body modifications
A form of transhumanism, body modifications are made to enhance the human form.
The Skywalker Hand is Coming
As I was traipsing about the wide and wild world of the interwbs in search of awesome stuff, I stumbled—soberly—across this little nugget. If you don’t feel like going to the original article, then shame on you, but I’ll give you a bit of info on it before we get stared anyway. Take a big breath for this next line, because it’s a doozy. “Proof of Concept of an Online EMG-based Decoding of Hand Postures and Individual Digit Forces for Prosthetic Hand Control,” written by Alicia Gailey and Marco Santello of the School of Biology and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, and Panagiotis Artemiadis of the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport, and Energy, Arizona State University, is part of the closed-loop systems for next-generation neuroprostheses research topic from Frontiers in Neurology, a “Frontiers in” journal series from Frontiers.
Improving Quality of Life
We're going to focus on Brain-Machine Interface (BMI, also called Brain-Computer Interface, BCI), in relation to how it will help the movement inhibited. I write a good bit on both BMI and tech that helps the movement inhibited and that's because of my own physical issues.
Mx
Mx An elderly woman walked down the grassy hill and stopped at the riverbank below. She pulled out a tattered blanket before sinking onto it with a sigh, making the child wading at the bottom look up at the noise.
Elisa MaskPublished 7 years ago in Futurism3D Bioprinting Takes Shot at Aging
One of the hurdles to longevity is that bodies seemed designed to break down. It's a part of aging. It might be a part of evolution. Transplants and implants aren’t painless and can be risky. Now, researchers are saying that you won’t have to worry about bodies breaking down when you can just print a new part.
Matt SwaynePublished 7 years ago in FuturismDr. Hans Moravec's Robotic Future
Dr. Hans Moravec was perhaps the world's most vocal advocate of humanlike robots: creations resembling us that could theoretically live forever—and make us obsolete. As the author of a controversial book that proposed that robots replace the human species, Moravec was able to start arguments almost at will. He even went so far as to say that God (as he understands him) is probably using computers to design earth species. He was completely unconvinced by how traditional religions explained the future of human beings. If you explain the human condition in terms of continual progress, it's easy to look at humans evolving into robots.
James LizowskiPublished 7 years ago in FuturismThe Human Itch
Stan scratched at the red mark on his skin. It was one of many small scabs that had been bothering him for a few days now. A minuscule, amber crusted sore that bordered his left thumbnail. Carefully, he picked, picked, picked at it. Getting a fingernail beneath it, so it would peel off, sending a small shock of pleasurable pain.
Joshua SkyPublished 8 years ago in FuturismIs Transhumanism The Answer To Death?
There is one thing we know for sure about our future, we are all going to die. Ray Kurzweil and the transhumanist crew may disagree. They argue technology is the key to immortality. But for those still hooked into a biological perspective the future ends with old age, probably sickness, and death.
Jasun HorsleyPublished 8 years ago in Futurism3D Bioprinting is the Future of Transplants
Imagine a world where there was no organ donor waiting list. A world where you would be able to get the organ you needed straight from a printer. According to Quartz, a Philadelphia-based company, BioBots, has released a printer that lets users 3D print human tissue and (potentially) human organs. In May of 2014, BioBots publicly launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York and printed a replica of Van Gogh’s ear for everyone to see. Currently, the printer works with a liquid mixture of different cells called “bio-ink.” This liquid is pressed through an extruder and fused together on the printer bed using blue light. A representative from the company told Quartz that the system could print out an object that has blood vessels and organ tissue at once, and the goal is to use this to create livers for drug testing and skins for cosmetic testing. This would eliminate the need for testing on humans and animals. However, BioBots isn’t the only company to create 3D printing for organs.
Futurism StaffPublished 8 years ago in FuturismBiohacking the Eye to See Infrared
I hate rainbows. Sure, they symbolize many positive things to different cultures: peace, sexual identity, a bridge to heaven. But I hate real rainbows. Every time I see one of those clown-colored frowns in the sky, I’m reminded of the limitations of human perception. Of the vast wavelengths that span the electromagnetic spectrum, humans can see a mere 2.3 percent of it, if measured on a logarithmic scale. Those mocking slivers of light we call rainbows? They’re just a fraction of the real picture.
Genetically Engineering a Super Race
When Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1932, he described a world state several centuries in the future where all human beings were reared from eggs in factories or incubators. Scientists could produce several classes of personality ranging from the highly intelligent, whose sole purpose was to enjoy life, to the feeble-minded who were suited only for manual labor. The novel was set in the distant future because the scientific knowledge needed to bring about this type of society was not available when Huxley wrote it.
Futurism StaffPublished 8 years ago in FuturismThe Darks Vs The Light of Transhumanism
"He’s more machine now than man." In 1983, along with my friends and hundreds of other kids, I went to the movie theater at Meridian Mall in Okemos, MI to watch The Return of the Jedi. As a young teenager, this line spoken by Obi Wan Kenobi was not my first introduction to the world of humans altered by science, but it was one of the more noteworthy. And the very next line set the tone of this particular encounter and my feelings on the topic of transhumanism for many years after: "His mind is twisted and evil."
Bits 'n Pieces
"Linda, dear? Have you seen my favorite tie? You know, the blue one with orange stripes?" Ronald Simmons didn't want to be late for work, especially as he had an important meeting that afternoon. He knew that if his presentation was well received he'd be up for that promotion—the one he had been working toward for the past six months.
Steve BentonPublished 8 years ago in Futurism