F.M.Esfandiary (or FM-2030 as he preferred to be called) was a radical optimist and after reading some of his stuff it is obvious he was the source of many ideas that are nowadays expressed by people like Ray Kurzweil, Hans Moravec and other transhumanists. He wrote his most visionary books between 1970 and 1977, so there is considerable historical distance, but his optimism is still rather infectuous. He writes a lot about ‘global computer networks’ in a way which quite realistically predicts the internet, and he writes a lot about genetic engineering; The more the better, and he has certainly no reservations about eugenics. We should design the new man in order to solve our problems. His most striking general point is that progress is a subversive force which is often hardly intended and that its effects can not be stopped. But luckily, in his view at least, the positive effects largely outdo the negative effects. His views are not postmodern at all, hypermodern would be a better word, and while postmodernism already feels like a thing of the past, it seems that his ideas are going to stick around for quite a while longer. He intended to live forever and expected that ‘barring an accident’ he probably would. On July 8, 2000, however, FM-2030 died from cancer and was placed in cryonic suspension.

Here a quote from ‘Upwingers’ (as in: not ‘Leftwing’, nor ‘Rightwing’, but ‘Upwing’), to give an idea of the tone of his writing. Here he states the basic problem that in his view is going to be completely solved by technological progress:

“This descendant of fish this child of recent monkeys has done well for itself.
But great as theses advances are the basic human situation has changed very little. Our advances have been historic not evolutionary.
The human condition remains inherently tragic.

To free humanity from this tragic plight and rise to a higher evolution we need a new kind of upheaval – a cosmic upheaval.
We can no longer settle for traditional revolutions which seek to improve our social economic political conditions. That is no longer enough.
Revolutions and revolutionaries are now too modest. We want more. Much more.
We are now far more visionary far more demanding far more transcendent.
Progress itself is no longer enough. It took us ages to even accept the idea of progress. Now we must adjust to the idea of cosmic changes.
We must begin to adjust to the idea of making basic changes in the human condition. For instance redoing the human body – going to other worlds – living extraterrestrially – experiencing a different nature – searching for other beings in the universe.
We must begin to comprehend that living in other worlds and living eternally are no longer metaphysical or theological concepts. People are now actually travelling to other world people are now actually striving for physical immortality.
When we speak of hearing voices from other worlds we no longer mean the voice of a god – but of astronauts.
When we speak of people leaving this earth we no longer mean that they have died – but that they have gone to other planets.
We are moving into whole new dimensions of Time and Space.
We must therefore begin to embrace the idea that from here on our goals are not only social economic political. That at last the time has come for humanity to tackle more primary problems strive for more transcendent goals.
We must make every man and woman on this planet aware that we are now at the beginning of a monumental upheaval against the twin limitations of Time and Space – that it is only by joining and sustaining this upheaval that we will at last free ourselves from our human tragedy.
We must make everyone aware that Time and Space are the most basic determinants of all life impinging on all aspects of life – from birth to death. They are the root causes of the deepest human suffering: unfreedom – robotization – inequalities – competitiveness – violence – loneliness – identity crisis – alienation…
Parent-child conflicts – gender inequalities – social injustices – economic imbalances – political repressions – these are not the primary determinants of human suffering. They are contributory causes themselves created by the twin pressure of Time and Space. This is a truism which all too often eludes us.

BEYOND FREEDOM
Let us begin with freedom. What does freedom mean to you ?
The psychologically oriented will emphasize emotional or inner freedom. The doctrinaire socialist or capitalist sees freedom in an exclusively economic context. The political determinist regards freedom as a political condition. A sophisticated generalist is aware of all these aspects of freedom – psychological economic political.
What does repression mean to you ?
Here again the psych-social economic political determinants are invariably stressed.
We are all so totally focused on social economic political conditions that we never pause to consider freedom and repression in a more basic human context.
We are like the shipboard passenger vehemently demanding a better cabin or the freedom to stroll on the first-class deck – on a sinking ship.
The ship of your life – your very existence – is slowly sinking. No psychological economic or political freedom can save you from drowning. It is time you paused to consider this.
What good social freedoms when life itself is based on unfreedom ?
How free am I if I cannot choose my own body my own brain my own gender the color of my skin my biological rhythms ? How free am I trapped in a predetermined biological strait-jacket in whose selection I have had absolutely nothing to say ?
I do not like my body. I am unattractive clumsy sickly. What can I do about this body of mine ? I am trapped.
I do not like my mind. I am slow unimaginative unperceptive. How can I free my self of this mind ?
I do not like my personality. I am disposed to depression paranoia intolerance. I wish I were different. How can I free myself ?
I am growing old. My hair is turning gray my eyes are losing their luster my mind and memory are fading. I don’t like what is happening to me. I don’t like myself any more – this aging self of mine. I am a burden to myself. How can I now recapture my earlier vitality ? How can I slow down Time ?
What good then social economic political freedoms if I cannot enjoy the more primary freedom to free my self from the prison cell of this unwanted body personality brain ? How free if I cannot decide if I cannot even know when I will die ? What does freedom mean to a terminal patient ? In one blow death strikes down all freedoms. Death is Zero Freedom.
Then too how free am I within a Space-cell which determines and limits my every move: gravity – air – water – seasons – night and day – the sun ? What good freedom to move all over the planet if a mere twelve-foot fall can kill me ? What good freedom to sail the open seas if a pint of water in my lungs can drown me ?
I am an accident – a biological accident trapped in a very small speck in Time and Space. I am a momentary flash of consciousness. Suddenly I am. Then just as suddenly I am not.
All my attempts at psychological economic political self-determination are child’s play. They will not bring me real freedom. They will not set me free.”

His utopian vision of total freedom in Time and Space reminded me of several earlier, slightly more modest examples:

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was dreaming of buildings with walls made of streams of compressed air:
“These suggestions may be disturbing to a few people, who probably would be more aghast at the Utopian plan of Professor Bernal of Cambridge, England, to construct houses the walls of which are produced by compressed air, by rotating air streams. The walls would insulate perfectly. The question arises why one should live between stone walls when one could live under the blue sky between green trees with all the advantages of perfect insulation ?”
(from Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, ‘Space-Time and the Photographer’, American Annual of Photography, 1942)

Yves Klein formulated more or less the same vision as Moholy-Nagy, and did experiments together with the German architect Werner Ruhnau to investigate the possibillity of such structures of compressed air. He imagined the whole world would be air-conditioned in this way, covered by an invisible roof of air, so that everybody would be freed from the bad vibes of the weather. His vision was a kind of new eden where everybody would walk around naked, without any cumbersome personal possessions. This paradise would be made possible by complex underground machinery, fulfilling all the functions necessary to sustain life.

A new eden formulated by Yves Klein, drawn by Claude Parent.

The huge underground machinery that makes the new eden possible.

Ruhnau and Klein keeping dry on their knees under a stream of compressed air, while an engineer sprays artificial rain.

And then there are the eloquent images of Superstudio, evoking a blissful future where we all are nomads, freed of obligations and objects, trekking across a worldwide grid that delivers energy and communication:

And a more recent (and more modest) version of this vision is the Utopia formulated by Tomas Saraceno, when he talks about his Air-Port-City: “My idea for an Air-Port-City is to create platforms or habitable cells made up of cities that float in the air. These change form and join together like clouds. This freedom of movement is borrowed from the orderly structure of airports, and it allows for the creation of the first international city.”

Tomas Saraceno, from the series ‘Cumulus’, shot in the highest salt-lake in the world.