"I've never been able to work up a fear of the robot apocalypse," admits R.U. Sirius, who more than 20 years after Mondo 2000's original guide to geek culture has again collaborated on a new encyclopedia of emerging technologies. As we progress to a world where technology actually becomes invisible, he argues that "everything about how we will define the future is still in play," suggesting that the transhumanist movement is "a good way to take isolated radical tech developments and bundle them together". While his co-author argues transhumanists "like to solve everything," Sirius points out a much bigger concern is a future of technologies dominated by the government or big capital.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Cyberpunk Pioneer Co-Authors New Book on Transhumanism
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 14 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:14AM
Like I'm going to take anything seriously said by someone named "R. U. Sirius" or "Moxy Marlinspike"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:32AM
Take the John Smith cock deeper until you can't type anymore.
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Monday February 02 2015, @03:50AM
I don't know enough about cryptography to judge moxy marlinspike's contributions to the field, but I was a sailor and know enough about his sailing activities to judge that he's got bigger balls than you, AC.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:39AM
I can help [isohunt.to]
This actually seems like an interesting (though entry level) collection, so I'm going to read it and "not paying" shouldn't be your only excuse for not doing so.
(Score: 3) by PapayaSF on Monday February 02 2015, @03:03AM
Authors need to make a living, too, you know. You are not helping.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @06:18AM
don't click the link then
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @03:08AM
So you don't want to read it or pirate it. Well here is a list of the topics mentioned in the book, with mostly Wikipedia links:
Abolitionism [wikipedia.org], Artificial General Intelligence [wikipedia.org], Artificial Hippocampus [wikipedia.org], Artificial Intelligence [wikipedia.org], Artificial Life [wikipedia.org], Aubrey De Grey [wikipedia.org], Augmented Reality [wikipedia.org], Biohacking [wikipedia.org], Brain-Building Projects [wikipedia.org], Body Sculpting [wikipedia.org], Caloric Restriction [wikipedia.org], Citizen Scientists [wikipedia.org], Cloning [wikipedia.org], Cognitive Enhancement [wikipedia.org], Cognitive Science [wikipedia.org], Consciousness [wikipedia.org], Cosmism [wikipedia.org], Criticisms of Transhumanism [wikipedia.org], Cryonics [wikipedia.org], Cyborgs [wikipedia.org], DARPA [wikipedia.org], Designer Babies [wikipedia.org], Distributed Cognition [wikipedia.org], Evolutionary Psychology [wikipedia.org], Exoskeletons [wikipedia.org], Extropianism [wikipedia.org], F.M. Esfandiary/F.M. 2030 [wikipedia.org], Friendly AI [wikipedia.org], Foresight Institute [wikipedia.org], Fun Theory [wikipedia.org], Gamification [wikipedia.org], Genomics [wikipedia.org], George Church [wikipedia.org], Graphene [wikipedia.org], Grinders [wikipedia.org], Humanity+ [wikipedia.org], Implants [wikipedia.org], In Vitro Meat [wikipedia.org], Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology (IEET) [wikipedia.org], Law of Accelerating Returns [wikipedia.org], Libertarian Transhumanism [wikipedia.org], Longevity/Immortality [wikipedia.org], Martine Rothblatt [wikipedia.org], The Matrix [wikipedia.org] or Simulation Theory [wikipedia.org], Max More [wikipedia.org] and Natasha Vita-More [wikipedia.org], Memory-Editing Drugs [wired.com], The Methuselarity [wikipedia.org], Mind-Reading Bots [wikipedia.org], Mind Uploading [wikipedia.org], Moore's Law [wikipedia.org], Mormon Transhumanist Association [wikipedia.org], Nanotechnology [wikipedia.org], NBIC [wikipedia.org], Neurobiotics [wikipedia.org], Neurotechnology [wikipedia.org], Nutraceuticals [wikipedia.org], Open Source [wikipedia.org], Optogenetics [wikipedia.org], Performance Enhancement [wikipedia.org], Peter Thiel [wikipedia.org], Post-Darwinian [wikipedia.org], Posthumanity [wikipedia.org], Post-Scarcity [wikipedia.org], Proactionary Principle [wikipedia.org], Prosthetics [wikipedia.org], Psychedelic Transhumanism [hplusmagazine.com], Quadcopters aka Sousveillance [wikipedia.org], Quantified Self [wikipedia.org], Quantum Computing [wikipedia.org], Rapture of the Nerds [wikipedia.org] or Singularity criticisms [wikipedia.org] or 2012 novel [wikipedia.org], Ray Kurzweil [wikipedia.org], Robotics [wikipedia.org], Science Fiction [wikipedia.org], Sens Research Foundation [wikipedia.org], Sexbots [wikipedia.org], Simulation Theory [wikipedia.org], The Singularity [wikipedia.org], Singularity University [wikipedia.org], Space Colonization [wikipedia.org], Steal This Singularity [stealthissingularity.com], Stem Cells [wikipedia.org], Synthetic Biology [wikipedia.org], Telomeres [wikipedia.org], 3D Printing [wikipedia.org], Timothy Leary [wikipedia.org], Transbemanism [hplusmagazine.com], Transgender [wikipedia.org], Virtual Reality [wikipedia.org], Warbots [wikipedia.org], XPRIZE [wikipedia.org], Zero State [socialfuturism.net]
