Transhumanism is a touchy subject for me, especially with people speaking out against it so vociferously. Were it not for my mechanical heart, I would have assumed room temperature long ago. I also appreciate my prosthetic legs as well, since they allow me a quality of life I'd not otherwise experience. So, seeing as I'm 1/4 cyborg anyway, bring the rest of it on, I say.
We don't know what death is body's could be like windows 95 and death and transpired evolution the equivalent of upgrading to windows XP also consider how the relationship to such tech alters the way humans approach life it could be that our egotistical fears doom the natural advancement of the human potential because u rely on something else than ur self like using a electric calculator instead of using ur brain and getting better in this way... The plot of dune hints at this issue there we see the destruction of tech because humans realised they should cultivate the native abilities and potential life is there so u can do the work it makes no sense to outsource this process and stagnate in spirit and mind
My late wife got a kick out of referring to her extensive dental work as her "robot teeth" (which led to a couple of interesting cartoons drawn by our children-and by me). By the end of her life, she wound up with a number of "robot parts". I'm so glad she was able to get them, and lived her longer, richer life as a result.
I feel like this is inevitable, approaching the problem with optimistic scepticism may seem counterintuitive but it helps up gain knowledge and wisdom at approximately the same rate
Something like Borg. I think many human characteristics may accounted as bad and non beneficial for the greater good. But looking how humans funktions this will maybe only be for the poor 99% percent working for the 1% above... Oh very horrorish fantasy 😂 But I don't see the real transhumanism only seeing this as solution for better live but a detest in human things wich could be eradicated when certain nerd people take over. Sorry needed to use the word nerd. Nothing bad about it only to point this out.
@@edwardgatey8301 Politicians merely reflect (albeit in a slightly exaggerated way) the views of the people who elect them. Politicians too alien from their constituents don't get elected; which is why politicians are, really, just slightly more ambitious and *slightly* less ethical versions of the populations from whence they spring. Basically, they're the same sort of people who ran for student government, in high school. Most people didn't like *them* , very much, either. Our politicians are merely mirrors to ourselves, and politicians you despise get elected by *people* you would probably dislike and disagree with. That's why the old saying, "People get the government they deserve," qualifies as a nigh-universal truth. Trump didn't get to be president on his own; he got elected because a lot of people bought into and agreed with what he had to say. Obama didn't get to be president on his own, either, and got elected for *exactly* the same reason. Given that both men served as president, recently, means that which one any particular person thought was "good" or "bad" depends (a lot) on the perceptions and opinions of the person asked, given the passions of the moment. Personally, I think Obama will go down as a slightly above-average president when it comes to policy-making, whose primary "gift" to the United States was breaking down an obnoxious and pernicious color-barrier that had persisted in this country, for too long. I also think that Trump will go down as a con-artist who masterfully pandered to those who perceived themselves as benefiting from this bigoted status quo, and therefore reacted with fear and hatred to the changes Obama represented to them. That's just me, though. About half of America disagrees with me, at least somewhat, and about 30 percent of the U.S. population disagrees with me, profoundly. In the end, the judgement about which man was the better president will get made by historians who look at the record from enough time and distance they can do so, more or less dispassionately.
On the note of darts or dice, you can always make system for rolling dice more chaotic, we already use dice towers. And there's really no upper bound to how difficult you could make a dart throw when you can change things like target size, distance, and the dart itself. I imagine despite constantly coming up with new ways to entertain ourselves, a lot of the classics will pretty much always stick around in some form or another.
Good point, I don't really expect the future to be short of game options but its a reminder that most games can be made more difficult more easily than intelligence or skill can be enhanced.
@@isaacarthurSFIA Pfff... Nowadays some bald monkeys are trying to hit a 2-metre target some 6 kilometres away with some firearms -_- In our wondrous future we will have contests of shooting 2-metre targets on an outer orbit of Pluto with relativistic shells shot from linear accelerator cannons on Earth's orbit =) It would took some time to arrange each such contest, though...
The dart board is more like a tray, divided into sections…. And is placed on the floor, in a large room filled with various obstacles, and things dice can ricochet off of. You hurl your dice up into the obstacle course room, along a preselected course (the more complex, the more points you get), careening through the course and landing in the tray sections you called, showing the numbers you called.
I've spent my whole life trying to improve my brain and overcome my disabilities, with medications, supplements, therapy, research, practicing social interaction, biofeedback, meditation, etc. At this point, I'm already an entirely different person. The "real me" was essentially Ralph Wiggum with extreme depression, loneliness, and self hatred, utterly destroyed by bullying and abuse. No one misses him. I would gladly go through a process that might qualify as the death of my identity or humanity for a large improvement, especially a mind upload. So many memories are already missing that death is business as usual.
@@achaudhari101 No. But you see that's the point of all this nonsense, everyone has an opinion and most ppl think of it as fact.. it's foolish. I say ppl should do whatever they want, it's their life, who tf are we to tell someone how to live it. That's just how I live now tho, obviously most don't.
@@achaudhari101 lol you lost me at "sin". This whole life is a "sin", wake up friend it's all a fckd up game. You don't matter, no one does, so let's just all enjoy our lives. But hey enjoy your life of sin belief, you can do whatever u want, just as anyone can.
My cataract surgery happened while I was in the middle of reading Revelation Space. The description of a character's bionic eyes being hit with some EM pulse or whatever, ruining them, really freaked me out. Luckily, no Ultras have shown up to mess with me, so I'm good. Great video. Happy New Year to all the Arthur's!
For years I looked for transhumanist content that wasn’t fearmongering bordering on paranoiac fanfiction. SFIA is the first pro-transhumanist channel I’ve found, and my fascination with my subject has only grown because of your work. Thank you
There really is a scaremongering movement on the fundamentalis religious "right" as well as - to a lower extent - the esoteric green "left" at the moment, gaining steam in the media landscape. Who both equate augmenting or repairing human normality with dehumanization. I never really got it. Standard fear of change I guess. Even though there are some troubeling scenarios of the upper 001% - due to their financial abilities - being able to augment themselves. With neurotropic drugs, designer medical protocols prolonging life and enhancing performance to establish even more of a neo-nobility in the not-so-far future. It would not be a fundamentally new concept - even now affluence is the most important indicator for life expectancy, and has been forever - but it could get considerably more pointed. Isaac is chronically optimistic to my mind, but it is refreshing to see a futurists not constantly spiralling into doomerism.
I choose to see it as people afraid of being rendered obsolete, or less special because more people will be able to do the things they previously were alone in accomplishing. Thus, the obvious answer is to make the tech available to everyone, so we can find a new normal.
I think more importantly than the Natural Vs Artificial dichotomy, we should be asking about control. I wear glasses, but I can take them off or even destroy them whenever I choose. My vision is shaped by another person's expertise, but putting on my glasses doesn't make me vote the same way as the person who ground the lenses, presumably. Once we start altering the body at a more intimate level we have to trust that the people making the technology are willing to leave that much power on the table and not alter a person's thinking non-consensually.
I mean, the TH-cam algorithm... Most people have mind augmentation implanted in their left hip pocket and it definitely controls their thinking in subtle and not so subtle ways. Yes, you can throw your phone away, but how many people panic when they realize they've left their phone on the nightstand?
psychologists and philosophers already see current tech as non-consensual: "according to technical legal definitions provided by psychologists, so-called "persuasive technologies''-especially social media-have crossed the threshold from persuasion to coercion." source: Consilience Project "Social Media Enables Undue Influence" highly recommended site/articles/artifacts
@@priapulida Many thanks for the recommendation 👌 and I'm glad I was finally able to phrase this in a way that resonated with somebody. I've tried broaching this subject on older videos and I tend to attract "actually tech giants putting people in filter bubbles is good because ads get ✨personalized✨" types. It gets demoralizing.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx yeah that's a very superficial naive view on the "commodification of everything". for now, our attention, but commodification of thoughts, experiences, consciousness, "free willed time" or whatever could become a dystopian reality. also, there's whole genres of (erotic) (fan-)fiction / scifi (short/long) stories dealing with this - mind control, robotization, some cyberpunk etc
I think that a lot of things that will change as we advance. Like 3d printers, we're going to have our own methods of creating a lot of the technology we use in-home, such as electronics and devices. So when it comes to our "accessories" those will end up more under the control of the individual. Also there will be tools that will allow those individuals to basically control what software gets put on the hardware. This will be a minority of people though (as it has always been) - and when we get into gene-modding or augmentation, it will be something that a person will have to research and be really knowledgeable about before they go in - down to possibly understanding the science behind it and being able to understand it enough to do their own alterations and/or maintenance. (there are individuals who can from-scratch their own microchips in today's world, so... it isn't a stretch to think that this will be true for augmentation/modding) The people who are going to get burned are the people who get burned today on unregulated technologies looking for an advantage. If you got stars in your eyes and are willing to lay it all on the line to get a leg-up? You're a prime victim. There are going to be a lot of scams in the field and a lot of scammers selling it. I'd warn off anyone looking to get an augmentation or modification to have an "advantage" - especially at the beginning. Especially if they're not knowledgeable about what it is they're actually getting. Those are the people most likely to get cheated at best, puppetted at worst. Basically if it is too good to be true and promises you some here-to-for untold advantage, it probably isn't going to work out for you in the end. Another thing, even if you do step in on the ground floor of some augmentation/modification system and it *works* you're going to be going in on the prototype phase of the project. Nothing is to say that the technique you get then will last you a lifetime, or a decade... and you'll be left at the mercy of having to yank that out and *hopefully* replace it with something else that does the job and is supported. (again, assuming you're not one of those people who are willing to hack their own stuff to keep it up and running) All and all, though, its no different than what we've been through for tens of thousands of years. We are tool users. These are tools, much like glasses, hammers, processors, and telephones. And some tools will be better than others - and some people will want a new tool even if it means their personal harm potential goes way up. Patience, knowledge, healthy skepticism and taking reasonable steps will see most people safely through it.
People are currently working on basic augmentation technology right now, mostly focused on cyber-limbs.There are three barriers to getting them working, we dont have an easy and simple way to control them with the nervous system, the human body's immune system is prone to rejecting implants and the power density of batteries is too low for long term high intensity usage. Solve two of those and you've got commercial cyber limbs in a year. Of course if you solve the energy density problem for batteries (amusing they are not super toxic or explosive or some thing) you've basically made renewable energy the most appealing form of power generation.
I just want to wish Isaac and his wonderful team a Happy New Years. THANK YOU so much for all the wonderful work you do throughout the year. Your daily contributions inspire our hearts and our minds to create a better world.
Well, I guess social-cultural background also plays a role in how well people accept human augmentations or trans-humanism. I'm from China, and as you know, the competition among Eastern-asia kids are, well, intense. Entering any of our schools you can see students constantly under this anxiety of not being smart enough, not having the best memory, or haven't master certain skills like piano/coding/art; I'm also under a constant fear of being not as competitive as my classmates, this problem resolved itself a lot after I'm in collage and decide to pursue my own life goal. However, if suddenly there is some (reliable enough)method/technology that allows people to have better memory, better physicality, or some other enhancements, even by just a little, everyone will rush to it, fearing that they will get left behind. Interestingly, this competition for enhancements has already began: we get reports of people using adderall or other nootropics not because they have certain medical conditions, but because they want to stay competitive at school/work; we have countless books/biographies claiming that "if people do XXX they can be more XXX", hell, we have chinese parents who are so frustrated at their kids performance at school that they give themselves hart attacks. So to put simply, the sheer competition force between individuals will make the public accept enhancements(if they are reliable), and pushes people to further the development of related technologies. It is not about choices or decisions, it's about simply keep up with the changing world.
cars, computers, the internet, nukes.....a new technology comes up and we integrate it into our world those who dont adjust to it well be left behind how many companes are left who do not use the internet? i think will be equal to the number of peope without agmentations btw i highly recoment the unabombers manifest(industrial society and its future) he was a mad man but his views on society and technology are verry interresting
but how about the side effects of such thing, for example, I have friends with ADHD that allows them to stay focused with Adderall (or Ritalin), the thing is despite such thing allows them to increase their cognitive abilities, they said it only work in places where the rules or goals already set and it's up to you to do the process, and said that it kills creativity and imagination which mean it might only work on something where a rote, formalized, standardized, and repetitive environment is the case, while not so much in place where your ability to come up with something novel is desired more now try to compare Chinese rote-memory-based learning, to western experiential, Socratic, and creative learning in the comparison you can see the Chinese able to produce more graduates, more research papers, and scored higher in things like PISA scores and yet when being compared by the quality of the graduates, quality of the research papers, and things like patent and inventions, the west scores better this really question the scope of things isn't it, what if any enhancement that resulted in something positive, would also resulted in something negative as side effect? how about the tooth-to-tail ratio of things? do we have what it takes to keep things going even with today's problem where we can't even find correct solutions to solve it? do you think increasing the gap will make things even better? how and why?
Faith is the root, without it we tend to go blind, the cultural revolution is a blackout, for it is politically correct, if people know how to achieve, the new formation will be doom, and along with the outcome of alliance, the pyramid on backside of paper bill says it all, if we erase all the big names, the status has never changed unless we received some advance information机遇
The Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40k can be considered a fictional example of humanity as a family of different species. Most of the population are just baseline humans. Then you have the Adeptus Mechanicus - a rather extreme example of cybernetic augmentation. Then there's the Space Marines and the Primarchs, the apex of genetic engineering. And then you have the multitude of mutants - Navigators, Ogryns, Squats, Psykers, etc.
Transhumanism is also a very convenient way to simply side-step the singularity situation by allowing meat and metal to co-operate in one life rather than compete between two.
I've always argued transhumanism is something we've always been doing, and we only use the term "transhumanism" to refer to things currently on the horizon of the same development path every human technology has followed. Even stone tools, clothing, and cooked food allowed us to transcend the limitations of our human bodies.
Since we now live in a country that is banning (or at least trying to limit) travel to other states because of the medical procedures offered, the line about banning travel seems very topical.
