Culture

Transhumanism, The “Saw” Films and The Need For Testing

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I’m not a person who’s seen the “Saw” movie series, in which a psychopath sets people up in torturous death traps to teach them lessons about life. I don’t see much point when I can see horror stories in the real world.

However, there’s something that always stuck with me about the “Saw” films and most other Complex Deathtrap Themes. How the hell does your psycho, dungeon trap-a-teer, or whatever test this stuff? It’s got to be expensive to test, potentially deadly, and not testing it kind of destroys the attempts at a result.

Really, your average Complex Trap Psycho should be dead early on by one of their own creations backfiring or ending up with them found out.

This brings me, rather roundly, to Transhumanism, which I discussed awhile ago.

Though I’m all for human improvement, far too much talk I see about Transhumanism, and far too much fiction ignores how people are going to test transhuman techniques and technologies.

I mean those cybernetic limbs are going to take a lot of testing. Intelligence increase drugs could have all sorts of side effects. I rather imagine that attempts to upload our brains to computers is going to result in several people accidentally lobotomizing themselves.

I figure any attempts at Transhuman development will result in some painful, deadly, and publicly embarrassing backfires. Such activities are going to decrease enthusiasm for such endeavors, perhaps understandably.

Worse, the idea that the inventors of transhumance technologies will try it on themselves misses the fact that these geniuses who may invest such stuff would probably kill, cripple, and harm themselves terribly merely by the odds. I’d rather not have some genius who might help us upload our brains into computers fry his synapses trying.

(And I rather imagine when self-preservation kicks in, not as many will be willing to be their own test subjects).

As noted, I’m for Transhumanism. I’m just careful to be realistic and skeptical.  Transhuman technologies, poorly tested, will be like a horror movie.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Thoughts on Transhumanism

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I’ve been thinking about Transhumanism lately, both due to editing a friend’s novel that contains some rational thought about transuhmanism, along with some of the dismal stuff out there.

Now I’d probably be considered a Transhumanist since I’m all for human improvement. I’m just rather skeptical about a lot of the enthusiasm regarding the issue since it doesn’t seem tempered with common sense, though maybe at some point we can genetically alter ourselves to have more of that.

Most times I see transhumanism discussed it’s usually about life extension or intelligence enhancement. Both understandable goals, but goals that I think actually dodge a core issue of transhumanism. We can talk about making ourselves immortal, making ourselves smarter, making ourselves healthier.

What is missing in all of this is the talk of “ourselves.”

A transhumanist should ask ‘What is this “me” that I’m trying to preserve and enhance? What is the point of what I’m doing? Who am I doing this for?’

The ultimate question of Transhumanism is one of identity.

We want an “I” that lives longer, is healthier, smarter, etc. However, let me turn it around and ask if a goal of Transhumanism should actually be “building a better ‘I'” or perhaps better realizing that “I” is really a construct anyway and seeking something more beyond that. Maybe we may want to think about building Nirvana as opposed to a techno-biologic Rapture that’ll sweep us to a manufactured Heaven.

So let’s take Transhumanism to the core – what kind of people are we going to be, what kind of selves should we seek to be, and how can we achieve that. If we’re going to re-engineer who we are let’s forget such things as years of life or IQ, and ask how we’ll identify ourselves and each other, interact, and work together as people. Only when we figure that out can we ask what the rest of it is for.

We might be surprised at the answers.

Come to think of it, we might be surprised at “who” is asking the question.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Thoughts on Amazon and Fanfic, Part Two, Electric Boogaloo

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So now that Amazon is going to try and publish fanfic, now that I’ve done my anal-retentive analysis, what do I think it means? What’s going to happen? What are the repercussions?

Now it may surprise you that I’m not going to make definite predictions. I’m going to look at probabilities/possibilities with a little bit of how we can make this positive.

Now, before I go on let me state that in general I am for this idea. I like the idea of less restrictive, more supportive approach to fanfics. I do support help getting people published. I would like to see more engagement in publishing. I can think of plenty of things that are bad and that can go wrong (which I’ll address later), but I am in general, for this idea.

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