Category Archives: Transhumanism

Jason Silva, speaking as though he is hosting a sance, channeling the likes of Sartre, Whitman, Kant. Spitting poetic diction through a lens of existential angst over the absurdity that is mortal beauty, the impermanence of all we hold dear. His phone, the Mediums parlor. We, his guests. This summarizes the Jason Silva experience.

His video series aptly named Shots of Awe is a collage of inspiration-induced euphoria, taking viewers deeper into common existential concepts than their everyday language would otherwise permit. His concepts have evolved over the years, but the longing to unveil the existential condition of humankind remains the driving force behind his impressive exuberance. Having admitted a deep-seated fear of death, that fear has paradoxically created a passion for life that seems to spill out of him even in moments of mundanity. A true artists artist. And an artist of the people. While he is commonly referred to as a modern philosopher and storyteller, there may not yet be an appropriate term to describe what he does. Spoken-word therapist comes to mind, for he soothes his viewers existential angst or at the very least, validates it.

While he is well known for hosting National Geographics Brain Games, the bulk of his fan base know him from his social media musings where he can often be found sharing cinematic epiphanies on topics that range from the value of presence to hallucinogenic therapies and transhumanism, and while his philosophy degree lends him a vocabulary that is somewhat unrelatable, his passion to put words to the ontological dilemmas that plague humanity creates an incredible connection between himself and his following. And connection seems to be the perpetual end-goal of Silvas philosophical musings namely connection with self via authentic expression of his own inner dialogue, which in turn opens a safe space for his viewership to tap into their own existential vulnerabilities. What sets Silvas content apart from that of other influencers is his unique ability to craft language, something that is not only one of his natural skills but also a conceptual passion of his.

My creative work, which is pretty much my life, is concerned with ineffability; those experiences of such aesthetic impact, such existential agitation, that we can hardly find the words to describe them. We lose ourselves in these moments. They silence the chatter in our heads and hurl us into the holy. In positive psychology, researchers call these moments of flow and awe, states of rapture and surrender. From these moments sprout music, poetry, mythopoetic rhapsody people think words dont do justice to these moments, but I disagree all of human creative expression mirrors these states of being. So thats what compels me to put lightning in a bottle. To find the words. To bring the infinite down to size.

Complex language is what sets humans apart in the animal kingdom, the proverbial red flower that can decode sensory intake and imbue it with meaning. When Silva seems exasperated it is only because he is trying to find the right words to decode what he is experiencing. When he finds those words they are nothing short of incantations, the weaving of semantic sorcery that leaves his audience entranced, something we call awe being filled with a wonder that surpasses what language can encapsulate and for Silva it is not enough to merely experience those moments sensorially, he must decode them. So he searches for the words and his impressive ability to find them, mostly unscripted and in real-time no less, transfixes his audience.

Empirical language is limited because it lives in the literal grid, but poetic language is more elastic, more flexible. I can weave worlds into being with poetic language. Thats why I call my work art before anything else. Im not a journalist. I wrap myself in the blanket of poetic license.

To Silva, poetic language is an almost religious expression his chosen refuge from the despair of mortality. To take it from the horses mouth, it is the root of human spirituality, a literal expression of the human spirit and one of the most fundamental means of alchemizing the sacred or holy. And as phenomenological experience is the master that Silva bows to, he takes neutral theistic ground. For him, a noumenal approach to divinity would be akin to blasphemy a counterintuitive self-betrayal, if you will.

Spirituality is an emergent quality of aliveness, a particular form of subjectivity characterized by heightened, qualitative intensity. Deeper presence. A sense of entering an archetypal and mythopoetic realm. One enters into spirituality and while it certainly FEELS like a glimpse of eternity and freedom from mortality, I havent been fully convinced that we can know for sure that it is anything beyond neuro-modulated ecstasy. At the same time, these realms are restorative and infuse our lives with deeper felt meaning so that alone gives them existential weight.

Silvas spiritual beliefs seem to rest somewhere between agnosticism and a yet-undefined existential consciousness theory. In watching his videos, there is always a bit of reluctance to translate moments of euphoria as anything other than a neuro-sensory experience. And this is perhaps the greatest point of resonance for viewers. His reverence for the unknowable a refreshing humility in not needing to make those moments concrete by some defined godhood. A pureness in bowing to the experience even if it ends with an ellipsis rather than a safe and familiar period because most things in life are implied rather than explicit and Silva refuses to pretend otherwise. His worship is awe-filled presence, his hymnal made up of all the resulting poetic musings, musings that are his existential war-cries his refusal to go gently into that good night prayers on the lips of a mortal who seeks immortality through robust reflection rather than religious resignation, for he knows that obsessing over the source of human consciousness while forgetting to simply revel in the miracle of it is the most primal of sins.

