Category Archives: Transhuman

June 24, 2017 at 11:25 am news

I'm marching today because I finally have the freedom to be the person I always wanted to be"

By Zach Ruiter Photos by Mitchel Raphael

The mood was jubilant as thousandstook part in the 9th annual Toronto Trans MarchonFridayevening. Marcherstook off from Bloor Street at Church, headed southdown Yonge Street, turned left on Carlton Street, endingup inAllan Gardens.

This years march was the fifth year the procession has been officiallypermitted to proceed down Yonge.

For Shadmith Manzour, who marched on Friday, the Trans March is about highlighting the capacity for everybody to really be true to themselves and be proud of who they are.

Many participants were celebrating the recent passing of federal trans rights legislation, Bill C-16, which introduces protection for gender identity and gender expression within the Canadian Human Rights Code and the Criminal Code. We were [one of] the first countries to pass equal marriage and we are the first country to grant rights to trans people, said Rachel Lauren Clark, a Trans March participant.

Somemarchers were reluctant to celebrate the new protections. Theres huge problems with homelessness, with suicide, and violence against transgender people especially trans women of colour, Qaiser, another marcher, says. And well need a lot more than Bill C-16 to address those problems.

The Trans March has established itself as one of the most important events in thePride calendar because it is equal parts a celebration of individualityand a defiant act of resistance and protest against the everydaytransphobia in our culture.

Filed under Cheri DiNovo, kristyn wong-tam, Paul Ainslie, Pride Toronto, Bill C-16, LGBTQ, PFLAG, Pride 2017, toronto trans march, trans rights, transgender

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Video and Photos: Trans Marchers Celebrate the Passing of Trans Human Rights Bill - Torontoist

By Meg Miller 3 minute Read

In 2012, 25-year-oldJames Young was in a rail accident in which he lost both his left arm and left leg. An avid video gamer, Young taught himself how to use a controller using only one hand and, occasionally, his teeth. At the 2016BodyHacking Con in Austin, Young debuted a $76,000 carbon-fiber arminspired by the video gameMetal Gear Solid. The high-tech limbhe designed not only gives Young the dexterity todo most of the things he could before his accident, it also charges his phone, displays his social media feeds, and features a mount for a miniature dronecontrolled froma panel onhis forearm.

[Photo: courtesy David Vintiner and Gem Fletcher]Young, who designed the limb along withprosthetic sculptor Sophie de Oliveira Barata, is 1of 30-odd subjects shot for an ongoing photo series by photographer David Vintiner and creative director Gem Fletcher. The series, Transhuman, documents a rapidly growing international movement of the same name. Spanning the fields ofmedicine, technology, philosophy, art,and academia, transhumanism looks at the ways technology canenhance the physical and psychological capabilities of humans beyond the natural limits of biology. Like Young, some within the movement are developing bionic limbs for differently abled bodies. Others experiment with machines to enhance their sense of sight or touch.

Fletcher and Vintiner discovered the transhumanism community through a meet-up that takes place in the basement of a University College London building. In 2015, the pair released partof the ongoing series, called Futurists, which captured many of the main figures in Londons transhumanism scene.

The latest series of images,Transhuman, expands the scope to subjects throughout Europe and the United States.The movement itself is in intense flux, Fletcher tell Co.Design. Its going through a period of rapid growth, so there are new people in the movement all the time. Its truly a shape-shifting subject matter.

[Photo: courtesy David Vintiner and Gem Fletcher]Fletcher andVintiners subjects frequently introduce them to others in the movement; Fletcher says that the community, though international, is relatively tight-knit and inclusive. Meet-ups like the one at UCL, or the BodyHacking conference Young attended in Texas, have made it easy for members to meeteach other. Some, like Aisen Caro, who invented a set of headphones that allows humans to experience echo-location, are scholars. (Caro is aPhD candidate in human informatics at Tsukuba University). Others, like the London-based F_T_R design studio, are inventing ways to blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds. F_T_Rs Skinterfaceproject is a full-body suit equipped with actuators that convey a sense of touch to the wearer while she is experiencing a virtual worldwhile wearing a VR headset, for example.

