On May 14-15 2011, Humanity+ International is partnering with Parsons The New School for Design in New York City to produce Transhumanism Meets Design, a conference exploring emerging technology, transdisciplinary design, culture and media theory, and biotech.

The conference brings together all types of thinkers including; futurists, cyberneticists, life extensionists, singularity advocates, A[G]I and robotics experts, human enhancement specialists, inventors, ethicists, philosophers, artists, writers and theorists to meet with the creativity and rigorous scholarship of design at Parsons.

This is an exciting opportunity as I have been asked to discuss my theories and philosophies behind Gates, Heavy Metal’s first online comic.

MY ABSTRACT FOR:

TRANSHUMANISM MEETS DESIGN @ PARSONS

“Controlled Genetic Management: Forecasting the future when science, religion, technology, big business and politics battle to control evolution” – Presented by Hal Hefner, creator of Gates, Heavy Metal’s 1st Webcomic

Hal Hefner is the creator of Gates a comic book that is a chronicle of high adventure, addressing ideas of identity, society, politics, and philosophy. It is the ultimate tale of man vs. nature and nature vs. technology. The theme of the story covers modern concerns, commenting on the relevant topics of environmentalism, Darwinism, creationism, and the unchecked dangers of irresponsible scientific and technological experimentation. At its most basic level, Gates is a story about the evolutionary divide of humanity brought about by science and technology.

This talk covers the findings of his research in preparation for writing Gates and the theoretical and cultural significance of the ConGenement, a science/religious based totalitarian government from the webcomic. Hal will be touching on various subjects that helped to create the idea behind this dystopian world and possible scenarios for the future while exploring the potential paths the human race may take. Hal will discuss the controversies and roadblocks we will soon be facing as a society when science, religion, technology, big business and politics collide head on in a race to control evolution.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:

Humanity+@Parsons_NYC_PressRelease-1

I will have more info to come about the conference on the official Gates website in the coming days.

In 1998, I was 23 years old. My dad had just passed away after a long battle with lung and brain cancer. I was living in the often rainy and seemingly always gray skies of, Rochester NY–A Negative Utopian mood in itself of sorts. I just finished getting my bachelor’s degree at RIT in illustration and I was doing some freelance artwork for a few role playing game companies and t-shirt designers while working at Media Play ( a wannabe Barnes and Noble). I was at a crossroads in life and the beckoning of manhood pestered me every day. Reality was a bitch and it was obvious that becoming a freelance illustrator and still living like a human being were going unrealistic. So I decided to put life on pause and enrolled into grad school at RIT while I figured life out.

Needless to say this was the pivotal point when I got hammered by creativity, inspiration and the culmination of  recent years of mental and cultural growth. Since I was a child I had been on crash course with information. Information I couldn’t always get in school. I was always drawn to science fiction and often times found it more compelling and realistic than “real life”. As a child, as far back as I could remember I was obsessed with the Twilight Zone. I loved that show because every tale had a warning to mankind and was a social commentary for how careless, stupid, arrogant and clueless the human race really was. In science fiction you could call out people, cultures, governments, religions and more–and you didn’t have to apologize like you do in “real life”. I found sci-fi to be more truthful and for the last few years my art had evolved into this direction. I still am not sure if it was consciously or subconsciously but sci-fi art was where I wanted to be.

I had spent the last few years of college engulfed in various forms of intelligent science fiction related media. From music like Pink Floyd, Human League, Bauhaus and Kraftwerk to books like George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Deus Irae by Philip K. Dick /Roger Zelazny and H.G.Wells’ the Island of Dr. Moreau to movies like Rene Laloux’s Fantastic Planet, Dune, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars and much more. Ironically it was at this time than I began to find a new appreciation for the 1981 animated Heavy Metal Movie as well. I also delved deep into studying ancient cultures such as the Egyptians, Sumerians, the ancient Eastern world, the Aztecs and the  American Indians. I studied Gods, myths, legends, religions, customs, rituals, sacrifices, governments, laws and anything I could get my hands on. Joseph Campbell, Timothy Leary and other great twentieth century thinkers helped to open my mind. And boy did my mind open. It was when I discovered the roots of Christianity in ancient, ancient Egypt that the switch flipped, my mid exploded and I began to imagine the future of mankind–from my OWN point of view.

