Daily Archives: October 8, 2013

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.

Originally posted here:
A Glimpse Into Medical Research And A Transhuman Future

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.

Continue reading here:
The Catholic Church Has Declared War on Transhumanism

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?

Go here to read the rest:
A Transhuman Conundrum: The Retinal Implant - Tested