#USTE: All immortal? (Transhumanism and philosophy)

General scientific debates. Presentations of new technologies (not directly related to renewable energies or biofuels or other themes developed in other sub-sectors) forums).
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by sen-no-sen » 09/12/15, 21:05

As François Roddier very well mentions at the end of the text, transhumanism is not a choice but a matter of the illusion of a choice.
trans / posthumanism is a consequence of memetics and technologism, it is in a way the "dream" of the consciousness of the anthropotechnical super-organism.
It is quite terrifying to see this increasingly popular fascination with intrusive technologies.

In this straight line:the implant party:

subcutaneous RFID chips have been talked about for ages. But few of us had imagined that this happens through concepts relating to festive atmospheres: the Implant party. The goal ? Insert an electronic chip under the skin of the volunteers and allow multiple interactions in daily life.

http://sciencepost.fr/2015/06/implant-party-arrivee-de-puce-rfid-cutanee-france/

Very interesting aspect this party is funded by ... the singularity university (Google) ... : Lol:
The flea setters are strangely adepts of piercing, which validates my idea of ​​the recovery of this movement (tattoo piercing) by the economico-scientist sphere at the end of the 90s in order to convert populations to this ideology.
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by Ahmed » 09/12/15, 21:26

As I had (and you too) pointed out, transhumanism is only the logical extension of current scientific trends, and not at all a real innovation ex nihilo (Sic!).
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by sen-no-sen » 09/12/15, 21:39

It is yet another form of expansion.
After the territorial expansion (globalization), the expansion in time (speculative bubble, debt), here is the conceptual expansion: to question the very source of expansionism by its complete reconfiguration.
It smells like a crash ...
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by Exnihiloest » 15/12/15, 17:50

sen-no-sen wrote:As François Roddier very well mentions at the end of the text, transhumanism is not a choice but a matter of the illusion of a choice...

It is a truism. We are all influenced by the social, economic, political, scientific, religious ... context of our time.
A choice is never the result of total free will.
It is claimed as such only when it is not shared by the one who speaks about it. These people like Roddier are painful. They think they are more lucid than the others and deny their lucidity to those who make other choices.

When Roddier says: "Kurzweil thinks that technical progress will make it possible to prolong the duration of human life indefinitely (2). At no point does it occur to him that our civilization can collapse", he shows a total lack of understanding of the context. We can certainly not blame an intellectual size like Kurzweil not to have thought about it. Immortality is part of a whole obvious and implicit context (maintenance civilization and its technological level, no asteroid that would destroy the earth before we have the means to leave it ... etc etc).

François Roddier tells us that genes condition us entirely. But one of the ways of transhumanism is living things without genes. It's a bit of a nerd to try to invalidate a choice in the name of constraints that will no longer apply when the choice is operational.

"Man is not master of his destiny. He only has the illusion of it." he adds. What a discovery! : Cheesy: If the world is indeed deterministic, it is indeed the case. It's still a truism. His text is distressing in banality.
Transhumanism is neither more nor less an illusion than any other choice, or it is the choice of an illusion just as legitimate as the other choices of illusions.
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by Ahmed » 15/12/15, 18:14

This sentence is a good example of the obvious:
Immortality is part of a whole obvious and implicit context (maintenance of civilization and its technological level, no asteroid that would destroy the earth before we can afford to leave it ... etc, etc).

All this fine project would collapse if we do not assume a priori a continuity, a simple preliminary presupposition which is content to dismiss the objection automatically.
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by sen-no-sen » 15/12/15, 18:26

Exnihiloest wrote:Immortality is part of a whole obvious and implicit context (maintaining civilization and its technological level, no asteroid that would destroy the earth before we can afford to leave it ... etc etc).


What François Roddier explains (very well, moreover) is that our society is always turning towards more and more, and that this trend can only lead us towards rapid collapse.
Le transhumanism is part of this logic: unable to solve the great ills of our society, technicians are quick to transform us rather than looking for the very sources of the problem .... all this is very Faustian.
We are unhappy, and, as a response to our unhappiness we seek more trouble ...




François Roddier tells us that genes condition us entirely. But one of the ways of transhumanism is living things without genes. It's a bit of a nerd to try to invalidate a choice in the name of constraints that will no longer apply when the choice is operational.


This argument is totally false ...
Genes obey the laws of chemistry and thermodynamics.
Whatever the forms of life, biological or not, (including robotics), the determinisms in action will be the same.
The principles of thermodynamics apply very well to the business and technology world, it is inadmissible to think that a cyborg company will escape it, in fact it will be exactly the opposite.



