[Darkstep] Energon - Transhuman (Scythe Remix)
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Category Archives: Transhuman
Humanity+ | Elevating the Human Condition
Humanity+ @Conferences
Our Humanity+ conferences explore innovations of science and technology and their relationship to humanity. Recent conferences have been held at San Francisco State University, Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, California Technology Institute, and Harvard University.
H+ Magazine covers technological, scientific, and cultural trends that are changing humans in fundamental ways. H+ Magazine aims to reflect the newest edge culture by featuring creative expressions of humanity on a razors edge where daily life and science fiction seem to be merging.
This is a brand new world-wide holiday! Future Day is slated for every March 1st. Become a Friend of Future Day and work with us all together, across the world, to get Future Day off to an incredible start!
The 2013 H+ Virtual edu TV series is a discussion series on provocative questions about emerging and speculative technologies of human enhancement and life extension, ethics, and how our cultureand how technology plays a key role inthe narratives we form. Located atteleXLR8.
Join a Chapter or start one! There are many possible activities for local groups, from purely social gatherings to study groups and speaker series. All local chapters are autonomous, except insofar as we recognize and cooperate with you.
The Humanity+ Student Network is an international coalition of student organizations dedicated to discussing transhumanist ideas. The H+SN and its member groups seek to provide opportunities for university-level work and research in exploring the promises and perils of technology and the future of humanity.
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Transhumanism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the futurist ideology and movement. For the critique of humanism, see posthumanism. For the pattern of seasonal migration, see transhumance.
Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.[1] Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as study the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies. They predict that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".[1]
The contemporary meaning of the term transhumanism was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the Human" at The New School in the 1960s, when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and worldviews transitional to "posthumanity" as "transhuman".[2] This hypothesis would lay the intellectual groundwork for the British philosopher Max More to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a futurist philosophy in 1990, and organizing in California an intelligentsia that has since grown into the worldwide transhumanist movement.[2][3][4]
Influenced by seminal works of science fiction, the transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives.[2] Transhumanism has been characterized by one critic, Francis Fukuyama, as among the world's most dangerous ideas,[5] to which Ronald Bailey countered that it is rather the "movement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations of humanity".[6]
According to Nick Bostrom,[1]transcendentalist impulses have been expressed at least as far back as in the quest for immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as historical quests for the Fountain of Youth, Elixir of Life, and other efforts to stave off aging and death.
There is debate about whether the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche can be considered an influence on transhumanism despite its exaltation of the "bermensch" (overman), due to its emphasis on self-actualization rather than technological transformation.[1][7][8][9]
The fundamental ideas of transhumanism were first mooted in 1923 by the British geneticist J.B.S. Haldane in his essay Daedalus: Science and the Future, which predicted that great benefits would come from applications of advanced sciences to human biology and that every such advance would first appear to someone as blasphemy or perversion, "indecent and unnatural". In particular, he was interested in the development of the science of eugenics, ectogenesis (creating and sustaining life in an artificial environment) and the application of genetics to improve human characteristics, such as health and intelligence.
