My Thoughts On The Singularity Of All Things & Transhumanism

Wow this is an interesting news segment on implanting memories. . . .

I have to smack my laptop sometimes in the right spot to make the speaker work.

I could only imagine the amount of patches they have to put into the software, nvm the body.

originally posted by: Specimen
I have to smack my laptop sometimes in the right spot to make the speaker work.



I could only imagine the amount of patches they have to put into the software, nvm the body.

Lol what we really need is self repairing equipment . . . .

Self upgrading too. . ..

I thought this was an interesting list of transhuman ideas that could be very helpful to any future civilization. . .

Science fiction, computer games, anime… cyborgs are everywhere. Transhumanists are philosophers who believe that one day, cybernetic upgrades will be so powerful, elegant, and inexpensive that everyone will want them. This report lists ten major upgrades that I think will be adopted by 2050.

10. Disease Immunity
Between 20 and 40 years into the future, we will become capable of building artificial antibodies that outperform their natural equivalents. Instead of using chemical signaling that relies on diffusion to reach its target, these antibodies will communicate with rapid acoustic pulses. Instead of proteins, they will be made using much more durable polymers or even diamond. These antibodies will move through the bloodstream more quickly than other cells in the body, and will take up less space and resources, meaning that there will be room for many more.

Using super-biological methods for identifying and neutralizing foreign viruses and bacteria, these tiny robots will still function in harmony with our own bodies. They will probably be powered either by glucose, ATP (like natural antibodies), or acoustically. There are already bloodborne microbots today which are not rejected by the immune system — these are the precursors of tomorrow’s nanorobotics. Through their presence and continued operation, they will eliminate all susceptibility to disease in those who have them running through their veins. This will not make people immortal, but it will allow them to walk into a room contaminated with a flesh-eating virus in nothing but a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. For more on artificial antibodies and other body-integrated nanites, see Nanomedicine.




9. Telemicroscopic, Full-Spectrum Vision
There are microscopes that weigh one tenth of an ounce. Some birds of prey have vision so sharp that they can spot a hare a mile away. We have compact devices that can scan the electromagnetic spectrum from x-rays to radio waves, and everything in between. Our eyes in their current form can do none of these things. But in time, they will be upgraded. There are already prosthetic retinas that can provide low-resolution artificial vision for blind people.

It’s simply a matter of time until better prosthetic eyes are created, and their sharpness, contrast, and resolution is superior to what evolution gave us. The biggest challenge may end up not actually being about building a superior artificial eye, but remodeling the visual cortex so that it can process the info and relay it to the rest of the brain in such a way that it’s not overwhelmed.




8. Telepathy/Brain-Computer Interfacing
Ever wanted to send someone a message with nothing but your mind, or have a neural implant that gives your brain direct access to Google? Hundreds of corporate and academic labs across the world are working on projects that generate progress in this area. Check out the Berlin Brain-Computer Interface, which lets you move the cursor around on a screen with only your EEG waves and 20 minutes of training.

Miniature fMRI will allow us to continue increasing the bandwidth between brain and computer, eventually allowing for a “mental typewriter” that converts thoughts into text. A tiny transmitter could send this to a bone-conduction device on the receiving person, letting them hear the message without sound. NASA is also working on a device to transcribe silent, “subvocal” speech. Like many transhumanist upgrades, these will probably start as efforts to help people who are handicapped, then evolve into powerful tools that can be used by anyone bold enough to adopt them.




7. Super-Strength
Early in 2006, scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas, led by Dr. Ray H. Baughman, developed artificial muscles 100 times stronger than our own, powered by alcohol and hydrogen. Leonid Taranenko, the former Soviet weightlifter, holds the world record for power lifting a 266 kg (586 lbs) dumbbell. If Leo’s natural muscles were replaced with Dr. Baughman’s synthetic polymer muscles, he could lift 26,600 kg, or about 30 tons. That’s equivalent to this yacht, the Nova Spirit.

Super-strength is an interesting area in that the technology to do it has already been invented — the only step remaining is actually weaving the fiber into a human body — which, today, would be complicated and messy, not to mention probably illegal.

However, that doesn’t mean that it won’t be done, probably within the next couple decades. Further improvements to the process could make it safe for normal people, numerous ethics questions notwithstanding. One benefit of improved muscles is that we’d be far less vulnerable to unfortunate accidents. They could also provide armor against bullets or other forms of attack. One downside is that people could use them to bully others around. Guess the good guys will need even bigger muscles.