I then met a guy in Ithaca named Don Reddick.  Reddick owned a small RPG company named Fractal Dimensions and published a magazine called Fractal Spectrum. He and I became friends and he  started giving me freelance work. It was right around this time that my art was improving and my mind was growing. I had come up with this whacked out futuristic story about a tribe of humans that landed on Jupiter’s moon Europa, only to find that it was inhabited by a robotic overlord that was a byproduct of greedy power-hungry humans, long since dead. This overlord manipulated everything on the lush planet, teeming with life and he had created a new race of human animal hybrids, that I called Animoids. After pitching Reddick the story, he agreed to make it an RPG as well as a comic book.

So I began cranking out drawings, paintings and more.  And my art and ideas kept getting better and better. After deciding to sell Fractal Dimensions to another publisher, I parted ways with Reddick, took my ideas and decided that  I was going to head west, to Los Angeles and see what luck I could turn in California. I was still reeling from the loss of my dad and dissatisfied with my life in Rochester. I had a very nice girlfriend but my emotional unrest and my yearning for more caused the demise of our relationship. I believed in my idea, which I had christened with the unoriginal title “the Conquest of Europa”, I believed in myself and now I had nothing to lose. So I sold everything material and useless to me except my computer, art supplies, clothes, books and music–packed it all into my car and headed to L.A.

When I arrived in LA in September of 1999, I had never been to California but I knew it was where I needed to be. It took me a while to get settled but by January 1st of 2000, I had my own apartment, a cat, a full time job as a production artist/graphic designer and a freelance gig as a cartoonist doing dirty cartoons for various adult publications. Life was cool. I had now entered the digital age and Photoshop beckoned. I had been drawing and painting since I was 3–with traditional tools such as pencils, paint, markers, ink etc. Now a new media I had scratched the surface of in college had become my favorite tool to create art with. Photoshop was now my new toy. So I began to work, honing my skills and evolving as I absorbed LA, and all of the new people, places and forms of alternative education.

I then moved to West LA, near the ocean and enlisted some writing help for a while. We refined some ideas and generated some new ones for the project I created back in rainy ol’ Rochester NY. We laid out a good framework and a script and renamed it Ascension–but something seemed to be missing. When I felt that we had taken the project as far as we could, I decided to branch out on my own once again. Working solo was a great move, and from here it evolved beyond my wildest dreams. Loose ends became tied up and new ideas that reflected today’s current religious, philosophical and political issues came to light. Over the course of the next four years the project would evolve into what it is today–GATES. Back in 2007 I had a comic book publisher interested in publishing it as a book/graphic novel. BUT when they tried to screw me in a heavy handed deal, I simply walked away, following my gut instinct to run. Smart move for me!

Now, present day August 2010–I am married with 2 wonderful daughters and living in Culver City, CA. Gates has become a reality and has landed with the right company. With Gates, I will be launching Heavy Metal Magazine’s first online comic franchise. I cannot say in any number of words how honored I am to be working with Heavy Metal Magazine. Kevin Eastman is just an inspirational man and was responsible for creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before acquiring Heavy Metal back in the mid 90′s. To be a friend of his and to be working on a Heavy metal property is just amazing.

I’ll never forget watching the Heavy Metal movie as a teenager with my buddies. From Harry Canyon to Den, we loved it. And somehow, some way I ALWAYS knew I would end up working with them. Maybe it was fate, luck, the law of attraction or just an anomaly of space and time, but here I am. Gates has found a home with a magazine and a franchise I have adored since I was a teen growing up in small town upstate NY.

As I closed the deal yesterday for the comic, I said to Kevin Eastman, “Ya know I’m destined to be here, working with you. My first name is sci-fi,(HAL: like the super computer in Kubrick’s 2001) and my last name is (HEFNER: porn, like Hugh Hefner/Playboy). That’s Heavy Metal dude.”  He laughed and agreed.