His article prompted a spate of academic and popular interest; - J. D. Bernal, a crystallographer at Cambridge, wrote The World, the Flesh and the Devil in 1929, in which he speculated on the prospects of space colonization and radical changes to human bodies and intelligence through bionic implants and cognitive enhancement.[10] These ideas have been common transhumanist themes ever since.[1]
The biologist Julian Huxley is generally regarded as the founder of "transhumanism", coining the term in an article written in 1957:
Up till now human life has generally been, as Hobbes described it, nasty, brutish and short; the great majority of human beings (if they have not already died young) have been afflicted with misery we can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself - not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity.[11]
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Transhuman – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Transhuman or trans-human is an intermediary form between the human and the hypothetical posthuman.[1]
The use of the term "transhuman" goes back to French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who wrote in his 1949 book The Future of Mankind:
Liberty: that is to say, the chance offered to every man (by removing obstacles and placing the appropriate means at his disposal) of 'trans-humanizing' himself by developing his potentialities to the fullest extent.[2]
And in a 1951 unpublished revision of the same book:
In consequence one is the less disposed to reject as unscientific the idea that the critical point of planetary Reflection, the fruit of socialization, far from being a mere spark in the darkness, represents our passage, by Translation or dematerialization, to another sphere of the Universe: not an ending of the ultra-human but its accession to some sort of trans-humanity at the ultimate heart of things.[3]
In 1957 book New Bottles for New Wine, English evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley wrote:
The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature. "I believe in transhumanism": once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.[4]
One of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the Human" at The New School of New York City in the 1960s, used "transhuman" as shorthand for "transitional human". Calling transhumans the "earliest manifestation of new evolutionary beings", FM argued that signs of transhumans included physical and mental augmentations including prostheses, reconstructive surgery, intensive use of telecommunications, a cosmopolitan outlook and a globetrotting lifestyle, androgyny, mediated reproduction (such as in vitro fertilisation), absence of religious beliefs, and a rejection of traditional family values.[5]
FM-2030 used the concept of transhuman as an evolutionary transition, outside the confines of academia, in his contributing final chapter to the 1972 anthology Woman, Year 2000.[6] In the same year, American cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger contributed to conceptualization of "transhumanity" in his book Man into Superman.[7] In 1982, American Natasha Vita-More authored a statement titled Transhumanist Arts Statement and outlined what she perceived as an emerging transhuman culture.[8]
Many thinkers[which?] as of 2013[update] do not regard FM-2030's characteristics as essential attributes of a transhuman. However, analyzing the possible transitional nature of the human species has been and continues to be of primary interest to anthropologists and philosophers within and outside the intellectual movement of transhumanism.[1]
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Transhuman: The Eclipse Phase Player’s Guide by infomorph …
We have exceeded the $14,000 base goal for this Kickstarter and will be producing the book Transhuman, and now we have a few final stretch goals to unlock -- check out below!
Stretch Goal 1: 8 Sample Characters
We will add 8 pages to Transhuman, featuring all new sample characters, each with their own illustration, in the style of those in the Eclipse Phase Core Rulebook and Sunward!
Stretch Goal 2: 8 More!
Transhuman gets 8 more sample characters, for a total of 16!
Stretch Goal 3: Freelancer Raise
All of the freelance contributors to Transhuman -- artists, authors, editors -- are going to get a 15% bonus on their pay for the book!
Stretch Goal 4: Morph Recognition Guide
We'll commission art for all the morphs that we've yet to illustrate, and publish a PDF and Print-on-Demand book, the Morph Recognition Guide, with those illustrations, details about the morphs, game stats, and more!
Stretch Goal 5: Morph Recognition Cards
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Transhuman: The Eclipse Phase Player's Guide by infomorph ...
The Transhuman Cosmic Conscious Evolution Website …
Introduction to the website
Our website was hijacked last month !
See the old version of the website ( Euvolution 1.0 )
Cosmotheism is a religion which positively asserts there is an internal meaning and purpose in life and in the cosmos. There is an essential unity, or consciousness that binds all living beings and all of the inorganic cosmos, as one. And what our true identity is this: we are the cosmos, made self-aware and self-conscious by evolution. Our undeniable human purpose, is to know and to complete ourselves as conscious individuals, and also as a self-aware species, and thereby to co-evolve with the cosmos towards total and universal awareness, and towards the ever-higher perfection of consciousness and being.
Transtopia, Euvolution and Prometheism which are all 3 sister web sites have been described by a member of Better Humans as:
"The Magneto Side of the Transhuman Equation" BetterHumans
We in the Eugenics movement are not interested in competing against Adolph Hitler or Karl Marx for some minuscule little 1,000 year Reich. We are interested in competing with Jesus Christ and Buddha for the destiny of man.
Favored Races Manifesto (PDF) by James L. Hart
We Prometheans are voluntarily coming together to purposefully direct the creation of a new post-human species. A species with higher intellect, creativity, consciousness and love of ones people. A communion of intellect and beauty, for the simple reason that it can be done. This creation is what gives us purpose and meaning. No other justification is required for this program to advance our Promethean species.
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Dethrone The Sovereign – Transhuman Drum Playthrough – Video
Dethrone The Sovereign - Transhuman Drum Playthrough
http://dethronethesovereign.bigcartel.com http://dethronethesovereign.bandcamp.com http://www.facebook.com/dethronethesovereign http://www.youtube.com/dethro...
