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The concepts of Transhuman, Posthuman etc.

Started by SoldierofFortune, November 12, 2018, 05:18:32 PM

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SoldierofFortune

Not long after, one day will become
and a brave scientist will integrate the machine into a human's brain
and machine-organic brain co-operation will be succeeded....

Human's skull no longer permits the brain to enlarge.
However, once it has began, it's impossible to stop the intellectual evolution of human from improvement.

The new kind of humanity awaiting us is very exciting.
As i understand from the futurist's views, there will be humans like us again,
but they will function as pets to posthumans...


Hydra009

Quote from: SoldierofFortune on November 12, 2018, 05:18:32 PM
Not long after, one day will become
and a brave scientist will integrate the machine into a human's brain
and machine-organic brain co-operation will be succeeded....
This has already occurred.

QuoteHuman's skull no longer permits the brain to enlarge.
However, once it has began, it's impossible to stop the intellectual evolution of human from improvement.
Arguably, that process started with drawing/writing.  For the first time, human knowledge was stored externally from the human brain.  Everything since has simply been refining this skill to encompass larger amounts of data viewable by more people and lasting longer.  First scrolls, then books, now vast electronic databases.

QuoteAs i understand from the futurist's views, there will be humans like us again,
but they will function as pets to posthumans...
Afaik, transhumanists want these changes to spread throughout the world as uniformly as possible as quickly as possible.  Of course, there will be early adopters, those behind the curve, and those who refuse outright.  The gameplan is to make this transition as painlessly as possible and thus avoid your scenario - the Mankind Divided scenario - as much as we possibly can.

Baruch

#2
Furries and robot fans unite, you have only your humanity to lose!

Usually in the 50s, this was called frontal lobotomy.  But electroshock will suffice for the next great high .. voltage ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQa_sg4zN88
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

SoldierofFortune

Quote from: Baruch on November 12, 2018, 09:15:22 PM
Furries and robot fans unite, you have only your humanity to lose!

Usually in the 50s, this was called frontal lobotomy.  But electroshock will suffice for the next great high .. voltage ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQa_sg4zN88

I had electroshock therapy for 12 times as my treatment required;
I was wrongly diagnosed with bipolar disorder. However, my actual illness was alcoholism and related symptoms.
Because my of alcoholism and my then-obsessed love, they think i am experiencing manic episode...

In current med., There is an applications field of electroshoc theraphy...But, it causes me to forget 6 months past of the theraphy time.

Baruch

Electroshock is an obsolete therapy.  It is more used in Europe.  It is "good" for short term relief of depression.  But then so is suicide.  Modern therapy uses medications alone.  If someone suggests frontal lobotomy, just say no.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

GrinningYMIR

Sign me up for transhumanism, give me nanintes to fix my fucked up body
"Human history is a litany of blood shed over differing ideals of rulership and afterlife"<br /><br />Governor of the 32nd Province of the New Lunar Republic. Luna Nobis Custodit

Baruch

Quote from: GrinningYMIR on November 13, 2018, 10:54:38 AM
Sign me up for transhumanism, give me nanintes to fix my fucked up body

But with human engineering, all you get to be is a grey goo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

Brought to you by the same folks who marketed the Edsel.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Shiranu

I personally find the idea of transhumanism terrifying, because we all know damn well only the ultra-rich will have true access to it, and the scraps that get handed down to the average man will be buggy and easily hacked/corrupted.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Baruch

Quote from: Shiranu on November 13, 2018, 03:11:41 PM
I personally find the idea of transhumanism terrifying, because we all know damn well only the ultra-rich will have true access to it, and the scraps that get handed down to the average man will be buggy and easily hacked/corrupted.

Plenty of sci-fi says ... are the ultra-rich even human to begin with?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Shiranu

Have you heard of the Netflix series, "Altered Carbon"? I just started it this morning, and within the first 30 minutes has already really hooked me on dealing with the fears I had above.

People are able to be "reborn" in new bodies thanks to, it seems, consciousness being stored in disks along the spine; so long as the brain remains intact (i'm guessing a bullet to the brain would corrupt the "data") and the disk remains intact, humans can be reborn into a new "sleeve".