[Photo: courtesy David Vintiner and Gem Fletcher]Another technology featured in theTranshuman seriesis a fantastical-looking wearable called the Eyesect, designed by the interdisciplinary lab The Constitute. The Eyesect is an otherworldlyheadset that covers the users head completely, and comes equipped with two handheld cameras. The camera feeds what they are seeing onto a screen inside the headset, giving viewers a sense of 360-degree vision. You can move around the camera eyes, so that you have complete freedom to look up, down, forward, and backward all at the same time, says Fletcher. It gives humans the experience that lots of different animals have with this expansive spatial perception.

[Photo: courtesy David Vintiner and Gem Fletcher]Fletcher and Vintiner will continue the series, traveling next to Russia to shoot subjects there, and adding insome film and sound elements to the project as well. The movement is evolving at an exciting rate, says Fletcher, andmore people are gettinginvolved,particularly when it comes to biohacking. The most popular forms of small bodyhacks theyve seen are peopleexperimenting with DIY RFID (radio-frequency identification) implantsthat allow themtounlock doors or turn on lights with the swipe of a hand, for instance. Also popular in this community areimplantable biomagnets,whichallow people to interact with the world in new wayslike by picking up magnetic objects with the touch of a finger.

Its becoming more accessible, Fletcher says of the transhumanism movement. We keep seeing more and more people with chips or small implants. Its almost like the popularity ofpiercings in the 90s.

Meg Miller is an associate editor at Co.Design covering art, technology, and design.

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Meet The Biohacking Pioneers Who Are Redesigning Their Own Bodies - Co.Design (blog)

Could the intensity of Americas abortion debate be like the last burst of light from a dying star? Thanks to social trends, especially those arising from technology and transhumanism, our familiar forms of argument are becoming obsolete.

The New York Times recently ran a series of opinion pieces for and against abortion, framing the debate in familiar terms. The pro-life movement is increasingly young, female, and spunkyso it does not appear to be on its way out. Statistics indicate that Americans, especially younger Americans, favor some restrictions on abortion, and a record number of millennials think abortion should be illegal altogether. Meanwhile, abortion-rights advocates have turned up their rhetoric, seeking to celebrate or normalize abortion. Presenting abortion stories as a badge of honor is increasingly popular. Teen Vogue has spent the better part of a year aggressively marketing abortion to pre-pubescent girls.

Structured in this way, this debate will have no winner and no loser. Abortion and the arguments surrounding it will slowly become antiquated. I believe this for three reasons.

Abortion rates are decliningas are rates of conception. In 2016, birth rates in the United States hit an all-time low: 59.6 births per 1,000 women. Both these trends are due in part to the effectiveness of long-term contraception. Abortion providers have hitched their wagons to universal access to low-cost contraception; ironically, this choice is hurting their business. It turns out pregnancy is a pre-condition for abortion, and Western Europe and North America are no longer fertile markets. This likely accounts for Planned Parenthoods aggressive efforts to relax abortion restrictions abroad, in Africa and South America.

The fewer abortions and fewer pregnancies we have, the less salient the abortion issue will become. The pro-life movement has done little to combat the poverty of imagination that makes children into commodities to be discarded or fetishized. This singularity of vision means that we have failed to make a positive case for children as a social good, a sign of a society that is vibrant and alive, a source of joy, and a sign of hope. Addressing this poverty is a complex intellectual task, one that requires articulating the humanness of the human, and presenting children and childrearing as fundamental to the common good. It requires making a case for having children. This task is more difficult, and for a long time it seemed less urgent, than arguing against violent death and Roe v. Wade. But today we see the consequences of not adequately attending to it.

Finally, technological advances are enabling transhumanist ideologies and eroding our understanding the humanness of the human.

Transhumanism holds that, with the aid of technology, human beings can and should evolve beyond our current physical and mental limitations. Transhumanists point to the history of human manipulation of the environment, of medicine, and of bodily ornamentation to argue that transhumanism is merely one step on the road of progress. Absent a persuasive and compelling vision of human nature and human dignity (in other words, of the humanness of the human), transhumanism exerts enormous pressure on the social imagination. In less than a decade, scientists have perfected human cloning and gene editing. They have created the first inter-species entitya human-pig chimeraand developed a functional artificial womb. Such technologies hold tremendous possibilities, but it would be nave to imagine that they dont pose fundamental challenges to our ideas of what it means to be human.

These scientific and technological innovations should spark lively debate and fresh articulations of what it means to be human and what role technology should have in shaping culture. Yet the sacred neutrality of science shields technology from serious critique. In a study released earlier this year, scientists from the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia detailed artificial womb technology, which has the possibility of revolutionizing care for pre-maturely born infants. This study seems to have been met with general indifference.

