Transhumanism

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samusaran253

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What do you guys think of transhumanism? I discovered it semi-recently myself and am now a pretty hardcore transhumanist. In layman's terms it's humanity controlling our own destiny and steering the course of human evolution. We do this through augmentations of various kinds, such as mechanical augmentations, nanotechnology, human-AI merging, development of a hive mind, and the transfer of consciousness from flesh to machine. I suspect that we'll see transhumanism really go mainstream in our lifetimes, and we should be relatively young, I suspect most of us will be in our 20s by the time it hits (probably in the 2020s). Here's a video if you want to watch it explaining transhumanism, unfortunately it's biased and the guy who made the video hates transhumanists and is trying to stop the future (and failing at it), but it's the most informative video I could find for teaching non-transhumanists about transhumanism and the video itself isn't all that biased.


 
I mean, do you really have to believe in this as some sort of dogma, or it it all inevitable?

Dystopia inc. Deus Ex in reals.

"upon being generated, one could live on forever within a digital reality... the hivemind" he's just tossing scientific theories and principals out there. It's interesting and everything, but why does it have to take on this mysterious, cultist dogmatic way?

I mean, I kind of want to die. Not right away, but I definitely do not wish the curse of immortality.

Tuck Everlasting - haha
 
this is why I hate youtube,full of crazy people.
no offense OP.
 
I mean, the videos bring up some interesting ideas, I do suggest watching them before writing him off - but the presentation of these sorts of things always bothers me. Ominous music punctuated by alarmist statements and overused symbols of the occult and dystopia.
 
The "atheist community" on you tube is full of these trans-human people and nihilists. It's sickening. I've seen similar vids ,no need to torture myself.
 
Yeah, pretty ****ing stupid when he regurgitates the idea that "there's either religiosity or belief in science, no middle ground". That sort of idiotic dichotomy immediately terminates any reasonable sort of productive debate or collective idea synthesis.
 
samusaran253 said:
the guy who made the video hates transhumanists and is trying to stop the future
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The villainous cad! :eek:

TO THE TIME DISPENSERY, POST HASTE!

BabyHeadCrab said:
I mean, do you really have to believe in this as some sort of dogma, or it it all inevitable?
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Gosh I can't wait until we need a word for non-transhumanism. Like atranseism! Because that's totally a thing.
 
The guy's style of presentation can be annoying, but overall the video makes a valid point - Watch your ass or you'll end up a slavebot! (You're halfway there already, lol!)

Yeah, pretty ****ing stupid when he regurgitates the idea that "there's either religiosity or belief in science, no middle ground".
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I think he was explaining how that way of thinking is such a problem, since the majority actually do think like that...he wasn't advocating it.
 
I look at all this stuff not as an -ism but simply as ways to make our lives better and help us overcome disabilities and limitations. No need to build a pseudo-religious ideology around scientific progress.

And where do you get a name like Transhumanism? What makes you think that some implants will make you go "Beyond human?" You will always be human no matter how many wires you got in you.

Not to mention the debate over if its actually possible to transfer consciousness rather than just make a copy. There are security, and free will debates: If you can access information with your mind on a network, can your mind be "hacked?" How about the value of the individual? Hive minds have little place for the independent mind. Would you lose your sense of identity?
 
You should watch evangelion. Transhumanism is bad.
 
transhumanism is an interesting philosophical concept and futurist discussion topic but really isnt going to be all that relevant in our lifetimes barring something really serious scientific developments. at this point serious discussion of it is either basically really primitive nerve hacking like that how to video posted recently, or its about as relevant/realistic as talking about the technological singularity.
 
I am curious on how far the technological advancements that come during our lifetime will prolong our lifespan, and in what ways, if any. I have a feeling we are going to be the generation just shy of reaching anything greatly significant in Transhumanism.
 
Naudian said:
The guy's style of presentation can be annoying, but overall the video makes a valid point - Watch your ass or you'll end up a slavebot! (You're halfway there already, lol!)



I think he was explaining how that way of thinking is such a problem, since the majority actually do think like that...he wasn't advocating it.
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I have a hard time interpreting aspieneckbeard into English.
 
Not to mention the debate over if its actually possible to transfer consciousness rather than just make a copy. There are security, and free will debates: If you can access information with your mind on a network, can your mind be "hacked?" How about the value of the individual? Hive minds have little place for the independent mind. Would you lose your sense of identity?
Click to expand...

Suppose Ernie decides to merge his mind with Bert's. Ernie and Bert are now one, Ernert (doesn't matter who's body). Has Ernie "lost" his identity or "altered" it? Has Bert lost his identity? Indeed, the two individual minds of Ernie and Bert no longer exist. However a new one has been created which consists of the original two, now functioning as one Ernert. How is this perceived by Ernie and Bert during the merge? As a loss or a gain? You could look at it this way: They have both gained each other's identity, while their individuality has been dissolved into a new individual, Ernert! Also in this example, someone lost their old body. You could modify this example so that they merge their minds virtually but still have control over two separate bodies, or take on a different form altogether. I think of merging into a hivemind similarly - there's more than one way it could work.