By: Dethrone The Sovereign
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Dethrone The Sovereign - Transhuman Drum Playthrough - Video
Encephalon – The Transhuman Condition – Video
Encephalon - The Transhuman Condition
The title track on The Transhuman Condition.
By: Aurora Glasslight
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Transhuman EP 3 pre production – Video
Transhuman EP 3 pre production
Adam jamming a few pre production riff ideas for new material (May or May not be used)
By: Adam Chinner
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transhuman demo preview – Video
transhuman demo preview
One of 3 tracks in the working for the next EP from Cornwall based progressive djentleman Transhuman.
By: Adam Chinner
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More Transhuman than Human | theVAULTmagazine
BY MARY WARREN
Humans have evolved into a state of self-ascribed superiority in comparison to the rest of the animal kingdom, so what is the next rung on the ladder of humanity? Transhumanists believe its to shed the human condition with the help of science and technology.
Transhumanism is a movement aimed at transforming or modifying the human body and mind into something far more advanced. As a species, weve all had transhumanist thoughts at least once, where we imagined the benefits to being smarter, more athletic, or more psychologically stable. With the ideals of personal enhancement in mind, transhumanism seems like a logical and beneficial progression for humanity, but some naysayers warn that transhumanism could be one of the worlds most dangerous ideas.
On the exterior, the motives behind transhumanism appear to be fundamentally for the good, and humanitys desire for transhumanist progression can even be traced as far back as the tale of the quest for the fountain of youth. However, when ethics enters the field all the potential good has to be immediately questioned. Unlike many other movements, transhumanists dont value the preservation of natural systems and instead see the natural as problematic. Another glaring issue with transhumanism would be the division of people. Much like the division of social classes, transhumanism could create an unfair divide between the technologically enhanced and those who remain au naturel.
With a disregard for the natural state of humanity, those who choose (or could afford) to enhance themselves would be at a great advantage over those who chose to maintain their natural traits or simply couldnt afford to rise above the human condition. To draw from the wise words of Spidermans Uncle Ben With great power, comes great responsibility. However, we cant rely on an entire population to be as moral as Spider-man, especially when humans have a tendency to disregard those with a differing ideology.
It would be incredibly likely for the transhumanist class to feel a sense of superiority over their natural counterparts as warned by G. Annas, L. Andrews and R. Isasi in their paper Protecting the Endangered Human: Toward an International Treaty Prohibiting Cloning and Inheritable Alteration:
The new species, or posthuman, will likely view the old normal humans as inferior, even savages, and fit for slavery or slaughter. The normals, on the other hand, may see the post-humans as a threat and if they can, may engage in a pre-emptive strike by killing the post-humans before they themselves are killed or enslaved by them. It is ultimately this predictable potential for genocide that makes species-altering experiments potential weapons of mass destruction, and makes the unaccountable genetic engineer a potential bioterrorist.
Its also been argued that a transhumanist society would be left vulnerable due to a lack of the need for dissent and dissatisfaction. Physician, scientist and intellectual Leon Kass warns what will become of us if we decide to dehumanize ourselves:
The final technical conquest of his own nature would almost certainly leave mankind utterly enfeebled. This form of mastery would be identical with utter dehumanization. Read Huxleys Brave New World, read C. S. Lewiss Abolition of Man, read Nietzsches account of the last man, and then read the newspapers.
Homogenization, mediocrity, pacification, drug-induced contentment, debasement of taste, souls without loves and longingsthese are the inevitable results of making the essence of human nature the last project of technical mastery. In his moment of triumph, Promethean man will become a contented cow.
Excerpt from:
A Transhuman Conundrum: Implantable Sensors – Tested
By Erin Biba on Oct. 10, 2013 at 9 a.m.
This week were taking a look at the ethics of enhancing ourselves. Well present you with a series of ethical conundrums brought about by entirely possible future transhuman modifications and you can argue the ethics in the comments. Well have to face these questions eventually, might as well get started now. Are you pro or con superhumans?