What public conversation did take place occurred within a legal-moralistic framework, a framework that fails to persuade when we lack a vision of what it means to be human. Pro-choice and pro-life advocates both focused on the same reality: the visibility of developing life. Pro-choice advocates were predictably concerned that the advent of artificial womb technology will have the adverse effect of humanizing the unborn. Pro-life advocates, on the other hand, expressed cautious enthusiasm that artificial wombs might humanize the unborn.

Scientists and researchers tell everyone not to worry. The lead researcher on artificial womb technology insists that scientists will never push the limits of viability to the point where womens bodies are functionally replaced by technology, and human gestation becomes mechanized. When you do that, he says, you open a whole new can of worms. But thisassurancerings hollow in an age governed by an ethos of what we can do, we may do. Thus, when legitimate ethical concerns are met with dismissals like Thats a pipe dream at this point, one ought to beware the qualifier, at this point. The scientific community has shown very little ability to regulate itself.

Technological possibility will increasingly eclipse the very terms of our debate over abortion, and I suspect that abortion politics as we know it is on its way to being a relic of the pasta particularly brutal way we eliminated human life back when humans used to have children.

Jessica Keating is director of the Office of Human Dignity and Life Initiatives in the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.

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Sony announced PlayLink for the PlayStation 4 at E3 this week. The new app allows users to play games on their console by using the touchscreen of their iOS device. Sony previewed a few upcoming PlayLink titles that will be availble at launch. Check out the descriptions and trailers below.

PlayLink will be available for free on both the App Store and Google Play on July 4th.

That's You! - An audacious comedy quiz which challenges you and up to five friends to get personal and find out what you really think about each other. Featuring over 1,000 varied questions, reveal your daring side by taking part in doodle challenges and snapping selfies.

Hidden Agenda - This narrative-driven adventure drops you into a detective thriller rife with chilling moral dilemmas that may determine life or death. Up to six of you can join in to make tough decisions about how the story unfolds, but not all of you will be working towards the same objective

Knowledge is Power - Answer a variety of trivia questions and outsmart up to five opponents, with power plays and challenges thrown in to keep you on your toes. This game is all about speed and accuracy in the face of some wickedly crafted distractions from your opponents are you up to the task?

Frantics - Arcade-style fun and manic mini-games are all the rage in Frantics, where you and up to three friends have to face off in a variety of challenges. Bluff, battle, negotiate and co-operate your way to victory, but beware mischievous host The Fox is also on hand to stir things up.

SingStar Celebration - Hit the high notes with upbeat tracks, massive hits and your favorite party classics. Whether its your birthday, Christmas, New Years Eve or even just a Saturday night SingStar Celebration is the perfect playlist to any party, with up to eight players able to join in the fun. Use your SingStar mic or combine your smartphone with the SingStar Mic App, and get ready for your big moment.

Players who pre-register for Pocket Knights 2 at http://www.pocketknights2.com will receive exclusive rewards. The sequel to the hit RPG is set to launch worldwide on the App Store after soft launching on Google Play. You can visit the mini site link posted above or Facebook for more details about the game.

Feral Interactive announced that Hitman: The Complete First Season is coming to macOS on June 20th. The Mac version will include all six international missions and three bonus missions from the Linux version of the game.

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New iOS Games and Apps of the Week: PS4 PlayLink and more - The iPad Guide

Hartford. 2027.

The city has seen several big companies notably Aetna pull out. It has razed its old civic or XL center and ripped apart its expensive Riverfront Recapture Project. It has endured a long and painful highway reconstruction.

The city is thriving.

"Do you see those new riverfront condos? J.K. Rowling just bought one. She's not in America that much, but she doesn't like what happened to New York. She likes the pace and the creative vibe here."

The person speaking is Arunan Arulampalam, one of Hartford's two mayors. The other one is a computer.

"We're the first major city to use URBOXX, an Artificial Intelligence mayor," says Arulampalam. "As mayor, URBOXX runs 2,000 simulations per day of every city function. It has statutory authority to make micro-adjustments to save money or improve services. We're always on, always synchronous, always optimizing. There are no surprises, whether you're talking about the grand list or on-street parking. So I have more time for deep thoughts about policy."