25:27 when he talks about not being capable of feeling certain negative emotions, some of us are already incapable of feeling these emotions. Most people try to tell me I'm lucky I can't feel these, but then learn the downside is that I can't feel the positive emotions either.
If you haven't read it, Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain was early Sci Fi dealing with transhumanist issues. The key theme is children given a genetic modification to not need to sleep, among other bonuses.She discusses a number of social ramifications, and it's one of my favorite books. It'd be interesting to revisit the concept in the era of CRISPR
On brain augmentation: considering most feats of human ingenuity and understanding are likely entirely memetic, couldn't we argue that we became trans-human with the advent of civilization itself? A hunter-gatherer without outside help couldn't hope to solve complex mathematical equations or learn the complexities of the cosmos. We needed many successive attempts at these sorts of things in order to allow the average person to even have the chance to grasp at these sorts of concepts. This could be partially, if not entirely responsible for what we call 'quality intelligence.'
Not to mention specialization of jobs. When I took an anthropology class the instructor said that most hunter gather groups are very egalitarian, mainly because you have to be able to carry everything with you. This means there isn't a lot of specialization, as everyone is encouraged to do mostly the same jobs. The idea is that, when people settle to farm, they can now accumulate property and rely on more complex trade. So, while the majority of the people will be farmers, a smaller group can set to organization and logistics and another group can perform religious rites. Course, I also heard that, for the vast majority of people, early farming communities sucked. You had two or three crops out of the dozens hunter gatherers use and rates of malnutrition from having much fewer nutrients skyrocketed. Hopefully something like that doesn't happen with transhuman tech.
Even though I am disturbed by his ideas of casually dismantling planets, stars and galaxies to suit our own desires, I enjoy the mental stimulation. The future does not look particularly bright to me either, but optimism is nice.
How though? Transhumanism are literally the answer to everything? also keep in mind that transhumanism isn't just about changing oneself it's about using technology to help human in every way something like glasses are just another form of transhumanism. Keep in mind transhumanism don't just focus on turning yourself into a cyborg, it's also about how you can keep you flesh coat and be biologically immortal(if you are into this one of course). This would made us able to do other stuff experience so much more things and explore the universe when it's possible in distant future(my personal dream) without dying in the process because it takes millions of light years to just get to the next galaxy. I can't help but want to be one and mind you I have a great life as well and even this doesn't seem to satisfy me
Conspiracy theory time. Just saw filmlur wish Issac a happy new year but they shortened his name to IA. And it clicked.. It's very close to AI.... "Issac Arthur" any comment?!.. Are you here to prepare us for the future?.. 😁 Well whatever the reason your bring us these brilliant videos every week, it been a great year and a happy new year to you and yours!
Transhumanism is indeed a slippery slope. Though I am generally a cautious optimist towards it. It probably helps that I have bioengineering as my university major. I recall that in many Star Trek episodes like _"Measure of a Man" & "Author Author",_ Humanity is defined not by what we are, but rather who we are. Like with your closing sentence, while tech could be used by some to try and abandon their humanity, just as many, and hopefully much more will use tech to further embrace what truly makes us Human.
This is also the approach I take to the idea that humanity among the stars will inevitably radiate as a species not just in relatively minor what like we see on Earth but in drastic ways in which we may not even be the same species anymore, but we will all still be human in my view.
@@kamikeserpentail3778 Like biological mortality, for me. I desire an end to aging, followed by the ability to store vastly more information than my unenhanced brain can right now.
What makes us humans is our ability to transcend our humanity. We have done that every time since we started to use art, technology, modify our environment. Transhumanism is just a continuation of this.
Lol. You're almost there, this is not about prolonging or improving human life on this planet, or to make humans super intelligent. That is just the reason to get the masses on board. They're coming after the ultimate identity. The Identity of being a human. That is the last thing that is connecting billions of people together. Connection is power. This is a slow and soft global takeover in my opinion. I can't say from who.
Honestly, while I'm not apprehensive on augmenting my body in theory, I wouldn't want to be an early adopter. I'd probably wait until the first couple of commercially available generations have gone through debugging before I'd consider augmenting myself, as I imagine there'd be quite a few issues with such new tech. However, given the time it'll probably take to get there, I wouldn't want to subject my aging body to such augmentation unless absolutely necessary.
I also wouldn’t want any augment that can’t be removed if it needs to be. I don’t care if my digitized nervous system can increase my reaction time so much I can dodge bullets or whatever other crazy tech it is, if i can’t remove it, and get a different augment or engineered organic replacement in the case of the nervous system example. I also wouldn’t want to get any augments I don’t understand the process of creating and capabilities of to the point I could make one myself if I had the resources. That may take a long time, but it’s paramount in ensuring that you can tell if what you got is doing what it’s supposed to he doing, and identify any malfunctions or malware. Getting any augmentation will alter my reality in ways I can’t reverse, so the amount of time it takes to learn so much about them is nothing compared to how much damage they could do to you if you get scammed
Interesting points. I'd opt for a moderate intelligence increase in order to further what goals I have - learning, exploration, etc. - and extended health & life. I'll be saving this for future reference.
I wonder if intelligence downgrades would become popular? Imagine lowering you awareness of the troubles facing the world to focus on your golfing game...
A thing I've been thinking about recently is if infrared/ nightvision became a common augment in humankind, how much light pollution would that reduce? If everybody could just SEE in the dark, it would eliminate the need to light many areas. Not entirely eliminate, but like, mostly relegated to decorative and aesthetic or emergency situations. How dope would that be to look up at the night sky, switch off your infrared vision, and look up to see twice as many stars, maybe three times, the whole milky way? Thinking about this (albeit rather optimistic) one example of transhumanism paints a very positive picture for me at least, an "artificial" augmentation leading to more "human" experiences in the long run. Not a departure from humanity but a way to better experience it.
I have a hard time trying to think of a technology, product or service that governements have actually been effective at banning when there's actual demand. Markets, like life, find a way.
Honestly, I'm all for transhuman augmentation, whether through cybernetics, genetic engineering, or some combination of the two. Then again, I dont know how much value I honestly place on my own humanity, as a concept. Part of me wants to go beyond to see what, if any, limits exist for my self-improvement.
Then do so. But don't go unprepared. Read "The Selfish Gene" and attendant works to understand who you are and why you do the things you do. How humanity operates. You'll at least understand the mechanics of it, and the rest is yours to explore and discover.
I would like a suite of nanobots that will protect me from disease and infection. I would like a body that stays fit and healthy with little input from me apart from eating. A body that repairs fully from normal wear and tear. Also a neural lace.
"Most people don't relish the idea of chopping off an arm or gouging out their eyes, even to replace them with a better one." Me. Sign me up. I'd like to get out of this disgusting meat prison ASAP.
I've self-identified as a transhumanist and been active in the transhumanist community for a very long time, and I think that the difference between a transhuman/posthuman semi-utopia and the dystopian nightmare that the Luddites clutch their pearls about boils down to two basic things that are fully within our ability to control. The first and most important is equal access (without coercion to adopt) to augmentation technology for everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status. With equality, everyone's lives are immeasurably improved. Without it, augmentation technology becomes an insurmountable barrier between the haves and the have-nots, making the already deep divide into a fathomless chasm. The other, more philosophical factor is that we need to remember that the root of transhumanism is humanism. The more capable we become, the more incumbent upon us it becomes that we embrace humanist values, rather than focusing solely on self-improvement. A true post-human isn't just smarter, stronger, faster, healthier, and more long-lived, but also more compassionate, understanding, and caring. In that regard, a post-human should be more representative of the noblest aspects of humanity than any natural human *can* be. Or, to borrow a phrase from Blade Runner, "more human than human."
The religious and luddites.. basically anyone afraid of or hate change are also a problem. You can't help those that don't want to help themselves. It might come down to this: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
@@JesusChristDenton_7 I wouldn't word it quite ship strongly, but there are definitely people for whom what you're saying is true. When general anesthesia was first developed, there was a small but vocal minority who decried it as sinful, believing that surgery without agony was thwarting "God's plan." Thankfully, the use of anesthesia was normalized over time, but we still see that same mindset at work today with the "death is what gives meaning to life" crowd. (I find that notion so repulsive it's hard to even type it.) But as long as they don't seek to force their restrictions upon the rest of us, personal decisions like that need to be respected and accommodated - not segregated into isolated communities (unless that's their wish, like the Amish today), but but free to pick and choose which technologies they want to embrace while enjoying the overall benefits of living in an advanced society that's overcome most of its problems.
Most of the more valid concerns about transhumanism I think are not ones about erasing humanity or some sort of vague stuff like that, but rather concerns fielded by disabled and neurodivergent communities. In my experience there's a mix of hopefulness and valid criticism there. From my own experience, I can say that I certainly wouldn't mind having some procedure to rework my brain chemistry to lessen the symptoms of my depression and anxiety -- but at the same time, as an autistic person, the idea of people wanting to completely eradicate autism by modifying their children in the womb is horrifying eugenics to me.
I am reminded of the story of a woman that got a heart transplant and acquired a taste for beer, something she previously hated, from the donor. Whether this was transferred from the actual heart tissue or some of the microbiome that survived the transplant, it is a thing to keep in mind. Who we are is not completely a product of our brains. You will have to assume there will be some change, good or bad, in who you are as a result of enhancements. You would also have to add modifications to our microbiome as a potential enhancements.
Funnily enough, there is a recent manga that explores transhumanism in everyday life in surprising detail: My Hero Academia. The initial arrival of mutant powers i.e. Quirks, was effectively a biological singularity. An event so disruptive that it threw mankind off the trajectory of space travel and into 500 years of turmoil, so that they remained at roughly modern levels of tech. But the result was a much broader definition of humanity, as well as the rise of superheroes as an institution. Moreover, as people continue having children, Quirks mix together by accident or intention, and they grow in power and scope. So another threshold called the Quirk Singularity appears to be drawing near. Of course. the worldbuilding is limited by the medium of being a weekly release targeted towards young Japanese boys, but I find it generally solid.
I'm intrigued by Brain-Computer-Interfaces, but I find it hard to believe I'll ever trust a company enough to install a closed-source solution. FOSS, on the other hand . . .
As a person who's quality of life that would greatly improved with brain/computer interfaces. I would be the perfect test case for the tech. I am so worried about closed/open source,... If Tesla cars are any barometer if I missed a payment they would repo my sight, or my ability to articulate these thoughts. - Man... Really makes you think.
Indeed. There are simply certain things too precious for the hand of profit-maximizing ideologies to be allowed to touch, and brain-computer-interfaces are pretty high on that list. I think even at the point of current tech we're seeing the limits of what our social and economic systems can accomplish, with malfeasance and unaccountability on the part of, for example, social media platforms, being the accepted rule rather than a scandal, and shaping our world in a great many, probably largely-negative ways because of its economic grounding in secrecy, duplicity and predation. Hopefully our social and economic systems advance quickly enough to keep up with our technology in the future, so that we can properly enjoy that technology and the prosperity it will produce rather than have a few gatekeepers use it against us.
It is a bit sad to miss out on transhumanism, but at least I got to live at a time with corrective eye surgery. My quality of life has gone up since I no longer need to wear glasses.
Hey Isaac, this is back to your normal contemplative, relevant and interesting level which is what has captured me for several years now. IOW, this is a lot better than some of your other recent (still very good just not as mind blowing). Thank you for this episode! You are awesome, Isaac!
In the movie 2001, the aliens at the end were manifested as interacting with Dave as pure thought because it was Carl Sagan’s advice that they would eventually evolve into machines then pure energy. I had always thought of trans humanism as brain uploading.
It will be very interesting to see how the different directions of transhumanism will go in the future. Personally I think we will see all kinds of different reactions, and it will surely be a chaotic element in our society for a long time, until different kinds of normative culture will evenutally take hold. Likely a generation or two I think. In general I see this is a natural step for humanity, as we have already augmented ourselves since we became human, but there are certainly as many pitfalls as there are opportunities in this. The one thing I kind of fear when it comes to augmenteation though, is something akin to what we see in South Korea with beauty standards, were one type of "face" has become the de facto standard and so many people opt for plastic surgery, to more or less look exactly the same. There will certainly be some aspects of either gene editing or bionics that will become standard, and that most people will have. But hopefully we will see many different expressions, uses and philosophies when it comes to it.
I'm a strong advocate of transhumanism. I think human biology is broken in many ways. For example, the menstruation process wastes bodily resources on a monthly basis. Additionally, it might be helpful if humans were augmented with infrared and ultraviolet vision or the ability to regrow limbs and organs. Also, regarding 24:20, I don't think biological is the opposite of artificial. Rather, the antonym of artificial would be natural. So, for example, if we built a living organism out of raw materials, it would be both biological and artificial.
wastes bodily resources XD why do you already sound like a machine. oh and artificial still means fake , so no I would rather pass on being fake . when would you need to use infrared or ultra violet to such a degree you would need it implanted into your eyes do you think you are some delta force spec ops agent or something ?
Of course. Transhumanism is inevitable. I look forward to being a centuries old 8 ft tall wolfman with nanotechnology-enabled self-repairing bones and tissue. It's going to be weird getting on airplanes... though.
I've always looked upon Transhumanism with cautious optimism. It's basically just medical science projected forward into a a future of profound technological advancement, I think. As someone born with a genetic configuration that makes my eyesight inferior to most, limits my ability to enjoy dairy products as an adult mammal (an issue so common it doesn't even really qualify as a "problem"), and gives me flat feet (ditto), I would jump at any chance to alter those genetic realities. Moreover, as an atheist, I have no illusions I will enjoy any sort of "eternal existence" (nor any illusions that anybody else does, either), so I want my one existence to last as long as possible. Medical science has always sought to free us from the randomness of evolution, and I think Transhumanism is just more of the same, really. That said, differences in degree can be real differences, indeed. Fortunately, I don't think medical science will advance so quickly that it will result in any sort of legitimate moral crisis (although, it will certainly generate its share of *moral panics* that con-artists will seek to capitalize upon for money and social deference, as well as the political clout that results). When it comes to Transhumanism, I think the old adage applies for any development that isn't demonstrably harmful, "What one generation considered wholly unacceptable, the next generation will consider unusual or avant garde, and the third generation will accept as normal."