"Man is not master of his destiny. He only has the illusion of it." he adds. What a discovery!


Before criticizing, it would be good that you take a serious look at the work of François Roddier...
The apparent banality of these quotes actually hides a deep truth ... moreover the entire political and citizen class is persuaded to take real choices, this remark is therefore not at all inappropriate.

Hold a little exercise, since you seem so certain to know the subject:
Can explain to me the underlying reasons for the rise of fascism in view of the laws of physics? (school case).
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Re: #USTE: All immortals? (transhumanism and philosophy)




by Christophe » 28/11/17, 13:20

I would take one :)

A brain implant to boost memory, it's done

Thanks to a brain implant, researchers have improved the memory capacities of around twenty patients by delivering targeted electrical impulses in the hippocampus, a key region for learning and memory.

PROSTHESIS. Learn faster and memorize better, effortlessly: this is the prospect opened up by a new brain implant designed and tested at the University of Southern California. By using a device that delivers electrical impulses to the heart of the brain, the team of biomedical engineering doctor Dong Song, managed to improve the memory of the 30 participants in the experiment by 20%. The announcement of this work was made at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, which took place in Washington (United States) in mid-November, and relayed by the NewScientist. "This had never been done before," said Dr Song, who speaks of a real "memory prosthesis".

The volunteers were patients with epilepsy already equipped with brain implants to treat their seizures. The idea was therefore to temporarily redirect the function of the device for the good of the test. To do this, we had to study how memory was activated in the brain of each participant, in order to know precisely how to stimulate it. Concretely, the researchers distinguished two types of memory: the short-term one, which stores information passively over a period of less than one minute; and the working memory, which is spread over a longer period and actively stores the information allowing it to be manipulated. In a first exercise, the volunteers had to remember indistinct and unusual forms - like shapeless bubbles - perceived 5 to 10 seconds previously; in the second, it involved recognizing images presented 10 to 40 minutes before.

Improve ... then manipulate the brain
These results made it possible to establish the appropriate brain activity patterns to be reinforced by electrical stimulation. Indeed, instead of randomly stimulating the hippocampus - a key structure in learning and memory - "we write the neural code to improve the functioning of memory," said Dr. Dong Song. Thus, with the right model of brain activation, participants saw their abilities increased by approximately 15% in "short-term" memory exercises and by 25% in those concerning working memory. In contrast, random stimulation tended rather to deteriorate the baseline results. Better to be precise ...

The trial thus opens up perspectives in the treatment of memory disorders, in particular forms of dementia such as Alzheimer's. "In these conditions, a large number of cells in the hippocampus are destroyed. A memory prosthesis could compensate for the deficit in these damaged areas. This should restore cognitive function," Dr. Song told the NewScientist. In any case, these results were greeted with enthusiasm by several of his peers who did not work on this project. "Exciting and potentially important results" for Sinead Mullally of the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University (UK).

Beyond the interest of this work to partially remedy cognitive deficits, the experiment could pave the way for all kinds of neural manipulations. The team would also work to strengthen other functions. "If you can improve one area, you can apply the technique to other structures," Dr. Song imagines. Thus more or less localized functions of movement (motor cortex) or vision (visual cortex). More worryingly, it would even be technically possible to create false memories ... In theory, it would "suffice" to identify the neural pattern of such or such a perception to activate the brain in this direction and make it believe in a perception that it did not have. "We have started to work on this," Dong Song warns.


https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/sante/c ... ait_118548
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Re: #USTE: All immortals? (transhumanism and philosophy)




by sen-no-sen » 29/11/17, 19:02

It remains to be seen whether this temporary gain will not be paid for later by an accelerated deterioration of the brain, as is more generally the case with doping.
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Re: #USTE: All immortals? (transhumanism and philosophy)




by Christophe » 29/11/17, 21:27

Yes ... or not ...

The decline in brain capacity is a factor in accelerating mortality ...

I mean: people with regular brain activity generally live longer and needn't be complicated: knitting or crossword puzzles are enough ...
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Re: #USTE: All immortals? (transhumanism and philosophy)




by sen-no-sen » 29/11/17, 21:55

Christophe wrote:Yes ... or not ...

The decline in brain capacity is a factor in accelerating mortality ...

I mean: people with regular brain activity generally live longer and needn't be complicated: knitting or crossword puzzles are enough ...


Yes, but these are natural methods.
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