Lose a Tooth, Grow a Tooth, Lose a Tooth, Grow a Tooth…

 Aging Society, Bioengineering, Bionic, Cybernetics, Human Augmentation, Medical Technology, Prosthetics, Technology  No Responses »
May 152012
 

So, Hooray for Tooth Sciences
Some crazy dentists and mad-scientist orthodontists have developed a practical means of rebuilding teeth with stem cells and an individual’s own genetic material. It’s been successfully demonstrated in monkeys and mice (who, along with rats, seem to have all the experimental fun/horror), and now, they’re all up in human grills as well – trials are underway.

Singularity Hub has a very decent write-up on this. You should read their piece because it’s good, and because…

Anthrobotic Currently Sucks at Bioscience
Of course the subject is intertwined with prosthetics and cybernetics and bio-mechanical human replacement parts and such, about which there’s plenty of blah blah blahing going on here, but bioengineering stuff doesn’t get a lot of coverage – which is kind of a shame, since it’s a massive huge giant portion of human technological development.

Anyone wanna, you know, do that? You will be compensated with madd props, questionable prestige, and exclusive access to my 6 regular readers! For now, anyway. I’ll hire someone with actual money after I hire myself.

Toward that end, HEY, my 6 regular readers, spread the word!
Let’s get that number up to 8!

[ARTICLE AT SINGULARITY HUB]

Buckyball Life Extension with a Side of Namesake

 Aging Society, Anthrobotic Originals, Audio Posts, Buckminster Fuller, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Pure Science, Technology, Technology & Disability, Transhuman, Transhumanism  Comments Off
Apr 202012
 

LISTEN TO AUDIO POST

Double Your Lifespan with Super Carbon 
So… put some buckminsterfullerenes (carbon 60) into olive oil, dissolve, ingest, and live to be 150-ish? Well, not yet – but, as reported in a recently published study, by doing so we can make rats live to 2 or 5 or 7 years or whatever is twice as long as rats usually live.

Of course I’ve got no idea how that works, but I guess there’s something particularly badass about dissolving the magical C60, otherwise any old carbon sprinkled on my sandwich would make me live forever, right?

Don’t Get it, But I Can Dig It
I don’t even armchair biochemistry or physics, and I am in no way qualified to evaluate this work from the University of Paris, but hey, I can see the potential. I mean, I don’t know anything about microelectronics or azeotrope esterification, but I can appreciate both the utility of a laptop and the durability and comfort of polyester pants. Continue reading »

TRANSHUMANISM TEST PILOTS: Pre-Exoskeleton Mobility is Still Very Awesome

 Aging Society, Anthrobotic Originals, Bionic, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Human Augmentation, Medical Robots, Medical Technology, Multimedia, Prosthetics, Technology, Technology & Disability, Transhuman, Transhumanism, Transhumanism Test Pilots  Comments Off
Apr 092012
 

Here at Anthrobotic.com, I like to keep an eye on both extant and in-development technologies for disabled humans – also known, to me anyway, as the TRANSHUMANISM TEST PILOTS.

Here’s the Thing:
Much of the technology used to improve the lives of the disabled kinda overlaps or pushes subtly into human 2.0/transhumanist/rebuild-the-animal territory. Otherwise stated, the somewhat primitive yet practically necessary prosthetics and human augmentation implements of today could easily evolve into the voluntary upgrades of tomorrow.
Okay, so…

Wheelchairs
As my 6 regular readers know, I’ve made it quite clear that wheelchairs suck and are totally not invited to the future. Admittedly, they’ve helped millions of disabled people. But we can do so, SO much better – I mean come on – the goddamn wheelchair has gone essentially unimproved upon for more than 100 years!

AMS Mekatronik’s Tek RMD Represents
Humans want to stand. Our physiology and psychology demand this from our body. And this company has an answer. I could blah blah blah about this for several more paragraphs, but your best bet is to watch the video below. This technology can’t help all people confined to wheelchairs, but it’s an amazing step. And dont worry – thought-controlled exoskeletons aren’t far off.

