/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.4535061]

What is /sci/'s stance on Transhumanism?

[Anonymous No.4535072]

Not underground enough anymore. The /sci/ hipsters are all about more obscure things.

[Anonymous No.4535073]

>>4535072
Such as?

[Anonymous No.4535079]

transhumanism is cool

[Anonymous No.4535083]

>>4535073
neo-post-trans-humanism-core

[Anonymous No.4535084]

Essentially a fantasy. They're just dreamers who want something but won't actually do anything to get it. They'll be either dead or near death by the time any kind of transhumanism is possible, and they overlook the fact that they wouldn't even be able to afford it if it was legal to do. It won't be, and anyone who was modified would probably be lynched by the public because science fiction movies will turn everyone against it, if they haven't already.

http://youtu.be/Gcsd6mJ3R08

[Anonymous No.4535093]

>>4535084
Cute.
I guess nothing that doesn't already exist is >Essentially a fantasy
in your world.

[Gilgamesh !!JNVkU2/omZB No.4535100]

>>4535084
>by the time any kind of transhumanism is possible
Egad! So what exactly was that doctor injecting me with when he claimed to be administering a vaccine?

[Anonymous No.4535102]

WELCOME TO TODAY'S TRANSHUMANISM/SINGULARITY THREAD

15YR OLDS AND VIRGINS ONLY

[Anonymous No.4535106]

>>4535093
No, just things that are utterly ridiculous. These people don't have anything reasonable to base their beliefs on, just science fiction and video games. And like I said, they're not doing anything to go closer to this dream. If there were real transhumanists they'd be implanting themselves with RFID chips and so on, trying to bring their dream closer to reality. Instead they just post on the internet about how they'll live forever and be able to lift a car with one arm and other such comic book fantasies.

[Anonymous No.4535116]

There's nothing to indicate that it can't be done with additional knowledge. Cellphones were an impossible to conceive idea a century ago.

[Anonymous No.4535205]

Transhumanism will happen. It's just a matter of time.
And it goes farther than getting chips and lifting cars.
We have all the tools to alter what we are. There is no limit.
Humanity will be one perfect, eternal entity.
We won't breath or walk or sleep anymore.
We won't just see light, but perceive all there is to perceive.
And days will feel like seconds. Our processing power will be unfathomable.
It's coming, and you can't stop it. You can't stop the future.

[Anonymous No.4535226]

Transhumanism will happen. It's just a matter of time.
And it goes farther than getting chips and lifting cars.
We have all the tools to alter what we are. There is no limit.
I will be perfect, and live forever.
I won't have to walk, breath, or use the bathroom anymore.
I'll finally be able to lose my virginity.
I'll be able to bring anime characters into real life and create planets out of chocolate.

[Anonymous No.4535230]

>>4535226
>I'll finally be able to lose my virginity.

Why would you want to do that, my foolish apprentice?

[Anonymous No.4535242]

>>4535205

Awwww

[Anonymous No.4535249]

Juvenile wishful thinking.

[/hnd/ No.4535276]

>>4535084
>hasn't heard of Professor Cyborg:
>http://www.kevinwarwick.com/
Mfw.

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.4535295]

>>4535084

You do realize that game was pro-transhumanism, right? No matter which path you took, you still had the conversation with Zhao about how luddites were manufactured by old men afraid of the future.

>>4535106

>If there were real transhumanists they'd be implanting themselves with RFID chips and so on, trying to bring their dream closer to reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Dv6dDtdcs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X94jHzFNF4

Oh good heavens will you just look at it. Currently the diy bio people are looking into MRI-safe magnets for sensory augmentation and this other guy I know is doing something DNA related. Something about electroporation or whatever.

You'll never loose your virginity though.

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.4535301]

>>4535205

>And days will feel like seconds. Our processing power will be unfathomable.

I think you got subjective time backwards.

[Anonymous No.4535310]

>>4535295
Lepht Anonym is an emo cutter who just does this for attention and to look sophisticated. I read her blog and it's mostly just whining about shit and ranting about how everyone is stupid compared to her. She also documents her suicide attempts and psychotic episodes resulting from drug abuse.

[Anonymous No.4535325]

>>4535295
I'm all up for cybernetics but it's extremely hard to take that person seriously

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.4535328]

>>4535310

I posted the link because I couldn't find the other place where they were doing this -- You know, the augmentation self-surgery, not the Risperidone-free roleplaying of Molly from Neuromancer. It's somewhere here: http://discuss.biohack.me/

Steve Haworth was one of the first, he's still a bit of a showoff, but with less darkness and gloom and doom: http://www.stevehaworth.com/wordpress/index.php/welcome-from-steve-haworth/magnetic-faq

[Anonymous No.4535330]

Transhumanism is nothing more or less than the idea that "we should use technology to improve ourselves". And I agree with that.

The Ray Kurzweil singulatarian crowd is something else - a radical subset of transhumanists.

[Anonymous No.4535362]

>>4535083
1,2-dineopolariod-6,6,6-tricoredeltrix-cis,trans-humanane

[Anonymous No.4535443]

>>4535328
>magnetic finger implants

Do want. Does anyone who posts here have them?

[Anonymous No.4535451]

>>4535061
> What is /sci/'s stance on Transhumanism?

It's impossible to achieve now. Petroleum starvation is now dominating Humanity (witness the largest financial crash, ever) and as it advances, it will destroy most if not all higher science actions as Humans prioritize energy and resource exploitation in order to stave off the inevitable fall in living standards worldwide, not to mention the hard requirement for billions to die from starvation as our highly mechanized, energy intensive food production has to collapse.

Transhumanism was a good dream, but it was only a dream, and it's over. It requires every higher technology, which requires ever greater energy inputs, which is literally impossible when you're reliant on fossil fuels.

[Anonymous No.4535452]

>glasses

>prosthetic limbs

already underway. Where have you people been?

[Anonymous No.4535455]

>>4535451

[Anonymous No.4535454]

>>4535443

They are called neodymium implants, they supposedly allow you to perceive magnetic fields. You also have to cut your fingers open at home, so you better have a very strong local anesthetic at hand.

[Anonymous No.4535457]

>>4535454
I take it you didn't read the article then. They don't send them people, you have to go there and they'll implant you with them.

[Anonymous No.4535464]

>>4535451
>implying billions of people dying isn't a good thing

[Anonymous No.4535466]

>>4535457

I wasn't aware of that. The only implant procedures I've heard of until now were done at home.

[Anonymous No.4535489]

>>4535466
You're probably thinking of the first generation of the implants. Unreliable prototypes that have been obsolete for almost half a decade.

[Anonymous No.4535498]

>>4535328
So uh.. they just open up your finger and shove a magnet in there?

[Anonymous No.4535577]

is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.

which part exatcly you think won't make it to reality sooner or later?

keep it delusional /sci/

[Anonymous No.4535631]

>>4535498
And stitch it shut, yeah. But to call it "a magnet" is oversimplifying things a little. It's actually a rather sophisticated device. I suggest you read the FAQ posted by >>4535328

[Anonymous No.4536454]

Transhumanism has already begun. You're looking at it right now as you read this.

/thread

[Anonymous No.4536483]

I'll just put this here

http://www.kevinwarwick.com/

>Kevin instigated a series of pioneering experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device (Utah Array/BrainGate) into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. The development of the implant technology was carried out by a team of researchers headed by Dr Mark Gasson who, along with Kevin, used it to perform the ground-breaking research. Kevin was successful with the first extra-sensory (ultrasonic) input for a human and with the first purely electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans.

[Anonymous No.4536487]

>>4535451
>It requires every higher technology, which requires ever greater energy inputs, which is literally impossible
But but but

THORIUM

[Anonymous No.4536498]

I use to think transhumanism would be great, until I realized it was only a mater of time till they added DRM to every part of your body. Then would come the spyware. First it'd be hackers trying to push the capabilities of cyborg body parts. Then it will be goverment agencies trying to snoop on people. Then the company that manufactures parts will put back doors in every one of their products so they can collect "market data." After that Chinese factories which build cybernetic body parts will start putting in back doors and spyware into everything unbeknown to the company that hired them to build the parts.

This is already kinda happening right now. Don't even get me started on the new HDTVs that have cameras and facial recognition software.
http://gizmodo.com/5897493/all-chinese+made-electronics-could-be-bugged-says-former-head-of-us-count
erterrorism

[Anonymous No.4536540]

Double edge sword?

