Let's talk about transhumanism

[Sci-2]

HE, you don't think people will try to switch genes on/off or add various prostheses to the body (including the brain)?

Admittedly my last bio class was in high school so maybe I'm missing something but it seems there would be a lot of trial and error involved with "transhuman" development.

Of course, I'm happy to accept all of it - nanites, Strong AI, tailored genetic modification, etc - is bullshit.

[Happy Ent]

HE, you don't think people will try to switch genes on/off or add various prostheses to the body (including the brain)?

Not for anything interesting. Genes are too complicated. (I read somewhere that half our genome is expressed in the brain. Whatever that means.) Nothing we can do anything meaningful with. But I think we can filter and do artificial selection.

[Spring Bass]

Moreover, I can't imagine something like that not getting out into the news these days during the trials phase. This isn't the early twentieth century, when you could have stuff like the Tuskegee trials due to widespread prejudice against black people in the US. Just imagine trying to get your implants through the FDA with that background.

[Sci-2]

Snow Bass, I'm actually confident that such things could be hidden away. Maybe not in democratic nations though.

[Spring Bass]

Maybe, but even a lot of poor countries have things like ubiquitous cell phones (unless we're talking North Korea). Lots of these countries also have outside experts and advocacy groups cycling through, even when it's pretty dangerous.

On a side note, that makes me wonder if there's any good cyber-punk fiction set in China. You would think it would be a natural setting, considering that many elements are there:

1. Repressive government that is incredibly crooked and in bed with corporations at the local level.

2. Massive inequalities of wealth, including a connected elite enriching itself.

3. Tons of hackers, and spreading digital technology.

4. Heavily polluted cities with lots of those grim-looking cement apartment buildings.

[Sci-2]

Could we stimulate pleasure centers (sexual, musical, gustatory, etc) when human beings exercise logic, restraint, long term planning?

Would doing this voluntary when you're 18 make you a much more reasonable person at 30? Can we edit the mind to counterbalance what seems a knee jerk response toward confirmation bias and tribalism?

[Castel]

Could we stimulate pleasure centers (sexual, musical, gustatory, etc) when human beings exercise logic, restraint, long term planning?

Would doing this voluntary when you're 18 make you a much more reasonable person at 30? Can we edit the mind to counterbalance what seems a knee jerk response toward confirmation bias and tribalism?

That quote is just begging for a slippery slope argument. I've resisted the urge...for now.

[Sci-2]

Feel free to slip and slide yo.

[jurble]

http://www.reddit.co..._genome/c8j6jmb

Professor Lander would be crushed by Happy Ent's prediction that computers will never be fast enough for true synthetic biology.

[Sci-2]

2045 Initiative Will Sponsor Research in Cybernetic Immortality

A major goal of the 2045 Initiative is to establish the world's first research center for immortality. The initiative was launched by Russian internet mogul Dmitry Itskov who is now looking for billionaire and millionaire backers for the grand project that offers the chance of immortality as payoff: The goal is to enable cybernetic immortality within 30 years.

Itskov, together with leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems founded the initiative in February 2011 and worked out a general roadmap with 4 major steps so far. The multi-decade research and development push will try to understand human consciousness and ultimately how to transfer it from human bodies into robotic avatars

[Theda Baratheon]

Beyond Bakker's concerns, I'll say I'm greatly in favor of transhumanism, as I am of any considered and healthy decision to alter one's body.

If I had the money, I'd probably do all sorts of stuff in the second half of my life, just to try it.

I wonder -> If we ever have the power to rewire our brains like Bakker worries about, can we uplift animals David Brin style?

That's the first thing I thought actually. :P

Also Sirius by Olaf Stapledon.

[Phaing]

Uh huh.... hmmmm.... huh.

Note to self; no NOT sign up for reincarnation on a world like this.

"The Matrix" is inevitable.

[Sci-2]

Uh huh.... hmmmm.... huh.

Note to self; no NOT sign up for reincarnation on a world like this.

"The Matrix" is inevitable.

Unless, of course, you're already hooked up to the Matrix....

[SpaceChampion]

China is already planning intelligence-selection on embryos.

It'll be interesting to see how Beninia and Yatakang respond.

[Phaing]

China is already planning intelligence-selection on embryos.

It'll be interesting to see how Beninia and Yatakang respond.

Putting the 'mass' back in Mass Hysteria... it may even be justified this time.

[thecryptile]

two words: robot arms

[Spring Bass]

The 2045 Initiative sounds like this: somebody announces some massive goal, they don't get any seed money (or not enough), and it fades away. It's like how we have periodic "We're founding a new organization to go to the Moon/Mars/Etc [if we can just get a couple billion dollars]" announcements.

In the mean-time, we can only hope that the brain-mapping projects that the EU and US are funding will provide us with some interesting information.

[Sci-2]

Memory Implants

Berger and his research partners have yet to conduct human tests of their neural prostheses, but their experiments show how a silicon chip externally connected to rat and monkey brains by electrodes can process information just like actual neurons. “We’re not putting individual memories back into the brain,” he says. “We’re putting in the capacity to generate memories.” In an impressive experiment published last fall, Berger and his coworkers demonstrated that they could also help monkeys retrieve long-term memories from a part of the brain that stores them.

[Theda Baratheon]

I want to become an Android. Can this be done.

/day dreams of being Rachael from Blade Runner.

[Sci-2]

I want to become an Android. Can this be done.

/day dreams of being Rachael from Blade Runner.

Personally, I think if you can transplant your physical brain without killing it you can exist in a synthetic body. I don't believe you'll ever be able to upload your mind into a digital system though.

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Injectable Nano-Network Controls Blood Sugar in Diabetics for Days at a Time

“We’ve created a ‘smart’ system that is injected into the body and responds to changes in blood sugar by releasing insulin, effectively controlling blood-sugar levels,” says Dr. Zhen Gu, lead author of a paper describing the work and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill. “We’ve tested the technology in mice, and one injection was able to maintain blood sugar levels in the normal range for up to 10 days.”