Wanna know what else is being pioneered through helping the disabled?
See all related posts: TRANSHUMANISM TEST PILOTS

[VISIT THE TEK RMD WEBSITE]

BBC’s Bionic Bodies Series Continues (UPDATED)

 Anthrobotic Parity, Bionic, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Medical Robots, Medical Technology, Multimedia, Prosthetics, Technology, Technology & Disability, Transhuman, Transhumanism, Transhumanism Test Pilots, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Mar 132012
 

BBC’s Ongoing Bionics Coverage Updated
As mentioned here last week, the BBC’s put together a nice overview of the state of the art past, present, and future – complete with interactive parts swapping, video, and  brief write-ups on the developers, short documentaries on current users, etc. The series will continue for a few weeks – don’t sleep!

[BUILDING A HUMAN BODY VIA BBC]
[BBC's BIONICS COVERAGE OVERVIEW]

Anthrobotic Pieces:
[BIONIC & BIOLOGICAL: THE FEROCIOUS CONUNDRUM OF BEING 50/50]

[WHERE HUMAN ENDS, MACHINE, BLAH BLAH VIA HERE]

[TRANSHUMANISM TEST PILOTS, I.E. THE DISABLED]

Bionic & Biological: The Ferocious Conundrum of Being 50/50

 Anthrobotic Originals, Anthrobotic Parity, Bionic, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Medical Robots, Medical Technology, Multimedia, Prosthetics, Technology, Technology & Disability, Transhuman, Transhumanism, Transhumanism Test Pilots, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Mar 072012
 

Bionics. Cybernetics. New Parts.
There are million different angles to discuss here, but by far the most interesting idea is a gradual, mutual, acquisitional merger – the pending-yet-not-far-off arrival of homeostasis between biological and mechanical life. One has to kinda, you know, aggressively focus on redefining notions of life and intelligence and awareness and consciousness and pretty much every facet of human existence.
Barring global cataclysm, of course.

Anthrobotic Parity
We’ve steadily marched toward this parity for a long, long time. But now we’re sprinting. When the formerly machine-only and flesh-only entities reach equal saturations of each other’s parts, we then get a philosophical quandary like none other before in the history of life as we know it in the universe. At least, you know, I think so.
Because at 50/50 – which are you?
Your thoughts?
Body?

This is nothing new, in Where the Human Ends & the Machine Begins: Getting Unclearer, I talked about this issue at much more length and with much more snark and external resources – have a read. Also covered here are the Transhumanism Test Pilots, a new series examining how the disabled are effectively the human-trial stage for the voluntary upgrades of the future. So – have a look there, and then jump over to this:

Roll Your Own

BBC’s Bionics Bonanza
They’ve put together a nice overview of the state of the art – complete with interactive parts swapping, video, and brief write-ups on the developers. The series will continue for a few weeks – don’t sleep!

[BUILDING A HUMAN BODY VIA BBC]
[WHERE HUMAN ENDS, MACHINE, BLAH BLAH VIA HERE]

Your Mobile Phone Will Murder Your Face and Andrew Keen is a Genius!

 Aging Society, Anthrobotic Originals, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Mobile, Smartphone, Technology & Culture, Technology & Politics, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Mar 012012
 

…wherein I share my peculiarly offended mobile telecommunication sensibilities.
My pre-apologies for writing such a personally directed piece.

But, meet Andrew Keen. He is a ‘digital commentator.’
A few days ago he wrote a piece on the evils of mobile phones, and it’s just been festering and bothering.

I’ll Summarize
Via CNN, Keen quotes some futurist guy named Hammond:
“He then warns us about a future in which virtual reality will
become so mobile that we will be able to wear it under our skin.“
The flaming retardation of that line alone, and it’s non-ironic inclusion in the piece, kinda sums up the comprehensive absurdity of Keen’s anti-mobile phone rant. It’s so obnoxiously misinform(ed?)ing and irresponsible – burns my eyes to read it.

Bad Press for Technology
See, my bother stems not from my technological utopianism butting up against the technological conservatism* of this piece, it’s really just that what he says is so knee-jerk ridiculous that it borders on satire – borders, but doesn’t cross. Instead it just smugly and blithely foments racism and calls for deploying the national guard. So to speak. Sorry – that’s not going to penetrate for all readers.

Anyway, a nuanced, carefully considered presentation on the nature of contemporary and future mobile communication and how it’s changed our lives (for better or worse) would have been an interesting read, even if the conclusion was still one of pessimism or caution. But it’s just, you know, not that at all. It’s an attack piece on a beautiful human technology. Continue reading »

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