The scenario: The economys terrible and you just cant land a job. Seems like everybody these days has a digital enhancement of some kind that gives them an edge. Why not get your own? Just get a few teeny tiny sensors implanted to give yourself near-prescient abilities. Choose from the ability to sense magnetic fields, electric fields, or devices that constantly monitor the ship-shapeness of your body. Let your boss wirelessly monitor your brain activity to make sure youre concentrating on your job. And, if your gig is particularly taxing, get a pH sweat monitor to make sure youre truly staying hydrated. Theres literally nothing these gizmos cant sense! What do you do?
There are already tons of implantable sensors on the market or in development. In fact, weve even rounded them up before. Right now theyre all built for medical purposes (the pacemaker has been around for decades, but theres tech to watch tumor growth, track the health of implanted organs, and monitor blood sugar). Its only a matter of time before these sensors branch out to a slew of different purposes and become small enough that you can have several in your body at once.
Youll have to decide just how much insight into your personal life (and the inner workings of your very body) you want to have--and just how much of that you want to give up to your employer. Youll also have to consider how many people will lose their jobs to you because of the extra-special abilities your fancy new sensors impart. Plus, are you going to use the tech just in your job? Or are you going to start watching your girlfriends heart rate for changes outside of work just because you can?
Because weve already begun to implant tiny sensors into our bodies, ethicists have been wondering about the ethics of this direction of medicine for years. In 2007, writing about The Ethical Challenges of Ubiquitous Healthcare (PDF) in the International Review of Information Ethics, Ian Brown and Andrew A. Adam said:
"How far should individuals be held directly responsible for the state of their body? Biological theories swing to and fro on how much of an individuals state of health is determined by nature (genetics) or nurture (lifestyle) ... Who owns health information, and how restricted is access to it? With great information comes the potential for behaviour modification. So thought Bentham and Foucault, at least. Will our bodies become our Panoptic prison, and our behaviour be dictated by health insurance limitations? Will technology gradually reshape and modify unhealthy behaviours? The health gap between rich and poor (and the associated life expectancy gap) is already significant in many developed countries. Government responses have included suggestions to force the poor to take up healthier lifestyles to make up for the r economic disadvantage. More advanced healthcare is already available if one has the money. Will the development of ubiquitous technologies exacerbate this trend and if so, should the lack of availability to all prevent those who can afford it from spending their money on the greatest prize of all a longer healthier life?"
So what say you? Is it fair game to implant sensors in ourselves that give us a better view inside our own bodies and the world around us? Or doe these near-prescient abilities create an unfair advantage in the job market? Discuss!
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A Transhuman Conundrum: Uploading Your Consciousness – Tested
By Erin Biba on Oct. 11, 2013 at 9 a.m.
This week were taking a look at the ethics of enhancing ourselves. Well present you with a series of ethical conundrums brought about by entirely possible future transhuman modifications and you can argue the ethics in the comments. Well have to face these questions eventually, might as well get started now. Are you pro or con superhumans?
The scenario: Well, the singularity is here. Computers have surpassed humans in terms of processing power and level of intelligence. But the machines arent totally evil. Theyre open to letting humankind upload their minds into the collective consciousness and live on as digital beings. Youll have to give up your body, though. Still, its a small price to pay. Your knee has never been right since you tweaked it playing football in high school anyway. Plus: immortality! What do you do?
Ok, this one is a bit of a leap. Were nowhere near uploading our entire minds into a computer, depending on who you ask. But there are definitely some folks working on figuring out how to do it. Earlier this year, famous futurist (and director of engineering at Google) Ray Kurzweil said a conservative estimate would have us uploading our brains into a computer by 2045. And, hey, if Google says it will happen theres no reason to think its not possible. Though, in the same speech he also said the singularity would be upon us by 2100. So, grain of salt. Others argue uploading our brains may actually never be possible at all.
Youre going to have to decide how much you like your body and want to hang on to it. Once you upload your consciousness theres very likely no going back. You also have no idea what to expect from living inside a computer, which means youll have to accept the fact that your very idea of consciousness might change once youve become fully digital. If your friends and family arent uploading themselves youll also have to decide if youre willing to give up your current way of interacting with them. Or accept the fact that you may never see them again. But if the singularity has already happened, then youll get the added benefit of being smarter, faster, and better than a human.
