#thetranshumanity

Though admittedly posthumanist, Francesca Ferrando‘s Philosophical Posthumanism is the best book on transhumanism that I have read so far. I believe that it is a must-read for transhumanists and non-transhumanists alike. In fact, one can argue that Ferrando’s book ranks right up there with the very best not only on the transhuman, but also on the human and the posthuman. The reason for that is simple: Philosophical Posthumanism cracks open, deconstructs, and demystifies all the major historical -isms. Furthermore, it not only lays bare words such as technology but also shows us how all the puzzle pieces fit together in the historical, ideological, theological, philosophical, etymological, scientific and decidedly political realms, like nothing else that I have read before. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Ferrando and invest the time and the effort to read her book.

During this 2-hour interview with Francesca Ferrando, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why I believe Philosophical Posthumanism is a must-read; why the etymological and other roots of a movement matter; child sociology and social mythology; our shared love for Ancient Greek mythology; the definitions of humanism, transhumanism, and posthumanism; why post-modernism is like the Quantum Mechanics of the humanities; the false distinction between human and transhuman; why the Hedonistic Imperative is merely a new version of the White Man’s Burden; theism and techno-solutionism; Martin Heidegger and the definition, poiesis and ontological power of technology.

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/singularityfm

Are we living in a simulated reality? Are we merely simulated quantum instances inside a holographic substrate? Is the cosmos an advanced computer simulation created by a future technologically mature human civilization? Who are the original simulators and what are they looking for? Could our reality be the product of a lonely quantum Artificially Intelligent machine stranded on the outer edges of our galaxy in the distant future? If we are inside of a simulation, does it even need a creator or could the digital simulation be a naturally emergent infinite fractal, with no beginning and no end?

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Watch my other videos

The Simulated Future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX9FY​…

Digital Twin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjJzC​…

Conscious Machines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtq1G​…

Transhumanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8lE-​…

Dream Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33VoQ​…

Quantified Self: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMHDo​…

The future is a portal inward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpfwI​… Gray Scott is a futurist, philosopher, and artist. Gray is frequently interviewed by the Discovery Channel, History Channel, Forbes, CBS News, Vanity Fair, VICE MOTHERBOARD, Fast Company, The Washington Post, and SingularityHub.

Originally posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZivDrWM1sbA

Prof. Aaron Benanav has devoted his life to studying unemployment. Given that automation, technological unemployment, and universal basic income have become hot political and economic issues across the world, it was about time to have a podcast episode exclusively on those topics. I hope you enjoy it and learn as much from Aaron as I did.

During this near 2-hour-long interview with Aaron Benanav, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is a historian of unemployment; the biggest issues humanity is facing today; why we should all care about unemployment and the problems of defining and measuring it; the relationship between automation, jobs, productivity, and output; why the term technological unemployment is inaccurate and misleading; productivity growth, job churning, labor demand and economic growth; the false alarmism on technological disruption and his own research on automation and the future of work; the capitalist incentive to replace rather than to enhance and empower; technological unemployment and universal basic income [UBI] from the left and the right; oversupply of capital, undersupply of investment opportunities and secular stagnation; John Maynard Keynes and the Economic Possibilities of Our Grand Children; modern monetary policy, post-scarcity, and capitalism.

My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Aaron Benanav is:

Don’t fear technological unemployment but long term tendency for stagnation.

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is Aaron Benanav?

Aaron Benanav is currently a Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. He will be moving to Humboldt University in Berlin this summer to join the Excellenzcluster “Contestations of the Liberal Script.” His research focuses on the global history of unemployment. Benanav’s first book, Automation and the Future of Work, is forthcoming from Verso in late 2020. He is currently working on a second project on postwar efforts to achieve full employment worldwide. He can be found on the web at aaronbenanav.com and on twitter at @abenanav.

When thinking about the IAmTranshuman project I always end up thinking about policy and things that could be improved even in small ways to help society be more transhuman.