6. Improved Appearance
In general, there is a lot of agreement as to who is attractive and who is less so. Numerous experiments have shown that while there are slight subjective differences in who we want to get with, we are biologically programmed to look for certain facial and physical features that correlate with increased fitness.

For the time being, this is unavoidable. The only way to change it would be to reach inside our neural circuitry and start severing connections. Until we choose to do that, we can improve our own lives — and the lives of those who have to look at us — by looking as pretty or handsome as possible. We brush our teeth, keep fit, take showers, and all that other great stuff that helps us score.

Some of us even visit the plastic surgeon, with mixed results. Surveys show that certain procedures, like liposuction, have very high patient satisfaction rates. As the safety and precision of our body modification technologies improves, we’ll be able to change our faces and bodies with minimal fuss, and maximal benefit.

Everyone will be able to be stunningly attractive. And the really great thing? We’ll always be able to enjoy it. If everyone becomes attractive, we won’t regard the slightly less attractive of the lot as “ugly” — our brain doesn’t work that way. An attractive person is attractive, whether or not others are around. A planet full of attractive people could do a lot to improve our quality of life.




5. Psychokinesis


In the real world, psychokinesis is a bunch of wishful thinking and pseudoscience. Despite the roughly 30% of people who think that it’s possible to affect objects through the mind alone, history and evidence make it clear that this is total nonsense. There are no psychics and there never have been. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t create technopsychics artificially.

By 2030, we’ll be cranking out utility fog — swarms of tiny machines that fly through the air and interlock with robotic arms. By combining brain-computer interfaces, like the type used by Claudia Mitchell to move her prosthetic arm, with utility fog, we will have direct-thought connections with powerful external robotics, allowing non-fictional psychokinesis. Utility fog, once all the necessary software for it is developed, will be capable of cooperating to perform practically any physical task or simulate a wide range of materials.

Because utility fog could be distributed at low density and still accomplish a lot, a room filled with utility fog would look empty, and people in it could move and breathe normally. They would only notice once the fog is activated — either by a central computer, or a neural interface. Once a connection is achieved, practically anything could be accomplished with the proper programming. Throwing objects through the air, hovering over the ground, cracking an egg from across the room, materializing orbs of energy — all the antics we’ve always wanted to perform, but never had the means to.




4. Autopoiesis/Allopoiesis


Autopoiesis is Greek for self-creation. Allopoiesis is other-creation. Our body engages in both all the time — we start as a fetus that creates itself until it becomes an adult, then, essentially stops. Our body produces things external to itself, but usually involving an extended process of cooperation with thousands of other human beings and the entire economy.

In the future, there will be cybernetic upgrades that allow for personal autopoietic and allopoietic manufacturing, probably based on molecular nanotechnology. Using whatever raw material is available, complex construction routines, and internal nanomanufacturing units, we’ll be able to literally breathe life into dirt. If our arms or legs get blown off, we’ll be able to use manufacturing modules in other parts of our body to regenerate them. Instead of building robots in a factory, we’ll build them ourselves. The possibilities are quite expansive, but this would require technology more sophisticated than anything discussed thus far in this list.




3. Flight
Human flight, outside of an airplane… this was recently achieved by former military pilot Yves Rossy, who flew 7,750 ft above the Alps in his 10 ft wide, self-designed aerofoil. You can see a video of it here. The airfoil weighs only 110 lbs and cost just under $300,000.

Over the next few decades, the weight will come down, the strength and flexibility will go up, and eventually it will be difficult to distinguish between people in aerofoils and people that can just fly whenever they want.

Using high strength-to-weight materials like fullerenes, we will fly using wings that weigh only a fraction of our own weight and fold into our clothing or body when not in use. Rossy achieved speeds of 115 mph, but with superior materials and greater tolerance for acceleration and wind, our cybernetic flight speeds are more likely to top 500 mph. To take off from the ground, we’ll simply use our super-muscles to jump to the highest object around and begin our flight from there. With personal flight, commercial airliners will become obsolete. The only problem left will be dodging each other.




2. Superintelligence
When we think of superintelligence, we tend to think of the ways it is portrayed in fiction — the character able to multiply 6 fifty digit numbers in his head, learn ten languages in a month, repeat the catch phrase “That’s not logical”, and other tired cliches. True superintelligence would be something radically different — a person able to see the obvious solution that the entire human race missed, conceive of and implement advanced plans or concepts that the greatest geniuses would never think of, understand and rewrite its own cognitive processes on the most fundamental level, and so on.