I thought maybe it could get rid of racism and improve the human race, but it may make it worse. The thing is if I am ghetto trash why would I really want to become more intelligent?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_supermice
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2e4_1333470460

Only AI can save us.

[Anonymous No.4536583]

>>4535451
doesnt mean its gone forever, just within our own lifetime

[Anonymous No.4536586]

>>4535451
>ever higher technology requires ever more energy
Like how a medium desktop computer requires 3.4 TW since it computes twenty three million times faster than a Univac?

Unbeatable logic.

[fizx !d75etXAowg No.4536590]

It's a love hate relationship.

[Anonymous No.4536624]

Transhumanism is. you can think what you want about it, but mankind has been using technology to improve it's lot in life since they started mucking about with this "fire" thing. Now, i can use a machine that fits in my hand to instantly communicate with people anywhere on the planet, i can live to be 80 or older due to medical science, and there isn't a place on this planet theat we can't go (hell, last week a movie director traveled to the darkest and most lethal pace in the world, aside form the planet mantle itself, to take some pictures). People are never satisfied with thier lot in life, and will never accept that there are things we can't do. So i don't see transhumanism leaving any time soon.

[Anonymous No.4536692]

Its going to happen. We are blantant consumer whores. As soon as there is a i-transhuman product available people will love it because they are told to.

Just ask any women or any beta male. You think women will love the obese fatass or augmented alpha male?

Just ask zyzz who said he liked steroids.

Even ask yourselves. How much pussy do you get browsing 4chan all day? Now how much pussy will you get when you when you have to compete with transhuman alpha males?

[Anonymous No.4536756]

Some traits I would personally pay for:

- Eidetic memory
- Complete control of my internal states by the frontal cortex, e.g. decide my pain sensitivity in real time, better emotional control etc.
- Ability to create backups of my connectome
- Ability to create concurrent copies of my connectome and then reintegrate their diverging memories into one personhood
- More sensory modalities, e.g. new color percepts or completely new senses (they don't even have to be useful, just for art would be enough)
- Organ replacements, better healing abilities, immunity to cancer and infectious diseases
- Higher pleasure levels during mundane life

[Anonymous No.4536813]

>>4535451
a) there are alternatives to oil, you know? Like thorium, to make a strong example. So far, there has been little interest in developping alternatives and huge pressure not to.
b) more advanced technology requires more energy you say? No. Just no. The first computers were gargantuan beasts that consumed hundreds of dollars of electricity per month and had less memory than my phone.

[Anonymous No.4536896]

Any interesting kind of transhumanism, like cognitive enhancements through mind-machine interface, mind uploading etc are way too complex to implement. I don't think it will ever work.

[Anonymous No.4536993]

Sure is bioshock in here

[Anonymous No.4537004]

>>4536896
As much as I dislike the occasional transhumanist circlejerk, remember that 'ever' is a pretty strong word.

[Anonymous No.4537090]

I'm not very knowledgeable about the dogma of "transhumanism" but I get the gist.
Beyond some cataclysmic event that destroys humanity or access to technology then it's logical to assume the speed of development and implementation of technology will continue to increase exponentially.
In this thought experiment, where humanity overcomes all "roadblocks" and maintains an exponential rate of technological advancement, humanity would draw closer to a "singularity", in which humanity would create all it is able to. An instant fulfilment of humanity, if you will.
This much, I agree with, however I have great reservations and cynicism when I imagine humans overcoming even the most likely of barriers towards a "singularity". The closest that I personally believe we will probably attain to a state of "transhumanism" is when the wealthy elite are able to use life-sustaining technologies and yuppies get wired with junk to give them a competitive edge.

[Anonymous No.4537159]

>>4537090
>Beyond some cataclysmic event that destroys humanity or access to technology

30 years from now everything has gone paperless. Paper books are now a thing of the past and all books are bought electronically and read on e-readers. All the information that humanity has collected is now stored digitally on hard drives.

Then the sun goes crazy. For a period of 24 hours it releases a series of solar flares that are completely harmless, but erase every bit of digitally stored information and fries every single IC chip in the world. In the span of 24 hours humanity is sent back to the stone ages.

[Anonymous No.4537957]

bump

[Anonymous No.4538134]

>>4537159
And all the other hollywood disaster epics are realistic too.