Life as a Pre-op Transhumanist-01

“The asteroid strikes. The era of evolution is upon us. It’s now time to watch the dinosaurs take flight.”
-Jamais Cascio, from his speech at the 2011 Ten Year Forecast annual event

Where to begin? Let’s see what’s happening in this Transhumanist Life…

It’s astonishing to see the amount of generally nerdy people (the types who, when I was back in middle school, bonded over mutual hate for PE) really getting into the bodyhack scene. Mid-Aughts, this would have been reserved for the diet freaks- people into Atkins and all those ___ carb philosophies. Bluebloods or soccer moms, or typical health nuts. Now we have people like Tim Ferriss presenting us with grinder/nerd oriented self-help. That’s right, the new generation of the Self Help movement raids on weekends.

Now, admittedly, this re-ignition is restricted mainly to the hubs of the West and East coast scenes (California and New York respectively). But when nutrition has become a genuinely nerdy thing to get into (am I the only one who sees the connection between all the dieting number games like counting carbs, and high scores?), our increasingly global culture doesn’t really have to deal with that kind of social geography. Maybe it has to do with the dramatization of sports phenomenon like free running/parkour in more and more games nowadays. Maybe it simply has to do with the GameBoy kids growing up and realizing they have to maintain their bodies.

To be honest, this isn’t an entirely new thing- WIRED started their own bodyhack blog in 2005. But back then, it wasn’t mainstream or organized. Now, we have sites like Nerd Fitness that are regularly updated and cultivating entire communities (which I must admit to being part of). Hopefully this continues to build momentum and blossoms into some truly healthy nerd lifestyles. Around this time, you’re probably realizing that most of this is about utilizing the full human potential- not quite becoming h+ as it were. Still, it’s only once we’ve mastered (or at least personally explored/experimented upon) our current capabilities that we’ll really be able to know what we can do to expand beyond.

Now, on an entirely different note:

WIRED article makes a strong point

I think it’s worthwhile to consider the points raised by this recent WIRED article by Olivia Solon. There really IS no point to making humanoid robots. It’s overly difficult to build an artificial simulacra based on the human form- and impractical. Robots are meant to do what humans can’t- why should they be limited to what we look like? The author of that article goes on to explain that we should think of ways to robotize our devices instead of humanizing our robots. While that is a perfectly acceptable direction to take, my readers can probably guess what I would find preferable. Robotize our humans! Now, understand that I’m not suggesting that we turn humans literally into robots. But giving humans robotic features, rather than giving robots human features, seems like a better direction and more in the spirit of things anyway.

Let’s use the WIRED article as a guideline for this thought process. The first argument for humanoid robots that Solon mentions is the one for functional robots- serving to supplement the elderly or injured in their lack of abilities. Giving them a new device that they may be unable to use properly or understand seems like it could be problematic. Why not use our technology to replace the lost abilities in full (or at least enough to be functional)? The fields of prosthetics and diagnostics are making leaps and bounds in this area, and it seems like a more direct solution overall. Not that I’m suggesting transhumanising the less able as an outright substitute to less intrusive solutions, but it is an alternative to designing and marketing humanoid robots for the sole purpose of medical aid.

The second argument, the social one, argues that technophobes need humanoid faces on their technology to accept it. There isn’t much to say about this that the WIRED article hasn’t, other than the most obvious: The Uncanny Valley inducing human-faced-robot-brained androids like Actroid Sara here do way more to rile up and frighten the technophobes than the more inhuman Roomba. Just sayin’.

Actually, I just remembered: one of the few things truly humanoid robots would be really useful for would be the care of children, especially ill children. You can instantly see why that’s simply a bad path to go down.

I figure I’ll end this post short and on a high note…

Coilhouse's merch auction- in aid of Japan

This is a simply awesome thing and worthwhile for anyone who reads this blog to look into. Coilhouse has set up an auction for some of their merch as a care package for Japan. Go, look, bid. There’s some awesome stuff in there.

Catch you guys Friday.