http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
http://humanityplus.org/

Not only is it an interesting movement, Its related to the premise of cortex command.
Any thoughts on the potential outcomes of transhumanism?
Any opinions on singularity? When will it happen?



Its a growing movement, reaching into culture with new albums such as "the peoples key."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0KV__jcja0

Recent technological advancements show that we are quite possibly moving towards singularity.
AI "Watson" Trashed multiple humans at Jeopardy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFR3lOm_xhE&feature=fvst

Recently Harvard Scientists reversed signs of aging in mice by activating the production of the enzyme "Telomerase"
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Alzheimers ... d=12269125
"To counter this process, DePinho and his team of researchers genetically manipulated mice, eliminating the enzyme telomerase within them. Telomerase is an enzyme that prevents telomeres from getting shorter. In lab tests, these mice aged prematurely and experienced tell-tale signs of growing older, such as loss of smell, infertility, smaller brain size, and damaged organs such as the intestines. But when given injections to reactivate telomerase, the signs of aging were reversed and tissues that were previously destroyed had been repaired."


I personally would consider myself somewhere between secular humanist and transhumanist ideologically, I think that the only way to survive is to utilize technology to its fullest.

what this means to me: crazier porns, rocket arms, longer lives (of using our robot arms to jack off to crazy porn)

Well I think that much of the changes we can make to ourselves, cosmetic, physically enhancing and even mentally enhancing have an equal or even a less profound effect on humanity than a significant change in human culture. I don't think it's worth worrying overly over (♥♥♥♥ yeah alliteration) such a far off shift in humanity, unless someone proposes to change something fundamental about humanity. If they start even thinking about messing with emotions and thought processes, then that opens a keg of worms. But I think that's more of a mad scientist thing that our society will probably not change so much as to allow on more than a very small scale on a very minute minority. But I think even the minor improvements like super robot arms and longer lives is something we could and should do without.

Luckily, telomeres don't really do anything aside from put a cap on how many times a cell can divide itself.

But wow- That last link is absolutely astounding. I figured it wasn't going to be a long time until it was possible to fend off the dividing limit, but to think that the defects associated with age were actually reversed is just amazing. Thanks muchly for sharing the news clip.

The only creepy thing I can think of being made easier from this would be making clones that don't inherit the parent age and dying prematurely.

Why do people have to mess around with this things?
It won't be fair for most persons, it will (probably) benefit a minority, and it kinda goes against the human being.
Really, being a technologicaly enhanced human turns you into a cyborg, an I Robot, into a Bicentenary Man, a Strogg, a Robocop, a Terminator, anything but a human.

But if this will lead us to the rest of the universe, other inteligent lifeforms, Free Trade, a strange planet filled with crabs and gold, and people creating it's own robots/clones, then it suddenly sounds better.

And if something fails at sometime and creates a zombie? D=

These are not complete conversions of our anatomy, Instead just mere potent augmentations (Think of Deus Ex).

I don't have much to say about this but it does seem and feel like we're starting to hit 'The Jetsons' Age here.

Asklar, like they'd let test subjects that become zombies survive long enough to infect others, let alone take it out of quarantine!

Ooh, the concept of tranhumanism is interesting, I don't really know about the robotifying, or the anatomic remodeling, seems a bit, much. [Don't you think?]

But enhancing people's anatomy artificially speaking has been done.
I don't remember who was it, but there was a man that couldn't move his legs, he made (I can't remember if he did) an exo-skeleton of robotic legs, and he could walk again.
Or there was an athlete which lost his legs, and he recieved a couple of "robotic" legs, and he could run again.

Ethical Issues:

• Naturally, the rich and powerful will receive beneficial 'upgrades' far before the middle and lower classes, widening the gap between wealth and poverty.
• With longer lifespans available to all who can afford them, death rates will drop, but birth rates likely will not, leading to overcrowding and food shortages when mankind is already near their maximum threshold of sustainibility.
• Potential side effects are not pleasant to think about- for instance, by modifying our genomes, how will this affect the gene pool, and consequently, the next generation? Mutations would not be pretty.
• There could be possible detriments to your mental health; brain cells take longer than any other cell to regenerate, and that makes it just that much harder to increase their longevity. What's the point of living twice your normal lifespan if the latter half is spent with you as a senile meatbag?

Asklar, how is someone who has prosthetics 'less than human'? And yeah, you'd be a cyborg, but how are you a robocop/terminator/I-Robot? Nobody would voluntarily remove their brain, so unlike those three aforementioned things, you would have free will instead of just blowin' ♥♥♥♥ up.

It has the potential to help every person with movement disabilities, everyone with sensory impairment, everyone in specific industries that require specific skills, etc.How is someone with a prosthesis not a human being? Also, you are exaggerating what technologically advanced means. Basically everyone nowadays is technologically enhanced.That would be ridiculously difficult.What do you think the words robotic and exoskeleton mean?

About the generic argument of increased societal wealth gap: For every single advancement, be it tooth paste or AIDS-medication, there have been people who got it and people who didn't.
At this point, it really doesn't look like it's an issue with technological progression.

Naturally, the more advanced technology gets, the higher the risks are. It's the so-called double-edged blade. (nuclear power vs atomic bomb)
Humanity needs to get it's collective head out of it's collective arse before the risks explode into stupid proportions.
(Ie. someone decides to start building a superhuman army, or stupid ♥♥♥♥ like that)

It's the only way to move forward.



Most technological advances are never seen by the poor. You can invest a billion in feeding people or you can invest a billion into curing cancer. Which choice will have more long-term use?



So if your body lacks anything that's not in a fully grown human being or has extra metal bits, you're not human? Amputees are not human? Got your appendix removed? You're not human. Your knee has some metal screws in it? You're not human.
Humanity is not a 1/0 choice.



Oh, that's the job of nanotechnology.




Mechanical augmentations are the first step, then once we get beyond the moral conflicts and such either bioengineering or nanotechnology.


The gap will keep ever widening whether we get augmentations or not. We can't support this level of lifestyle for all of humanity. It might not be ethical but it's reality.


Population growth is on the negative side in many rich nations, as people delay starting a family further and further. Higher birth rates are in poorer countries where it is actually beneficial to have a family of twelve, since you have more work power for the fields that way.
If we can get our face out of corporate ass, food shortages can be helped with genetically modified crops that have higher yields of grain et cetera




True.


No other way of knowing that than developing the technology and living two hundred years.

funny, i was thinking we could put artificial brains in dead people, well braindead people, and use the computer to make ROBOTS FOR HIRE!!!!.

I im all for this type of stuff, if you can do it and you or others benefit form it, do it, or learn how to if you ever need to.

That is several times more impractical than basically anything anyone is going to ever try.

Oh, common! Why did everyone quote me and made me look like an idiot! (I know what you are thinking. Don't quote this)

What I meant of being less than a human it's because at some point, people won't use it because it will actually help them. Yes, it will help people with limitations, but maybe it will go everytime a step further, until finally replacing more and more parts making them almost robots.

I never meant that having prosthesis, amputees and stuff like that made you less of a human.


Voluntarily, and what if some kind of organization decides to do this on persons by force? Or if they tested it in convicts condemned to death? I mean, it could happen.
And I think that maybe there is somebody in this world who wouldn't care to do it for any reasons he/she may have.