When Aetna departed, its former campus was converted into shared "maker space," rented cheaply to designers and inventors and owned by a public-private partnership. The formerly deserted building now hums with 3D and 4D printers, holographics and hydroponics.

Very quickly, the real estate around Old Aetna became New Brooklyn a magnet for arts innovators, trend leaders and hipsters priced out of the five boroughs and the Bay Area.

"It was weird," said J. 8.0 Scallion, a transhuman restaurateur who relocated from Boston. "They had all this semi-built space they weren't using, including this fabulous old diner that has been sitting with a For Sale sign for years."

Voila, the Coasis, Scallion's edgy "scientific dining" establishment in partnership with nearby Jackson Labs. Each meal is customized for the individual diner, whose genetic and biometric data is crunched way before the celery sticks.

"Everything we were doing and thinking was wrong, but nobody knew that." So says Colin McEnroe, 72-year-old columnist for the Hartford Courant, now in the 45th year of his column.

"We were worried about big insurance companies when that industry was going to be brought to its knees. Autonomous cars are 15 times as safe as the old kind, and this generation hates owning stuff anyway. The National Public Option was essentially the end of private health insurance as we knew it. What's left for these companies to do?"

Former Aetna employees fondly known as Aefugees have drifted back into the maker spaces where they're collaborating on new products like short-span micro-insurance.

"This generation doesn't want to insure a car or a house. It wants to insure Tuesday afternoon. So we find ways to do that," explained Qi Qi, a principal in Crystal Blue Math, a three-person innovation lab in the old Georgian brick Aetna headquarters.

Across the street from the old campus is the former Cathedral of St. Joseph, now Godspace, a high-tech religious co-worship site that reconfigures itself with holographic overlays to comfort and inspire each of the 11 religious denominations that share it. When the Roman Catholic Archdiocese underwent parish consolidation in 2017, "we saw the handwriting on the apse," Auxiliary Bishop Adam Wang recalled. "We're still a Roman Catholic cathedral. In fact, using virtual reality, we can give you your choice of Catholic cathedrals from six different centuries and five different countries."

Hartford finally stopped patching up its creaky civic center, kicked its addiction to ice hockey and, in its place, put up a new state-of-the-art arena with the 10-gigabit capacity needed for new sports like competitive spectator video gaming. The new facility is operated almost entirely by robots, programmed to slide walls and seating sections around depending on the combination of events on a given night.

Tonight's bill includes an intimate concert by singer-song writer Luke Bronin, the former Hartford mayor who re-devoted himself to music when his wife Sara was named Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Murphy administration.

Bronin finished third on "America's Got Second-Career Talent," and his new album "Bro-Storm" is being heavily downloaded.

"There was a moment there in 2017 when we seemed to be planning a 1987 city," he recalled. "Thank God we ditched that idea!"

Colin McEnroe appears from 1 to 2 p.m. weekdays on WNPR-FM (90.5). He can be reached at Colin@wnpr.org.

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Colin McEnroe: It's 2027, Hartford's On The Cutting Edge - Hartford Courant

The Ghana National Association of Cattle Farmers (GNACAF) has pledged their commitment to support government and the security agencies to bring lasting solution to the trans-human conflicts between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and crop farmers in Ghana.

The Association noted that, the protracted conflict between some nomadic herdsmen and crop farmers in the country has led to lose of lives and property and hence concerted efforts needed to end the trend.

Speaking at a Regional and District representatives members GNACAF in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, National Chairman of GNACAF, Imam Hanafi Sonde said, they are working assiduously with the Ghana Cattle Ranching committee (GCRC) to resolve the trans human conflicts in Ghana.

In recent times there have been many conflicts between the herdsmen and the crop farmers in some communities of the country that has led to lose of lives and property. These situations create instability; undermine peace and also a threat to food security in Ghana.

GNACAF will continue to work and collaborate with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Security agencies, Ghana Ranching Committee (GCRC), Municipal and District assemblies, Traditional councils and other relevant bodies to bring lasting solution to the unfortunate trend.

Mr. Sonde hinted that, his outfit was in the process of sensitizing cattle farmers to adopt modern technology of cattle grazing in Ghana.

He urged government to support the cattle sector development to significantly contribute to the economic development of the country.

The members in the Upper East Region were given certificates and identification cards of membership.

The meeting was aimed at reviewing the organization and adopts new strategies to enhance its structures and activities in the region.