Transhumanist TV, Film, and Games (in order of mention)
Children of the Damned [wikipedia.org], Transhuman Space [wikipedia.org], Deus Ex [wikipedia.org], Total Annihilation [wikipedia.org], BioShock [wikipedia.org], Halo [wikipedia.org], Eclipse Phase [wikipedia.org], 2001: A Space Odyssey [wikipedia.org], Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [wikipedia.org], Ghost in the Shell [wikipedia.org], The Matrix [wikipedia.org], The Terminator [wikipedia.org], Gattaca [wikipedia.org], Blade Runner [wikipedia.org], Brainstorm [wikipedia.org], X-Men [wikipedia.org], David Cronenberg [wikipedia.org], Star Trek [wikipedia.org], Max Headroom [wikipedia.org], Battlestar Galactica [wikipedia.org], Orphan Black [wikipedia.org], Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D [wikipedia.org], Intelligence [wikipedia.org], Person of Interest [wikipedia.org], Better Off Ted [wikipedia.org], Dollhouse [wikipedia.org]
(I would add to this list of tranhumanism TV, the show Fringe [wikipedia.org].)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @04:54AM
You put a great deal of effort into that post. I'm impressed.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday February 01 2015, @06:26AM
I am scared. I mean, are you serious? Transhumanists are just the same old geeks we have always had, just now they get to play with technology instead of the old carny routines. Best wishes to them!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @06:16PM
Some of them seem to treat it like a religion. Many of them believe in stuff that has little basis in current science and tech - e.g. immortality by transferring humans to machines/computers. They have faith that future tech will make it possible, but that's more religion than science.
Based on what we know of how things work, there's no way you're going to transfer a person to a computer in the forseable future. See how memories are stored differently for different people - different neurons in different places for different things: http://phys.org/news4703.html [phys.org]
http://www.caltech.edu/news/single-cell-recognition-halle-berry-brain-cell-1013 [caltech.edu]
You're not going to be able to get someone to enumerate all of their possible thoughts, concepts etc. And how are you going to transfer the full extent of what chocolate subjectively means to a particular person (I'm pretty sure it's different from person to person). How are you going to transfer how good they are at knowing cow is to grass the same way car is to gasoline?
It's about as silly as thinking you can create an accurate and complete model of a specific forest in a computer by just taking some pictures of the forest. Yes you can simulate a generic forest in a general way but that's not the same thing.
If you install recording technology on someone from a very young age, then you can record their objective experiences for posterity and maybe some of their mental patterns and do some extrapolation. But it still will be a very partial copy of a tiny part of that person, and most certainly not a transfer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @12:24AM
Mind uploading is just one path to immortality. Most people would be more comfortable staying in their meat sacks anyway.
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Monday February 02 2015, @03:54AM
Transhumanists are the natural outcome of the "technology progression is human progression" belief. I'd agree that they're just a new spin on an old model though -- I'd compare them to "old-school" occultists.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Sunday February 01 2015, @08:02PM
The car promise: go wherever you want in autonomy with a gorgeous sports car.
the car reality: proceed with the carefully engineered obsolescence of your butt ugly vehicle in queue through tolls, enjoy the parking fee, because you need all of that to work.
The internet promise: free democratic information for all
The internet reality: edit your online document with the speed you had on a 286, pay for DRM stuff while the NSA spies your kids through the webcam.
The transhumanist promise: enhance your capabilities with tech.
The transhumanist reality: guess.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Monday February 02 2015, @07:09AM
Every time you recall a song or movie with your iSavant mind augmenter, you're going to have to pay for it.
A penny for your (their) thoughts perhaps?