Transhumanity, the way forward?

[Zoid]

http://transhumanity.net/about

Rabble-rousing technohippies or a viable philosophy for the betterment of mankind?

[Buster's Uncle]

That site looked to me like someone read Neuromancer too many times and not much else to it, so I'll go with hippies...

[Green1]

I have read a lot of sci fi from 1950s up to present day.

One of the things that futurists - either 1960s OR present day- never take into account is human nature. Advances are rarely made for just the betterment of humanity. There has to be profit.

You also have to realize implants, mind/machine interface, etc depends on doctors. These guys are protected by a powerful union -um- I mean board and do not even put on a white coat unless it is enough for an upper middle class lifestyle. It is also the reason why I call BS on embedded rfid chips in us and other Alex Jones type stuff.

That is - unless they can dummy proof it enough to where a tech can do it.

However... a device you MUST carry around that is indespensible and needed to function in society that does not need doctors... hmm.. I think we have those.

[Buster's Uncle]

Bumped for Lori.

[Spacy]

It is this months National Geographic cover article.

[Lorizael]

Haven't read the article, but transhumanity is not this thing humans will consciously choose to embrace. Rather, by our collective individual choices, we've already decided that's where we're going. We all wear glasses, have pacemakers, and offload our memories and cognitive processes to tiny supercomputers that we carry at all times. We are already cyborgs and will only become more so.

[Buster's Uncle]

Technology could make us immortal. But there will be consequences.

[Rusty Edge]

Haven't read the article, but transhumanity is not this thing humans will consciously choose to embrace. Rather, by our collective individual choices, we've already decided that's where we're going. We all wear glasses, have pacemakers, and offload our memories and cognitive processes to tiny supercomputers that we carry at all times. We are already cyborgs and will only become more so.

Agreed. It goes beyond that. My hearing aids have microprocessors. My brother's eyes have synthetic lenses, to replace his cataracts. Some have insulin pumps.

[Bearu]

The transhumanism represents a reactionary tendency of the population to embrace the bourgeois control of the individual through the implementation of the technology on the proletariat. The development of the appropriate attitude requires the critical assessment of the benefit for the 'transhumanism' among the population, and the control exerts a dramatic influence on the population. Who controls the technology inside the human  produces the necessary problem for the action? While the proletariat continue to starve around the world in various territories, including Puerto Rico and Guam, under the disguise of the international poverty line, the bourgeois Americans continue to generate a meretricious diatribe on the role of the individual inside the contemporary technological society. The true liberation of the country requires the rejection of the liberal disguise of 'transhumanism' or American political thought through the destruction of the flawed ideology of the bourgeoisie in the country as seen in the recent development of the opposition around the world.

[Bearu]

Haven't read the article, but transhumanity is not this thing humans will consciously choose to embrace. Rather, by our collective individual choices, we've already decided that's where we're going. We all wear glasses, have pacemakers, and offload our memories and cognitive processes to tiny supercomputers that we carry at all times. We are already cyborgs and will only become more so.

Why does the belief in the superiority of a specific population allow the brutal exploitation of the remainder of the population for the development of pleasure among a specific country? The role of the individual in the development of a non-essential device demonstrates the tendency of the population to believe the individual health of a person supersedes the demands of a group where the wealthy minority receive the benefits of a bonus while the majority reside in a debilitating state of poverty from the removal of resources from countries such as Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, and Columbia. The claims for technological progress represent a denigratory attitude among the population who suffers the costs for the luxuriant lifestyles of the Imperialist forces because the population continues to extract the remnant value from the health of the individual inside the confines of American society and abroad. The short version remains in the statement "sickness makes a great business model" instead of development of solutions for the problem at an affordable cost for the people.

[Lorizael]

Haven't read the article, but transhumanity is not this thing humans will consciously choose to embrace. Rather, by our collective individual choices, we've already decided that's where we're going. We all wear glasses, have pacemakers, and offload our memories and cognitive processes to tiny supercomputers that we carry at all times. We are already cyborgs and will only become more so.

Why does the belief in the superiority of a specific population allow the brutal exploitation of the remainder of the population for the development of pleasure among a specific country?

I don't know; you tell me.

The claims for technological progress represent a denigratory attitude among the population who suffers the costs for the luxuriant lifestyles of the Imperialist forces because the population continues to extract the remnant value from the health of the individual inside the confines of American society and abroad.

...they typed away on their magic, world-connected box.

[Elok]

I don't think it's reasonable to characterize medical devices, or devices external to the human body, as "transhumanism."  If those count, we were transhuman in the age of sail because of peg-legs and telescopes.  File under "tool use" and "medicine."  The devices are just fancier now.  If you see people consciously exceeding or transgressing the human norm, that I'll grant you.  You might argue that the selective abortion of Down's fetuses sorta counts, in that it is changing the face of humanity on average.

[Rusty Edge]

I don't think it's reasonable to characterize medical devices, or devices external to the human body, as "transhumanism."  If those count, we were transhuman in the age of sail because of peg-legs and telescopes.  File under "tool use" and "medicine."  The devices are just fancier now.  If you see people consciously exceeding or transgressing the human norm, that I'll grant you.  You might argue that the selective abortion of Down's fetuses sorta counts, in that it is changing the face of humanity on average.

You raise a fair question. I guess upon further reflection I would draw the line between tool and transhumanism at permanent attachment. So that still includes things like pacemakers, heart valves, dental implants, cochlear implants and corneal implants. For prosthetic appendages,  I guess it depends.

But now I'm wondering about body modification. Tattoos, piercings,  disks, foot binding, neck stretching... None of that is new. Now we're better at it and can do gender reassignments and sculpting and forked tongues and horns.  Do you think any of that counts? It's not debate bait, I'm just wondering if it's an ancient impulse, rather than a modern development.

[Elok]

I interpret "transhumanism" literally; it means transcending humanity.  That is, modifying our nature until we have in some way departed from recognizable humanity (in a way that could be described as objectively superior).  Pacemakers, etc. are simply an extension of medicine--using complex machines to restore normal human body function, or a close facsimile thereof.  Anabolic steroids would be a short step in the TH direction, as they allow physical strength, etc. to exceed what would otherwise be possible.  As for piercings and the like, they're mostly irrelevant to function; a Nazca or Hun child a deformed skull still thinks and acts much the same as s/he would with a normal skull.

[Rusty Edge]

Thanks for your candor, Elok.