By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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We'll support gov't end nomadic herdsmen conflict Group - Citifmonline

Utopia is an interesting word coined by Sir Thomas Moore in 1516 it is simultaneously a good place and no place. It represents humanitys constant search for a better life as the tantalising perfect world we all wish we lived in. Yet as it is nowhere it is constantly out of reach. Transhumanism and progressivism are arguably both utopian in the sense that they both desire to improve the human condition to create a better world or society. They are also both joined in a desire for progress, a forward-looking approach, and a support for the work of science.

We are in the midst of one of the greatest technological revolutions our species has undergone. Transhumanists believe that through this technology, humanity can transcend its limitations and perhaps achieve our utopia.

Are the dreams of a transhuman utopia really just around the corner? Can Transhumanism and progressivism be married?

Transhumanism is a broad intellectual movement that argues for the use of technology particularly robotics, computer science, genetics and bio-engineering to not only improve our lives but also improve our bodies and our minds. Transhumanists thus want to take control of our evolution and augment ourselves beyond the limitations imposed on us by our biology. The end goal being a life form referred to as a Transhuman or Post-Human, a being as far beyond humans as we are beyond other animals. Most transhumanists are staunch individualists believing in an individuals right to alter or augment (or not) their body as they see fit.

Transhumanists are an extremely diverse group, and exactly what qualities they seek to enhance or augment through technology vary considerably.

A common interest is in enhancing human longevity through the reversal or counter-acting of aging processes and biological senescence with the long term goal of eliminating aging and death (or at least the certainty of it). Exactly how this is thought to be achieved varies from biotechnology repairing the genetic damage that causes aging through to the replacement of organs or the entire body with more durable synthetic versions.

Another common interest or current in transhumanism is that of the technological singularity. Singularitarianism is the belief that in the near-future humans will create an artificial super-intelligence that is an artificial general intelligence (AGI) with intelligence vastly superior to human beings across all fields and that if guided properly it will be beneficial to human beings and will lead to runaway human technological advancement disrupting and transforming human civilisation beyond recognition. The technological singularity is controversial among transhumanists but still popular.

As Im not a scientist, I wont attempt to fully assess the scientific validity of transhumanism and the technologies they advocate. I will however attest that even though many of these human enhancement technologies are the staples of science-fiction of the past thirty years, there have been tremendous explosions in computing and biotechnology that have put many of them within reach. When it comes to things like artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and cyborgs, we are only talking decades and not centuries. Indeed, many of these things exist in prototype form already.

There is a tendency with transhumanism for people to indulge in idealistic utopian fantasies as though transhumanism will lead to a rapture to utopia and end all our problems. This is dangerous as it leaves transhumanism open to criticism not just for idealism but for seeming to ignore the dangers in the future they advocate. The technological advances advocated by transhumanists have great potential for misuse particularly artificial intelligence and genetic engineering and it would be foolish to ignore this.

Some reject transhumanism on the grounds that they dont believe in playing god. I would reject this since humans have been playing god for a very long time, pretty much since we learned to make fire. As progressives, we must embrace technology not reject it. However, there are other more rational and ethical considerations to make.

Artificial intelligence, specifically AGIs like those hypothesized by singularitarians, pose a serious existential threat to humanity. Compared to such an entity even our greatest minds are but insects, we would have no control of what decisions it makes once it is in existence, and should it make plans that are harmful to our interests, we would be as helpless as the orangutan whose rainforest homes we destroy for their wood. In short, we will only get one chance to create an AGI and it must be right the first time.

An AGI that is actively hostile to humanity is unlikely since it would have to have been engineered that way. What is more likely and just as dangerous is an AGI that is indifferent to us or has a limited understanding of us and thus makes decisions for our own good that are actually undesirable. An indifferent AGI would not exterminate us but could still destroy us as side-effects of its projects, just as we have driven countless species to extinction not through extermination but through our larger impact on the Earths climate.

Even an AI that wants to help us would need to have a very deep understanding of what it is humans want or value. It is not enough to make an AGI that wants to make everyone happy because that can easily be achieved just by lobotomising everyone so they can only feel happy. What we need is an AGI that understands us, our values, our morality, and wants to help us and that is much harder though not impossible to achieve.

The rewards of artificial intelligence are immense, but like all-powerful technology, so are the dangers. This is why many scientists interested in this field have emphasized the need both for caution and for working on problems in regulating AI behaviour, psychology, and morality, now rather than later. It is imperative that this technology be developed by those who understand it and not greedy executives, blinkered generals, or corrupt politicians.