A cybernetic superintelligence would not just be another genius human, it would be something entirely superhuman — something that could completely change the world overnight. For the same reason that we can’t write a book with a character smarter than ourselves, we can’t imagine the thoughts or actions of a true superintelligence, because they’d be beyond us. Whether it is developed through uploading, neuroengineering, or artificial intelligence, remains to be seen.




1. Immortality
The ultimate upgrade would be physical immortality. Everything else pales by comparison. Today, there are already entire movements based around the idea. Realizing the possibility of immortality requires seeing a human being as a physical system — composed of working parts that cooperate to make up the whole, some of which have the tendency to get old and break down.

Cambridge biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey has identified seven causes of aging, which are believed to be comprehensive, because its been decades since a degenerative process has occurred in the body with an unknown cause. Defeating aging, then, would simply require addressing these one by one. They are: cell depletion, supernumerary cells, chromosomal mutations, mitochondrial mutations, cellular junk, extracellular junk, and protein cross-links. A few pioneering researchers are looking towards solutions, but accepting the possibility requires looking at aging as a disease and not as a necessary component of life.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

If you haven't already seen this documentary - its one to watch.

Building Gods Documentary: Transhumanism, Artificial Intelligence and Nanotechnology


Contributor Hugo de Garis' future world of Cosmists , Terrans and Artilects is quite fascinating.

_________________

So too Nick Bostrom:
Superintelligence

originally posted by: UmbraSumus
a reply to: FormOfTheLord



If you haven't already seen this documentary - its one to watch.



Building Gods Documentary: Transhumanism, Artificial Intelligence and Nanotechnology

Contributor Hugo de Garis' future world of Cosmists , Terrans and Artilects is quite fascinating.

_________________


So too Nick Bostrom:

Superintelligence

Its a good one, me likey!

Thanks for adding to the thread, I think theres alot of information out there, however alot of people just dont know or care to know what some of the amazing possibilities are for the future.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

Of course the whole area involves a high degree of speculation but I find it truly fascinating.

I would like to see more of its themes dealt with in film and I suspect we will.

originally posted by: UmbraSumus
a reply to: FormOfTheLord



Of course the whole area involves a high degree of speculation but I find it truly fascinating.



I would like to see more of its themes dealt with in film and I suspect we will.

As would I but I dont like how the technology is always bad in the films look at Trancendence, and Brainstorm.

In most movies the technology is a source of problems for human kind.

When I watch this video i imagine a world where we can controll everything, our own personal worlds or simulations, just as real as this one. i think its just a matter of time.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

I'd rather not be a part of a hive mind.
I want my ID intact and NON hackable.
Better being an individual than possibly being enslaved by a superior system and having NO control of my life ,which IS entirely possible should one get augmented like that.

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
I'd rather not be a part of a hive mind.
I want my ID intact and NON hackable.
Better being an individual than possibly being enslaved by a superior system and having NO control of my life ,which IS entirely possible should one get augmented like that.

Also, since the rich don't really need regular people for labor, have no desire to pay us for our work and advancing AI tech soon doing most of the labor, whats left for regular people to do?

The only way regular people can save themselves, NOW, is to abandon tech, physically impede tech research and stop buying/supporting companies making this AI/singularity tech. Millennial's falsely believe tech will save and unite them, when in reality it was designed by "corporate committee" to do just the opposite. The only way to prevent that shift, is for Millennial's to STOP buying such tech, opposing the development of said tech and discouraging others from buying and using it, even if it means using force. But, they will NEVER do this because they drank the cool-aid and are somewhat addicted to technology. Think about it, I'm seeing commercials for ordering pizza on a smartphone app, but whats the point, really? To appease Millennial's? Perhaps. Did this cohort take the time to think about whether it is really more convenient to type an order in on an app, than calling the order in on a phone? No they didn't AND by using the smartphone app to place a FOOD ORDER instead of a phone, the pizza seller can then become a data broker making money selling customer info.

Many forget that we now live in what "could" be considered a fascist country, with oligopolies running it behind the scenes. What usually results, is a situation where the "owners of capital", can and will "legislate" mandatory purchases and behavior in the future, if revenue does not match their expectations or projections (for the good of the nation of course, i.e., Too-Big-to-Fail).

I choose to not trust the intentions of corporations, AT ALL TIMES. The tech being created today is merely a tool of the "Owners of Capital" to oppress regular people. IN THE NEAR FUTURE, tech will absolutely be designed and bound to do the bidding of corporations and to enforce the will of government. It will not be independent of the real "owners of capital", by any stretch of the imagination.