I would like to say that I just found out about your channel which is really strange that it Took me so much time, I've recently really interested in Science fiction and futurism myself and thought about writing a military science fiction and your videos help my creativity to spark and create more ideas and also answear many many questions and ideas that I had in my mind, Thank u very much
I think what often gets forgotten in transhumanism discussions is the direction of change. Is it normalising change or divergent change. For instance a big complaint amongst the Deaf community is about Cochlear Implants and to a lesser extent Hearing Aides. Now there's a bunch of issues there such as implanting babies with a non-medically-necessary invasive surgery without their consent - and that's important to consider also BUT a part of the discussion I find interesting is the discussion around difference in life expereince. The people who are opposed to CI and HA claim that Deafness isn't just a disability, its a different life experience. A part of human diversity. Its not some ailment that we (I'm HoH) suffer with, its a mode of being, a life experience. CI and HA are a project by doctors to make everyone hearing, to make everyone normal. They look at Deafhood and see broken people. They want to normalise us so they "treat" us. This is modern day transhumanism. But its boring transhumanism. Its not transhumanism to become a super hero - its transhumanism to try to make you normal. Its black hair dye given to all blonde and ginger people - rather than exploration of the wide array of possible hair colours. Why can't I get hearing aides or CIs that let me hear ultrasonic? Or infrasound? I want dog hearing aides goddamit! I wanna talk with dolphins! The technology exists! You, right now, could have your skull bore into and hear sounds you never even imagined could exist!!! But no. When transhumanism comes it will be boring. It will make you a better worker at the expense of everything that makes you you.
I know a lot of people that already think of themselves as not entirely human, or would be post-human entirely for all manner of different reasons. Heck, I can think of a few that flat out want to be robots. So yeah, I figure for most folks we'll see a lot of incremental mixed biological and technological improvement of the human condition, but others very well might want to engage in some radical enhancements to achieve self actualization. Also furries exist, so things are sure to get interesting. :)
Two biggest takeaways for me from this. One is Isaac's point that banning something like transhumanism is ultimately pointless if any other nation is willing to pursue it, since all you're doing is ensuring you have no control over the technology. And two, the comment from Time Zone mentioning we need to approach this with what he called "Optimistic Scepticism", which is a term I love now. Without taking this conversation into politics and ideology, I can attest that fear of change and new technology simply allows those who don't share your own fear to take control of it and doing all in their power to remove you from utilizing it. So we need to make sure people who have this optimistic scepticism stay involved with the development of this technology.
Just imagine what Football games, or sports in general, would look like. Imagine a QB being 100% accurate. Or a transhuman defense that can anticipate plays to perfection. And there would be no need to water down the hitting or tackling as being done in the game today.
"We regard the present human norm as a transitional state. We will not give up our humanity, but we will perfect it in a thousand diverse ways." - Ian R. Walker
I remember watching the Outer Limits episode “Unnatural Selection” in my teens and wondering how far away we were from something like that. I remember being empathetic with the father’s plight. He was in a lose lose situation and wanted the best for his child. I wonder how many people will face the same choice once genetic modification becomes the norm.
I think a cool approach to becoming trans-human would be to start with 'accessories' that allow you to remember things better, do logic better and so on. At the same time, just let your brain slowly die as it normally would and, if done right, the accessories would be so much better than your normal brain, you would not even notice when the last neuron in your brain finally died. Think of it like power armor directly linked to your brain that increases all your stats to super human + crappy human strength. Then your body goes feeble and old but you don't even notice the loss of your crappy human strength.
Chances are very good that in the future someone will have to be genetically enhanced in order to biologically accept much of the technology that may come down the line similar to a genetic modification that would allow their bodies to be able to accept organs without fear of rejection. So genetic modification just to become baseline citizenship auggie in the future will likely be a huge civil struggle
A rather thought-provoking episode! I often say I can't wait to abandon my meat sack and live in a tin can that looks like a human. But you raised a good point in questioning how far we'd really go to try and abandon humanity. I don't necessarily think any of us actually could "abandon humanity" since the term itself seems very subjective and personal to each individual. While some argue that tattoos and piercings are a step too far, others would embrace going full cyborg, while still others would accept biological alterations. I don't think any of these options would count as abandoning humanity for the individuals taking those options. Even if someone were to go full cyborg but become a full-blown robotic dragon instead of a humanoid with arms and legs, they'd still be human, in my own opinion. However, I consider humanity a psychological element rather then a physical one. Maybe humanity refers to our specific brand of sapience and sentience.
@kamikeserpentail3778 I'd say retaining some roots in your origins would be a good idea. Even if you could stick your brain into a spaceship and be a literal Reaper from Mass Effect, keeping some reminder of your human origin may be all that stands between you and going absolutely bonkers. Though that also sounds fun, and I might do that...
As a writer I tend to think of these sort of things when thinking about the future of my universe as I progress the story. In it I have augmented reality in the eyes as a normal feature and on military ships it's a requirement with screens only showing information to those who have the required augmentation, regular humans have things like the ability to look up information about people and objects that they see, like specific information about a certain species so that you don't accidentally poison them or offend their culture and you can learn about any object you interact with. There's also nanobots that completely change medicine and buildings and it even changes cosmetics, like the ability to instantly apply makeup, change hair colour and even eye colour and they can be used to constantly monitor the body for detecting any medical problems and also determine things like the perfect food to eat to be as healthy as possible. Telepathy would also be possible with communications technology being implanted into the brain, other augments would be instant access to learning databases that can teach you new knowledge and help with complex mathematics. My favourite future tech I created is a machine that can alter DNA to give people specific abilities to help with certain jobs, for example engineers on spaceships would be altered to resist electricity more and soldiers would have stronger bones and higher muscle mass. This machine is also used to mend the body and fix things like disabilities cancer, being transgender, etc and also used to prolong life (but I gave it a limit as every change isn't as good as the first, so it can only be done so many times). Really when it comes to transhumanism if done right then it would be amazing. When it comes to medical implications, like with current healthcare to do it correctly it would need to be available to all (maybe the rich get slightly better implants but the basics are available to all who need it). As a disabled person I'd love to have some robot eyes, those would be cool. As a writer I always find these videos interesting.
“Your” universe!? Like poets assuming ‘my’ experience is ‘your’ experience, then realizing that ‘my experience” is my “experience” and having to justify “your experience” to our experience. Got me? It’s not ‘your universe’, it is our universe. Justify yourself as determiner of our universe,
I’m writing a story set in a multiverse, where the main character is from an extremely advanced universe, and makes it his mission to find and guide humanity in a universe where the universe itself is at the state most similar to the state his own was in during humanities earliest civilizations. Basically it’s the universe as close to his own as possible in context of how humanity specifically was behaving and existing, with many divergences in other areas. I explain away the problem of the possibility of multiversal travel leading to us having had to experience it, by The multiversal structure infinite, less in a quantitative way and more a conceptual one. The macro structure of the multiverse(and omniverse, but that won’t be revealed until later, at least to the main character) exists on a scale we can’t conceptualize, but can experience. Basically, it’s an infinite universe in the sense that the concept of quantity doesn’t really exist on that scale. It’s based on the base structure of a fractal, where infinite reflections can exist inside infinite more and still be one thing, but also everything inside it, but within the story, it also includes the fractals that don’t exist, which doesn’t make sense because a structure like that is beyond human comprehension. This allows me to have the main character jump between his universe and the one he’s guiding without it breaking its own logic. The main character decides to do this for several reasons, the first is that he wants to uplift people, for their own sake, respecting their autonomy and not being the shady guy that guides civilization but clearly puts his own interest first(ahem the emperor of mankind ahem), but his own people don’t need him too and other alien life either is at the same level, doing their own thing, or just not a good idea to interact with. He also is insanely curious as to how such a civilization may develop, and compare it to his home universe when they finally reach the same level. See who got their quicker, relatively speaking, that type of curiosity. The main character is entirely benevolent, and while that may sacrifice some storytelling Avenues, it lets me create the story for the purpose I want it to serve. I’m writing it less to explore the future of essentially what happens when the emperor of mankind is a wise communist and not a dictator, which is inevitably who the mc will be compared to as the serve the same function, and more as a way to explore the idea of what happens when all advancement and knowledge is matched equally with the wisdom to use it responsibly, and how this can be done, and to explore the ideas of how the way knowledge is learned affecting its users differently, and when they learn it changes society. The Shepard and flock dynamic between the mc and the rest of society created to be a more direct way for me to ask more specific questions more easily. The way the mc Unites humanity is also meant to be a way to make statements on how to get and maintain loyalty, what drives innovation, what it means to be alive and what qualifies as sentient, and other questions I’ve always pondered. The society is United by choice. The mc arrives around the Bronze Age, and simply offers the people of various societies a new way, shows the people demonstrable proof of his claims, and offers gifts of more basic knowledge regardless of if they will follow him. If not, he leaves them alone, as they will inevitably change their minds as the merit in the philosophy of mankind and its greater structural is self evident, and his guidance and its “hierarchy” is self justifying. The Mc got rid of things like slavery, Genocide and other violent conflicts or cruelties by making them have no real benefit. Ideological conflict was far better resolved in debate than it was in the eradication of those who deviated from the “norm” and fighting for resources is stupid when you can instead learn how to improve your use of them to go to the stars, where any limit you can find won’t be until long after earth itself is gone. He got rid of things like bigotry with education, decentralized, and diverse education that put its main focus in teaching people how to think, not what, and the teaching itself being the goal, not any specific answer. You could not receive an education in that society without being given the tools to be able to recognize the signs of propaganda and understand the fundamental unity of mankind on a large scale. So any difference, no matter how artfully worded and constructed, no matter the quality of the propaganda would be able to sow that type of behavior into mankind. That’s a type of behavior that perpetuates itself and is hard to stop once it starts and is left unchecked, but if it’s shot down every time from the beginning, at some point no one is really inclined to believe ir anymore regardless of how often assholes just tend to spawn into reality. There’s a lot more I can discuss, but I’ve already lost whatever ny original point was with this comment so I’m just gonna stop it here and hope this comment interests people even if just a bit
Anyone that has a painful chronic illness like myself who has ankylosing spondylitis would really, really benefit from transhumanism. I would 100000% get a robot body or go into a computer if there was a large community of people who could do a same and if the alternative body had similar senses etc.
I really love this topic, and I could listen to many hours of you explain the common issues & concepts that arise in this topic. Also, happy New Year. I've been a fan for a while, and I enjoy all of your content. You appear to be a genuinely good guy.
The neglected "technologies" in futurist discussions are psychology, group psychology, and their applications including education/training, effective behavior, and rapid adaptation to assigned roles. Human evolution is as much about social evolution including technical evolution ... but GMO and nanotech open the door to the evolution of individual bodies as well.
As someone who is both physically disabled and uses a hearing aid, discussions of transhumanism have always been something I was very interested in. In particular, I was always interested in what the take would be on someone physically disabled undergoing an invasive surgery to bring themselves a little closer to the "baseline". And once that happens (e.g. I get new legs or a chip in my brain stem to fix the nervous signals sent from my brain to my limbs), well, there's always an option to improve on things further. Just like you said with the infrared options for the bionic eyes for the blind, hearing aids of the future might have a working range beyond human capabilities (actually, there ARE incidental stories of hearing aid/CI users already picking up sounds no one else can hear... I'll let you decide whether that's a transhuman ability or a potential horror story - as in, the hardware glitching, or going bad) Nitpick: I *do* know people who refer to themselves as cyborgs - usually, but not always, cochlear implant users, more rarely hearing aid users. On that note, when you said pacemakers or hearing aids aren't controversial (as, presumably, opposed to transhumanist augmentations), cochlear implant would've been a more apt comparison. And they ARE, in fact, controversial! There is also some controversy around leg prosthetics when it comes to sports, just google Oscar Pistorius... I would be very interested in reading some of those older takes on prosthetic arms and the like, where you said that some predicted they might make the user less human. And similarly, I had no clue Asimov's works were THAT old! Speaking of old things, the notion that transhumanism means jacking things in, is likely due to the fact that the cyberpunk genre has its roots in the 1980s, well before WiFi was even a concept, let alone a thing. And for some reason, that idea really caught on and refuses to budge even in light of the obvious fact that it'd be easier to make something like an EEG cap, communicating with the brain wirelessly, than, as you mentioned, having a robot surgeon capable of wiring together all those wires and neurons. Not to mention you avoid an infection vector. However, some things will likely remain transcutaneous/subdermal, eg. bone conduction hearing implants - because of laws of physics... The bit about the fastest way to colonizing the universe came a bit out of left field, tbh...
And now even more thoughts: you seem to conflate transhumanism with post-scarcity, and say that IQ augmentations do not make sense because there is no one who might want to hurt you either way. I'm afraid neither are true. Transhumanism is IMHO waaay closer (see above) than post-scarcity, which requires a near-inexhaustible source of energy, most likely fusion, and we all know fusion is... "forever 30 years away". And people being people, they will inevitably find a way to divide themselves and draw lines between human and "not-human", and sectarian or some-ist (speciesist?) attacks will probably still be a thing.
So regarding the eyeball thing, one must remember that your eyes don't work like Cameras Sensors or even Screens. We're really far away from having artificial eyes, even if we want to just tap the nerves.
I chuckled at the line about "piercings & tattoos containing circuitry and electronics sooner than not" as I'm currently trying to decide what color LED I want for my first injectable light up NFC chip.
When I was fighting cancer in 2003, I called my Port-o-cath, used to inject chemotherapy directly into my heart via a tube that ran down a vein in my chest, a "Borg Implant". Everyone got the joke. :)
As someone who was born with at least 3 different birth defects/disabilities, I must say that I have a vested interested in the biotechnologies and a few other technologies that fall under the transhuman category. I'll never understand those who call for banning the such technologies.