Without going into much detail, the main character is reborn in the body of a prisoner, property of an ultra-wealthy man who has lived for over 300 years through this process. At the birthing site, he meets a middle aged white woman... except as they are reuniting her with her family, it turns out she was a 7-year old asian girl who was murdered. She was given the body by the state for free, and the body she inhabits was that of a prisoner. If the family wanted something more appropriate or to their liking, they should have paid like everyone else.

That, to me, is exactly the future of transhumanism if humanity does not shift away from unregulated capitalism... if you are rich, you can have what you like... and if you are poor, you get whatever scraps those in power are willing to throw you.

There is nothing exciting about that world, only horrifying and barbaric.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Baruch

The past .. horrifying and barbaric
The present .. horrifying and barbaric
Therefore .. the future ...
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Sal1981

We live a lot better than people a hundred years ago.

I don't know what the future has in store for us, we'll have to just make do and build a better present, like we've always done.

Baruch

Quote from: Sal1981 on November 18, 2018, 12:11:50 PM
We live a lot better than people a hundred years ago.

I don't know what the future has in store for us, we'll have to just make do and build a better present, like we've always done.

Caveman - evil with club
Modern -  evil with iPhone

Technical progress.  There was no Golden age in the past, and no Golden age in the future.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Hydra009

Quote from: Shiranu on November 13, 2018, 03:11:41 PM
I personally find the idea of transhumanism terrifying, because we all know damn well only the ultra-rich will have true access to it, and the scraps that get handed down to the average man will be buggy and easily hacked/corrupted.
Isn't the root of the problem inequality and not transhumanism, though?

I mean, a hundred years ago I could make the case that only the rich would have electricity or supercomputers.  And while that was technically true - poor areas certainly lagged behind affluent urban areas - it's of course not the whole picture.

Shiranu

Quote from: Hydra009 on November 18, 2018, 09:56:03 PM
Isn't the root of the problem inequality and not transhumanism, though?

I mean, a hundred years ago I could make the case that only the rich would have electricity or supercomputers.  And while that was technically true - poor areas certainly lagged behind affluent urban areas - it's of course not the whole picture.

1.2 billion humans lack any access to electricity, and I would wager hundreds of millions, if not a billion or more, of those who do have access have only the bare minimum requirement of "access".

Only an estimated 36% of the world's population has access to smartphones (which I feel is probably the best way to measure access to a "super computer"), but I'm not sure that really means much either. Access to a computer is only as useful as what you can access upon it, and in countries like China (who make up 20% of the internet) where the information is extremely regulated by the state... what good does access really do? Even here in America information is becoming more and more regulated, except for us by corporations and the ultra-rich rather than the state.

I would argue that today it is only the rich who have access to electricity, and only the ultra-rich who have access to computers and the world of information. A more telling sign of how transhumanism would play out is that we have horrendous access to medical care in the United States and far worse in developing nations. We have what is almost transhumanism today with many medical procedures (to third-world countries, I would argue our medical system is proper transhumanism)... but only the wealthy amongst the wealthy can afford those things, while the rest of us have to drive ourselves into multiple life times of debt to afford them.

All of human history is a story of inequality; for all the progress we have made, we have only truly made progress amongst the ultra-rich. We are very much as the Athenians preaching about equality and democracy... these things are good, so long as you fit a very specific criteria. But like the Athenians we require massive amounts of slave labour to support our little experiment in equality... we just outsourced our slavery (*cheap labour*) to Guatamala, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan and countless other countries rather than enslaving our own.

You and me, in comparison to the world, are the "ultra-rich", the world we live in is unbelievably privileged and "elite" compared to the overwhelming majority of the world, even amongst the lower middle class. The root problem is inequality, yes... I have no ethical problems with the act of transhumanism, only in who can afford said acts... but there is no reason to believe that will ever change. Inequality is growing, rapidly, amongst Western nations. Perhaps in a few generations the West will be the cheap labour of the new elite in China and Asian countries that ally themselves with the new global power... but no matter who is at the top, it always remains the same... a small number of people control the majority of the wealth, a middle class of fluctuating size enjoys the scraps, and it's all built upon the backs of those in poverty.

Trump, Xi Jingping, Saudi Princes, Russian oligarchs, corporate CEOs... these are the class of people who will always hold the power. We are just here to serve them and to live and die at their whim. We will be thrown scraps at their discretion, but those scraps will be just that... hand me downs of questionable quality that exist only to exploit us for profit rather than to better our lives.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur