Transhumans: Technology Powered Superhumans

Transhumans
Technology Powered Superhumans
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

Transhumanism is the belief or theory that the human
race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental
limitations by means of science and technology.

Transhumanist Technologies


Cryonics is the high-fidelity
preservation of a human body,
particularly the brain after death,
in anticipation of possible future
revival. Cryonics is an important
Transhumanist technology not
only because it is available
today, but also the technology is
relatively mature where we can
reliably stop cells from decaying.

Virtual Reality is a computer
simulated environment where
reality simulations become so
immersive in high-resolution that
they are indistinguishable from
the real thing. Simulations
become the preferred
environments for work and play.
The main obstacle to truly
immersive virtual reality is not
the visuals but the haptics, i.e.,
our sense of touch.

Gene Therapy is replacing
bad genes with good genes, and
RNA Interference can
selectively knock out gene
expression. Together, they give
an unprecedented ability to
manipulate one’s own genetic
code. Like many Transhumanist
technologies, gene therapy is
exciting because it’s just
beginning. No scientist has yet
performed gene therapy on germ
line cells (sexual cells) due to the
ethical controversy of producing
genetic changes which are
heritable, but, as with many of
these things, it’s only a matter of
time.

Space colonization is
closely related to Transhumanism
through the mutual association of
futurist philosophy. It is believed
that embrace of transhumanism
will be necessary to colonize
space. Human beings aren’t
designed to live in space as our
physiological issues with it are
manifold. E.g., we could melt on
the surface of Venus or could
freeze on the surface of Mars. The
only reasonable solution is to
upgrade our bodies.

Cyborg is a cybernetic organism,
constructed of mechanized and
organic material. The trend of
Cyborgs started with mechanized
body part implants for the
handicapped, e.g. Prosthetic
mechanized body parts, but many
human beings have embraced
voluntary infusion of technology with
their physical bodies. Many Cyborgs
today have capabilities beyond
human beings which include hearing
and vision enhancement, metabolic
enhancement, artificial bones,
organs, and even brain-computer
interfaces that can be implanted
beneath the skin, invisible to the
casual observer.

Self Replication in Robots
According to a NASA study for
Advanced Automation for Space
Missions, self replication in robots is
a matter of engineering and no
fundamental theoretical
breakthroughs are needed. By
creating autonomous replicating
procedures, colonization in space
also is possible.

Molecular
Nanotechnology is the
ability to build structures to
complex atomic specifications
from distinct materials. This
leads to a concept called
Nanofactory. In practical terms,
the creation of Nanofactory
would mean that practically
everything could be made out of
Diamond. Motors would
become so powerful that a cubic
centimeter would provide
enough torque to propel a
car. Medical Nanodevices could
heal wounds and repair organs
without the need for surgery, and
air-suspended Nanodevices
could be configured to simulate
practically any desired object on
demand.

Megascale Engineering
refers to building structures at least
1,000 km in length in one
dimension, e.g., A Space Elevator or
Green Skyscrapers. The production
of such large structures could be
done with emerging technologies
like Self Replicating Robots and
Autonomous Drones . Megascale
Engineering goes hand-in-hand with
the grandiose Transhumanist vision:
intelligent beings spreading across
the cosmos, and eventually shaping
the very structure of the universe
itself.

Mind Uploading is the
process of copying or
transferring a conscious mind
from a brain to a non-biological
substrate by scanning and
mapping a biological brain in
detail and copying its information
and computational state into a
computer system or another
computational device. By
incrementally replacing each
neuron with a synthetic neuronequivalent, the whole process of
uploading the data from a brain
can go down painlessly and
seamlessly. The transfer could
be as slow or as fast as we want;
from the information-processing
perspective of the brain itself,
nothing ever changes.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a
technology that studies and
develops intelligent machines and
software. The AI field, a branch of
computer science, was founded
on the claim that a central ability
of humans can be so precisely
described that it can be simulated
by a machine. It encompasses a
system’s thinking, feeling,
imagination, creation,
communication, and thoughtful
synthetic intelligences with
conscious experiences.

Singularity is a future period
during which the pace of
technological change will be so rapid,
its impact so deep, that human life
will be irreversibly transformed.
Proponents of Singularity postulate
an intelligence explosion, where
super intelligence and successive
generations of increasingly powerful
minds might occur very quickly and
might not stop until the cognitive
abilities greatly surpass that of any
human being.

Neuro-hacking is the colloquial
term for (usually personal or
“DIY”) Neuro-engineering. It is a
form of bio-hacking that is focused
on the brain and central nervous
system. It is any method of
manipulating or interfering with the
structure and/or function of neurons
for improvement or repair. The
reasons for Neuro-hacking can be
improving mental health,
information retrieval and addition of
information.

Notable Transhumanism Thinkers


Ray Kurzweil
Raymond "Ray" Kurzweil (born
February 12, 1948) is an American
author, inventor, futurist and a
director of engineering at Google. He
has written books on health, artificial
intelligence (AI), transhumanism,
the technological singularity,
and futurism. Kurzweil is a public
advocate for the futurist
and Transhumanist movements, as
has been displayed in his vast
collection of public talks, wherein he
has shared his primarily optimistic
outlooks on life
extension technologies and the future
of nanotechnology, robotics, and
biotechnology.

Hans Moravec
Hans Moravec (born November
30, 1948, Kautzen, Austria) is an
adjunct faculty member at
the Robotics Institute of Carnegie
Mellon University. He is known for
his work on robotics, artificial
intelligence, and writings on the
impact of technology. Moravec is
also a futurist with many of his
publications and predictions
focusing on transhumanism.
Moravec developed techniques in
computer vision for determining
the region of interest (ROI) in a
scene. The Region of Interest in a
4D dataset is the outline of an
object at or during a particular time
interval.

Natasha Vita More

Natasha Vita-More (born
February 23, 1950 as Nancie
Clark) is an American designer
and theorist. She is designer and
author of "Primo Posthuman,” a
future whole body prototype. VitaMore is an adjunct professor at the
for-profit University of Advancing
Technology (2012-current), and a
Fellow of the Institute for Ethics
and Emerging Technologies. She
is currently Chairman of the Board
of Directors of Humanity+.

Max More

Max More (born Max T.
O'Connor, January 1964) is
a philosopher and futurist who
writes, speaks, and consults on
advanced decision-making about
emerging technologies. In a
1990 essay “Transhumanism:
Toward a Futurist Philosophy,”
he introduced the term
“Transhumanism” in its modern
sense. More is also noted for his
writings about the impact of new
and emerging technologies on
businesses and other
organizations.

Ben Goertzel
Ben Goertzel (born December 8,
1966, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is
an American author and
researcher in the field of artificial
intelligence. Goertzel stated that
he is a founding member of
the Transhumanist Order of
Cosmic Engineers and that he
has signed up with Alcor to have
his body frozen after his death,
and that he expects to live
essentially indefinitely barring
some catastrophic accident. He
also promoted
the OpenCog project which aims
at building an open
source general artificial
intelligence engine.

Nick Bostrom (born Niklas
Boström on 10 March 1973) is
a Swedish philosopher at St.
Cross College, University of
Oxford, and is known for his
work on existential risk and
the anthropic principle. He is
currently the director of both
The Future of Humanity
Institute and the Program on the
Impacts of Future Technology as
part of the Oxford Martin
School at Oxford University.

Andres Sanberg

Anders Sandberg (born July 11,
1972, in Solna, Sweden) is a
researcher, science
debater, futurist, Transhumanist,
and author and currently a James
Martin Research Fellow at
the Future of Humanity
Institute at Oxford University.
Sandberg's research centers on
societal and ethical issues
surrounding human
enhancement and new technology,
as well as on assessing the
capabilities and underlying science
of future technologies.

Notable Transhumanist Organizations


Singularity University is a benefit
corporation (a for-profit entity that
wants to consider society and the
environment in addition to
profit) and learning institution
located inside NASA Research
Park in Silicon Valley. Its stated aim
is to “educate, inspire and empower
leaders to apply exponential
technologies to address humanity’s
grand challenges.” Singularity
University is not an accredited
university but is instead intended to
supplement traditional educational
institutions. Its programs range from
an annual 10-week summer course
intended for graduate and postgraduate students to seven-day
programs for senior corporate
executives and senior government
leaders. Other programs include
global outreach and conferences.

Humanity+ is an international nonprofit membership organization that
advocates the ethical use of
technology to expand human
capacities. Approximately 6000
people belong to Humanity+ from
more than 100 countries. One of
the major initiatives is the
Humanity+ magazine which covers
technological, scientific, and
cultural trends that are changing
and will change human beings in
fundamental ways.
Humanity+ published two articles
by Institute of Customer
Experience (ICE)on Future of
Entertainment. The articles can be
accessed here:
1. Ghosts, Resurrections & Fantasy in
the Entertainment Industry (Part I)
2. Future of Entertainment – Global
Community Scenario Gallery (Part
II)

Transhumans among Us


Jesse Sullivan
Jesse Sullivan, hailed as the
world's first "Bionic Man," lost his
arms as a result of an accident
during his work as an electrical
linesman. The Rehabilitation
Institute of Chicago gave him the
opportunity to replace his arms
with robotic prosthetics, which,
thanks to a procedure that
connects his nervous system to
the artificial arms, allowed him to
lift objects by just thinking about
doing so. Sullivan was the first to
receive this treatment during a
2005 procedure at RIC's Centre
for Bionic Medicine.

Kevin Warwick

Kevin Warwick, a
professor of cybernetics at
the University of Reading is,
by his own admission, the
world's first cyborg. His first
experiment on himself was
to implant an RFID chip
under the skin of his
forearm, in August 1998.
His goal was to be able to
control lights, heaters and
computer equipment
without having to physically
touch such devices in his
vicinity. The room detected
he was inside, and it
responded accordingly. The
second experiment saw
Warwick connect the nerve
fibers under his wrist to an
array of electrodes. These
electrodes ran up his
forearm and out of his arm
near the elbow, allowing
him to connect them -- and
by extension his nervous
system -- to various
computer devices.

Cameron Clapp was a normal, partyloving, beach hugging teen who loved to
have a good time. One night when he
was fourteen, he got so drunk that he
nodded off on some train tracks and was
run over by a train!

In that instant, his life changed for ever.
Luckily for Cameron, he had insurance
that covered his accident and provided
him with two state-of-the-art legs,
costing a $45,000 each. These are
controlled with a microprocessor chip
behind the knee which is connected to
his muscle sensors and adjust and
move according to his brain’s
commands.

Oscar Pistorius
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius
is a South African sprint
runner. Although both of
Pistorius' legs were amputated
below the knee when he was
11 months old, he competes in
events for single below-knee
amputees and for able-bodied
athletes. He runs with Jshaped fiber prosthetics called
the "Flex-Foot Cheetah"
developed by biomedical
engineer Van Phillips and
manufactured by Össur.

Rob Spence

Rob Spence lost his right eye.
Rather than simply settling for a
glass replacement, he went for
high-end technology. With the
help from friends he crafted a
video camera replacement for
his right eye.
Now his eye records video
everywhere he goes, in an
attempt for Rob to become the
first lifecaster.

Micheal Chorost
Michael Chorost (born December
26, 1964) is an American author,
essayist, and public speaker. Born
with severe loss of hearing due
to rubella, his hearing was
partially restored with a cochlear
implant in 2001 and he had his
other ear implanted in 2007. He
wrote a memoir of the experience,
titled Rebuilt: How Becoming Part
Computer Made Me More Human.
Its paperback version has a
different subtitle, Rebuilt: My
Journey Back to the Hearing
World.

Jerry Jalava

In 2009, Finnish
programmer Jerry
Jalava replaced part of
one of his fingers with a
2GB USB stick, taking the
term "thumb drive" to
literal new levels. Jalava
lost part of his original
digit (the fourth finger on
his left hand) in a
motorcycle accident.

Jens Newmann

Jens Newmann became the
first person worldwide to get an
artificial vision system. His
electronic eye connects
directly to his visual cortex
through brain implants.
Although he can only vaguely
see lines and shapes, his
vision has technically been
restored.

Stelarc (born Stelios Arcadiou
in Limassol in 1946, but legally changed
his name in 1972) is a Cypriot-Australian
performance artist whose works focuses
heavily on extending the capabilities of the
human body. As such, most of his pieces
are centered around his concept that the
human body is obsolete. To prove this,
he’s had an artificially-created ear
surgically attached to his left arm. In
another show, he hooked up electrodes to
his body to allow people to control his
muscles through the Web.


Steve Haworth

Body Modders are people
who deliberately modify the
human anatomy. They
experiment with the idea by
putting rare earth magnets in
their fingertips. Their initial idea
was to use the magnets to help
them carry stuff, but it turns out
that using a magnet in your
hand to carry things around
kills the skin between the
magnet and the object.

Todd Huffman

Todd Huffman can sense
electric fields after implanting
a magnet into one of his
fingers. Since the implant,
he's had sensory
experiences at the local
library with the walk-in
scanner, and could sense the
position of the motor inside
an electric can opener.

Transhumanism in Pop Culture


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Thank You!
This report has been prepared by the team at Institute of Customer
Experience, a not-for-profit initiative by Human Factors International (HFI):
Ankush Samant
& Prashant Vutha.
With contributions from:
Apala Lahiri Chavan
Ashish Mistry
& Rasika Wadodkar.

Address:
No. 184, Mission Street,
Puducherry - 605001
India.
Tel : +91 413 4210583/4/5

+91 413 4210583 / 4 / 5
ice.humanfactors.com/
facebook.com/uxtrendspotting
@UXTrendspotting

Contact ice@humanfactors.com for any further queries and feedback.
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved 11/17/2013

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