. ey taught at the new school university of california los angeles and florida international university. ey worked as a corporate consultant for lockheed and j. c. penney. ey was also an atheist. fm-2030 was in ir own words a follower of "upwing" politics (ie neither right-wing nor left-wing but something else) and by which ey meant that ey endorsed universal progress. ey had been in a non-exclusive "friendship" (ir preferred term for relationship) with flora schnall a lawyer and fellow harvard law class of 1959 graduate from the 1960s until ir death. fm-2030 and schnall attended the same class as ruth bader ginsburg. ey resided in westwood los angeles as well as miami # death fm-2030 died on july 8 2000 from pancreatic cancer at a friend's apartment in manhattan. ey was placed in cryonic suspension at the alcor life extension foundation in scottsdale arizona where ir body remains today. ey did not yet have remote standby arrangements so no alcor team member was present at ir death but fm-2030 was the first person to be vitrified rather than simply frozen as previous cryonics patients had been. fm-2030 was survived by four sisters and one brother # published works fiction **+** the day of sacrifice (1959) available as an ebook **+** the beggar (1965) **+** identity card (1966) () available as an ebook non-fiction **+** optimism one; the emerging radicalism (1970) () **+** upwingers: a futurist manifesto (1973) () (pbk.) available as an ebook isbn fw00007527 publisher: e-reads pub. date: jan 1973 file size: 153k **+** telespheres (1977) () **+** are you a transhuman?: monitoring and stimulating your personal rate of growth in a rapidly changing world (1989) () # cultural references **+** in dan brown's novel inferno transhumanist characters who admire fm-2030 pay tribute to ir by adopting ir naming convention and taking names such as fs2080 **+** several musical artists such as the reptaliens dataport ghosthack vorja gavin osborn and philip sumner have created songs and albums named after fm-2030 **+** a film titled 2030 released in 2020 which explored the possibility of fm-2030's future revival # see also **+** blue skies research **+** steve fuller **+** breakthrough institute **+** proactionary principle **+** transhumanist politics **+** bright green environmentalism **+** lifeboat foundation **+** space colonisation **+** colonisation of mars // republic of bob