Note, I said OWNERS, not "creators", "purchasers" or "users".

First, AI is going to make regular people jobless
Second, it is going to steal what few liberties and freedoms we have left
Third, it will make human life valueless to the true "Owners of Capital", many of whom are Closeted Fascists

a reply to: boohoo

HOW do we KNOW?
If it IS a true A.I. wouldn't it WANT to help instead of destroy?
I would say it would depend on what it's primary program was to be fufilled.
Why would hostillity ALWAYS be assumed on an A.I. intellect?

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
HOW do we KNOW?
If it IS a true A.I. wouldn't it WANT to help instead of destroy?
I would say it would depend on what it's primary program was to be fufilled.
Why would hostillity ALWAYS be assumed on an A.I. intellect?

Easily explained...

Whom do you think will be paying to create this tech? Don't you think they will want some kind of return on their "investment"?

The tech being created today is merely a tool of the "Owners of Capital" to oppress regular people. Future tech will absolutely be designed and bound to do the bidding of corporations and to enforce the will of government. It will not be independent of the real "owners of capital" because it will have been designed by "corporate committee" to do the bidding of corporations.

Note, I said OWNERS, not "creators", "purchasers" or "users".

a reply to: boohoo

But IF there isn't an overiding directive wouldn't the A.I. learn to compensate?
Heck EVEN if there was ?

It doesn't matter what anyone wants. There's not much point in even discussing it IMO. All fields of technology have and will advance until they reach a upper most limit or dead end.

originally posted by: RedParrotHead
It doesn't matter what anyone wants. There's not much point in even discussing it IMO. All fields of technology have and will advance until they reach a upper most limit or dead end.

The people who write the checks decide what happens, period. Same way corporatist, revisionist history, says Steve Jobs "invented" the iphone/smartphone.

a reply to: boohoo

Who gets the credit is irrelevant. If "we" ever see or are even informed of these tech advances is also irrelevant. My point is that there is no stopping these advances.

Not sure abandoning technology would help people. You can ignore politics, for instance, but it will not ignore you. In fact, the whole "mark of the beast" thing may be employed by some government that does not have humanity's best interest at heart, and try to avoid that.

I am not sure everything is going to be so bad in the next few decades. As pointed out here we will see changes in the way we reproduce, the way we interact with computers and even the way we judge people. After all, I asked in another thread, what you would think of your wife if she went in and had her brain removed and placed in a synthetic body. I believe she would be that person you fell in love with, but could you get past the fact that except for three pounds of neural tissue she no longer was made like a human anymore? And what if two women can get pregnant through modified stem cells? Who is the father? These are questions we will all have to ask in a short time.

First, AI is going to make regular people jobless
Second, it is going to steal what few liberties and freedoms we have left
Third, it will make human life valueless to the true "Owners of Capital"

Due to the way our current economic system works, we CLEARLY have too many people being born and not enough desire on the behalf of the "owners of capital" to employ them for the sake of having a stable and safe civilization. In the United States, for example, its clear that the "owners of capital" have chosen NOT to employ people on a large scale, preferring "tent cities" and "the jailing of homeless", INSTEAD of providing more "make-work employment" arrangements. Add in AI, the singularity and Cyborgs reducing the need for human labor and regular people will be back to the times of indentured servitude or worse. Is this tech good for the "owners of Capital"? Absolutely. Is it good for the regular guy that begs to get a 32 work hours a week at Walmart? ABSOLUTELY not

Up to the 1940 a person could get just about any job with an 8th grade education, but today you need a BA or Masters for entry level. Why?

Because the government & big business figured out a long time ago that populations would certainly increase over time, but due to technology advancements, the availability of jobs would not expand to meet that population growth. There is a DEFINITE reason why the "Owners of Capital" and Government don’t want people dropping out of high school. Then at the same time, encourage those same high school graduates to attend junior college, then a 4 year university and finally a Masters degree or PhD. Government and Big Business both strong-arm this concept because it DECREASES the amount of people looking for full-time employment at the SAME TIME, chasing after jobs in a market that CANNOT provide full employment for everyone whom is looking, are able, qualified to perform and willing to work for payroll wages.