ABOUT GATES:

GATES is young man living a wretched existence in an isolated colony of humans. Deep within the caverns of an industrial mountain complex, his society is ruled by a totalitarian government called the ConGenement who controls all facets of life.

The ConGenement manages the colony’s reproduction process and all people are procreated genetically susceptible to drugs that dull free thinking. Ambitionless citizens believe that life cannot exist outside of the colony’s confines and are obliviously obedient slaves to their ConGenement masters.

But Gates is special—He was conceived naturally, in secret. Unlike other citizens Gates thinks independently because his body is immune to any affects that the ConGenement regulated drugs induce. Gates has avoided ConGenement detection until recently when he is forced into a shaky partnership with a crooked ConGenement official who has uncovered his secret. In a quest to prove that life exists outside of the colony, plans go awry and Gates and two unsuspecting participants, ADENA and KANO, are stranded in a forbidden land that is not supposed to exist.

What they discover is a twisted, alien environment flourishing with life and dominated by SOLOMAN – a nightmarish, god-like overlord. With his organic plant based technology, Soloman captures the three humans and is instantly obsessed with the experimentation of them and the extermination of man­kind.

While in Soloman’s clutches, Gates and Adena are befriended by an ANIMOID (hybrid human-animal) named NEKTU. Believing that Gates is a figure from his tribe’s legends, he engineers an escape from Soloman’s fortress. As they escape, Gates steals Soloman’s SCARAB SEED, which is the root of his power. On a treacherous journey outward they trek through the catacombs of the fortress and discover hundreds of Soloman’s cloned bodies. Gates, Adena and Nektu battle their way out and retreat into the lush, untamed jungle of the planet. Nektu leads them to his tribe who adopt the humans. They struggle to survive but for the first time experience what it means to truly be alive.

In a climactic final battle with Soloman, the fate of the world and all its inhabitants are at stake.  Gates must utilize the power of the scarab seed to become one with nature and something more than human to defeat Soloman.

I grew up in a small town in upstate NY, called Mohawk. Named after the Mohawk Indians of the Iroquois nation, who once roamed the lands before they were murdered, pillaged, forced onto reservations and wiped out of existence. Mohawk belongs to the town of German Flatts, a larger  land of dairy farms, conservative thinking and Jesus-ism. With a high volume of Catholics and born again Christians, the overall mindset is one of safety, community and like I said– conservatism. When I was a kid, in the 80′s and 90′s, High School Football took precedence over art, music and other creative and intellectual importance in the lands where the Iroquois died.

From as far back as I could remember into my childhood, I loathed the way of thinking in my home town and instead of silently protesting, to make my life easier–I acted like a disgruntled punk. I hated all the busy bodies who needed to know what everyone was always doing so they could air your dirty laundry in sewing circles–and I made it be known. I hated the teachers who were not intelligent enough to have any business being teachers, and I let them know it. I hated the people who thought they were better than me, smarter than me, better athletes than me and were more righteous than me–that judged me.  So I let them know that I felt they were idiots, hillbillies and right wing racist assholes who pre-judged me for who I was. I also didn’t appreciate those who tried to jam Jesus up my ass as a solution to my troubles, every chance they got. BUT I was able to maintain my composure for the most part. From the age of 5, I knew my destiny was greater and it was not going to be in Mohawk, New York.

But besides the negatives, Mohawk NY was a beautiful place to grow up scenically. Forests and clean air and lots of tries and places to “get a little distance” from society were very helpful in helping my brain form. And I developed some amazing friendships that will last my entire life. All in all I had a decent education and created a very loving group of friends who I am in contact with still to this day. I appreciate these people more now than I ever did and their friendship, support and love will be apart of me forever.

It was here that I also became aware of the shaman or medicine man in American Indian culture, which led me on a path of obsession to gaining as much knowledge about ancient cultures as possible. In the end, all of my troubles I ran into living in upstate NY were of my own doing. And troubles were plentiful at times. But I wouldn’t change a thing–Because  as a teenager on the cusp of manhood it was here where I decided to expand my mind rather than fold it in–It was in Mohawk that I first head the words of Timothy Leary, “Think for yourself and question authority.”

