FM-2030: revision 1 to 2 — Future Human Wiki

Revision 1

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categories: ["people"]

tags: ["transhumanism", "futurism", "cryonics", "identity", "life extension"]

summary: "Iranian-American futurist, born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary, who defined the transhuman as a transitional being and was cryopreserved on his death in 2000."

summary: "Iranian-American futurist, born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary, who defined the transhuman as a transitional being and was cryopreserved on his death in 2000."

updated: "2026-07-28"

updated: "2026-10-29"

issues: ["Sources disagree on when he took the name FM-2030; the article gives the range rather than a date."]

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**FM-2030** was an Iranian-American futurist, novelist and teacher, born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary,

**FM-2030** was an Iranian-American futurist, novelist and teacher, born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary.

who argued that some people alive in the twentieth century were already transitional beings — no

He argued that some people alive in the twentieth century were already transitional beings, no

longer fully bound by the biological, national and family categories that had defined human life,

longer fully bound by the biological, national and family categories that had defined human life

and not yet whatever comes next. He called such people transhumans, and the usage passed into

[[transhumanism]] as a movement. He took the name FM-2030 in place of the one he was born with, a

[[transhumanism]] as a movement. He replaced the name he was born with by FM-2030, which points at

designation pointing at the year he would turn one hundred.

the year he would turn one hundred.

## Life

between postings in Europe and Asia; biographical accounts repeat his claim to have lived in

seventeen countries as a child.[^olympedia] He played basketball for Iran at the 1948 Olympic Games

in London,[^olympedia] and from 1952 to 1954 served on the United Nations Conciliation Commission

for Palestine.[^nypl] That combination of early rootlessness and direct exposure to the machinery

for Palestine.[^nypl] Early rootlessness and direct exposure to the machinery of international

of international institutions shaped a lifelong argument that national and ethnic identity was a

institutions shaped his lifelong argument that national and ethnic identity was a residue rather

residue rather than a fact.

than a fact.

He published three novels in English: *The Day of Sacrifice* (1959), *The Beggar* (1965) and

*Identity Card* (1966), the last a study of bureaucratic identity in Iran. From the late 1960s he

Accounts of the name disagree. The New York Public Library, which holds his papers, dates the

change to 1988; a profile in *Bidoun* places the adoption around 1985 with the paperwork filed in

1988; shorter biographical sketches give 1970.[^nypl][^tiven2010][^olympedia] The stated reason is

1988; shorter biographical sketches give 1970.[^nypl][^tiven2010][^olympedia] They agree on the

consistent across them: a surname presumed a family and a nationality he did not accept, and 2030

stated reason: a surname presumed a family and a nationality he did not accept, and 2030 marked the

marked the hundredth year after his birth.[^tiven2010]

hundredth year after his birth.[^tiven2010]

## Key ideas

### Upwing politics

FM-2030 held that the left–right axis was obsolete because both wings argued about the distribution

FM-2030 held that the left-right axis was obsolete because both wings argued about the distribution

of a fixed set of goods within a fixed human condition. He proposed an "upwing" orientation

concerned instead with expanding what is possible: abolishing scarcity, disease and death rather

than redistributing their burdens.[^esfandiary1973] The framing anticipates arguments now made under

### The transhuman as transitional being

His most durable idea is definitional. A transhuman, in his usage, is not an enhanced person but a

His most durable idea is a definition. A transhuman, in his usage, is a person whose way of living

person whose way of living already points beyond the traditional human template. The markers he

already points beyond the traditional human template, whether or not that person is enhanced. The

listed were mundane and deliberately so: prosthetics and implants, reproductive technology used

markers he listed were deliberately mundane: prosthetics and implants, reproductive technology used

without embarrassment, life without fixed geographic roots, non-religious orientation, androgyny,

comfort with telecommunication as a primary mode of contact, and a rejection of the family as

destiny.[^bostrom2005] The claim was that transition is gradual and already underway, not a future

destiny.[^bostrom2005] In his account the transition is gradual and already underway rather than a

event.

future event.

> [!note] Two meanings of "transhuman"

> FM-2030's transhuman is a *transitional human* — a person in the middle of a species-scale change.

> FM-2030's transhuman is a *transitional human*, a person in the middle of a species-scale change.

> The later movement's usage folds this into a general commitment to enhancement, and the

> The later movement's usage folds this into a general commitment to enhancement; what survives of

> intermediate status between human and [[posthuman]] is what survives. The two senses are often

> the original is the intermediate status between human and [[posthuman]]. The two senses are often

> conflated.