Look at it this way, when people could get a job with an 8th grade education, they went out and did it as soon as possible (opportunity cost). Then jobs got scarcer and the minimum requirement became a high school diploma, adding 4 more years of people NOT Looking for jobs within their cohort. Then jobs got even scarcer and the minimum became a 2 or 4 year college degree, adding an additional 2-4 years of people NOT looking for jobs within their cohort. Now jobs are really scarce and may require a Masters or PHD, adding an additional 2-7 years of people NOT looking for jobs within their cohort. Basically due to the way the economy has been structured TODAY, we are looking at young people within their cohort, whom are NOT looking for full-time, career type, employment for 6-15 YEARS, beyond K-12, all while they finish more school!!!

This has been done ON PURPOSE, to keep the number people seeking employment lower. In 1920 after 8th grade everyone who was able, went out to look for work and typically found it. That’s simply NOT possible today under any circumstances. Easily accessed welfare will soon add another 1-3 years of people within a cohort, to those “not seeking employment”. Note this "welfare" will NOT be to the specific detriment of society, but a means to continue masking the illusion that jobs and upward mobility are still available. So, if someone gets a graduate degree and collects 1-3 years of welfare on top of that, that’s ONE less person competing for scarce jobs. The extra years of welfare are then acting in the same way to the larger economy, as the incrementally increased minimum education levels for employment. The real goal is decreasing the number of able-bodied applicants out on the job market at the same time, but also not decreasing the supply of "potential workers" who's mere existance drive wages down for EVERYBODY. Keep in mind this cohort of people "not pursuing full-time employment" also includes those in Prison, Government pensioners/SSI and the disabled on government assistance. The reality is if everyone needed to go out and “get a job” or “start their own business” TODAY, as many self-proclaimed “capitalists” and "entrepreneurs" suggest these days, we would ALL be making 0.25 cents a day. Make note, whenever you hear about the "End of Global Poverty" because this above outlined strategy is how they will achieve that goal.

The “owners of capital” have already decided, FOR US REGULAR PEOPLE, that there are going to be LESS jobs available in the NEAR future, due to modern corporate labor, cost-cutting strategies and increased automation. These measures eventually will affect and include ALL contract work, ALL self-employment opportunities and ALL small businesses, NOT JUST payroll laborers. Its easier to “pay less” or “nothing at all” to contracted or indentured “labor” when there is another willing laborer/slave, waiting in the wings, to do the work for less or nothing at all. In the past when there wasn’t enough money to go around to pay both wages & PROFITS, the “owners of capital” simply brought in more indentured servant immigrants (Irish, Italians, Chinese, etc) or used flat out slave labor (Blacks, Native Americans, domestic prisoners, POW’s, etc). The only difference between now and then is that “owners of capital” can’t LEGALLY have slaves or indentured servants. The mechanisms today that replaces slaves and indentured servants are the following: longer than needed formal education for basic employment, off-shoring of labor, volunteering during retirement, prison labor and welfare.

The largest “recorded” wage increase to happen in history, for non-land owing, wage-laborers, post the introduction of fiat currency, was after the black death pandemic, in the 14th century, especially in post-pandemic England.

But, how is that possible?

Because “the owners of capital”, post the black-death-pandemic, still needed wage-laborers, but there was a HUGE shortage of able bodied people. So, in order for ANY work to get done, they had to pay the peasants and other undesirables, more money, SIGNIFICANTLY MORE. This principle is still at work today, when you take the time to recognize that sizable portions of the population are actively discouraged from participating in the full-time labor market. This is easily done, by throwing people in prison, forcing them to attend formal school longer and allowing more people to claim themselves as disabled or collect long/short term welfare.

Here is some more history to consider from the 14th century, the Peasants Revolt was triggered by the "Statute of Labourers 1351". By 1381, the sustained wage growth for non-land owing, wage-laborers was rising so quickly that the English parliament, a few decades post the Black-Death, under King Edward III, introduced the "Statute of Labourers 1351". This statute was used by the "Owners of Capital", as an artificial means to drive down the wages of non-land owning peasants. Despite market conditions signalling the need for increased wages.

The Statute of Laborers; 1351 ("Statutes of the Realm," vol. i. p. 307.)

Think about that for a minute, the MARKET signaled that wages should have been higher, due to actual labor shortages caused by the Black Death, but the “owners of capital” still didn't want to pay it, so they wrote a law saying why they didn't have to conform to demands of the market. That's where we are today, a form of Neo-feudalism, driven by Fascist ideology and practices.

a reply to: boohoo
Very awesome post. Thank you!

This technology singularity does have many pitfalls but I believe they can be avoided. Not that they will be, unfortunately.