In an era that increasingly recognizes the benefits of going inward and being present (the self-help industry is worth a whopping 10 billion dollars), Silvas exuberance may appear contradictory to the Zen-like composure many seek to attain. But in the context of decoding awe as a means to better understanding Self, he may be the freshest expression of the new-age movement, bottling the ineffable and serving it like holy water to those who thirst. He is afoot with wonder. A walking Walt Whitman poem. Ginsbergs Howl. Restless for the same cause a cause that lit a fire beneath Socrates feet and the same cause that induces vows of silence amongst monks. He is a seeker and his distinct form of expression lands for many in ways that the Deepak Chopras of the world cannot.

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Theres an innate joy to a good cyberpunk game; that sense of fighting The Man, of struggling up from the gutter in a world that doesnt care, of being a rebel with a cause and, more importantly, some serious hardware. Sometimes its a depressing odyssey, other times, very tongue in cheek. Here, then, are our pick of the games worth selling your genitals on the black market for.

Released: 2001 Publisher: Eidos InteractiveDeveloper: Ion Storm

Few cyberpunk games have the same indie-rock feel as Anachronox, the game from Ion Storm that wasnt Deus Ex or Daikatana. Its Tom Halls tribute to pretty much everything Tom Hall loves, from the dimension-shifting titular planet to comic book worlds, to the fact that you spend much of the game travelling with a planet as a companion. A literal planet. Shrunk down, hovering next you, its people voting on what they all want to do next. Anachronox is a janky experience to be sure, but an unforgettable one, and its a genuine tragedy well never get the planned sequel.

Released: 1994Publisher: VirginDeveloper: Revolution Software

Beneath A Steel Sky offers a different feel to most cyberpunk; a somewhat low-key, sardonic take, in a city that thrives on cruel mundanity. Its not long before youre digging deeper into cyberpunk tropes, however, as you battle the omnipresent computer system LINC, explore cyberspace in search of clues, and save a city thats Blade Runner by way of Hull. Along the way you get the delightful company of your robot buddy Joey, who mirrors the genres love of transhumanism with his own slow evolution from humble circuit board towell, spoilers. Best of all, its completely free.

Released: 2015Publisher: Wadjet Eye GamesDeveloper: Wadjet Eye Games

It may be a fantastic adventure, but Technobabylon stands out most for having a deep sense of heart. Cyberpunk is often a cold genre, either through pessimism or a focus on the dehumanising nature of technology. Technobabylon flips that, with a story that comes at the usual elements from an entirely human directionfamily, loss, isolation and community. Its icier elements remain brutal, from restaurants that serve cloned human flesh to terrorists whose bones have been turned into bombs, but its the warmth that makes it unforgettable. That and the jingle for T.H.E. Foods, which will, alas, never leave you.

Released: 2016Publisher: Sukeban GamesDeveloper: Ysbyrd Games

Most cyberpunk games have you fighting against a corrupt system in some way. VA-11 HALL-A is more about helping it get drunk. Its a mix of visual novel and bartending simulator, where you bounce between mixing drinks and talking with the bizarre visitors at your seedy bar. The trick is that, by mixing the right drinks, you can make them open up and tell you stories of the harsh world outside. Some of those guests are dogs. Its that kind of bar. VA-11 HALL-As clever ideas and well realised setting are well worth visiting for a round or two.

Released: 2011Publisher: Streum on StudioDeveloper: Streum on Studio

Were meant to give you a pithy summary of EYE at this point, but thats just not going to happen. You wont find many games so devoted to making your brain melt, from its convoluted plot to the way the game works. Youre an amnesiac caught in a dreamscape, and things only get more surreal when you enter the real world and find yourself surrounded by groups with names like the Secreta Secretorum and the Meta-Streumic Force. EYE is every cyberpunk trope thrown into a big futuristic blender and then spiced up with a little LSD. Its endlessly fascinating, especially if you like Deus Ex but find it just a bit too predictable.

Released: 1999Publisher: EADeveloper: Irrational Games

The System Shock series isnt quite the same flavour of cyberpunk as most of the games on this list, but it stands as one of the first truly successful attempts at the genre. Its villain, rogue AI SHODAN, is deservedly considered one of gamings greatest baddies, and the first games take on cyberspace as a surreal maze of wireframe graphics and deadly geometric shapes certainly warrants the series its place. The sequel largely drops that element, but replaces it with a new interest in transhumanism by way of the improvements offered by a more evolved SHODAN, who refuses to be humbled by needing to rely on a mere fleshbag.

Released: 2016 Publisher: UbisoftDeveloper: Ubisoft

The first Watch Dogs was more overtly cyberpunk than its sequel, but its also a far inferior game. Watch Dogs 2 picks up everything it did well, particularly the use of hacking as a primary weapon and a city in which everything can be manipulated, and throws out everything else. While the sequel doesnt have much raw story, it does a great job of making new hero Marcus Holloway feel like part of something important. Watch Dogs 2 puts you at the bottom of the social ladder, then hands you a hacksaw to bring the system crashing down. Doing so makes for great set-pieces and a genuine feeling of power.