I think a digitized humanity living in a computer simulation is inevitable. If we’re pursuing both immortality and an unlimited quality of life, it’s much easier and cheaper to achieve that within a computer than in the real world. I think you can already see the seeds of this in how fast computer technology is advancing compared to other types of technology or the scale of engineering we’re capable of.
Most superherodom that gets made tends to presume what is best called the Spiderman syndrome: "With great power comes greater responsibility." - Not me. The issue is more that when the Super comes along, they must pick up the moral divide's worth of Superhero/ine needing accidents, crimes, and the like.
@Isaac Arthur, as a thought experiment I have often pondered on The Fermi Paradox in relation to consciousness and the question of does consciousness (individually or collectively) manifest our reality, and if so could the answer to the Fermi Paradox simply be because we as a conscious entity are not ready to accept that other intelligent technological species can exist, that by the act of contact would almost certainly mean a more advanced species than ourselves, and therefore we do not manifest such into our reality, I realise this thought "experiment" touches on many area's that are not understood or even considered, but I would appreciate your own thoughts on this, as a respected logical thinking peer
30:56 Better embracing their humanity through technology rather than stepping beyond it. My god such a powerful and poignant thought. One of the things I love about you and this show, your tempered and well explained optimism. Honestly I have yet to see much Sci-Fi take and embrace such an outlook. Outside Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of Time series maybe, the positive effects such an outlook can bring would be wonderful. A fantastic video Isaac, may 2023 teach me and uplift me and others further.
Emotional dampening is perhaps the closest can of worms you've touched on. We do it chemically on a daily basis with psychiatric patients, but it's such a dangerous thing that we're not legally allowed to do it with anybody else. Our emotions are pretty much our survival kernel, programmed over millions of years and fine-tuned epigenetically, and their accute sensitivity and nuance makes their meta-stability such a fickle thing... It's no wonder our culture evolves along with our psycho-emotional capabilities and that disruption on one side or the other can and does create friction until a new meta-stability is reached.
The Cybermen of Dr Who fame were introduced in a specific attempt to scare people along these lines. We really had no idea how much of our humanity would be lost to things like organ transplants, and artificial body parts back in those days, but we were getting to a technology point where we could see that it might be possible to do so. The Cybermen were an attempt to take it to the maximum level(1960 low budget sci-fi special affects aside)
Transhumanism has become an increasingly popular topic in recent years, with many people advocating for its ultimate adoption. Transhumanism can be defined as the idea that humans should strive to use science and technology to enhance physical and mental capabilities, free themselves from many limitations of the human body, and ultimately transcend mortality. While this may sound like a far-off concept that is more suited to science fiction than reality, advances in biotechnology and other areas make it more viable every day. The development of transhumanism has been driven mainly by individuals seeking to improve their lives, as well as scientists and engineers looking for ways to extend life or make it easier. Supporters of this movement believe that humans can significantly expand their potential by using science and technology. This could include boosting intelligence, eradicating disease and ageing, becoming independent from any specific environment, or even travelling at speeds faster than light. This concept also includes making humans more resilient against natural disasters and other calamities that could threaten humanity’s existence. One major concern associated with transhumanism is how much control people would have over their bodies if they were suddenly enhanced beyond what was naturally possible. Therefore, it is important to move forward cautiously with any changes that might result from such augmentations to not create an imbalance between those who possess them and those who don't. Additionally, these procedures' ethical implications must be considered before further advancements are made. Another area where transhumanism poses potential risks is privacy issues; individuals with enhanced capabilities may gain access or control over sensitive information or processes without permission from others. For this potentially powerful technology to be implemented safely, measures must be taken to ensure security and accountability on both sides; those conducting the enhancements and those receiving them must be aware of their rights and responsibilities when it comes to utilising such technologies responsibly. Ultimately, the future of humanity depends on how responsibly we pursue transhumanistic technologies now; if advancements occur too quickly without proper oversight or consideration of the potential dangers they pose, then we could end up creating an even larger divide between “haves” and “have nots” while risking our collective safety against unforeseen consequences down the line. Regardless of one's opinion on this matter, there is no denying that transhumanism presents a unique set of opportunities that should not be overlooked - so long as we continue moving forward with caution and forethought for all involved parties.
I am not sure everyone will share your wish to preserve your humanity. After all, early humanity did not want to hang onto their ape-ness. Rather, they worked hard to separate themselves from other apes at every opportunity and generally looked down on them. Even today, "ape" and "monkey" are considered to be insults, even though we have no reason to be insecure (given that chimps don't built space stations). I think there will be a drive, at least in well-to-do circles, to rise above obvious human frailties.
One thing that has seem evident as I'm watching your video, what is defined as transhuman seems likely to be a rolling definition as things become normalized, they are no longer considered outside the norm of human experience. Things like pacemakers, organ transplants, metal braces in your skeleton. All would seem like wonderous enhancements to prior generations.
I would totally upgrade to an immortal shapeshifting multi-personality 4 armed furry cyborg/robot. I dont care how inhuman I become, I was never really considered a human in the first place.
I feel the biggest hurdle is going to be that once this tech becomes available, the question of who is allowed to use it will rise to the top pretty quickly. Let's just bring a can of worms into the argument and say that instead of first figuring out how to make a human smarter, we happen upon the ability to to impart knowledge and/or ability on a human being. Just the ability to increase someone's creativity by a small degree (which has already been noted as a side effect to some chemical compounds) would immediately cause a massive argument, we already see this with the use of neural networks to create art, if you can pay to get ahead as an artist, you can bet that some pretty extreme reactions would occur from both the people born with extreme aptitude in the subject, and those that had to work twice as hard to get to a level where they can live off their art. Sports is the next obvious flashpoint, academia would almost certainly follow suit, and when we have a large number of people bashing the new tech because they are angry at the idea of someone new taking a shortcut to what they have accomplished because of their natural aptitudes (and/or a large degree of hard work) I sadly expect its use to be immediately limited to those wealthy enough not to need to care. The strongest human reaction is always going to be towards those that seem to want to rob them of what makes them special, even though the bell curve really ought to be flattened after all this time, we are fully aware that some people win the lottery at conception, so why not allow the rest a little time to shine?
@@lelagrangeeffectphysics4120 I don't fail to realize anything, I simply see that the few capable people are the ones that set the arbitrary value. You happened to live on ground that contains oil, so now you're fighting anything that can create oil from thin air. Art is a fiat currency.
@@lelagrangeeffectphysics4120 Who cares? Do artists create their art so they can make millions selling it to museums and gain fame? Maybe some do. But many of the great artists did it to express themselves, they did it for themselves, or for the simple act of creation. In my opinion there's a horrible corruption in humanity, when there's a mindset where the only reason anything has value, is because many, many other people don't have it. Really the massive worth of fine art is just a sign of the money laundering and broken mindset of humanity more than anything special about the artist. If I had to choose between the Mona Lisa hanging up in my living room or a piece of art a friend made for me, I'm taking my friend's work.
grafting would be very interesting, especially rewiring nerve bundles all the way to the brain for body parts that were amputated years/decades ago. last I checked all that can be done is stretch out the nerve endings that are left, they can't put them back once amputated, especially after tens of years of it not existing, and equally as much when there are specialized nerve endings that can't be 'taken' from somewhere else. I imagine a great many would be happy having something 'undone' that was done to them without their consent when young, the repulsiveness or mandatoriness of being quite dependent on gender, and what gender is different for various societies, and some amputations had been more universal for those that didn't fit 'the norm'. things I can't type directly on TH-cam yet a good parallel could be, a society that amputates eyelids as a precautionary measure against pink eye or punishment against those that fell asleep and forced on everyone else "so they fit in", or something just as confounding. being able to have your original eye or inner ear grown and put back would be equally as impressive after an accident as well. I think those will be a thing before the BCI "close your eyes and you see your computer display" kind of implants. for now, at best, all doctors can do, is mash the severed ends of the twisted pair of telephone cable trunks together and "just hope" enough wire pairs line up that most messages are not getting crossed from heat pain muscle, and touch nerves going to the brain that it sort of functions, and that's when they have the amputated part to try to put back. enhanced ears (subsonic/ultrasonic) and eyes (IR/UV/etc), would require proficiency with the former wiring up the original part as it was genetically. I also feel it will be a thing dependent on 'where' will determine how excepted or shunned a particular grafting/implant/augmentation is well into the future, even for things like elf ears, cat eye irises, reflective cornea backings (tapetum lucidum), etc.
Cyclops' eyebeams are not light, they are "force." He does not generate it either, he opens micro-portals to an alternate dimension of pure "force" energy and it flows out like a fire hose. they can be moderated by certain types of crystal, but against anything else they impart physical force on impact.
Allow me to mention the elephant in the room. I am 15:00 in and wonder if he'll touch the fact that a low level of trans-human exist already. Transgender people. I'd argue that people would only want to alter their bodies in fundamental ways if they had a really STRONG drive to do so based on that experience. Transuman also need not mean "super human". It could just mean different abilities.
He brought up briefly the idea of changing one's gender near the beginning, but never returned later to touch on transgender people themselves and the lengths gone to alter one's body to more closely match one's self-perception.
transhumanisim to me is best kept as simple to explain as possible simply using science to make humanity, and life in general better things that could universaly be agreed to be an inprovment, better memory, vision, seeing more wavelengths of light, lessened sence pain, that natural antifreese that some frogs have that lets them revive after being incased in ice and generaly just more free... to have the body one wants, to do what makes one fulfilled.
Imagine objecting to a blind person getting mechanical eyes. Also, a mechanical heart was never at risk of dehumanizing people. Some worries are just irrational. I wouldn't say that about all worries to do with transhumanism, but a lot of them, yes. Frankly, even if these things did dehumanize us, considering all the shitty things we do to each other, I'm not so sure humanity is not massively over-vaunted.
@Heavy Metal Pulp A) Being hacked is a definite issue. B) I've not seen it. It's difficult to comment on it. CRISPR editing in adults may be able to address that, as Isaac Arthur pointed out. C) I'd imagine there would be a period where it's possible to get such extreme body mods where they are not easily undone, but I'd expect such periods to be decades at most before newer, better techniques will make things entirely reversible.
Well, I guess I'm an outlier then, because I'd go for every upgrade/augmentation I could get. If it's available to me and improves on whatever I already have, I'd take it, invasive or not.
that's gotta be super expensive, also pretty sure there's an entire genra about why it's a bad idea to do that, especially if it's based off proprietary software
There are people who think that the incorporation of technology into our physical and cognitive abilities would result in a loss of humanity. However, it is my belief that this is not the case. The concept of being human is one that pertains to the inherent characteristics and qualities that define the human experience, and distinguish us from other forms of existence. While advancements in technology may allow for the enhancement of our physical and cognitive abilities, it does not negate our humanity. This is because what truly defines us as human beings is not our biological bodies, but rather our ability to possess consciousness, emotions, and the capacity to understand and engage with the world around us. These intrinsic qualities are integral to the human experience and can't be replicated or replaced through technological means. Thus, even if we were to become transhuman, we would continue to possess these fundamental human characteristics, and would therefore remain human
Transhumanism is a touchy subject for me, especially with people speaking out against it so vociferously. Were it not for my mechanical heart, I would have assumed room temperature long ago. I also appreciate my prosthetic legs as well, since they allow me a quality of life I'd not otherwise experience. So, seeing as I'm 1/4 cyborg anyway, bring the rest of it on, I say.
We don't know what death is body's could be like windows 95 and death and transpired evolution the equivalent of upgrading to windows XP also consider how the relationship to such tech alters the way humans approach life it could be that our egotistical fears doom the natural advancement of the human potential because u rely on something else than ur self like using a electric calculator instead of using ur brain and getting better in this way...
The plot of dune hints at this issue there we see the destruction of tech because humans realised they should cultivate the native abilities and potential life is there so u can do the work it makes no sense to outsource this process and stagnate in spirit and mind
A.G.I Will be man's last invention
@@mistycloud4455 I'm pretty sure humans can come up with some stuff ai can't even comprehend
An inquistor being transhuman aunt much of a surprise
@@mclilzenthepoet2331 Actually, most 40k inquisitors eschew the possibility of full implants unlike myself.
My late wife got a kick out of referring to her extensive dental work as her "robot teeth" (which led to a couple of interesting cartoons drawn by our children-and by me).
By the end of her life, she wound up with a number of "robot parts". I'm so glad she was able to get them, and lived her longer, richer life as a result.
Aaaaahaahaahaaahhhaaa robot teeth. C'mon brow u can't do this 2 me
AGI Will be man's last invention
What was her name?
I feel like this is inevitable, approaching the problem with optimistic scepticism may seem counterintuitive but it helps up gain knowledge and wisdom at approximately the same rate
Something like Borg.
I think many human characteristics may accounted as bad and non beneficial for the greater good.
But looking how humans funktions this will maybe only be for the poor 99% percent working for the 1% above... Oh very horrorish fantasy 😂
But I don't see the real transhumanism only seeing this as solution for better live but a detest in human things wich could be eradicated when certain nerd people take over. Sorry needed to use the word nerd. Nothing bad about it only to point this out.
As long as we rid ourselves of politicians.
@@edwardgatey8301 Politicians merely reflect (albeit in a slightly exaggerated way) the views of the people who elect them.
Politicians too alien from their constituents don't get elected; which is why politicians are, really, just slightly more ambitious and *slightly* less ethical versions of the populations from whence they spring.
Basically, they're the same sort of people who ran for student government, in high school.
Most people didn't like *them* , very much, either.
Our politicians are merely mirrors to ourselves, and politicians you despise get elected by *people* you would probably dislike and disagree with.
That's why the old saying, "People get the government they deserve," qualifies as a nigh-universal truth.
Trump didn't get to be president on his own; he got elected because a lot of people bought into and agreed with what he had to say.
Obama didn't get to be president on his own, either, and got elected for *exactly* the same reason.
Given that both men served as president, recently, means that which one any particular person thought was "good" or "bad" depends (a lot) on the perceptions and opinions of the person asked, given the passions of the moment.