Genetics has enormous potential to revolutionise our health and living standards. Countless diseases and conditions that have blighted our species for millennia could finally be defeated. However, transhumanism doesnt just advocate the use of genetics to treat diseases, but also to improve the human bodys capabilities in all areas. The mantra for transhumanism is better not well, that is, we should use technology not just to treat the sick but to improve the lives of the healthy as well.

Whilst such improvements could be beneficial, this idea poses a number of ethical dilemmas that we as a society need to consider. The biggest problem is that humans have, as a group, proven themselves tremendously bad at determining what traits are desirable. Take China as an illustration of this. It is suffering a colossal demographic crisis due to the one-child policy and Chinese cultures preference for having male children. Millions of Chinese families, only able to have one child, have deliberately aborted female fetuses to ensure that they have a boy. The result is that today China suffers from an enormous shortage of women which has serious consequences for they countrys future.

With the power of genetics we will be able to determine and alter potentially any trait a child may possess. This could lead to the elimination of traits that are deemed undesirable even if they are actually beneficial or neutral. The result could be a general decline in human diversity as future generations all conform to our biases and prejudices about what traits a perfect human should have. This would threaten to eliminate some demographic groups entirely, for example homosexuals, as who would choose to have their child born homosexual given the stigma attached to it?

Furthermore, we know that genetic diversity is key to the flourishing of a species. Homogeneity would leave our species extremely vulnerable to disease epidemics and may prevent our species from adapting and evolving new or beneficial traits.

I do not advocate for a ban on genetic engineering on humans. The potential benefits of this technology are too great to ignore. I also generally agree that increasing the abilities of the human species can be a good thing. However such technology must be regulated and should never be left solely in the whims of individuals alone because we know that people often make poor short-termist decisions based more on their prejudices than facts.

Transhumanism by definition is pro-science and the creation of government policy based on the best scientific principles. It is also by definition pro-technology and the use of technology for solving problems. For instance, many transhumanists favour technological solutions to climate change and the environment such as green energy or climate engineering. In this way, transhumanism could be regarded as progressive as it is generally forward-looking.

On other political issues transhumanists are as varied as any other group in society. There are however two common threads in transhumanists political discourse what you might call a left and a right wing.

Libertarian transhumanists like their mainstream counterparts believe in unrestrained and unregulated market capitalism, privatisation of most or all industries and fields, small or non-existent government and extensive personal freedom. These traits are particularly common among transhumanists in the United States but can be found elsewhere. In my view, they would be the right wing of the transhumanist movement since in essence the society they envision is not that removed from our own.

This position is influenced by the strong belief in individual liberty that is inherent in transhumanism, but also in the fact that many of the most prominent gadgets and tech in wide use by the public today has been developed by private corporations like Microsoft or Apple. As you might imagine, many transhumanists are very interested in tech and computing and thus admire figures such as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. They thus may develop the common misperception that capitalism equates innovation or progress.

Deciding whether libertarianism is progressive or not is beyond the scope of this article, however, there are a number of problems specific to libertarian transhumanism as a progressive movement. Perhaps the biggest is the enormous existential danger posed by an unregulated capitalism that wields the powers granted by the advanced computing and biotechnologies that transhumanists advocate. Weve already seen businesses and multinational corporations in multiple industries violate standards of safety and morality in pursuit of ever greater profits. These excesses range from the murder of union activists in the developing world through to the dumping of toxic chemicals into the environment, which are the most prevalent in under-regulated economies like those advocated by libertarians. Can we really imagine these same people, driven by profit motives, can be trusted to use wisely the power we are dealing with when we speak of transhumanist technologies?

Another problem with libertarian transhumanism is that it generally ignores the societal disruption that advanced technologies will undoubtedly cause. The societal problem with the advanced computing technologies, particularly artificial intelligences, is that they eliminate more jobs than they create one team of programmers can eliminate thousands of jobs with the program they create. Machines can already do many jobs faster and more efficiently than any human and the story of being laid off because your job is being automated has been a common narrative for the modern working class. As machines get smarter, we can only expect this trend to continue.