There isnt a whole lot of legitimate writing on the ethics of uploading the brain. But those considering it often point to The Ship of Theseus, or Theseuss Paradox, which goes something like this (excerpt from Logical Paradoxes):
Theseus is remembered in Greek mythology as the slayer of the Minotaur. For years, the Athenians had been sending sacrifices to be given to the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull beast who inhabited the labyrinth of Knossos. One year, Theseus braved the labyrinth, and killed the Minotaur.
The ship in which he returned was long preserved. As parts of the ship needed repair, it was rebuilt plank by plank. Suppose that, eventually, every plank was replaced; would it still have been the same ship? A strong case can be made for saying that it would have been: When the first plank was replaced, the ship would still have been Theseus ship. When the second was replaced, the ship would still have been Theseus ship. Changing a single plank can never turn one ship into another. Even when every plank had been replaced, then, and no part of the original ship remained, it would still have been Theseus ship.
Suppose, though, that each of the planks removed from Theseus ship was restored, and that these planks were then recombined to once again form a ship. Would this have been Theseus ship? Again, a strong case can be made for saying that it would have been: this ship would have had precisely the same parts as Theseus ship, arranged in precisely the same way.
If this happened, then it would seem that Theseus had returned from Knossos in two ships. First, there would have been Theseus ship that has had each of its parts replaced one by one. Second, there would have been Theseus ship that had been dismantled, restored, and then reassembled. Each of them would have been Theseus ship.
Continued here:
A Transhuman Conundrum: Uploading Your Consciousness - Tested
A Transhuman Conundrum: Elective Bionic Limb Replacement …
By Erin Biba on Oct. 8, 2013 at 10:25 a.m.
This week were taking a look at the ethics of enhancing ourselves. Well present you with a series of ethical conundrums brought about by entirely possible future transhuman modifications and you can argue the ethics in the comments. Well have to face these questions eventually, might as well get started now. Are you pro or con superhumans?
The scenario: You have carpal tunnel from repetitive tasks and your legs dont have much muscle left because you sit all day long anyway. Dont fret! Advances in prosthetics means cheap, easily attachable, bionic parts are available to you. Why not replace all your limbs? Mechanical hands can type faster than your stubby human ones, mechanical legs dont get shin splints or bum knees, and a new metal elbow will make playing catch with your dog WAY more fun (especially since your dog is a robot). Prosthetics are better than your real limbs, theyre super cheap now, and its a simple in-and-out procedure. What do you do?
How Realistic is This?
In a lot of ways, prosthetic limbs are already starting to look better than the regular old boring human ones. All the way back in 2009, an arm prosthetic called the iLimb came equipped with its very own iPhone app that allowed its users to customize a variety of personalized grips. Today its able to gradually increase the strength of its grip to adjust to different activities (like tying a shoe versus picking up a glass). And thats just arms. In 2012, Zac Vawter and his bionic leg climbed all 103-flight of Chicagos Willis (aka Sears) Tower in just under an hour. His $8 million dollar prosthesis, made by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicagos Center for Bionic Medicine, is connected directly to the nerves in his leg that would normally control his hamstring. Right now, the biggest hurdle preventing us all from replacing our limbs with bionic ones is the price tag.
Youll have to decide how you feel about cutting off your already working limbs. After all, theyve served you well enough for this long. And you have no idea how youll actually feel about your bionic replacements. Remember, once your limbs are gone, theres no going back (probably). And how prepared are you to come in for regular firmware and hardware upgrades? Youll also have to decide how your friends and colleagues will feel about your modifications -- because once youre part robot youll jump higher and run faster than any of them. Plus youll beat everyone in arm wrestling. But if youre a reporter youll be able to type super fast, so maybe its worth it.
Much like in other elective surgeries, your doctor will have to decide how he feels about basically maiming you in order to enhance you.
Here's what ethicists have to say on the matter.
Shockingly, this is already an issue were already confronting. Partial amputees are opting to have more of their limbs removed in order to make their replacement limbs more comfortable and easier to use. And we all know about the Olympic argument about whether or not runner Oscar Pistorius had an advantage over other athletes thanks to his carbon fiber blade legs. But what about elective surgery in people that arent already injured?