THINK FOR YOURSELF AND QUESTION AUTHORITY

Those words are pretty powerful. Maybe even scary to some. But when I heard them, I felt a sense of relief. Somebody else in the world understood me, appreciated me and shared my sense of disdain for a world that I instinctively rebelled against from day one.  I just knew something was off. Something was off about the Catholic Church I went to especially and religion in general. The church was filled with gossiping hypocrites who did drugs, committed adultery, molested children, hated black people, hated gay people AND just plain hated things they did not understand. And they judged everyone. They judged you on your clothes, your hair, your friends and your family! I knew this was fucked up and if there was a loving, all knowing, all seeing God–that he would surely not appreciate these assholes.

Then I found out about Timothy Leary, which lead to Aldous Huxley, which led to Kafka, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Nietzsche, Walden, Whitman, Orwell, Dick, Camus, Asimov, Rod Serling and more. I read, I read and I read. I found Joseph Campbell and I dove in. I wanted to know more about my existence, the universe, past cultures, the bible, ancient texts/glyphs, the planet earth, the moon and more. I found the Egyptian book of the Dead and I found out that the Egyptian God Horus was an almost identical twin of the Christian super hero Jesus Christ. I found ancient Sumer and discovered Puma Punku, the Aztecs, Mayans and the American Indians. Myths and religions and religions and myths. I couldn’t get enough. I questioned authority and I couldn’t stop. I was addicted and still am–to knowledge.

As a writer of science fiction and an artist of science fiction I needed to eat this info. I could not settle for what had been told to me like others around me. I needed more. I was not a sheep like Pink Floyd sang about in their album Animals, nor did I want to settle for the safety of a small town, a white picket fence, a stupid wife and several different kinds of addictions. I wanted more.

Do you know who you are, what you are and why you exist?  I don’t.

Do you ever ask yourself these questions? Have you ever thought that what you’ve been told about your God, your existence and your history– is not the full truth? That there si more out there, waiting for you to find it?

A great philosopher, thinker and researcher by the name of Jordan Maxwell once said, “Always trust a person looking for the truth, don’t ever trust the one who’s found it.”

Timothy Leary was one of the people you could trust. He was a Harvard professor who fought the system, thought for himself and had the balls to tell the world about it. Yes he advocated the use of LSD but so what. His message was much greater than that. He encouraged people to expand their minds beyond the hum drum garbage of everyday life. He wanted you to think beyond the propaganda you’re gagged with every day, online, on TV and on the radio–and on the streets. Leary wanted you to just THINK!

Here is a great message by the late great Timothy Leary.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So my point is this: If your life was to end tomorrow, do you feel like you’re satisfied with what you’ve done– the intellectual knowledge you’ve attained and the spiritual answers you’ve received over the course of your life? Have you settled for knowledge and not sought the answers yourself? Do you understand the answers you’ve settled for, where they came from and the roots of those teachings? If you’ve said NO to any of these, then read more Timothy Leary and others like him. THINK FOR YOURSELF, QUESTION AUTHORITY.

Thank you Mr. Leary. I appreciate what you did for me and the influence you’ve had on my life and my work. R.I.P. As I continue to write my own modern mythical tale for mankind to heed it’s warnings, the words of wisdom spoken by Timothy Leary, are a theme resonating throughout the book.

- Hef

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Some more quotes by Timothy Leary:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

My advice to people today is as follows: if you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.
I’ve left specific instructions that I do not want to be brought back during a Republican administration.

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, you can always pick up your needle and move to another groove.

In the information age, you don’t teach philosophy as they did after feudalism. You perform it. If Aristotle were alive today he’d have a talk show.

Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time.
Turn on, Tune in, Drop out.
Science is all metaphor.

The universe is an intelligence test.
We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. But they’ve got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go.

Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.

You can always pick up your needle and move to another groove.

You’re only as young as the last time you changed your mind.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The project is called Gates and more info will be coming soon about it.

In the meantime, chew on this image:

Gates being consumed by the Scarab Seed

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can See Mat Nastos’ card to the left, that has already been signed by Ray.