Not only will this generate legions of unemployed workers with no way of living except off the state, something despised by libertarians, but it will also undermine the basic structure of our consumerist society by reducing the number of people who can afford the products of capitalist industries polarising our society more and more between rich and poor. How can free market capitalism in the form espoused by libertarians survive? Except as an obscenely elitist society that condemns 90% of the population to live (or die) in total poverty whilst the rich enjoy themselves on the backs of a largely automated economy.

Transhumanism doesnt have to be this way however, and there are plenty of transhumanists who synthesise transhumanism with more progressive or leftist ideologies such as social democracy, liberalism, democratic socialism, Marxism or even anarchism.

Transhumanism and progressivism have much in common; both seek a better world, both are forward-looking, and both have an appreciation for science, technology and rationalism. They both place humans and human welfare at the heart of ethics and politics.

If made freely available to all, transhumanist technologies have the potential to emancipate all humanity from the ills of poverty, disease and inequality. If turned in service to progressive ideals of equality, liberty, democracy and social justice they could revolutionise our world.

To take an example, brain-computer interface technology could one day transform how individuals communicate and interact with society and the state. The dream of a truly democratic society where all are considered and participate could be possible through this technology allowing anyone anywhere to vote on issues that are important to them without taking the enormous resources it would take to achieve this today.

The Internet has already revolutionized how connected we are to each other. We can now connect and learn about the lives and issues of peoples living all over the world in a manner simply not possible forty or even thirty years ago. We can, and do already, form friendships and work relationships with people who live on the opposite ends of the globe. Smartphones already put this technology at our fingertips, the next obvious step is integrating this technology at an even more fundamental level via some kind of brain interface. How much more integrated and globalised can our world become with that level of technology.

Another example could be in biotechnology. If made freely available, biotechnology and genetics could transform the lives of billions, all could live longer, happier and healthier lives in pursuit of their goals. How much more could our civilization achieve unconfined by disease, old age or disability.

Implementing progressive values into transhumanism could also help us eliminate some of the ethical and social difficulties these technologies might create. For example, greater democracy and democratic oversight could help to regulate and prevent abuses of certain technologies like biotechnology. By giving minorities a voice in how genetics is used we can potentially avoid a society where such minorities are mindlessly eliminated by popular fashion.

Democratic and state oversight in the development of artificial intelligences could help us guard against the threat of greedy corporations pursuing lines of research without consideration for the consequences. It could also ensure healthy public debate about the kind of AI we want to create and what values it should hold rather than leaving such decisions to tiny elite groups.

As I indicated above, free market capitalism as it exists today is unlikely to survive the pace of technological advancement, and in my view, transhumanism is inherently incompatible with the survival of modern capitalism as we understand it.

Just as feudalism made way for capitalism, so must market capitalism give way to something else. What form this post-capitalist economic system takes remains unclear. However, it doesnt have to be the grotesquely unequal and elitist vision that is the (unintended) end product of libertarian transhumanism. A progressive transhumanism could see a society where the burdens and benefits of technology and growing automation could be shared amongst all and not just a tiny capitalist elite.

If the state grows to fill the void created by automation by providing everyone with a basic income and security, and develops a new consensus on the role of the state as provider for its people, then what emerges from capitalism could be a new era of true economic equality. We could build a new world where people are valued for being people and not because they can (or cant) produce capital.

All this sounds very Utopian and idealistic, I know. Building a progressive and transhumanist world will not be easy. But like utopia itself, it is an ideal to work towards and in doing so make the world a better place even if you never reach it. A perfect world may never be possible but that shouldnt stop us from trying. It is the struggle that all human progress is built upon.

Certainly nothing vaguely utopian can exist until our society is ready for it. A utopia cannot precede the existence of the utopian. Just as our globalized modern society could not exist with pre-industrial technology, no lofty techno-utopia can exist until the necessary advancements have been made in science and technology. Utopia will only exist once we can engineer it.

Transhumanism can be utopian in its goals and ideals, this cannot be denied, however, like utopia, the Transhuman or Post-Human is a goal to strive towards in the hopes of making a better, healthier, and happier human specie. Even if it is not reachable in the way transhumanists wish it we can still improve ourselves just by striving for it.

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[ May 25, 2017 ] Transhumanism: Engineering Utopia Culture - Conatus News

Butcher, from developer Transhuman Design, follows the story of a cyborg with a simple mission to kill all living lifeforms. Its a humble mission, for sure, and one that inevitably results in levels loaded with spent shells,bloodied bodies, and gory gibs.