Personally, I think Obama will go down as a slightly above-average president when it comes to policy-making, whose primary "gift" to the United States was breaking down an obnoxious and pernicious color-barrier that had persisted in this country, for too long.
I also think that Trump will go down as a con-artist who masterfully pandered to those who perceived themselves as benefiting from this bigoted status quo, and therefore reacted with fear and hatred to the changes Obama represented to them.
That's just me, though.
About half of America disagrees with me, at least somewhat, and about 30 percent of the U.S. population disagrees with me, profoundly.
In the end, the judgement about which man was the better president will get made by historians who look at the record from enough time and distance they can do so, more or less dispassionately.
@@thomashiggins9320 wrongo-in-the-congo: you're in a small minority, bucko
Congratulations! your comment just won the internet. So good, vulture politicos are circling...
On the note of darts or dice, you can always make system for rolling dice more chaotic, we already use dice towers. And there's really no upper bound to how difficult you could make a dart throw when you can change things like target size, distance, and the dart itself.
I imagine despite constantly coming up with new ways to entertain ourselves, a lot of the classics will pretty much always stick around in some form or another.
Good point, I don't really expect the future to be short of game options but its a reminder that most games can be made more difficult more easily than intelligence or skill can be enhanced.
@@isaacarthurSFIA entertainment would be focused on who is more creative rather than skillful type of games
@@isaacarthurSFIA Pfff... Nowadays some bald monkeys are trying to hit a 2-metre target some 6 kilometres away with some firearms -_-
In our wondrous future we will have contests of shooting 2-metre targets on an outer orbit of Pluto with relativistic shells shot from linear accelerator cannons on Earth's orbit =)
It would took some time to arrange each such contest, though...
The dart board is more like a tray, divided into sections…. And is placed on the floor, in a large room filled with various obstacles, and things dice can ricochet off of.
You hurl your dice up into the obstacle course room, along a preselected course (the more complex, the more points you get), careening through the course and landing in the tray sections you called, showing the numbers you called.
Have the dice rolling off the table and under a dresser so it cannot be read is also part of the Chaos range of numbers rolled.
I've spent my whole life trying to improve my brain and overcome my disabilities, with medications, supplements, therapy, research, practicing social interaction, biofeedback, meditation, etc. At this point, I'm already an entirely different person. The "real me" was essentially Ralph Wiggum with extreme depression, loneliness, and self hatred, utterly destroyed by bullying and abuse. No one misses him. I would gladly go through a process that might qualify as the death of my identity or humanity for a large improvement, especially a mind upload. So many memories are already missing that death is business as usual.
Your disabilities should be something to cherish to overcome obstacles in life, not to be rid of out of some hatred.
@@achaudhari101 No. But you see that's the point of all this nonsense, everyone has an opinion and most ppl think of it as fact.. it's foolish. I say ppl should do whatever they want, it's their life, who tf are we to tell someone how to live it. That's just how I live now tho, obviously most don't.
@@sinnwalker Some people living their own lives can influence other sin a negative way.
@@achaudhari101 lol you lost me at "sin". This whole life is a "sin", wake up friend it's all a fckd up game. You don't matter, no one does, so let's just all enjoy our lives. But hey enjoy your life of sin belief, you can do whatever u want, just as anyone can.
My cataract surgery happened while I was in the middle of reading Revelation Space. The description of a character's bionic eyes being hit with some EM pulse or whatever, ruining them, really freaked me out. Luckily, no Ultras have shown up to mess with me, so I'm good. Great video. Happy New Year to all the Arthur's!
For years I looked for transhumanist content that wasn’t fearmongering bordering on paranoiac fanfiction. SFIA is the first pro-transhumanist channel I’ve found, and my fascination with my subject has only grown because of your work.
Thank you
@@andrewprettyquick2070 wrote the initial comment on my phone, my bad
There really is a scaremongering movement on the fundamentalis religious "right" as well as - to a lower extent - the esoteric green "left" at the moment, gaining steam in the media landscape.
Who both equate augmenting or repairing human normality with dehumanization.
I never really got it. Standard fear of change I guess.
Even though there are some troubeling scenarios of the upper 001% - due to their financial abilities - being able to augment themselves. With neurotropic drugs, designer medical protocols prolonging life and enhancing performance to establish even more of a neo-nobility in the not-so-far future.
It would not be a fundamentally new concept - even now affluence is the most important indicator for life expectancy, and has been forever - but it could get considerably more pointed.
Isaac is chronically optimistic to my mind, but it is refreshing to see a futurists not constantly spiralling into doomerism.
@@andrewprettyquick2070 Don't fear your monger so uptight ok.
Depends on which definition of transhumanist we are using today.
I choose to see it as people afraid of being rendered obsolete, or less special because more people will be able to do the things they previously were alone in accomplishing.
Thus, the obvious answer is to make the tech available to everyone, so we can find a new normal.
I think more importantly than the Natural Vs Artificial dichotomy, we should be asking about control. I wear glasses, but I can take them off or even destroy them whenever I choose. My vision is shaped by another person's expertise, but putting on my glasses doesn't make me vote the same way as the person who ground the lenses, presumably. Once we start altering the body at a more intimate level we have to trust that the people making the technology are willing to leave that much power on the table and not alter a person's thinking non-consensually.
I mean, the TH-cam algorithm... Most people have mind augmentation implanted in their left hip pocket and it definitely controls their thinking in subtle and not so subtle ways. Yes, you can throw your phone away, but how many people panic when they realize they've left their phone on the nightstand?
psychologists and philosophers already see current tech as non-consensual:
"according to technical legal definitions provided by psychologists, so-called "persuasive technologies''-especially social media-have crossed the threshold from persuasion to coercion."
source: Consilience Project "Social Media Enables Undue Influence"
highly recommended site/articles/artifacts
@@priapulida Many thanks for the recommendation 👌 and I'm glad I was finally able to phrase this in a way that resonated with somebody. I've tried broaching this subject on older videos and I tend to attract "actually tech giants putting people in filter bubbles is good because ads get ✨personalized✨" types. It gets demoralizing.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx yeah that's a very superficial naive view on the "commodification of everything". for now, our attention, but commodification of thoughts, experiences, consciousness, "free willed time" or whatever could become a dystopian reality.
also, there's whole genres of (erotic) (fan-)fiction / scifi (short/long) stories dealing with this - mind control, robotization, some cyberpunk etc
I think that a lot of things that will change as we advance. Like 3d printers, we're going to have our own methods of creating a lot of the technology we use in-home, such as electronics and devices. So when it comes to our "accessories" those will end up more under the control of the individual. Also there will be tools that will allow those individuals to basically control what software gets put on the hardware. This will be a minority of people though (as it has always been) - and when we get into gene-modding or augmentation, it will be something that a person will have to research and be really knowledgeable about before they go in - down to possibly understanding the science behind it and being able to understand it enough to do their own alterations and/or maintenance. (there are individuals who can from-scratch their own microchips in today's world, so... it isn't a stretch to think that this will be true for augmentation/modding)
The people who are going to get burned are the people who get burned today on unregulated technologies looking for an advantage. If you got stars in your eyes and are willing to lay it all on the line to get a leg-up? You're a prime victim. There are going to be a lot of scams in the field and a lot of scammers selling it. I'd warn off anyone looking to get an augmentation or modification to have an "advantage" - especially at the beginning. Especially if they're not knowledgeable about what it is they're actually getting. Those are the people most likely to get cheated at best, puppetted at worst. Basically if it is too good to be true and promises you some here-to-for untold advantage, it probably isn't going to work out for you in the end.
Another thing, even if you do step in on the ground floor of some augmentation/modification system and it *works* you're going to be going in on the prototype phase of the project. Nothing is to say that the technique you get then will last you a lifetime, or a decade... and you'll be left at the mercy of having to yank that out and *hopefully* replace it with something else that does the job and is supported. (again, assuming you're not one of those people who are willing to hack their own stuff to keep it up and running)
All and all, though, its no different than what we've been through for tens of thousands of years. We are tool users. These are tools, much like glasses, hammers, processors, and telephones. And some tools will be better than others - and some people will want a new tool even if it means their personal harm potential goes way up. Patience, knowledge, healthy skepticism and taking reasonable steps will see most people safely through it.
People are currently working on basic augmentation technology right now, mostly focused on cyber-limbs.There are three barriers to getting them working, we dont have an easy and simple way to control them with the nervous system, the human body's immune system is prone to rejecting implants and the power density of batteries is too low for long term high intensity usage. Solve two of those and you've got commercial cyber limbs in a year.
Of course if you solve the energy density problem for batteries (amusing they are not super toxic or explosive or some thing) you've basically made renewable energy the most appealing form of power generation.
Also you probably create mounting points for cybernetics so you can quick swap out eyes or arms.
I just want to wish Isaac and his wonderful team a Happy New Years. THANK YOU so much for all the wonderful work you do throughout the year. Your daily contributions inspire our hearts and our minds to create a better world.
Well, I guess social-cultural background also plays a role in how well people accept human augmentations or trans-humanism.
I'm from China, and as you know, the competition among Eastern-asia kids are, well, intense. Entering any of our schools you can see students constantly under this anxiety of not being smart enough, not having the best memory, or haven't master certain skills like piano/coding/art;
I'm also under a constant fear of being not as competitive as my classmates, this problem resolved itself a lot after I'm in collage and decide to pursue my own life goal. However, if suddenly there is some (reliable enough)method/technology that allows people to have better memory, better physicality, or some other enhancements, even by just a little, everyone will rush to it, fearing that they will get left behind.
Interestingly, this competition for enhancements has already began: we get reports of people using adderall or other nootropics not because they have certain medical conditions, but because they want to stay competitive at school/work; we have countless books/biographies claiming that "if people do XXX they can be more XXX", hell, we have chinese parents who are so frustrated at their kids performance at school that they give themselves hart attacks.
So to put simply, the sheer competition force between individuals will make the public accept enhancements(if they are reliable), and pushes people to further the development of related technologies. It is not about choices or decisions, it's about simply keep up with the changing world.
cars, computers, the internet, nukes.....a new technology comes up and we integrate it into our world those who dont adjust to it well be left behind
how many companes are left who do not use the internet? i think will be equal to the number of peope without agmentations
btw i highly recoment the unabombers manifest(industrial society and its future) he was a mad man but his views on society and technology are verry interresting
but how about the side effects of such thing, for example, I have friends with ADHD that allows them to stay focused with Adderall (or Ritalin), the thing is despite such thing allows them to increase their cognitive abilities, they said it only work in places where the rules or goals already set and it's up to you to do the process, and said that it kills creativity and imagination
which mean it might only work on something where a rote, formalized, standardized, and repetitive environment is the case, while not so much in place where your ability to come up with something novel is desired more
now try to compare Chinese rote-memory-based learning, to western experiential, Socratic, and creative learning
in the comparison you can see the Chinese able to produce more graduates, more research papers, and scored higher in things like PISA scores
and yet when being compared by the quality of the graduates, quality of the research papers, and things like patent and inventions, the west scores better
this really question the scope of things isn't it, what if any enhancement that resulted in something positive, would also resulted in something negative as side effect? how about the tooth-to-tail ratio of things? do we have what it takes to keep things going even with today's problem where we can't even find correct solutions to solve it? do you think increasing the gap will make things even better? how and why?
Damn I'm sorry about that, I'm an east Asian kid as well but my experience is not nearly as extreme as that
Faith is the root, without it we tend to go blind, the cultural revolution is a blackout, for it is politically correct, if people know how to achieve, the new formation will be doom, and along with the outcome of alliance, the pyramid on backside of paper bill says it all, if we erase all the big names, the status has never changed unless we received some advance information机遇
The Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40k can be considered a fictional example of humanity as a family of different species.
Most of the population are just baseline humans.
Then you have the Adeptus Mechanicus - a rather extreme example of cybernetic augmentation.
Then there's the Space Marines and the Primarchs, the apex of genetic engineering.
And then you have the multitude of mutants - Navigators, Ogryns, Squats, Psykers, etc.
Transhumanism is also a very convenient way to simply side-step the singularity situation by allowing meat and metal to co-operate in one life rather than compete between two.
I've always argued transhumanism is something we've always been doing, and we only use the term "transhumanism" to refer to things currently on the horizon of the same development path every human technology has followed. Even stone tools, clothing, and cooked food allowed us to transcend the limitations of our human bodies.
Since we now live in a country that is banning (or at least trying to limit) travel to other states because of the medical procedures offered, the line about banning travel seems very topical.
25:27 when he talks about not being capable of feeling certain negative emotions, some of us are already incapable of feeling these emotions. Most people try to tell me I'm lucky I can't feel these, but then learn the downside is that I can't feel the positive emotions either.
If you haven't read it, Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain was early Sci Fi dealing with transhumanist issues. The key theme is children given a genetic modification to not need to sleep, among other bonuses.She discusses a number of social ramifications, and it's one of my favorite books. It'd be interesting to revisit the concept in the era of CRISPR
There is no strength in flesh, only weakness. There is no constancy in flesh, only decay. There is no certainty in flesh but death.
Praise be the Ommisaiah!
Sounds like a mentally unstable psychopath would be saying that.
On brain augmentation: considering most feats of human ingenuity and understanding are likely entirely memetic, couldn't we argue that we became trans-human with the advent of civilization itself? A hunter-gatherer without outside help couldn't hope to solve complex mathematical equations or learn the complexities of the cosmos. We needed many successive attempts at these sorts of things in order to allow the average person to even have the chance to grasp at these sorts of concepts.
This could be partially, if not entirely responsible for what we call 'quality intelligence.'
Not to mention specialization of jobs. When I took an anthropology class the instructor said that most hunter gather groups are very egalitarian, mainly because you have to be able to carry everything with you. This means there isn't a lot of specialization, as everyone is encouraged to do mostly the same jobs. The idea is that, when people settle to farm, they can now accumulate property and rely on more complex trade. So, while the majority of the people will be farmers, a smaller group can set to organization and logistics and another group can perform religious rites. Course, I also heard that, for the vast majority of people, early farming communities sucked. You had two or three crops out of the dozens hunter gatherers use and rates of malnutrition from having much fewer nutrients skyrocketed. Hopefully something like that doesn't happen with transhuman tech.