### The self-assessment book

*Are You a Transhuman?* (1989) is structured as a set of self-assessment instruments, asking

readers to score their own rate of change, exposure to new technology, physical modification,

mobility and openness to future institutions.[^fm1989] The tests are not psychometrics in any validated sense, and were not offered

mobility and openness to future institutions.[^fm1989] The tests are not validated psychometrics

as such; their purpose was to make the argument concrete by forcing the reader to locate themselves

and were not offered as such. They make the argument concrete by asking readers to locate

on a trajectory. The device also explains much of the book's reach outside academic futures studies:

themselves on a trajectory, and the device accounts for much of the book's reach outside academic

it turned an abstract thesis into something a reader could do.

futures studies, since it turned an abstract thesis into something a reader could do.

## Death and cryopreservation

## Reception and legacy

FM-2030 was a public figure in a way later transhumanists mostly have not been, appearing on

FM-2030 was a public figure in a way later transhumanists mostly have not been. He appeared on

American television — including a long session with Larry King — as a professional optimist at a

American television, including a long session with Larry King, as a professional optimist at a

moment when futurism was dominated by resource-depletion pessimism.[^tiven2010] Critics then and

since have noted that his work is exhortation rather than analysis: it contains almost no

quantitative argument, no engagement with the biology of aging as it stood, and no account of how

surgery and frequent air travel should put a person closer to posthumanity than anyone

else.[^bostrom2005]

What survived is the vocabulary and the stance. [[max-more]] and the [[extropianism|extropians]]

His vocabulary and stance survived. [[max-more]] and the [[extropianism|extropians]] took the

took the transhuman terminology and gave it a philosophical structure; [[natasha-vita-more]], who

transhuman terminology and gave it a philosophical structure; [[natasha-vita-more]], who worked

worked alongside him in the Los Angeles futurist scene, carried the aesthetic and design side of

alongside him in the Los Angeles futurist scene, carried the aesthetic and design side of the

the project forward. His deeper claim — that identity is a variable rather than a fixed inheritance

project forward. His deeper claim, that identity is a variable rather than a fixed inheritance, now

— now runs through arguments over [[morphological-freedom]] and

runs through arguments over [[morphological-freedom]] and [[personal-identity-and-continuity]].

[[personal-identity-and-continuity]] that are considerably more rigorous than anything he wrote, and

Those arguments are considerably more rigorous than anything he wrote, and they have not settled

that have not settled the question he raised: whether a person mid-transition is still the same

the question he raised: whether a person mid-transition is still the same person at the end of it.

person at the end of it.

His prediction record is poor in the ordinary way and interesting in a specific one. The 2030 date

His concrete predictions mostly failed, but one strand came closer. The 2030 date attached to his

attached to his name was never a forecast so much as a target, and almost none of the concrete

name was never a forecast so much as a target, and almost none of the changes he expected by it is

changes he expected by it — the end of nation-states, the dissolution of the nuclear family into

close: the end of nation-states, the dissolution of the nuclear family into fluid affiliation, the

fluid affiliation, the routine reversal of aging — is close. What he got closer to is the direction

routine reversal of aging. He came closer on the direction of travel on identity. Across much of

of travel on identity: the assumption that ethnicity, nationality, family structure and eventually

the world he wrote for, the assumption that ethnicity, nationality, family structure and eventually

biology are things a person negotiates rather than inherits is now unremarkable across much of the

biology are things a person negotiates rather than inherits is now unremarkable. That shift

world he wrote for, arrived at through social change rather than the technology he expected to

came through social change, though, rather than through the technology he expected to drive it.

drive it.

That gap is the most useful thing about him. The futurist habit he exemplified — reading a

The gap between the two is the most instructive part of his record. The futurist habit he

cultural shift as evidence that a technological one is imminent — recurs throughout this field, and

exemplified, reading a cultural shift as evidence that a technological one is imminent, recurs

the record suggests the two decouple more often than not. Read as a diagnosis of what people were

throughout this field, and the record suggests the two decouple more often than not. Read as a

becoming willing to want, his work holds up; read as a schedule, it does not, and he insisted on

diagnosis of what people were becoming willing to want, his work holds up. Read as a schedule, it

being read as a schedule.

does not, and he insisted on being read as a schedule.

## See also