For example one of the problems with democracy is that it is impractical to have an absolute democracy on a large scale. Every decision doesn’t scale across a population of even a small modern country. In a republic like the United States, you concentrate that power in a few and they exercise that ‘democracy’ and have the population vote on big decisions. That still has been problematic and has not been perfect managing to be almost as corrupt and many dictatorships. One of the ways to prevent corruption is to ensure that power is as spread out as much as possible and with technology, it is possible to spread out ‘power’ much more than in a republic. We can have a form of government closer to an absolute democracy and still have a cohesive government while maximizing rights and freedom and the benefits governance.

There have been a few proposals around e-governance and the use of a blockchain. There are a lot of examples with voting and record-keeping and those certainly provide a lot of benefits. A distributed trustless immutable legal blockchain-based ledger system provides a way of recording and tracking votes and/or laws and/or all kinds of legal uses from licenses to certifications; but that doesn’t get by all of the issues with modern democracies and corruption, not to mention ignoring critical issues to human survival like climate change. Part of this is the diverse expertise problem in the population at large. If you’re looking at legislation around say carbon emissions, how can we be sure the experts have the most voice on this from the accounting and scientific side?

Another idea in the e-governance realm or really to build on the model suggested is to create a collective superintelligence system with ‘voting’ of a sort and the immutable record-keeping (blockchain), but now the group becomes a super-intelligent hive mind making the final decisions where everyone can contribute based on their expertise. One of the key benefits of this approach is the maximize the limiting effect of corruption and optimizing away from human bias and focusing on super-intelligent decision and policymaking.

The best part of this is there are already two known examples of this kind of technology. One is a real-time swarm AI that has proved better than human predictions in some cases, and the other the Mediated Artificial Superintelligence (mASI) system that is a central hive-mind collective. Based on Bostrom’s book on Superintelligence this system would be considered a ‘weak’ quality Superintelligence, but it does work (and can certainly be improved). It is not the god-like superintelligence of fiction but it’s a good start and could very well help solve some of the issues we are having politically. Everyone would get a vote; everything would be auditable, and decisions would be weighed based on evidence and as it turns out ‘Superintelligence’ collectively driven is easier than AGI. What is even better is the AGI Lab is working with Unanimous AI and on the mASI system to produce a version of the mASI designed for collective governance and absolute democracy.

And very much in the spirit of # IAmTranshuman .

  (originally posted here: https://iamtranshuman.org/2020/01/22/a-new-kind-of-governance-transhuman-governance-a-proposal/ )

Prof. Steve Fuller is the author of 25 books including a trilogy relating to the idea of a ‘post-’ or ‘trans-‘ human future, and most recently, Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Age. He has an incredibly broad amount of knowledge from a diversity of disciplines and I have to admit that I had a total blast interviewing him. In fact, I feel we could have easily gone for another 2 hours while still having fun. And so there is a great chance I will ask Prof. Fuller for another interview very soon indeed.

During this 2h 15 min interview with Steve Fuller we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the social foundations of knowledge and our shared love of books; Transhumanism as a scientistic way of understanding who we are; the proactionary vs the precautionary principle; Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the Omega Point; Julian and Aldous Huxley’s diverging takes on Transhumanism; David Pearce’s Hedonistic Imperative as a concept straight out of Brave New World; the concept and meaning of being human, transhuman and posthuman; humanity’s special place in the cosmos; my Socratic Test of (Artificial) Intelligence; Transhumanism as a materialist theology; Elon Musk, cosmism and populating Mars; de-extinction, genetics and the sociological elements of a given species; the greatest issues that humanity is facing today; AI, the Singularity and armed conflict; morphological freedom and becoming human; longevity and the Death is Wrong argument; Zoltan Istvan and the Transhumanist Wager; Transhumanism as a way of entrenching rather than transcending one’s original views…

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is Steve Fuller?

Steve Fuller is Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK.

Originally trained in history, philosophy and sociology of science at Columbia, Cambridge and Pittsburgh, Fuller is best known for his foundational work in the field of ‘social epistemology’, which is the name of a quarterly journal that he founded in 1987 as well as the first of his nearly 25 books. From 2011 to 2014 he published a trilogy of books relating to the idea of a ‘post-’ or ‘trans-‘ human future, all published with Palgrave Macmillan: Humanity 2.0: What It Means to Be Human Past, Present and Future (2011), Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0 (2012) and (with Veronika Lipinska) The Proactionary Imperative: A Foundation for Transhumanism (2014).