I love how positive your view of the future is. Not inline with my thoughts, but thoroughly refreshing! Always enjoy your content, thanks!
Even though I am disturbed by his ideas of casually dismantling planets, stars and galaxies to suit our own desires, I enjoy the mental stimulation. The future does not look particularly bright to me either, but optimism is nice.
How though? Transhumanism are literally the answer to everything? also keep in mind that transhumanism isn't just about changing oneself it's about using technology to help human in every way something like glasses are just another form of transhumanism. Keep in mind transhumanism don't just focus on turning yourself into a cyborg, it's also about how you can keep you flesh coat and be biologically immortal(if you are into this one of course). This would made us able to do other stuff experience so much more things and explore the universe when it's possible in distant future(my personal dream) without dying in the process because it takes millions of light years to just get to the next galaxy. I can't help but want to be one and mind you I have a great life as well and even this doesn't seem to satisfy me
Conspiracy theory time.
Just saw filmlur wish Issac a happy new year but they shortened his name to IA. And it clicked..
It's very close to AI....
"Issac Arthur" any comment?!..
Are you here to prepare us for the future?.. 😁
Well whatever the reason your bring us these brilliant videos every week, it been a great year and a happy new year to you and yours!
Transhumanism is indeed a slippery slope. Though I am generally a cautious optimist towards it. It probably helps that I have bioengineering as my university major. I recall that in many Star Trek episodes like _"Measure of a Man" & "Author Author",_ Humanity is defined not by what we are, but rather who we are. Like with your closing sentence, while tech could be used by some to try and abandon their humanity, just as many, and hopefully much more will use tech to further embrace what truly makes us Human.
This is also the approach I take to the idea that humanity among the stars will inevitably radiate as a species not just in relatively minor what like we see on Earth but in drastic ways in which we may not even be the same species anymore, but we will all still be human in my view.
Well that depends what people consider to be the things that make us human.
There are many bindings I would love to escape.
@@kamikeserpentail3778 Like biological mortality, for me. I desire an end to aging, followed by the ability to store vastly more information than my unenhanced brain can right now.
What makes us humans is our ability to transcend our humanity. We have done that every time since we started to use art, technology, modify our environment. Transhumanism is just a continuation of this.
Lol. You're almost there, this is not about prolonging or improving human life on this planet, or to make humans super intelligent. That is just the reason to get the masses on board. They're coming after the ultimate identity. The Identity of being a human. That is the last thing that is connecting billions of people together. Connection is power. This is a slow and soft global takeover in my opinion. I can't say from who.
I have a mechanical augmentation in my left ear... the stapes/stirrup/hammer bone combination was replaced by a prosthetic to be able to hear.
A.G.I Will be man's last invention
@@mistycloud4455 no, the means to destroy the AGI will be.
Honestly, while I'm not apprehensive on augmenting my body in theory, I wouldn't want to be an early adopter. I'd probably wait until the first couple of commercially available generations have gone through debugging before I'd consider augmenting myself, as I imagine there'd be quite a few issues with such new tech. However, given the time it'll probably take to get there, I wouldn't want to subject my aging body to such augmentation unless absolutely necessary.
I dig that. Also, I wouldn't want to be stuck with a Neural Link 1.0 port on my skull when 3.0 is the one where all the issues are resolved.
I also wouldn’t want any augment that can’t be removed if it needs to be. I don’t care if my digitized nervous system can increase my reaction time so much I can dodge bullets or whatever other crazy tech it is, if i can’t remove it, and get a different augment or engineered organic replacement in the case of the nervous system example.
I also wouldn’t want to get any augments I don’t understand the process of creating and capabilities of to the point I could make one myself if I had the resources. That may take a long time, but it’s paramount in ensuring that you can tell if what you got is doing what it’s supposed to he doing, and identify any malfunctions or malware. Getting any augmentation will alter my reality in ways I can’t reverse, so the amount of time it takes to learn so much about them is nothing compared to how much damage they could do to you if you get scammed
Interesting points. I'd opt for a moderate intelligence increase in order to further what goals I have - learning, exploration, etc. - and extended health & life. I'll be saving this for future reference.
I wonder if intelligence downgrades would become popular? Imagine lowering you awareness of the troubles facing the world to focus on your golfing game...
@@darkorion69 Interesting. Maybe as a vacation option?
Long time listener, first time commenter!
Love what you do! Keep it up please, helps me to take my own ideas to another level.
Thanks!
The flesh is weak, praise the Omnissiah.
If the flesh is weak make it stronger
A thing I've been thinking about recently is if infrared/ nightvision became a common augment in humankind, how much light pollution would that reduce? If everybody could just SEE in the dark, it would eliminate the need to light many areas. Not entirely eliminate, but like, mostly relegated to decorative and aesthetic or emergency situations. How dope would that be to look up at the night sky, switch off your infrared vision, and look up to see twice as many stars, maybe three times, the whole milky way? Thinking about this (albeit rather optimistic) one example of transhumanism paints a very positive picture for me at least, an "artificial" augmentation leading to more "human" experiences in the long run. Not a departure from humanity but a way to better experience it.
Wonderful comment, I really like that. Using technology to enhance and enrich the human experience, not harm it.
Make me into a living starship.
Can you sing? 🚀
I have a hard time trying to think of a technology, product or service that governements have actually been effective at banning when there's actual demand. Markets, like life, find a way.
@@thelastpillar4973 Haha, I never said I wanted in my body.
Honestly, I'm all for transhuman augmentation, whether through cybernetics, genetic engineering, or some combination of the two.
Then again, I dont know how much value I honestly place on my own humanity, as a concept. Part of me wants to go beyond to see what, if any, limits exist for my self-improvement.
Then do so. But don't go unprepared. Read "The Selfish Gene" and attendant works to understand who you are and why you do the things you do. How humanity operates. You'll at least understand the mechanics of it, and the rest is yours to explore and discover.
I think you need help.
I would like a suite of nanobots that will protect me from disease and infection. I would like a body that stays fit and healthy with little input from me apart from eating. A body that repairs fully from normal wear and tear. Also a neural lace.
"Most people don't relish the idea of chopping off an arm or gouging out their eyes, even to replace them with a better one."
Me. Sign me up. I'd like to get out of this disgusting meat prison ASAP.
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me..
My question is, do I have to?
Who the hell says I'm limited to just two eyes?
@LashknifeTalon You need help badly. This is the same eugenic barbarism that Transgenderism has brainwashed a generation into believing.
Happy New Year IA
You too :)
I've self-identified as a transhumanist and been active in the transhumanist community for a very long time, and I think that the difference between a transhuman/posthuman semi-utopia and the dystopian nightmare that the Luddites clutch their pearls about boils down to two basic things that are fully within our ability to control.
The first and most important is equal access (without coercion to adopt) to augmentation technology for everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status. With equality, everyone's lives are immeasurably improved. Without it, augmentation technology becomes an insurmountable barrier between the haves and the have-nots, making the already deep divide into a fathomless chasm.
The other, more philosophical factor is that we need to remember that the root of transhumanism is humanism. The more capable we become, the more incumbent upon us it becomes that we embrace humanist values, rather than focusing solely on self-improvement. A true post-human isn't just smarter, stronger, faster, healthier, and more long-lived, but also more compassionate, understanding, and caring. In that regard, a post-human should be more representative of the noblest aspects of humanity than any natural human *can* be. Or, to borrow a phrase from Blade Runner, "more human than human."
The religious and luddites.. basically anyone afraid of or hate change are also a problem. You can't help those that don't want to help themselves. It might come down to this: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
@@JesusChristDenton_7 I wouldn't word it quite ship strongly, but there are definitely people for whom what you're saying is true. When general anesthesia was first developed, there was a small but vocal minority who decried it as sinful, believing that surgery without agony was thwarting "God's plan." Thankfully, the use of anesthesia was normalized over time, but we still see that same mindset at work today with the "death is what gives meaning to life" crowd. (I find that notion so repulsive it's hard to even type it.)
But as long as they don't seek to force their restrictions upon the rest of us, personal decisions like that need to be respected and accommodated - not segregated into isolated communities (unless that's their wish, like the Amish today), but but free to pick and choose which technologies they want to embrace while enjoying the overall benefits of living in an advanced society that's overcome most of its problems.
Most of the more valid concerns about transhumanism I think are not ones about erasing humanity or some sort of vague stuff like that, but rather concerns fielded by disabled and neurodivergent communities. In my experience there's a mix of hopefulness and valid criticism there. From my own experience, I can say that I certainly wouldn't mind having some procedure to rework my brain chemistry to lessen the symptoms of my depression and anxiety -- but at the same time, as an autistic person, the idea of people wanting to completely eradicate autism by modifying their children in the womb is horrifying eugenics to me.
I am reminded of the story of a woman that got a heart transplant and acquired a taste for beer, something she previously hated, from the donor. Whether this was transferred from the actual heart tissue or some of the microbiome that survived the transplant, it is a thing to keep in mind. Who we are is not completely a product of our brains. You will have to assume there will be some change, good or bad, in who you are as a result of enhancements. You would also have to add modifications to our microbiome as a potential enhancements.
Mind blowing stuff like that makes me ask who are we really? I think we just don't know yet...we've really just started on that journey.
Don't forget the guy who got a bone-marrow transplant in his femur and now his sperm (or at least at the time; I don't know) has the other guy's DNA.
@@smorrow Who?
Funnily enough, there is a recent manga that explores transhumanism in everyday life in surprising detail: My Hero Academia. The initial arrival of mutant powers i.e. Quirks, was effectively a biological singularity. An event so disruptive that it threw mankind off the trajectory of space travel and into 500 years of turmoil, so that they remained at roughly modern levels of tech. But the result was a much broader definition of humanity, as well as the rise of superheroes as an institution.
Moreover, as people continue having children, Quirks mix together by accident or intention, and they grow in power and scope. So another threshold called the Quirk Singularity appears to be drawing near. Of course. the worldbuilding is limited by the medium of being a weekly release targeted towards young Japanese boys, but I find it generally solid.
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel.
I aspire to the purity of the blessed machine.
And this is the type of cult brainwashing that we will fight against in the future when Transgenderism dies off.
And we will stop Transhumanism just like Transgenderism from corrupting our youth.
I've seen many steel machines rust away in my time.
@maxpayne2574 but there in lies the advantage of the machine I can replace a spring can you replace your tendons?
I'm intrigued by Brain-Computer-Interfaces, but I find it hard to believe I'll ever trust a company enough to install a closed-source solution. FOSS, on the other hand . . .
Linux neurolink?
As a person who's quality of life that would greatly improved with brain/computer interfaces.
I would be the perfect test case for the tech. I am so worried about closed/open source,... If Tesla cars are any barometer if I missed a payment they would repo my sight, or my ability to articulate these thoughts. - Man... Really makes you think.
Indeed. There are simply certain things too precious for the hand of profit-maximizing ideologies to be allowed to touch, and brain-computer-interfaces are pretty high on that list. I think even at the point of current tech we're seeing the limits of what our social and economic systems can accomplish, with malfeasance and unaccountability on the part of, for example, social media platforms, being the accepted rule rather than a scandal, and shaping our world in a great many, probably largely-negative ways because of its economic grounding in secrecy, duplicity and predation. Hopefully our social and economic systems advance quickly enough to keep up with our technology in the future, so that we can properly enjoy that technology and the prosperity it will produce rather than have a few gatekeepers use it against us.
That raises an interesting question that I'm not sure whether it deserves an episode: What do sports and gaming look like in a 'transhuman' society?
It is a bit sad to miss out on transhumanism, but at least I got to live at a time with corrective eye surgery. My quality of life has gone up since I no longer need to wear glasses.
Hey Isaac, this is back to your normal contemplative, relevant and interesting level which is what has captured me for several years now. IOW, this is a lot better than some of your other recent (still very good just not as mind blowing). Thank you for this episode! You are awesome, Isaac!
In the movie 2001, the aliens at the end were manifested as interacting with Dave as pure thought because it was Carl Sagan’s advice that they would eventually evolve into machines then pure energy. I had always thought of trans humanism as brain uploading.
The future debates about transhumanism will be very intense because of what's on the line
It will be very interesting to see how the different directions of transhumanism will go in the future. Personally I think we will see all kinds of different reactions, and it will surely be a chaotic element in our society for a long time, until different kinds of normative culture will evenutally take hold.
Likely a generation or two I think.
In general I see this is a natural step for humanity, as we have already augmented ourselves since we became human, but there are certainly as many pitfalls as there are opportunities in this.
The one thing I kind of fear when it comes to augmenteation though, is something akin to what we see in South Korea with beauty standards, were one type of "face" has become the de facto standard and so many people opt for plastic surgery, to more or less look exactly the same. There will certainly be some aspects of either gene editing or bionics that will become standard, and that most people will have.
But hopefully we will see many different expressions, uses and philosophies when it comes to it.
Or it will be seen as a cult and barbaric, no akin to eugenics like what Transgenderism is.
I’m always intrigued by the episodes that dive into what our personal experiences might look like in the future.
I'm a strong advocate of transhumanism. I think human biology is broken in many ways. For example, the menstruation process wastes bodily resources on a monthly basis.
Additionally, it might be helpful if humans were augmented with infrared and ultraviolet vision or the ability to regrow limbs and organs.
Also, regarding 24:20, I don't think biological is the opposite of artificial. Rather, the antonym of artificial would be natural. So, for example, if we built a living organism out of raw materials, it would be both biological and artificial.
wastes bodily resources XD why do you already sound like a machine. oh and artificial still means fake , so no I would rather pass on being fake . when would you need to use infrared or ultra violet to such a degree you would need it implanted into your eyes do you think you are some delta force spec ops agent or something ?
