Originally Posted by Oracle

And if the point of the thread is to just guess at what transhumanism would look like, this might as well be moved to offtopic or closed, because there's no real discussion to be made.

Originally Posted by ImmortalPig

An attitude shift away from technophobia. That's all that is needed.


Sure, people will have to make choices. But you could always augment without losing anything, for example adding a processor or memory without removing a part of your brain.


Pure capitalism does not exist in the world, not a single country is capitalist.

Originally Posted by Zking

So basically the movie transcendence?

Originally Posted by Zking

If you remove greed, lust, ambition, negative emotion and fear from the equation, while giving society a set of guidelines, they wouldn't be failures since they would be obedient, tranquil, and intelligent. Some sort of industrialist socialist empire would form and proto-humanity would reach the stars.

Originally Posted by protonitron

it involved thrusting an ice pick through the patients eye and swinging it from side to side once it entered the frontal lobe of the brain.

Originally Posted by ZENKID123

Messing with the brain is just too much. Like someone here said(CBA to check who :P), augmentation is one thing, modification is another. Our brain is what makes us who we are. If we clone our brains or upload it to the cloud we are making a copy of ourselves. It's not like when we die our conciousness gets transferred to the new vessel. We die but there is another one like us who thinks he is us but is really not. He is merely a copy. So our conciousness lives and dies with our brain. We are who we are. Modification would take that away. We are who we are. We can copy ourselves but never transfer OUR conciousness.
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/offtopic
Speaking of cloning is it true the US Government was able to clone Dinosaurs?
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Improving is good. Replacing is bad. That's pretty much where I stand ATM. I'm totally for replacing limbs tho etc. Just no brain modifcations so that we stay who we are. One coul argue a perfect human is the farthest thing from perfct. If everyone is perfect then that'd be somewhat boring and everyone would be exactly the same. No conversations. No jokes. No difference. Nothing at all. Basically robots. In the technological term not the slavery term. Has anyone seen the world's end? Good refrence for this Discussion. Besides, who are we to decide the fate of the next generation? That is a path they must forge themselves. Also if there is no failure there is less learning which in turn=less inventions. Human innovation usually comes from necessity, and necissity comes from the will to fix something that's broken. If everyone and everything is perfect there'd be nothing broken. If there was nothing broken a couple of centuries ago then the Pneumatic Tire would've never been invented and in-turn the car and other modern vehicles would've never been invented. Trial and error. With no error there's no trial. And a perfect world/communism would have no currency most likely so the idea that everyone gets rich probably won't happen, either that or all currencies lose value because no one would sink it and it'd just keep growing until everyone was rich and that's fine and all but then what's the point really? To buy stuff? And who makes those stuff? Everyone is so successful that there are no farmers or toy makers or game developers or inventors. Sure it can be automated but machines can't think for themselves which means they can't learn from the task they do even if they do it everyday. If humans can't think for themselves what's the point? They'd essencially be robots. Especially if the Bionic Movement takes effect too. Humans may not be perfect but we are who we are. To become Post-Humans would be a step down or our free will category. That'd be the biggest disavandtage, losing the humanity in ourselves.
Besides why change? To save resources? Stop global warming? In 4 billion years the sun will explode and destroy all the planets orbiting it. It'll become a red giant and swallow our planets up whole. It'll eat us slowly and painfully in a firery inferno. Also the universe has used 98% of it's materials needed for creating new stuff. A good example is you need heat to make sound. Also maybe the word Matter comes from Materials. Matter in the galaxial term not the conversational term. Okay i'm getting way off-topic here i'll stop now. Anyway that's my post. Enjoy reading it.
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Doesn't sound surgical at all -_-
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A good deployment would be that anyone who goes in Rehab just gets their brained tweaked to remove their addiction. As long as it's safe though and wouldn't risk physical or mental harm. Everything is real. Sorry if your wondering what that's supposed to mean I just saw a post here earlier saying some people believe that it's all mental and nothing is real. Everything is real though. If it was just Mental then our nerves would not feel it and send the signal from our sense of touch to our brain.
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As for The Enlightened thing it's like that ep of Futurama where Bender(A robot) comes across robot monks with no free will. It's odd how he a robot would do anything for free will and some humans would want to get rid of it. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. But this side is fine for humanity as for now. The best way to go about solving things is from outside not from inside. We can work things out without genetic alteration. It's all about learning. Cave men didn't need alteration to become us(Or aliens altered neanderthals like some ancient astronaut theorists suggested in that 1 ep of ancient aliens).
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We are Humans and we should stay that way. If Post-Humans ever do exist they could exist on the Moon with Robots and Machines to aid them. It's rather empty anyway. Mars would do too. But the Moon and Mars are a bit too close and Humans are planning to settle their eventually. Maybe if discover light speed travelling or wormhole technology(Assuming it has no bad side effects when it tares you into tiny little pieces and puts you back together somewhere else) then they could go to another moon/planet completely. Not one like Earth though because those are rare and we Humans need them more since we're more accustomed to them. I think Post-Humans and Humans wouldn't Co-Exist well. /offtopic Europa is one of Jupiter's Moons and looks pretty good for Human Settlement. Not too far too
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Besides as sadist as it may sound imperfections are what cause happiness. Candy is sooo not perfect because the sugar is bad for us but we enjoy it
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As sadist as it may sound imperfections bring happiness. Like I said earlier Candy is sooo not perfect because the sugar in it is bad for us but we enjoy it! Imperfections are ok sometimes especially when you handle them correctly. Moderation is usually the key to being able to handle imperfections. And without Lust the Attraction rates would go down and the divorce rates would go higher(Assuming people would even get married anymore because "perfect" people would find it unnecessary +They wouldn't be attracted enough to someone to get married). Attraction plays a big part in what we call "Love". And lets all admit it Sex is great but "perfect" people might not think so much. Sex can be even greater when we take good measures to make it safe and less troubling. Some measures include Condoms, Birth control pills, STD Tests, Trusting your partner, Knowing your partner's background & basically just picking who you have Sex with wisely. Also please don't infract me for talking about Sex, it's merely for the educational purpose of this discussion. Oh and Moderation is a very important thing in Sex too. Sex can have good effects but too much can cause bad ones. Not to mention the more sex with more different people(Or even the same person because every time you sleep with a playboy/playgirl it's like you've slept with everyone they've slept with too which increases the chance for STD transmission) will higher the chances of you getting a potentially life threatening STDs.
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Also i'm sure Sugar can cause good effects too with Moderation. Such as energy boosts and I Glucose Levels too I think

Originally Posted by Augans

this made me want to kill myself

Originally Posted by ynvaser

Well, one more movie to add to my watchlist.

If it has nothing to do with transhumanism, what is? I thought it was about overstepping human boundaries.

Originally Posted by Trollzor99

no desire to do what we want, 0 human qualities whatsoever.

Originally Posted by protonitron

Hey guys. I don't want to get you excited, but we have already discovered reliable ways to remove unwanted emotions from humans. It was discovered by a Portuguese neurosurgeon by the name of Egas Moniz in the 1930s and cured anxiety, hyperactivity, paranoia, depression and other frontal lobe related illnesses. The operation (prefrontal leukotomy) was very well revived in 1936 when the monograph of the tests were published and it became known as miraculous 'psychosurgery'. Moniz won a Nobel prize for his work in 1951.

Now this 'psychosurgery' became especially popular in America where another neurologist, Walter Freeman, invented a new form of surgical approach. You may have actually already heard of it. He called it "transorbital lobotomy" and it involved thrusting an ice pick through the patients eye and swinging it from side to side once it entered the frontal lobe of the brain. He said that patients could even get up and go home afterwards.

In case anyone doesn't know what lobotomy is it basically takes away people humanity and emotion, which, while releaving a great burden and the possibility if mental illness, results in sleep walk like obedient sheep minded humans who can barely function as people any more because that which made them who they were (the imperfections and quirks of illogical life) was taken from them.

So Zking, a world of obedient emotionless humanity ran by the incorruptible overlords is closer than you might think. I hope I have put some perspective on why we shouldn't mess with alter wrong the psychi through surgical action. That having been said, lobotomy victims show striking similarities to the Buddhist archetype of the enlightened (free from desire, free from suffering) so who's right is it to pity them?
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I agree with trollzors about the robot thing in this respect.

Also, I learnt all of this from a chapter in a book I read called "An Anthropologist on Mars" by Oliver Sacks. It contains seven cases taken by Sacks and goes into great detail about both the pathological condition, and the human beings he is dealing with. Sorry for going off topic but I couldn't quote this as a source without strongly recommending it as a book.

Thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by ZENKID123

1. Our brain is what makes us who we are. 2. So our conciousness lives and dies with our brain. We are who we are.

3. Also i'm sure Sugar can cause good effects too with Moderation. Such as energy boosts and I Glucose Levels too I think