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 »

Transhumanism Test Pilots: Fly-by-Tongue

 Aging Society, Brain, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Human Augmentation, Medical Technology, Neurology, Prosthetics, Technology, Technology & Disability, Transhuman, Transhumanism, Transhumanism Test Pilots, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Feb 292012
 

Something New
Hmmm… I think Transhumanism Test Pilots should be become a regular thing around here – a new section to go with Terminal Anachronism and Japanese Technology from the Future Friday.

I like to keep an eye on transformative technologies for disabled humans – also known, to me anyway, as the Transhumanism Test Pilots! They’re transtastic.
(I can spit out bad taglines all day)

Because The Thing is This:
Much of the technology being developed to assist or augment 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.

And here’s a very good example of the human body used as input device:

Least or Most Dorky Retainer Ever - Depends.

The Tongue Drive System
While unimaginatively named, this new human-machine interface is everything long of awesome. Basically the relative orientation of a magnet on the tongue, which one assumes is not a piercing, originates a signal from the fancy retainer actuating a connected device/vehicle/zombie personal assistant to execute a preprogrammed action.

It’s totally cool.
Have a read of the original article.

[ARTICLE VIA CNET]

Yes, Yes My Lower Jaw is 3D Laser-Printed Titanium. No, I’m Not From the Future.

 Cybernetics, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Medical Technology, Multimedia, Prosthetics, Technology, Transhuman, Transhumanism, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Feb 072012
 

Wow.
Low on time here, so gotta forgo my standard verbosity and just sit back and be impressed by this technology – it’s truly amazing across so many disciplines.

If you dig on such things, have a look at my last post – I went on at great (painful) length about emergent cyborg culture/developments, etc.

For now I’ll just extend congratulations and huge props to developers, surgeons, and the recipient.

[ARTICLE VIA 3DERS - AS IN, ...ERS - THOSE WHO DO STUFF]
[ANOTHER ARTICLE FROM FORBES - ALEX KNAPP]

Where the Human Ends & the Machine Begins: Getting Unclearer…

 Aging Society, AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, Brain, Consciousness, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Kurzweil, Medical Technology, Prosthetics, Technology, The Beginning is Near, Transhuman, Transhumanism, Transhumanism Test Pilots, We're Already Cyborgs Already  4 Responses »
Feb 032012
 

Cyborg Stuff
There’s an interesting piece over at NYT – The Dilemma of Being a Cyborg.
I’m not entirely sure what the dilemma is, but cyborg stuff is no small deal here at Anthrobotic, so it merits some consideration. Here are a few thoughts to roll the ball:

What are the Boundaries of my Physical Parts?
Okay, so I’ve got my guts, and my bones, and my connective tissues – like most people, that’s what I refer to as my physical “self,” the physical Me.

But… then I’ve got a few fillings and a few non-biological implants. Are those things any less Me? Are they just add-ons? What about the various bacteria and teeny-tiny bugs that at all times live in/on my body? Are those Me, too? As part of a whole bacterial culture, individual components pass and new are born – and at a molecular and sub-molecular level, nearly every cell in my body does essentially the same thing.

So my physical body, my Me, seems to be a bizarre combo platter of the co-dependent fauna, the implants (cyborg?), my body’s dead-cell accumulations of hair & finger/toenails, and transient molecules following a recursive pattern that results in my distinctly human biological structure, i.e., all my bones and squishy parts. In sum, these components make up my essential physicality, my manifestation, my both internalized and projected physical reference point for the world around me.

Well, I guess the thing is this: every living human is in a symbiotic relationship with the millions of other organisms contained by our bodies, and by definition many of us are already cyborgs (Dick Cheney, Stephen Hawking, Me). As such, what we routinely conceptualize as our discrete physical “self” isn’t nearly as cut and dried as we might think. Or quite necessarily, not think. Too much thinking about this would result in psychosis and/or a PhD in biological philosophy or losing one’s religion or something.

Technology’s helping us further explore and understand these ideas, but the catch is that it’s also totally complicating the issue.

Because What about the Boundaries of my Personhood?
Where is my Personality, or Soul, or Whatever? Continue reading »

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