Some ethicists note that humankind is pretty well hindered by the limitations of our bodies. Talking to The Guardian, Andy Miah, director of the Creative Futures Institute and professor of ethics and emerging technologies at the University of the West of Scotland said: What's crucial about these technologies is they don't just repair us, they make us better than well. The human enhancement market will reveal the truth about our biological conditions we are all disabled."
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A Transhuman Conundrum: Elective Bionic Limb Replacement ...
A Transhuman Conundrum: Brain-Machine Interfaces – Tested
By Erin Biba on Oct. 9, 2013 at 9 a.m.
This week were taking a look at the ethics of enhancing ourselves. Well present you with a series of ethical conundrums brought about by entirely possible future transhuman modifications and you can argue the ethics in the comments. Well have to face these questions eventually, might as well get started now. Are you pro or con superhumans?
The scenario: Everyones always told you to relax. Youre too high-strung. You just have so much anxiety about everything. So why not get yourself a shiny new exocortex. A little computer that you can wear behind your ear. It plugs into your brain and helps you have all those fantastic personality traits youve always wanted. Want to be funnier? Tap into a repository of jokes and anecdotes. Have a better memory? Storage capacity is not a problem. Instantly speak a foreign language? Sure! Why not even a constructed one?
The exocortex--or even the ability to jack your brain into a computer to enhance it--is still a long way away. But its not completely impossible. Were already experimenting with it on the small scale. You can already buy a whole slew of toys that claim to be operated by your brain (Mattels Mindflex games let you use your mind to direct a ball through a maze). UC Berkeley's Carmena Lab is developing techniques to use the brain to manipulate mechanical devices. And, of course, theres Obamas infamous brain map initiative--who knows what will come from that. Applications today work in one direction--from brain to device--but two-way connections, such as memory implants, are in the works.
Your new exocortex is going to help you with high level thinking. It could make you a better student or a better all around person. But it could also significantly change (or even replace) your personality. Youre going to have to decide how far you want to go. Just how different are you going to end up being after all is said and done? Youre also going to have to take into account how your friends and family are going to react to these changes. At the same time, your boss might consider you to be the ultimate employee--truly dedicated to being the best at your job that you can be.
Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxfords Future of Humanity Institute, writes in his paper Dignity and Enhancement, that its important to remember how enhancements like hooking our brains into a computer will ultimately affect our dignity:
"A trait acquired through the deliberate employment of some enhancement technology could be more authentically ours than a trait that we possessed from birth or that developed in us independently of our own agency. Could it be that not only the person who has acquired a trait through personal growth and experience, but also one who has acquired it by choosing to make use of some enhancement technology, may possess that trait more authentically than the person who just happens to have the trait by default? Holding other things constant such as the permanency of the trait, and its degree of integration and harmonization with other traits possessed by the person this would indeed seem to be the case."
So what say you? Is adding a new brain onto our old brain a great way to get ahead in the world? Or is it unfair (or just plain creepy) to modify parts of your personality youd otherwise have no control over? Discuss!
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A Glimpse Into Medical Research And A Transhuman Future
There was a time when literature and religion dealt largely with super powered beings of holy origin. We marvelled at the feats of Gods and Demi Gods, and we wrote tales about magic and sorcery. Today though these power fantasies seem to focus more on science and on human achievement. Superheroes and science fiction dont herald powerful beings that come from the skies, but rather normal humans that have amazing abilities thanks to the wonders of science.
Either way we have dreamed about overcoming the limitations of the human condition for millennia now, and its something that has always been a part of our culture. But thanks to the recent rate of technological progress and innovation, it might well be that were finally on the cusp of getting to experience that fantasy for real. Ever played the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution? It has a plot about transhuman technology resulting in the augmentation of half of society people giving themselves incredible abilities by implanting bionic arms and altering their DNA. Of course this leads to various political problems and revolutions and hence you are entered into the fray as a high-tech warrior. But the amazing thing? Were quite possibly only a few years away from just such a revolution and it might be even more dramatic than that too. Take a look at some of these medical breakthroughs and you may see what I mean
One of the most science fiction concepts imaginable is the idea of bionic robotic arms that we might one day be able to replace our limbs with robotic ones capable of incredible feats of strength and speed. This is almost already commonplace with blade runners in the Special Oympics such as Oscar Pistorious essentially being real life bionic men (and women). But a recent breakthrough took this much further when Jan Schuermann a 52 year old quadriplegic was given mental control over a robotic arm via two 96-channel microelectrodes implanted into her brain. She could use the arm almost as easily as though it were her own to open rappers and feed herself chocolate bars, and thanks to the remarkable ability of the brain to adapt she has been steadily gaining increased reaction speed and dexterity too.