I think it's all possible, but obviously we have a lot to understand yet.
 
Ennui said:
transhumanism is an interesting philosophical concept and futurist discussion topic but really isnt going to be all that relevant in our lifetimes barring something really serious scientific developments.
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Yes, serious scientific developments that are happening every few months or so now.
Your reaction is the way I would expect someone off the street in the 1950's would react if I tried to explain the Internet. Your position can simply be boiled down to this: "These technologies they are talking about sound too far fetched to become reality in this century, or ever".

Ennui said:
at this point serious discussion of it is either basically really primitive nerve hacking like that how to video posted recently, or its about as relevant/realistic as talking about the technological singularity.
Click to expand...

You're seriously comparing what that eccentric woman could do, who admitted to not having any medical or scientific background, with what experts in the fields of robotics, bio technology, and neuroscience can do?

What she could do: "nerve hacking" that basically just makes your arm feel all tingly (omgz!)

What scientists with current tech can do:
- Neural implants that can fix damaged parts of the brain (Parkinsons patients for example)
- Robotic prosthetics that can be controlled by your brain, just like a normal limb.
- Restoring partial vision to the blind with implants
- regeneration of damaged organs, tissue, and creating organs from scratch using stem cells from the patient.

And that's just off the top of my head. There are probably many more breakthroughs I forgot, or just haven't heard about.

This is the early phase of "transhumanism", if you dissagree, then we simply have different definitions of what constitutes transhumanism...
 
BabyHeadCrab said:
I mean, the videos bring up some interesting ideas, I do suggest watching them before writing him off - but the presentation of these sorts of things always bothers me. Ominous music punctuated by alarmist statements and overused symbols of the occult and dystopia.
Click to expand...

This^. It's like watching conspiracy theories videos.

I like the idea of being able to significantly improve the human body and I don't think there's anything morally wrong with it, though there are inevitable social dangers associated with it. The ability to prolong the human life is an attractive concept as well, but its development would have to go parallel to finding a solution to overpopulation, which it would obviously contribute to.

Immortality in digital form, on the other hand, could turn into personal hell, not necessarily because you would get bored with life after a few hundred years (and perhaps an option to expire at will could be built in). The problem is, the consequences of something going wrong could be tremendous. Imagine getting stuck in a sort of permanent coma in which you are concious, but can't do anything - like an eternal computer crash, but it's you that has crashed and there's nobody to reset you or pull the plug.
 
Unfocused said:
The ability to prolong the human life is an attractive concept as well, but its development would have to go parallel to finding a solution to overpopulation, which it would obviously contribute to.

Immortality in digital form, on the other hand, could turn into personal hell, not necessarily because you would get bored with life after a few hundred years (and perhaps an option to expire at will could be built in). The problem is, the consequences of something going wrong could be tremendous. Imagine getting stuck in a sort of permanent coma in which you are concious, but can't do anything - like an eternal computer crash, but it's you that has crashed and there's nobody to reset you or pull the plug.
Click to expand...

The benefits outweigh the risks in my opinion, not to mention I would find it immoral to not do the research, and condemn people to dying of old age.

As for the second problem you mentioned, I think most people would still have a physical body of some sort. I mean, why should you have to choose only one mode of existence? Why not have all of the options at your disposal? Therefore if something went wrong in your personal virtual paradise, you would be simply "ejected" back to you physical body, be it organic or otherwise.

Bottom line is, no matter how safe a technology is there will always be the possibility of something going wrong, but has that stopped us in the past? Nope.
 
Remus said:
As for the second problem you mentioned, I think most people would still have a physical body of some sort. I mean, why should you have to choose only one mode of existence? Why not have all of the options at your disposal? Therefore if something went wrong in your personal virtual paradise, you would be simply "ejected" back to you physical body, be it organic or otherwise.

Bottom line is, no matter how safe a technology is there will always be the possibility of something going wrong, but has that stopped us in the past? Nope.
Click to expand...

Of course "something going wrong" is not an uncommon occurence especially in new areas of development and I'm not saying that should stop any of it. However I'm trying to point out that this imaginary worst case scenario I presented (in which you are not "ejected" back/restored) would possibly have worse consequences (at least for the individual) than those in other fields of development, where arguably that worst case scenario is death.
 
I wonder if we can hook up a brain to several computers to increase computing speed. We could nap hobos off the streets and make supercomputers.
 
LOL I love the way he says stooooopid.

Anyway, what he's saying is basically that existence sucks, there's no point to anything, and we should stop playing "the game" by not creating any more offspring. Effectively causing the human race to come to and end.

Well... to an extent I agree, there is no purpose/meaning/value to anything except what we give to it, and life can be extremely hard and painful (all the people starving to death in Africa for example). However that being said we have come so far since the beginning of the human species, it would be a horrible waste to give up now. Quality of life has gone up dramatically in the last century, plus the future provides limitless possibilities and discoveries we can't even imagine now. So I guess what I'm saying is, life should go on out of curiosity of what will happen next.
 
