Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Transhumanism Made Flesh

Enhancement for real -- NSFW, natch. Move over Stelarc and Oscar Pistorius, International Male is where the bleeding edge cyborgs really, er, hang.

3 comments:

jimf said...

> You know male shapers have hit the big time when they're
> actually being sold in a respectable British department store.

What **would** Mr. Humphries and Mr. Lucas (let alone Mrs. Slocombe
and Miss Brahms) have made of that?

Business as usual for Captain Peacock, I suppose, but I'm
afraid it might have been too much for Mr. Humphries, on multiple
levels.

By the way, speaking of transhumanism, have you seen this?

"In Bryan Singer’s H+, a deadly virus kills everyone who
has brain implants"
http://io9.com/5925022/in-bryan-singers-h%252B-a-deadly-virus-kills-everyone-who-has-brain-implants

"An Exclusive Look at How Bryan Singer’s H+ is Reimagining Transhumanism"
http://io9.com/5934396/an-exclusive-look-at-how-bryan-singers-h%252B-is-reimagining-transhumanism

The storyline seem to be basically the same as the (new)
Outer Limits episode "Stream of Consciousness" (from '95 or whenever
it was).

The maguffin -- direct interfacing between the brain and some
kind of perpetually-present Webbish interface a la Vinge's
_Rainbows End_ or Brin's recent _Existence_ -- is, of course,
nowhere near a reality (as in, nobody even has any clue how
it would be done). Even computerized glasses don't really seem to
be happening, let alone retinal projectors. But you're just
supposed to suspend disbelief over that little detail -- just
like back in the 90's, with _VR5_ (we didn't get enough
of Lori Singer, did we?), you're not supposed to think too
hard about the maguffin of two people's subconscious minds
being linked over telephone lines.

I watched the first couple of episodes on YouTube (I'm bloody
well not going to subscribe!). The most annoying thing is
that you get about 3 minutes of actual show per episode.

The upcoming NBC _Revolution_ trailer looks cool, but I expect that
first episode will be the high point of the series, as it so often
is. ;->

Revolution - Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwfCRAtkYEI

Eudoxia said...

>The upcoming NBC _Revolution_ trailer looks cool, but I expect that
>first episode will be the high point of the series, as it so often
>is. ;->
>
>Revolution - Trailer
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwfCRAtkYEI

This one looks cool, but I wish the backstory was a simple CME destroying industrial civilization and the story being about people starting out from scratch. They could explore a lot of alternative lifestyles/economies and weave the Open Source Ecology into the story and create a message of sustainability and whatnot.

But, JJ Abrams had to come along and make it about some kind of conspiracy involving a necklace.

Dale Carrico said...

Yeah, agreed on all counts, totally plan to watch, totally expect to be annoyed. I would love an HBO or AMC series devoted to Kunstler's World Made By Hand books, a third one on the way I hear? -- tho' ideally they would be made more racially and sexually capacious in the translation to the screen (as has been GoT, for example).