Prof. Fuller’s most recent books include Knowledge: The Philosophical Quest in History (Routledge 2015), The Academic Caesar (Sage 2016), Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game (Anthem 2018) and most recently, Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Age (Schwabe 2019). His works have been translated into around thirty languages. He was awarded a D.Litt. by the University of Warwick in 2007 for sustained lifelong contributions to scholarship. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the UK Academy of Social Sciences, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Prof. Steve Fuller on Transhumanism: Ask yourself what is human?

THE MEMORY OF HUMANITY

The Arch Mission Foundation is a non-profit organization that maintains a backup of planet Earth, designed to continuously preserve and disseminate humanity’s most important knowledge across time and space.

The Arch Mission Foundation is preserving the knowledge and biology of our planet in a solar system wide project called The Billion Year Archive.™

“Wherever humanity goes, so shall go the Archive; wherever goes the Archive, so shall go humanity.” – Nova Spivack

In 2013 news broke that Rich Lee, body modification and music enthusiast, implanted magnets into each tragus to be able to listen to music without external headphones. The technology needed a homemade chunky necklace that “creates a magnetic field causing the implant to vibrate and produce sound”, according to Lee. While mainstream technology isn’t there yet, Apple’s AirPods aren’t far away, and maybe helping to ease the majority into the idea of implanted technology and the benefits it can offer for everyday life.

Apple’s Current Technology

Apple released AirPods in 2016, earphones that are completely wireless and designed to be worn all the time, giving them plenty of comparisons to implants. Apple also made the bold decision to remove the headphone jack from their iPhone 7, disappointing many consumers, but nudging them in the direction of AirPods. AirPods are meant for more than just listening to music, as they can connect to other Apple devices, such as your smartphone, to not only notify you of a text but to read it to you in a quiet voice, helping you to go hands-free. The built-in microphone allows you to communicate with Siri, but it can also detect when a conversation starts and will automatically lower the volume of what you’re listening to. You can also communicate with the AirPods by double tapping one of them. It’s been reported that in 2019, the second generation of AirPods will be released that includes wireless charging, a sleeker design and a portable case for charging on the go, making these even closer to implants, as the list of reasons to remove them keeps getting shorter.

The Portability Factor

One of the biggest reasons wireless and Bluetooth enabled headphones are popular is that they are highly portable and offer ease of use. You can go further from the device they’re paired with, not restrained by the length of a wire, and there’s no need to worry about getting caught on anything. Implanted headphones would also mean you wouldn’t need to worry about them getting wet, so you could listen to music in the shower or while swimming without fear of damaging them. Some reports say that current and future wireless headphones are becoming so small that they’ll be easily lost, which implanted tech resolves. In contrast to some of the smaller earphones, traditional headphones that incorporate modern technology, such as going wireless and using Bluetooth, can offer great sound, noise-canceling, friends can plug into them to listen with you and they tend to have a better battery life due to their larger size.

Bone Conduction Headphones

The technology behind bone conduction headphones stems from hearing aid designs. Bone conduction lets you hear sounds through the vibrations of the bones in your face. The sound bypasses the outer and middle ear, where the eardrum sits and stimulates the inner ear, where a sound is heard. This means bone conduction headphones let you listen to music while being aware of your surroundings. These are great for runners and cyclists who need to be able to hear traffic and people to ensure their safety. Implanted earphones would work on the same principle as bone conduction headphones, transmitting sound via bones rather than air, allowing the ear to be uncovered for surrounding sounds, but the sound quality would need to be improved before masses committed to implants.

