Posthuman Possibilities?

[Cosmic Sher]

So we've seen this Posthuman idea all over movies & books, either merging with technology or an alien lifeform or evolving to a new improved version of our own species. But, what is the reality or likelihood of it?

http://io9.com/5150066/posthumans-go-...

What do y'all think?

[Kevin]

i personally am too intimidated by this subject to have a real opinion. first thing i thought of was the 6 million dollar man

duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-da

[RandomAnthony]

I thought I was posthuman already. But not in a good way.

[Kevin]

which makes me hear the song by White Zombie "More Human Than Human" in my head

[Cosmic Sher]

I always wanted to be the Bionic Woman... she was soooo cool.

You can never go wrong with White Zombie. True, true.

[Kevin]

so, i am really going to read this article and try to give you a serious answer

[Lori]

Since I read lots of science fiction, I love the post-human stuff. Not sure I'm looking forward to Hollywood's version. As for the reality, will we survive long enough?

Maybe Buddha was a post-human!

[Chloe]

We are swiftly approaching the Singularity! Bow down to your posthuman overlords!

(yeah, i loves me the scifi as well)

[Félix]

Buddha was/is post/pre human.

[Cosmic Sher]

So, this begs the question (I think) are we in a period of phasing into a new evolutionary species? Is this related to our physiology or our consciousness or both? Is our technology leading us there or holding us back?

These are just some of the strange, random questions that pour through my brain at odd hours of the night when I can't sleep.

I actually would agree with you Larry, in a way. Same as Jesus & other iconic religious figures. And most likely many lesser known characters in history. It makes me wonder about Edgar Casey, R. Heinlein, GH Wells, D. Adams, etc. Do/did they know something we don't? Maybe we are the overlords we're looking for! Ha!

[RandomAnthony]

These are interesting questions. You run into some questions with the terminology, however...what would be the difference between an human and a posthuman, and how would we know the difference? Would the change be so slow that we almost wouldn't notice, or would we see the changes as part of natural "human" evolution? Do we ever stop phasing into new evolutionary species?

My brain will explode if I think about this before 5AM.

[Kevin]

is there a dumb and dumber group i could join?

[[deleted user]]

I do think that we morf over time into the next phase of what humans will be. But with all the gene technology that currently exists and more than likely will improve in the future will the course of nature be taken over by the course of technology?

[Matt]

Very interesting topic. From what I get from Sherrie and Larry, you are both looking at the idea of posthuman as a state of transcendence over what we usually think of as the limits of spiritual, mental, or physical human performance. I do think that human beings are capable of far more things than we believe, i.e. the old saw about the old lady picking the car up off of the baby, but my theories on that are still half baked at this point.

When I think of the word posthuman it is usually regarding that area where technology and biology meet. In the earlier works of William Gibson, it seemed not uncommon for the people in that future society to add pieces of technology to themselves in order to enhance something about their mind or body. On the surface i've always thought that this sounded great and would be all for it. Who wouldn't want the neural interface that gives you an instant understanding of languages that you have never studied? Obviously, I was the kid that didn't want to do the homework and caused the teacher to say "I can't just pour the knowledge in your head!"

However, the reality on the ground would be a little different if this sort of integration was actually available, and I would be hesitant to be one of the early adopters. The technology industry seems to be based around rushed coding jobs and planned obsolescence, so I would fear being the guy sitting in the corner twitching because I got stuck with the Windows ME brain implant and forgot about the latest batch of software patches.

[Kevin]

for me, the greatest advantage would be the ability to delete painful memories with the stroke of a key

then again, they are part of what shape us into who we are and hopefully the ability to not turn our ankle in the same pothole time and time again

[Matt]

Very true, I forgot about the philosophical aspect. How many parts can be added and changed before the whole becomes something completely different from what it was?

[Cosmic Sher]

(Warning: long geeky rambling follows)

I agree... which is why I am suspect of integrating serious technology into our biology, at least at this point. Not only would we be encountering issues that we already encounter with software/hardware production & upkeep (Love the WME brain analogy!), but when you add in the fact that it is integrated into human thoughts, emotions & experiences... well, that really gives me pause.

Consider this - Given the typical super-genious stereotype*, not to mention all the still unknown factors about the human psyche, would implanted technology be compatible or be able to even handle all the subtle nuances & unpredictability of the human thought processes? And, if we were to suddenly take on immediate knowledge, strength or abilities that we hadn't worked to experience, what would that do to our humanity which is largely derived from things like painful & hard-won experiences that we have gained wisdom from?

I think the philosophical aspect is a huge one, and any 'evolution' into a new humanity has to be firmly anchored within our inner selves (spiritual, psychological, etc). That said... bring on the brain chips & bionics! (hee hee)

* This may be a gross overgeneralization but basic tendencies of those who are immersed in science & technology tend to lack some degree of social skills & understanding of human psychology. There I said it. Geeks don't always know the reality of the people around them, and I know this from experience. I mean, all you have to do is look at the characatures in World of Warcraft or similar geeky game and see the 'perfection' of the forms there.
All huge muscles & big boobs with kick-ass abilities, but the personalities underneath are still the imperfect, unsocialized, socially-awkward people underneath. If you don't believe me, just play a female character in one of these MMORPGs. It's unbelievable... but fun. :D *

[Kevin]

but one engineered human i recall had combined body parts and seemingly super-human strength yet melted at the sound of a violin playing in a cottage

[Cosmic Sher]

Whoa... totally out-geeked me there. Reference please?

[Kevin]

Frankenstein

[Matt]

Sherrie: Excellent post. I'm very intrigued by the idea of how people would be different having not had to work for their new abilities.

Kevin: Maybe we should arm ourselves for the coming onslaught with violins.

"Rrrrr...violin teacher hate me..."

[Cosmic Sher]

Doh... Kevin, you totally outwit me there. (Not hard)

For you Tadpole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH2nQH...

And, actually good ol' Frankie is a great example of this. I think he had more humanity than most people.

[Matt]

Hee hee, thanks Sherrie.

When the time came I was going to purchase a used neural interface to save a little money, just gotta make sure that it didn't belong to Abby Normal.

[Kevin]

yeah only because you were thinking asimov and i was thinking karloff