I registered Teamhuman.org sometime in 2004. The idea came to me while riding my bike through Oakland to a doctor appointment. I can't say exactly what triggered the idea, but it was during this year that the notion of "the URL as the message" really hit me.
Small diversion: 2004 was that fateful US presidential election year battle between Bush and Kerry. I saw a photograph or a video clip of a political rally where someone was carrying a "Smush Bush.org" sign. This struck me as an awesome way to spread a message because it encapsulates both the message and a web address in a short, memorable package. Back then, you could go to that website to learn more about the Smush Bush cause and order signs, t-shirts, and Texas-sized flyswatters (as I did).
So the Teamhuman.org concept emerged from this sort of URL-is-the-message mentality that Smush Bush planted in me. No, I was not politically motivated here. Teamhuman.org does not push any particular party. Solving the problems that threaten humanity's long term well-being will take effort from all sides of the political spectrum. Healthy debate is encouraged; partisan combat for the sake of combat is not.
The Teamhuman "meme" is one that just seemed to fit with my general outlook on life and embodies a message worth emphasizing regularly: that Homo sapiens is the most awesome species around, we share way more similarities than differences, and we make the most progress when working more as a team rather than in cut-throat competition with each other. Basically, it is a place to hype our species and get folks from different groups to have better understanding of each other, recognize similarities, and operate in a more united fashion to solve the important problems that ultimately affect our species as a whole.
The extinction business is really just a ploy to get your attention. ;-) See the FAQ for more about this.
The Teamhuman.org website appeared in 2005 (around the date of my birthday, 3 May) and has been a static page describing the mission until March/April of this year (2009) when I launched the present website (hub.teamhuman.org) to act as a social "hub" for Teamhuman.org-related discussion and activities.
My primary motivation for getting this hub site off the ground was the Team Lalanne project, which I explain the history of here.
Regarding my "extinction business" comment, the main TeamHuman.org web page for a long time (2005 till this year) used to hype the fact that the vast majority of all species that have ever existed on Earth are now extinct, and how this doesn't bode well for us humans.
The statement was meant to serve as an attention-grabber, intended to draw attention to the specialness and fragility of the human condition and to encourage more unity among us.
But I decided to remove it from the page because it diverts attention from the main message. Further, it risks characterizing the site as being alarmist and doomsaying, raising fear that our extinction is imminent, which is not the belief behind of this project at all.
The TeamHuman.org page is now simpler and more positive, just conveying the mission and goals without any gimmicks. See what you think.