What Current Technology Means For Future Headphones

While the AirPods are not implanted, they are one of the closest pieces of current technology due to their design that makes them highly wearable, the idea being that if you have no need to take them out, you may as well have them permanently in. Apps will be developed to streamline and expand the applications of the AirPods, such as permanent listening and recording, enabling them to save a snapshot of conversation to your phone on your demand, something that could transform evidence in law. Your phone could automatically set reminders based on what your earphones hear during conversations, making daily tasks easier. Implanted headphones would give people complete control over the noises they hear, and it’s predicted that they will eradicate the hearing aid market. Imagine going to upgrade your smartphone and the sales assistant implants the headphones that come with them at the end of the sale. Implanted headphones would likely just be the beginning, and more types of implanted tech will be widely accepted and become the norm.

The line between technology and humans is beginning to blur, as the two start to act seamlessly to improve human life. Implanted headphones are a small step in the direction of implanted technology that appeals to the masses.

Guest post by Jackie Richards

*hero image used with permission https://unsplash.com/photos/_icC-RYrAFA

“Biohacking is a fairly new practice that could lead to major changes in our life. You could it call citizen or do-it-your-self biology. It takes place in small labs — mostly non-university — where all sorts of people get together to explore biology. That could mean figuring out how the DNA in plants affects their growth, or how to manipulate genes from another source to make a plant glow in the dark.” – Spencer Michels in PBS.org

The meaning and purpose of biohacking has changed significantly in the four years since the above words were spoken. Today, it comprises a variety of categories, including grinder biohacking (which involves technological implants or chemical manipulation of the body), DIYBio (conducting biological experiments in unconventional manners) and nutrigenomics – nutritional manipulation of bodily activities. In this post, we focus on a new study published in Scientific Reports, which shows how cold temperatures can transform the type of fat we form in our bodies and potentially helps eliminate excess fat.

Why is Brown Fat Healthier?

The body has two types of fat: white, and brown. The latter is a type of tissue that burns sugar and fat instead of storing it. Nutritional expert, Dr. Ronesh Sinha, notes that that there is a big difference between white and brown fat: while the former is inactive, the latter is a calorie burning machine that relies on glucose and triglycerides (which can cause heart disease if they are not used for energy). Traditional ways to ‘hack’ the body into optimal energy efficiency is to take part in regular exercise. Doing so leads to the production of irisin: a hormone what converts white fat into brown fat.

Some Populations at a Higher Risk of Heart Disease

As noted by Dr. Sinha in his book The South Asian Health Solution, South Asians are at a higher risk of insulin resistance and heart disease owing to a combination of factors, which includes a lack of exercise, high stress, and a diet that is too rich in starches and unhealthy fats. He recommends the use of healthy oils such as olive oil which is ideal for the skin as well, especially when it is ozonated. He additionally recommends the use of ghee, rather than trans vegetable oils such as sunflower or corn oil. There is a further risk for South Asians: a new study by researchers at Leiden University Medical Center has found they have smaller, less active brown fat stores than their Caucasian counterparts.

How Can Human Beings Use the Cold to Build More Brown Fat?

In the above-mentioned Scientific Reports study, researchers differentiated stems cells to become fat cells at both normal body temperature and lower temperatures. They found that as the temperature became cooler, the cells formed brown fat, which causes the body to burn more calories and fat, in order to keep warm. Lead author, Virginie Sottile, said that although it has been known for some time that the cold can stimulate the formation of brown fat, “the trigger was believed to be the body’s nervous system and changes in the way we eat when we are cold. However, our study has shown that even by making fairly modest changes in temperature, we can activate our stem cells to form brown fat at a cellular level.” In the study, a difference of only five degrees turned the stem cells into brown fat. The findings are so important because they show that the body does not need ‘special cells’ to produce brown fat; all it needs its the right stimulus, which can come from physical activity and colder temperatures.

Cold showers, iced baths, and winter swims have long been associated with better health but new research has shown that they can do more than boost circulation; indeed, they can manipulate the body into producing a crucial fat burning powerhouse: brown fat. Further research needs to be undertaken into the amount (temperature and time) of cold exposure required, but the findings are a powerful testimony to the big effects that making small lifestyle changes can have on our health.

By Guest Author Allie Cooper

https://about.me/Allie.Cooper