Press kit
About us
Freedom of form means the freedom to physically become whatever you want, however large or small the change. No matter what drives you, be it transhumanism, dysphoria, recovery from injury, futurism, a desire to transform, or even just to add a bit of personal flair, the technology to safely restore or alter your body should be available for everyone.
At the Freedom of Form Foundation, we are undertaking and supporting scientific research that will enable the freedom to customize your body the way you want. Together, we can make the phrase “be what you want to be” a reality.
More details are available on our vision and strategy page.
Research and publications
Our research is primarily aimed at addressing important, long-term needs in the biotechnology sector that are being overlooked by larger companies and impatient investors. We undertake internal research, as well as awarding grants to outside researchers, for studies we judge as strategically valuable.
- 3D Anatomy project: We are creating a CAD-like computer application to customize characters, and this application is also expected to benefit medical imaging and patient-specific care more broadly. This system should give researchers and engineers the artistic freedom to explore and plan changes to the shapes of bones, muscles, and other tissues while maintaining their physiological functions. Details on this project are here, including recent project updates.
- Integument review project: Our Integument Review project is surveying and structuring biological knowledge about how fur, feathers, scales, and skin works. That includes cell signaling, embryonic development, comparing and contrasting different integument types, and identifying cellular and genetic targets or “knobs to turn” for transformations. You can read more details and view project updates here.
- Journal publication – Ramanauskas, 2020: We helped make it possible for Ben Ramanauskas to publish in Economic Affairs (February 2020) about body autonomy, entitled “BDSM, body modification, transhumanism, and the limits of liberalism”. The article surveys laws and landmark court cases, makes a case for reform, and describes expected benefits from reform as well. The paper can be accessed here ↗.
- Technical roadmap and guidance: We have been working on answering the question “What will be needed for a full-body transformation?” in progressively greater detail. In 2018, we published two whitepapers that (a) summarized anatomical changes that appear necessary for some types of transformations, and (b) looked into relevant techniques in biomedical research such as stem cells, bioprinting, neuroprosthetics, surgery, and genetics. These planning activities have helped us identify more specific research opportunities mentioned above, like 3D Anatomy and Integument Review. We are now working on developing a more detailed technical roadmap that should supplant the 2018 whitepapers throughout 2022.
- Tail neuroprosthetic project: This is a recently started project that aims to develop a solution to enable for lifelike movement of a motorized tail, and is a developing collaboration with the Tail Company ↗. We are especially excited about the development of software related to signal processing, sensor integration, and logic control, and see such software as applicable to any future neuroprosthetics including neuroprosthetics attached with permanent neural interfaces. The project page and updates are posted here!
Press contact
We invite members of the press to reach out to us at [email protected].
We will be happy to work with you to answer questions you might have, to arrange for interviews, and anything else you need. The people below are authorized to speak to the press, and we can make sure to put you in touch. We also have flexibility; for example, if you want to hear from team members of an ongoing project, we can probably arrange that as well.
Please note that we are unable to invite members of the press to our community’s Discord server. However, we may be able to arrange for individual or small group interviews with members of our community. If this is of interest to you, please ask.
Announcements
Our newsletters provide a comprehensive view on new and ongoing projects, outreach activities, introductions for new volunteers, and other recent developments for our organization.
Images and logo
We are happy to make these images available and authorized for use by the media, as long as image credits are given according to the instructions for each image below. If you would like to use an image or asset that isn’t given here, please ask us at [email protected]. Thank you!
Achievements
- We were awarded a small research grant by Terasem that has helped fund the 3D Anatomy project (award notice was December 16, 2020).
- Volunteers led by Tiltwolf successfully proposed the integument review project, which was approved in December, 2020.
- Volunteers led by Hebi-chan successfully proposed the tail neuroprosthetic project, which was approved with funding on September 15, 2021.
- We awarded funding to Hugh Herr for research “on human augmentation, self-expression, and research that aims to restore function to >100% of baseline after injury” on February 1, 2021.
- We awarded funding to Ben Ramanauskas on October 1, 2019, which enabled him to publish an article in Economic Affairs on February 19, 2020.
- Our status as a 501(c)(3) was successfully determined by the Internal Revenue Service effective February 13, 2018.
FAQs
Social media links
The cute mascots above are by Dragonfeathers, thanks so much!