After the successful re-launch of Doom, its clear that we are still in love with a good guts and glory shooter.

Transhuman Design are known for titles such as, Trenchrun, King Arthurs Gold and Transmigration. They have now set their sights ona nostalgic take on the much beloved 1990s franchise gore fest that was DOOM & Quake albeit with a 2D Platforming style viewpoint.

Forget the over complicated plot sometimes it just has to be an over-the-top gore fest with smatterings of big guns and big explosions, and that is exactly what Butcher promises. This 2D platformer with low resolution pixels and high octane action is set to provide a storm for fans of pulpy, nonsense shooters from the days when most shooters were simply known asDoom-Clones.

Heres the features list from the games Steam page:

Butcher actually launched on PC last year, however this week marks its release for PS4 & Xbox Onein all its blood-soaked, enemies screaming, limbs missing, industrial looking sci-fi, glory. Come get some!

Thanks to Big Boss Battle, I managed to spend some in-depth time with the game, and hopefully my video above provides a helpful insight into the game; with a specific focus on its mechanics, gameplay and overall fun factor.

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Video Review | Butcher - Big Boss Battle - Big Boss Battle (blog)

PCGamesN

The Surge launch trailer shows what happens when good robots go bad PCGamesN This is a transhuman future where factory workers get an exoskeleton - a rig - grafted to them to make them more efficient. Handy. Our Jordan played the first six hours and he reckons The Surge is shaping up to be really good. The launch trailer above ...

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The Surge launch trailer shows what happens when good robots go bad - PCGamesN

The Federal Government Thursday said it has domesticated the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Trans-Human Movement Law and would commence its implementation.

President Muhammadu Buhari stated this at the 2017 National Security Summit organised by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in Abuja.

Buhari, who was represented by the Minister for Interior, Gen. Abdulraman Dambazau (rtd), said that the domestication became necessary in order to contain menaces of herders, militants and terrorists.

He said: ECOWAS protocol on free movement of goods and person has always been there from the word go but there is ECOWAS decision on trans-humans. That is movement from one country to another as herders.

The decision is that every country where these trans-humans come, they should prepare reception areas for them and issue them International trans-humans certificates for identification. They would also be monitored so that their movements are known.

So, this is an ECOWAS decision that was taken in 1998 but has not been implemented. ECOWAS is trying now to see how they can implement it so as to reduce the conflict going on between herders and farmers.

Buhari also attributed increase in crime rate to proliferation of small arms, noting that there were over 10 million illegal small arms in the country a decade ago.

He said: I did a research ten years ago and I discovered that over 10 million small arms and weapons were in the country and that was before Boko Haram and Niger Delta crisis.

I do not know the quantity as of today but certainly, they must have increased bearing in mind the flow of weapons from North Africa because of the Libyan and Malian crises.

Earlier in his address, Buhari said that armed Agro Rangers would be stationed in farms as part of measures to protect agricultural investment, farmers and herders.

He explained that the move would boost food security, economy and reduce incessant clashes.

He said government would pursue security governance initiatives that are broad based, adding that it had entered into bilateral and multilateral agreements with other stakeholders to improve nations security.

He assured of governments support in carrying out institutional reforms and restructuring to revamp police in line with global best practices.

He said government has launched national counter terrorism strategy, adding that security management was the responsibility of everyone including the international community.

Urging states to domesticate the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, Buhari said it would assist in harmonsing, punishing any criminal.

Acknowledging the challenges faced by the police, Buhari noted that there was improved budgetary allocation for the force, urging organised private sector to invest more in security sector as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

In an aside interview with The Nation, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, said the way out of farmers-herders conflict was for Nigerians to be tolerant with each other.

He said: The main way to tackle the issue of herdsmen and farmers is for us to be our brothers keeper. We grew up in this country and we saw how people migrated to other places and settled peacefully. I think it is just the element of give and take that is lackingand like somebody observed, Nigerians are becoming intolerant of each other. Until we stop the intolerance and believe that we have to forego something in order to get something, the communal clashes and ethnic disagreements would continue.

The reason for the summit is for all stakeholders to assemble and proffer solutions to improving security across the country.

Highpoint of the event was the anti-kidnapping, K-9 and anti-explosives simulations exhibited by police operatives.

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Armed conflicts: Nigeria to implement ECOWAS trans-human movement - The Nation Newspaper