Now theres no reason to think that one day this couldnt be used to replace a missing limb and to grant someone superhuman strength. In fact, combine this with the X1 Exoskeleton developed by NASA and you could grant someone the ability to run super-fast and lift incredible weights.
Perhaps even more amazing is current research into gene doping. Gene doping is what happens when new DNA is injected into the nucleus of a cell in order to alter its expression. This can then lead to permanent and profound changes to the human body with unthinkable implications. For instance, with a single injection its possible to reduce the amount of myostatin that the body produces a chemical that suppresses the development of muscle. This then in turn can give the recipients several times more muscle mass and less body fat with no obvious side effects its essentially a real-life super soldier serum.
Now you might be thinking that all this is a long way off, but in fact these injections have already been successful in mice and gene doping has been used on human patients in other capacities. Scariest of all, its no actually that difficult for a hobbyist with a degree and a few thousand dollars worth of equipment to reproduce these results in their basement. So even if gene doping is never offered by medical institutions to treat muscle wasting diseases you can best that it will find its way onto the black market for use by athletes and people who just want to increase their strength.
And in fact some of thats already going on as we speak. Search for biohacking on Google and youll find forums and chat rooms where people are already discussing the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation to increase their intelligence and the use of subdermal implants to give themselves extra sensory capabilities
The future is nearly here, and when it arrives, its going to be more amazing and disruptive than any science fiction could imagine
This post has been contributed by Jack Turner, a technician at Freedom Lift Systems which specializes in porch wheelchair lifts. He is a passionate individual and he enjoys challenging himself at accomplishing new feats.
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A Transhuman Conundrum: The Retinal Implant – Tested
By Erin Biba on Oct. 7, 2013 at 9:30 a.m.
This week were taking a look at the ethics of enhancing ourselves. Well present you with a series of ethical conundrums brought about by entirely possible future transhuman modifications and you can argue the ethics in the comments. Well have to face these questions eventually, might as well get started now. Are you pro or con superhumans?
This week were taking a look at the ethics of enhancing ourselves. Well present you with a series of ethical conundrums brought about by entirely possible future transhuman modifications and you can argue the ethics in the comments. Well have to face these questions eventually, might as well get started now. Are you pro or con superhumans?
The scenario: You are going blind. But not to worry, its the future, so theres technology to fix that. While at the doctors office discussing your retinal implant options, the doctor mentions that he can grant you with all sorts of visual abilities well beyond simply restoring your sight--all he has to do is add some extra features to the device. Want the ability to see x-rays, ultraviolet light, or infrared? How about a radar display? Even better, what about heat mapping? No problem! You may not actually need any of these extras, but you can have them anyway. All you have to do is ask. What do you do?
There are a slew of implantable devices that replicate different functions of the human eye currently in development. The most recent, the Argus II, connects a retinal implant to a pair of glasses, which transmits visual information to the patient's optic nerve and allows them to see (despite their damaged eyeball cells). Its entirely plausible that in the future retinal implants will evolve to allow for a variety of extras.
If you choose to have the extended implant you will now have abilities that you don't need and, when compared to the rest of society, you'll be an "other"--a new version of human with supervision. In fact, if you simply chose the implant without any of the extras you'll already be a little bit superhuman. Either way, people around you won't necessarily know that you can see them in special ways. And they certainly won't know you're standing in front of their house using your brand new heat vision to tell if they're home.
On your doctor's part, he will have to decide whether or not to offer you these special new abilities. If he decides not to, your doc will have to risk the possibility that you will later discover he had the option to give them to you--and now everybody with your implant can see in ultraviolet but you can't.
So what do ethcists say about this?