Of course. Transhumanism is inevitable. I look forward to being a centuries old 8 ft tall wolfman with nanotechnology-enabled self-repairing bones and tissue. It's going to be weird getting on airplanes... though.
If your going for fur. Might as well make it bioluminescent fur. Thank me later
Thanks for another year of great work!
Our pleasure!
I've always looked upon Transhumanism with cautious optimism.
It's basically just medical science projected forward into a a future of profound technological advancement, I think.
As someone born with a genetic configuration that makes my eyesight inferior to most, limits my ability to enjoy dairy products as an adult mammal (an issue so common it doesn't even really qualify as a "problem"), and gives me flat feet (ditto), I would jump at any chance to alter those genetic realities.
Moreover, as an atheist, I have no illusions I will enjoy any sort of "eternal existence" (nor any illusions that anybody else does, either), so I want my one existence to last as long as possible.
Medical science has always sought to free us from the randomness of evolution, and I think Transhumanism is just more of the same, really.
That said, differences in degree can be real differences, indeed.
Fortunately, I don't think medical science will advance so quickly that it will result in any sort of legitimate moral crisis (although, it will certainly generate its share of *moral panics* that con-artists will seek to capitalize upon for money and social deference, as well as the political clout that results).
When it comes to Transhumanism, I think the old adage applies for any development that isn't demonstrably harmful, "What one generation considered wholly unacceptable, the next generation will consider unusual or avant garde, and the third generation will accept as normal."
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I think what often gets forgotten in transhumanism discussions is the direction of change. Is it normalising change or divergent change.
For instance a big complaint amongst the Deaf community is about Cochlear Implants and to a lesser extent Hearing Aides. Now there's a bunch of issues there such as implanting babies with a non-medically-necessary invasive surgery without their consent - and that's important to consider also BUT a part of the discussion I find interesting is the discussion around difference in life expereince.
The people who are opposed to CI and HA claim that Deafness isn't just a disability, its a different life experience. A part of human diversity. Its not some ailment that we (I'm HoH) suffer with, its a mode of being, a life experience. CI and HA are a project by doctors to make everyone hearing, to make everyone normal. They look at Deafhood and see broken people. They want to normalise us so they "treat" us.
This is modern day transhumanism. But its boring transhumanism. Its not transhumanism to become a super hero - its transhumanism to try to make you normal. Its black hair dye given to all blonde and ginger people - rather than exploration of the wide array of possible hair colours.
Why can't I get hearing aides or CIs that let me hear ultrasonic? Or infrasound? I want dog hearing aides goddamit! I wanna talk with dolphins! The technology exists! You, right now, could have your skull bore into and hear sounds you never even imagined could exist!!!
But no. When transhumanism comes it will be boring. It will make you a better worker at the expense of everything that makes you you.
I know a lot of people that already think of themselves as not entirely human, or would be post-human entirely for all manner of different reasons. Heck, I can think of a few that flat out want to be robots. So yeah, I figure for most folks we'll see a lot of incremental mixed biological and technological improvement of the human condition, but others very well might want to engage in some radical enhancements to achieve self actualization. Also furries exist, so things are sure to get interesting. :)
I remember posts claiming that there are two transhuman genders: K-pop star, and tank.
@@angeldude101 lol
new fav quote "you are about as natural as a wooden chair" 22:16
Two biggest takeaways for me from this. One is Isaac's point that banning something like transhumanism is ultimately pointless if any other nation is willing to pursue it, since all you're doing is ensuring you have no control over the technology.
And two, the comment from Time Zone mentioning we need to approach this with what he called "Optimistic Scepticism", which is a term I love now. Without taking this conversation into politics and ideology, I can attest that fear of change and new technology simply allows those who don't share your own fear to take control of it and doing all in their power to remove you from utilizing it. So we need to make sure people who have this optimistic scepticism stay involved with the development of this technology.
Just imagine what Football games, or sports in general, would look like. Imagine a QB being 100% accurate. Or a transhuman defense that can anticipate plays to perfection. And there would be no need to water down the hitting or tackling as being done in the game today.
A futuristic BattleBots crossed with rugby would be hardcore.
"We regard the present human norm as a transitional state. We will not give up our humanity, but we will perfect it in a thousand diverse ways." - Ian R. Walker
Human PLUS. This is the beginning of what I want.
I remember watching the Outer Limits episode “Unnatural Selection” in my teens and wondering how far away we were from something like that. I remember being empathetic with the father’s plight. He was in a lose lose situation and wanted the best for his child. I wonder how many people will face the same choice once genetic modification becomes the norm.
I think a cool approach to becoming trans-human would be to start with 'accessories' that allow you to remember things better, do logic better and so on. At the same time, just let your brain slowly die as it normally would and, if done right, the accessories would be so much better than your normal brain, you would not even notice when the last neuron in your brain finally died. Think of it like power armor directly linked to your brain that increases all your stats to super human + crappy human strength. Then your body goes feeble and old but you don't even notice the loss of your crappy human strength.
Chances are very good that in the future someone will have to be genetically enhanced in order to biologically accept much of the technology that may come down the line similar to a genetic modification that would allow their bodies to be able to accept organs without fear of rejection.
So genetic modification just to become baseline citizenship auggie in the future will likely be a huge civil struggle
A rather thought-provoking episode!
I often say I can't wait to abandon my meat sack and live in a tin can that looks like a human. But you raised a good point in questioning how far we'd really go to try and abandon humanity. I don't necessarily think any of us actually could "abandon humanity" since the term itself seems very subjective and personal to each individual.
While some argue that tattoos and piercings are a step too far, others would embrace going full cyborg, while still others would accept biological alterations. I don't think any of these options would count as abandoning humanity for the individuals taking those options. Even if someone were to go full cyborg but become a full-blown robotic dragon instead of a humanoid with arms and legs, they'd still be human, in my own opinion. However, I consider humanity a psychological element rather then a physical one. Maybe humanity refers to our specific brand of sapience and sentience.
Why be human shaped anyway?
Why even be constrained to one body?
But empathy should still be worth retaining I think.
@kamikeserpentail3778 I'd say retaining some roots in your origins would be a good idea.
Even if you could stick your brain into a spaceship and be a literal Reaper from Mass Effect, keeping some reminder of your human origin may be all that stands between you and going absolutely bonkers.
Though that also sounds fun, and I might do that...
As a writer I tend to think of these sort of things when thinking about the future of my universe as I progress the story. In it I have augmented reality in the eyes as a normal feature and on military ships it's a requirement with screens only showing information to those who have the required augmentation, regular humans have things like the ability to look up information about people and objects that they see, like specific information about a certain species so that you don't accidentally poison them or offend their culture and you can learn about any object you interact with. There's also nanobots that completely change medicine and buildings and it even changes cosmetics, like the ability to instantly apply makeup, change hair colour and even eye colour and they can be used to constantly monitor the body for detecting any medical problems and also determine things like the perfect food to eat to be as healthy as possible. Telepathy would also be possible with communications technology being implanted into the brain, other augments would be instant access to learning databases that can teach you new knowledge and help with complex mathematics.
My favourite future tech I created is a machine that can alter DNA to give people specific abilities to help with certain jobs, for example engineers on spaceships would be altered to resist electricity more and soldiers would have stronger bones and higher muscle mass. This machine is also used to mend the body and fix things like disabilities cancer, being transgender, etc and also used to prolong life (but I gave it a limit as every change isn't as good as the first, so it can only be done so many times).
Really when it comes to transhumanism if done right then it would be amazing. When it comes to medical implications, like with current healthcare to do it correctly it would need to be available to all (maybe the rich get slightly better implants but the basics are available to all who need it).
As a disabled person I'd love to have some robot eyes, those would be cool.
As a writer I always find these videos interesting.
“Your” universe!? Like poets assuming ‘my’ experience is ‘your’ experience, then realizing that ‘my experience” is my “experience” and having to justify “your experience” to our experience.
Got me? It’s not ‘your universe’, it is our universe.
Justify yourself as determiner of our universe,
I’m writing a story set in a multiverse, where the main character is from an extremely advanced universe, and makes it his mission to find and guide humanity in a universe where the universe itself is at the state most similar to the state his own was in during humanities earliest civilizations. Basically it’s the universe as close to his own as possible in context of how humanity specifically was behaving and existing, with many divergences in other areas. I explain away the problem of the possibility of multiversal travel leading to us having had to experience it, by The multiversal structure infinite, less in a quantitative way and more a conceptual one. The macro structure of the multiverse(and omniverse, but that won’t be revealed until later, at least to the main character) exists on a scale we can’t conceptualize, but can experience. Basically, it’s an infinite universe in the sense that the concept of quantity doesn’t really exist on that scale. It’s based on the base structure of a fractal, where infinite reflections can exist inside infinite more and still be one thing, but also everything inside it, but within the story, it also includes the fractals that don’t exist, which doesn’t make sense because a structure like that is beyond human comprehension. This allows me to have the main character jump between his universe and the one he’s guiding without it breaking its own logic.
The main character decides to do this for several reasons, the first is that he wants to uplift people, for their own sake, respecting their autonomy and not being the shady guy that guides civilization but clearly puts his own interest first(ahem the emperor of mankind ahem), but his own people don’t need him too and other alien life either is at the same level, doing their own thing, or just not a good idea to interact with. He also is insanely curious as to how such a civilization may develop, and compare it to his home universe when they finally reach the same level. See who got their quicker, relatively speaking, that type of curiosity.
The main character is entirely benevolent, and while that may sacrifice some storytelling Avenues, it lets me create the story for the purpose I want it to serve.
I’m writing it less to explore the future of essentially what happens when the emperor of mankind is a wise communist and not a dictator, which is inevitably who the mc will be compared to as the serve the same function, and more as a way to explore the idea of what happens when all advancement and knowledge is matched equally with the wisdom to use it responsibly, and how this can be done, and to explore the ideas of how the way knowledge is learned affecting its users differently, and when they learn it changes society. The Shepard and flock dynamic between the mc and the rest of society created to be a more direct way for me to ask more specific questions more easily. The way the mc Unites humanity is also meant to be a way to make statements on how to get and maintain loyalty, what drives innovation, what it means to be alive and what qualifies as sentient, and other questions I’ve always pondered.
The society is United by choice. The mc arrives around the Bronze Age, and simply offers the people of various societies a new way, shows the people demonstrable proof of his claims, and offers gifts of more basic knowledge regardless of if they will follow him. If not, he leaves them alone, as they will inevitably change their minds as the merit in the philosophy of mankind and its greater structural is self evident, and his guidance and its “hierarchy” is self justifying.
The Mc got rid of things like slavery, Genocide and other violent conflicts or cruelties by making them have no real benefit. Ideological conflict was far better resolved in debate than it was in the eradication of those who deviated from the “norm” and fighting for resources is stupid when you can instead learn how to improve your use of them to go to the stars, where any limit you can find won’t be until long after earth itself is gone.
He got rid of things like bigotry with education, decentralized, and diverse education that put its main focus in teaching people how to think, not what, and the teaching itself being the goal, not any specific answer. You could not receive an education in that society without being given the tools to be able to recognize the signs of propaganda and understand the fundamental unity of mankind on a large scale. So any difference, no matter how artfully worded and constructed, no matter the quality of the propaganda would be able to sow that type of behavior into mankind. That’s a type of behavior that perpetuates itself and is hard to stop once it starts and is left unchecked, but if it’s shot down every time from the beginning, at some point no one is really inclined to believe ir anymore regardless of how often assholes just tend to spawn into reality.
There’s a lot more I can discuss, but I’ve already lost whatever ny original point was with this comment so I’m just gonna stop it here and hope this comment interests people even if just a bit
I, for one, did call my grandpa a cyborg... with his glasses, replacement hip, pacemaker and a fake waste disposal thing
Anyone that has a painful chronic illness like myself who has ankylosing spondylitis would really, really benefit from transhumanism. I would 100000% get a robot body or go into a computer if there was a large community of people who could do a same and if the alternative body had similar senses etc.
Escaping the meatsuit to become a sapient quantum internet stream (｡♡‿♡｡)
I really love this topic, and I could listen to many hours of you explain the common issues & concepts that arise in this topic.
Also, happy New Year. I've been a fan for a while, and I enjoy all of your content. You appear to be a genuinely good guy.
13:05 my brain: this sounds a lot like Julian Bashir
Isaac Arthur: *mentions it five seconds later*
The neglected "technologies" in futurist discussions are psychology, group psychology, and their applications including education/training, effective behavior, and rapid adaptation to assigned roles. Human evolution is as much about social evolution including technical evolution ... but GMO and nanotech open the door to the evolution of individual bodies as well.
As someone who is both physically disabled and uses a hearing aid, discussions of transhumanism have always been something I was very interested in. In particular, I was always interested in what the take would be on someone physically disabled undergoing an invasive surgery to bring themselves a little closer to the "baseline". And once that happens (e.g. I get new legs or a chip in my brain stem to fix the nervous signals sent from my brain to my limbs), well, there's always an option to improve on things further. Just like you said with the infrared options for the bionic eyes for the blind, hearing aids of the future might have a working range beyond human capabilities (actually, there ARE incidental stories of hearing aid/CI users already picking up sounds no one else can hear... I'll let you decide whether that's a transhuman ability or a potential horror story - as in, the hardware glitching, or going bad)
Nitpick: I *do* know people who refer to themselves as cyborgs - usually, but not always, cochlear implant users, more rarely hearing aid users. On that note, when you said pacemakers or hearing aids aren't controversial (as, presumably, opposed to transhumanist augmentations), cochlear implant would've been a more apt comparison. And they ARE, in fact, controversial! There is also some controversy around leg prosthetics when it comes to sports, just google Oscar Pistorius...