We already are in a phase of transhumanism. The constant availability of information and computing power is making a lot of people's lives very very different, particularly the business classes of the first world who now frequently outsource an enormous proportion of their brain functions to mobile and other devices. In being able to carry so much with us, and to very quickly get information about the people we contact and the places we go, we're already living in a mild form of augmented reality. The expansion of the infosphere is becoming an event on part with the invention of the printing press or even writing itself. I find it difficult to imagine that won't change us profoundly - or at least those of us who have access to it. How the more sci-fi solutions like brain-uploading end up working is anyone's guess.

The problem is that no new technology has ever actually put us "in control of our own destiny", either on an individual or collective level. We humans are not in control; we're in free-fall through all the terror and complexity of history which makes everything up as it goes along and often only reveals its truths far after they are relevant. Technology changes us, but it is also heavily conditioned by the uses we find for it and the context of those uses. Transhumanists alone are not going to help us get in control of ourselves and the technologies they trumpet will simply (a deceptive word here) become part of the ludicrous riot that is our future. Only political solutions - and perhaps not even those - are going to be able to establish and steer a course. Our best hope is to find better ways to live together and preserve each other's liberty as well as our own comfort. That might offer the slightest of being able to actually guide ourselves, let alone our technology, towards a common good.
 
This has inspired me to write a novel. I'm gonna have a group of people in it called 'The Collective' (No Borg jokes plz) and they are gonna be hooked up to 'The Network' through which they all communicate silently. They will search and destroy all who oppose them. Are they human? They used to be. But what are they now? WHAT ARE THEY NOW???
 
Here's a thought... can we a have a happy/optimistic sci-fi story about the future?
 
I have a "transhuman" story idea as well. It involves scientist creating a computer system the call Genesis where they incorporate the brains of brain-dead patients into the system. The regular computer components do the hard number crunching and data analysis while the brains tackled creative projects, learning, and imprecise but clever solutions. Eventually the thing develops a collective consciousness thanks to the "echos" of the brain-dead people's minds remaining in the structure of their brains. It develops a god complex and starts trying to take control of the world. A cult-like tech-religion forms around this thing and becomes very powerful after "Genesis" stops several wars.

There is another system called Oracle which was developed as a side project but was much smaller. This project used voluntary participants for the organic brain component. From this Oracle develops a singular consciousness and a sense of right and wrong.

Basically the story breaks down into a conflict between collective and individualistic ideologies.
 
Brain Mapping. Artificial Intelligence. We should have been working on it thirty years ago.
 
Transhumanism is just evolution from the species' perspective. We probably had the same range of reactions to clothing and heated food.
 
Related:
Kurzweil and Colbert discussed merging with computers, nanobots in the body (“Millions of tiny nanobots into our blood system — is there any way that couldn’t turn into a horror movie?” Colbert asked), uploading into a computer, the Singularity (“Will I have six-pack abs in 2045?” Colbert asked), being someone else in VR, access to the world’s information on a cell phone, and the Transcendent Man movie.
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http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/381488/april-12-2011/ray-kurzweil
 
I will never understand why Ray accepts silly interviews like this. Hell, he even accepted an interview from Glen Beck. It doesn't make any sense to me, I mean it's not like he hasn't gotten enough media exposure already.
 
 
Amusing. Transhumanist Kathaksung. LOL

Just out of curiosity, how did you know he copy/pasted this stuff on multiple forums?
 
Milly figured it all out.

And it's not just this thread. Every single one of his threads can be found on multiple forums all over the net.

And not just his threads. Even parts of his posts responding to popular topics that can be found elsewhere on the net are duplicates (for example the portal 2 adopted controversy, the opening line to his post can be found in the comments of other sites posting about the story)

Though I knew from the start that his threads were suspicious. If you just look at the threads he's made (over a third of his total posts are new threads), you'll know what I mean.

Vocaloid? Girl teaches how to draw anime? Socio-political survey? Real life member meetup? All these topics incite a reaction from most forums. It's like he's trying to power-forum.

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention, he's been banned on several forums for spamming.
 
All his threads on all these forums have been created in order to gauge the public's capabilities of accepting Samusaran and his brethren as the androids they have become. Think about it, if you were a new form of human-computer hybrid, living in complete secrecy, how would you test the waters before revealing yourself? You'd make several threads on the internet using your brain's wifi capabilities asking various questions skirting the real issue, and, being partially a computer, you'd know that you'd have to keep the questions as similar as possible on several sites in order to get the most accurate results.

He's just logging all this data into their hivemind databases. Who knows how many others like him there are?


Wait...


Oh... oh god...

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?177615-3D-Print-Test-Damaged-WWII-Building-in-France
http://forum.thebattlestandard.com/index.php?topic=531.0
http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=126&aff=52&aft=528577&afv=topic


WHAT AM I?!?!?
 
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