Implant ethics are a long-argued area of thinking. After all, we already have elective plastic surgery--and nobodys really decided if giving someone giant boobs for no reason other than because they wanted them is ethical. According to philosopher Sven Hansson, writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, ...the distinction between disease and health or normality is not as clear as it may first seem. Disease is not a biologically well defined concept but one that depends largely on social values. Some conditions previously regarded as diseases are now thought of as normal states of the mind or body. Others that were previously perceived as variations of normality are now regarded as diseases.
According to the ethicists the question we should be pondering here is: what kinds of humans should there be? In the case of retinal implant extras, do we want humans to replace the machines we use (machines took our jobs and now were taking them back)? And do we even have the right to manipulate humanity the extent that we are basically creating a new class of people that have super-human visual abilities?
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The Catholic Church Has Declared War on Transhumanism
By: Anonymous Transhumanist
On July 25, 2013 in the city of Madrid Spain the Catholic Church declared open war on transhumanism. The occasion was a meeting , theXVIII International Science and Life Congress. The result of this meeting, the so called Madrid Declaration on Science and Life, outlines the churchs stance and opposition to transhumanism, going further to oppose the use of reason and science in the betterment of life and society, and calling for the creation of an extra legal international court and advocating the use of violence and kidnapping. The goal of the proposed court being to try scientists for crimes based on the Churchs mistaken anti-scientific beliefs such as creationism and divine will.
The meeting was expressly held to discussscience, humanism and post-humanism but the declaration goes beyond a mere evaluation of these ideas from a theological or religious perspective, calling for the creation of an international criminal court before which those experimenting with human life,understanding it as a mean of production, or simply destroying it in the early stages of its development, be accountable. The imagined criminal court of course reaches beyond any existing international law and the charter of the International Criminal Court. An ironictwist given the recent attempt by child molestation victims to bring a case against top Vatican officials there. The proposal also neglects the existing framework of international agreements and organizations within the United Nations that already address some of these issues.
The Catholic Church of course has a long standing opposition to science dating back to the middle ages. While in more recent times the church has attempted to update its position, it doesnt take much work to find unscientific and erroneous ideas taken as fact in the Vaticans positions. These are especially apparent surrounding the ideas of evolution and genetics but are clearly not limited to these areas as both history and the Madrid Declaration clearly demonstrates.
More irony, the attempts of certain Catholic theologians and writers to tie modern transhumanism to Nazi eugenics when in fact it is the Catholic Church that actually had connections to the Nazis during World War II. The true origins of modern ideas of transhumanism post date World War II, the eugenics movement and all of these events by almost half a century.
At the Humanity+ Conference in San Francisco in 2012, science fiction author David Brin reminded the audience about the disturbing history of anti-science religious fanaticism and thetrial and execution ofGiorgano Bruno.Galileo Galileiwas also tried but not executed. The Madrid Declaration seeks a return to power for Vatican based kangaroo courts of this sort and proposed extradition and trial of scientists conducting research that is deemed entirely legal in their home countries.
But if you arent outraged yet, the Madrid Declaration goes even a bit further calling for the illegal kidnapping of scientists and transhumanists traveling internationally and rendition to stand trial before the Vaticans court. Before this any country who defends human life should react. Just as certain dictators take care not to travel to some places for fear of arrest, those attempting against human beings, regardless if their activity is permitted in their country of origin, should know that they are not exempt from been brought to trial before an international court.
Any such renditions are clearly in violation of numerous national and international laws and since it seems unlikely that any scientist would admit voluntarily to such a trial, this would require and only be possible through the use of force, secretly kidnapping or causing the arrest of scientists conducting entirely legal international travel. Transhumanists and scientists working especially in the field of in vitro fertilization and related technologies might actually want to consider these events when planning international travel. Individuals should contact their national embassies and related authorities for advice before traveling. Others singled out for attack in the Madrid document might be individuals advocating animal or robotic/AI rights since they argue that in giving rights to animals (natural or artificial), robots, or new human species artificially manipulated, lies a real danger to human life as we know it with their freedom and way of being.
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ArmA3: Combine Transhuman Overwatch Test – Video
ArmA3: Combine Transhuman Overwatch Test
A small test showing my upcoming Combine units for ArmA3. Music copyright by Valve, will not be offered for download! http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.p...
By: Mats Liljeroos
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FM-2030: Are You a Transhuman? – Video
FM-2030: Are You a Transhuman?
By: GalacticArchives
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