I would be very interested in reading some of those older takes on prosthetic arms and the like, where you said that some predicted they might make the user less human. And similarly, I had no clue Asimov's works were THAT old! Speaking of old things, the notion that transhumanism means jacking things in, is likely due to the fact that the cyberpunk genre has its roots in the 1980s, well before WiFi was even a concept, let alone a thing. And for some reason, that idea really caught on and refuses to budge even in light of the obvious fact that it'd be easier to make something like an EEG cap, communicating with the brain wirelessly, than, as you mentioned, having a robot surgeon capable of wiring together all those wires and neurons. Not to mention you avoid an infection vector. However, some things will likely remain transcutaneous/subdermal, eg. bone conduction hearing implants - because of laws of physics...
The bit about the fastest way to colonizing the universe came a bit out of left field, tbh...
And now even more thoughts: you seem to conflate transhumanism with post-scarcity, and say that IQ augmentations do not make sense because there is no one who might want to hurt you either way. I'm afraid neither are true. Transhumanism is IMHO waaay closer (see above) than post-scarcity, which requires a near-inexhaustible source of energy, most likely fusion, and we all know fusion is... "forever 30 years away". And people being people, they will inevitably find a way to divide themselves and draw lines between human and "not-human", and sectarian or some-ist (speciesist?) attacks will probably still be a thing.
Hating your body to the point of getting rid of it comes off as needing help on your end.
@@achaudhari101who said anything about hating your body?
@@katm9877 You and a bunch of other people here that thinks being human is the equivalent of being a prison. Just cult like nonsense.
So regarding the eyeball thing, one must remember that your eyes don't work like Cameras Sensors or even Screens. We're really far away from having artificial eyes, even if we want to just tap the nerves.
I chuckled at the line about "piercings & tattoos containing circuitry and electronics sooner than not" as I'm currently trying to decide what color LED I want for my first injectable light up NFC chip.
When I was fighting cancer in 2003, I called my Port-o-cath, used to inject chemotherapy directly into my heart via a tube that ran down a vein in my chest, a "Borg Implant". Everyone got the joke. :)
As someone who was born with at least 3 different birth defects/disabilities, I must say that I have a vested interested in the biotechnologies and a few other technologies that fall under the transhuman category. I'll never understand those who call for banning the such technologies.
Still producing Grade A material sir.
Thanks.
I’m all in On augmentation! Scramble those genes
Thank you. Happy new year!
As a transgender person, I'll declare myself to be a trans human
based
I think a digitized humanity living in a computer simulation is inevitable. If we’re pursuing both immortality and an unlimited quality of life, it’s much easier and cheaper to achieve that within a computer than in the real world. I think you can already see the seeds of this in how fast computer technology is advancing compared to other types of technology or the scale of engineering we’re capable of.
Most superherodom that gets made tends to presume what is best called the Spiderman syndrome: "With great power comes greater responsibility." - Not me.
The issue is more that when the Super comes along, they must pick up the moral divide's worth of Superhero/ine needing accidents, crimes, and the like.
@Isaac Arthur, as a thought experiment I have often pondered on The Fermi Paradox in relation to consciousness and the question of does consciousness (individually or collectively) manifest our reality, and if so could the answer to the Fermi Paradox simply be because we as a conscious entity are not ready to accept that other intelligent technological species can exist, that by the act of contact would almost certainly mean a more advanced species than ourselves, and therefore we do not manifest such into our reality, I realise this thought "experiment" touches on many area's that are not understood or even considered, but I would appreciate your own thoughts on this, as a respected logical thinking peer
30:56 Better embracing their humanity through technology rather than stepping beyond it.
My god such a powerful and poignant thought. One of the things I love about you and this show, your tempered and well explained optimism.
Honestly I have yet to see much Sci-Fi take and embrace such an outlook. Outside Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of Time series maybe, the positive effects such an outlook can bring would be wonderful.
A fantastic video Isaac, may 2023 teach me and uplift me and others further.
Monkeys in a barrel... smart spiders.... That book captured my imagination from the start.
@DJRonnieG The moment I got to the end of the second chapter I knew I was in for something great. Such a wonderful book.
Emotional dampening is perhaps the closest can of worms you've touched on. We do it chemically on a daily basis with psychiatric patients, but it's such a dangerous thing that we're not legally allowed to do it with anybody else. Our emotions are pretty much our survival kernel, programmed over millions of years and fine-tuned epigenetically, and their accute sensitivity and nuance makes their meta-stability such a fickle thing... It's no wonder our culture evolves along with our psycho-emotional capabilities and that disruption on one side or the other can and does create friction until a new meta-stability is reached.
The Cybermen of Dr Who fame were introduced in a specific attempt to scare people along these lines. We really had no idea how much of our humanity would be lost to things like organ transplants, and artificial body parts back in those days, but we were getting to a technology point where we could see that it might be possible to do so. The Cybermen were an attempt to take it to the maximum level(1960 low budget sci-fi special affects aside)
Transhumanism has become an increasingly popular topic in recent years, with many people advocating for its ultimate adoption. Transhumanism can be defined as the idea that humans should strive to use science and technology to enhance physical and mental capabilities, free themselves from many limitations of the human body, and ultimately transcend mortality. While this may sound like a far-off concept that is more suited to science fiction than reality, advances in biotechnology and other areas make it more viable every day.
The development of transhumanism has been driven mainly by individuals seeking to improve their lives, as well as scientists and engineers looking for ways to extend life or make it easier. Supporters of this movement believe that humans can significantly expand their potential by using science and technology. This could include boosting intelligence, eradicating disease and ageing, becoming independent from any specific environment, or even travelling at speeds faster than light. This concept also includes making humans more resilient against natural disasters and other calamities that could threaten humanity’s existence.
One major concern associated with transhumanism is how much control people would have over their bodies if they were suddenly enhanced beyond what was naturally possible. Therefore, it is important to move forward cautiously with any changes that might result from such augmentations to not create an imbalance between those who possess them and those who don't. Additionally, these procedures' ethical implications must be considered before further advancements are made.
Another area where transhumanism poses potential risks is privacy issues; individuals with enhanced capabilities may gain access or control over sensitive information or processes without permission from others. For this potentially powerful technology to be implemented safely, measures must be taken to ensure security and accountability on both sides; those conducting the enhancements and those receiving them must be aware of their rights and responsibilities when it comes to utilising such technologies responsibly.
Ultimately, the future of humanity depends on how responsibly we pursue transhumanistic technologies now; if advancements occur too quickly without proper oversight or consideration of the potential dangers they pose, then we could end up creating an even larger divide between “haves” and “have nots” while risking our collective safety against unforeseen consequences down the line. Regardless of one's opinion on this matter, there is no denying that transhumanism presents a unique set of opportunities that should not be overlooked - so long as we continue moving forward with caution and forethought for all involved parties.
I am not sure everyone will share your wish to preserve your humanity. After all, early humanity did not want to hang onto their ape-ness. Rather, they worked hard to separate themselves from other apes at every opportunity and generally looked down on them. Even today, "ape" and "monkey" are considered to be insults, even though we have no reason to be insecure (given that chimps don't built space stations). I think there will be a drive, at least in well-to-do circles, to rise above obvious human frailties.
One thing that has seem evident as I'm watching your video, what is defined as transhuman seems likely to be a rolling definition as things become normalized, they are no longer considered outside the norm of human experience. Things like pacemakers, organ transplants, metal braces in your skeleton. All would seem like wonderous enhancements to prior generations.
Excellent point. These goalposts keep moving as new technologies become mainstream. We'll be digitalized before you know it!
I would totally upgrade to an immortal shapeshifting multi-personality 4 armed furry cyborg/robot. I dont care how inhuman I become, I was never really considered a human in the first place.
Protogen?
@@generalfluffyproto I'm betting more Ghost in the Shell style, synth inside, seemingly organic outside.
Otherwise, magic, I'd wager.
I feel the biggest hurdle is going to be that once this tech becomes available, the question of who is allowed to use it will rise to the top pretty quickly.
Let's just bring a can of worms into the argument and say that instead of first figuring out how to make a human smarter, we happen upon the ability to to impart knowledge and/or ability on a human being.
Just the ability to increase someone's creativity by a small degree (which has already been noted as a side effect to some chemical compounds) would immediately cause a massive argument, we already see this with the use of neural networks to create art, if you can pay to get ahead as an artist, you can bet that some pretty extreme reactions would occur from both the people born with extreme aptitude in the subject, and those that had to work twice as hard to get to a level where they can live off their art.
Sports is the next obvious flashpoint, academia would almost certainly follow suit, and when we have a large number of people bashing the new tech because they are angry at the idea of someone new taking a shortcut to what they have accomplished because of their natural aptitudes (and/or a large degree of hard work) I sadly expect its use to be immediately limited to those wealthy enough not to need to care.
The strongest human reaction is always going to be towards those that seem to want to rob them of what makes them special, even though the bell curve really ought to be flattened after all this time, we are fully aware that some people win the lottery at conception, so why not allow the rest a little time to shine?
@@lelagrangeeffectphysics4120 I don't fail to realize anything, I simply see that the few capable people are the ones that set the arbitrary value. You happened to live on ground that contains oil, so now you're fighting anything that can create oil from thin air. Art is a fiat currency.
@@lelagrangeeffectphysics4120 Who cares?
Do artists create their art so they can make millions selling it to museums and gain fame?
Maybe some do.
But many of the great artists did it to express themselves, they did it for themselves, or for the simple act of creation.
In my opinion there's a horrible corruption in humanity, when there's a mindset where the only reason anything has value, is because many, many other people don't have it.
Really the massive worth of fine art is just a sign of the money laundering and broken mindset of humanity more than anything special about the artist.
If I had to choose between the Mona Lisa hanging up in my living room or a piece of art a friend made for me, I'm taking my friend's work.
grafting would be very interesting, especially rewiring nerve bundles all the way to the brain for body parts that were amputated years/decades ago. last I checked all that can be done is stretch out the nerve endings that are left, they can't put them back once amputated, especially after tens of years of it not existing, and equally as much when there are specialized nerve endings that can't be 'taken' from somewhere else. I imagine a great many would be happy having something 'undone' that was done to them without their consent when young, the repulsiveness or mandatoriness of being quite dependent on gender, and what gender is different for various societies, and some amputations had been more universal for those that didn't fit 'the norm'. things I can't type directly on TH-cam yet a good parallel could be, a society that amputates eyelids as a precautionary measure against pink eye or punishment against those that fell asleep and forced on everyone else "so they fit in", or something just as confounding. being able to have your original eye or inner ear grown and put back would be equally as impressive after an accident as well. I think those will be a thing before the BCI "close your eyes and you see your computer display" kind of implants. for now, at best, all doctors can do, is mash the severed ends of the twisted pair of telephone cable trunks together and "just hope" enough wire pairs line up that most messages are not getting crossed from heat pain muscle, and touch nerves going to the brain that it sort of functions, and that's when they have the amputated part to try to put back. enhanced ears (subsonic/ultrasonic) and eyes (IR/UV/etc), would require proficiency with the former wiring up the original part as it was genetically. I also feel it will be a thing dependent on 'where' will determine how excepted or shunned a particular grafting/implant/augmentation is well into the future, even for things like elf ears, cat eye irises, reflective cornea backings (tapetum lucidum), etc.
Cyclops' eyebeams are not light, they are "force." He does not generate it either, he opens micro-portals to an alternate dimension of pure "force" energy and it flows out like a fire hose. they can be moderated by certain types of crystal, but against anything else they impart physical force on impact.
Allow me to mention the elephant in the room. I am 15:00 in and wonder if he'll touch the fact that a low level of trans-human exist already. Transgender people. I'd argue that people would only want to alter their bodies in fundamental ways if they had a really STRONG drive to do so based on that experience. Transuman also need not mean "super human". It could just mean different abilities.
He brought up briefly the idea of changing one's gender near the beginning, but never returned later to touch on transgender people themselves and the lengths gone to alter one's body to more closely match one's self-perception.
transhumanisim to me is best kept as simple to explain as possible simply using science to make humanity, and life in general better things that could universaly be agreed to be an inprovment, better memory, vision, seeing more wavelengths of light, lessened sence pain, that natural antifreese that some frogs have that lets them revive after being incased in ice and generaly just more free... to have the body one wants, to do what makes one fulfilled.
Imagine objecting to a blind person getting mechanical eyes.
Also, a mechanical heart was never at risk of dehumanizing people. Some worries are just irrational. I wouldn't say that about all worries to do with transhumanism, but a lot of them, yes.
Frankly, even if these things did dehumanize us, considering all the shitty things we do to each other, I'm not so sure humanity is not massively over-vaunted.
@Heavy Metal Pulp A) Being hacked is a definite issue.
B) I've not seen it. It's difficult to comment on it. CRISPR editing in adults may be able to address that, as Isaac Arthur pointed out.
C) I'd imagine there would be a period where it's possible to get such extreme body mods where they are not easily undone, but I'd expect such periods to be decades at most before newer, better techniques will make things entirely reversible.
I think you meant transhumanism would allow to change one's sex, not gender.
Thank you for all the wonderful content you provide Mr. Arthur. Your videos are inspirational! Happy New Year!
What a great episode 👏 my deepest gratitude!
Well, I guess I'm an outlier then, because I'd go for every upgrade/augmentation I could get. If it's available to me and improves on whatever I already have, I'd take it, invasive or not.
that's gotta be super expensive, also pretty sure there's an entire genra about why it's a bad idea to do that, especially if it's based off proprietary software
There are people who think that the incorporation of technology into our physical and cognitive abilities would result in a loss of humanity. However, it is my belief that this is not the case. The concept of being human is one that pertains to the inherent characteristics and qualities that define the human experience, and distinguish us from other forms of existence. While advancements in technology may allow for the enhancement of our physical and cognitive abilities, it does not negate our humanity. This is because what truly defines us as human beings is not our biological bodies, but rather our ability to possess consciousness, emotions, and the capacity to understand and engage with the world around us. These intrinsic qualities are integral to the human experience and can't be replicated or replaced through technological means. Thus, even if we were to become transhuman, we would continue to possess these fundamental human characteristics, and would therefore remain human
Very well presented, Happy New Year Isaac
cyclops' optic beams dont produce heat, it's purely concussive force 🤓