Released: 1997Publisher: VirginDeveloper: Westwood Studios

Westwoods Blade Runner absolutely nails the style of the movie, recreating its locations with fully animated backgrounds, and offers a score painstakingly recreated by the composer from the original. Its a brand new story in the Blade Runner universe, playing out concurrently with Deckards. The first act especially is a masterful bit of work, plunging you deep into the world and dripping with atmosphere. You get to perform the Voight-Kampff test, face off with replicants who arent afraid to thrust you into an arcade sequence without warning, and generally live for a while in a more-or-less perfect recreation of LA, 2019.

Released: 2014Publisher: Harebrained SchemesDeveloper: Harebrained Schemes

Its amazing that we had to wait so long for either of the two big cyberpunk tabletop RPGs to make their way to PCif you ignore Microsofts team-based FPS Shadowrun, which everyone really should. Despite both SNES and Mega Drive owners getting Shadowrun games in the early 90s, we had to wait until 2013 for Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun Returns. The original campaign, Dead Mans Switch, is solid enough. The sequel (originally an expansion pack before thankfully being re-released as a standalone game), is phenomenal.

Shadowruns take on cyberpunk is a complex one, mixing in magical and fantasy elements, with the playersshadowrunnersas mercenaries in a world gone mad. Dragonfall absolutely nails this, essentially giving you a team, a general objective to raise enough money for a big mission, and a city of opportunities to pick and choose from. Its not a complex business simulation or anything like that, but it conveys the vibe of being a shadowrunner far more effectively than a series of mandatory missions ever could. You spend time with your team and get to know their personalities and problems, help them out, and slowly improve your gear until youre ready to take on literal dragons.

All of this plays out in two basic modes: RPG exploration, and solid tactical combat that makes good use of your team and their abilities. The magical parts of the setting really help with these, allowing the action to go beyond guns.

The third game, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, was also an excellent RPG, but it was this sense of actually being in control that made Dragonfall stand out, both in its series and the genre in general. Its a structural approach we dont often see, and yet one that doesnt get in the way of a strong main storyline and a satisfying ending. What Dragonfall lacks in raw technology, with its relatively simple engine and graphics, it more than makes up for in scope and heart.

Its one of the best RPGs of the last few years, and one of the best cyberpunk games full stop. Harebrained is now part of strategy behemoth Paradox Interactiveheres hoping its working on something even bigger and better.

Released: 2011Publisher: Square EnixDeveloper: Eidos Montreal

Honestly, the question was never whether Deus Ex would end up topping this list, but whether this or the original would take the crown.

The first game is of course a classic, but time hasnt been especially kind to its technology or some of its ideas, and politically its from a very different era. Human Revolution lacks some of its raw scope and imagination, but is a far sleeker experience that builds on what the original does so well, and what other franchises have brought to the immersive sim genre in the intervening years. Yes, the boss fights suck, and can rightly go and stand in the corner with those copies of Invisible War and Mankind Divideds garbage ending, but in all other respects, Human Revolution still holds up extremely well as a glimpse of a possible future.

It helps that, while the original Deus Ex was largely built around conspiracy theoriesgroups like the Illuminati and so onHuman Revolution concentrates on transhumanism and the societal chasms between the haves and have-nots that are only widened by the addition of technology. As gravelly-voiced, professional not-asker-for- this Adam Jensen, youre in the rare position of being in the middle of the situation, with a body full of fancy toys that isnt exactly yours. Youre neither truly with the rich and powerful in their ivory towers, nor down with the gutter-rats, but perfectly placed to either prop up a failing society or help it come crashing down.

This gives Human Revolution a resonance that many other supercop fantasies struggle with, in a world perfectly set up to explore technology in both its positive and negative forms. The same science that can replace an arm or eyeball can also be abused, or simply demonised, with just a few flicks of a switch. Fancy cyborg gear can elevate the average person, but also make them subject to its creators in both body and soul. Is it a fair trade? What if the people just seize it?

The sequel, Mankind Divided, focuses on the social issues of all this, with questionable success. Human Revolution handles it more elegantly by simply presenting the situation, and allowing you, the player, to decide which path is correct. Admittedly, this boils down to pressing a button and watching a video clip, but still. While it lasts, its a solid shooter, a thought-provoking game, and also it lets you punch people through walls.

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The 10 best cyberpunk games on PC - PC Gamer

Artificial intelligence (AI) is creating a great impact on the world by enabling computers to learn on their own. While in the real world AI is still focused on solving narrow problems, we see a whole different face of AI in the fictional world of science fiction movies which predominantly depict the rise of artificial general intelligence as a threat for human civilization. As a continuation of the trend, here we take a look at how artificial intelligence was depicted in 2019 movies.

A warning in advance the following listicle is filled with SPOILERS.

Terminator: Dark Fate the sixth film of the Terminator movie franchise, featured a super-intelligent Terminator named Gabriel designated as Rev-9, and was sent from the future to kill a young woman (Dani) who is set to become an important figure in the Human Resistance against Skynet. To fight the Rev-9 Terminator, the Human Resistance from the future also sends Grace, a robot soldier, back in time, to defend Dani. Grace is joined by Sarah Connor, and the now-obsolete ageing model of T-800 Terminator the original killer robot in the first movie (1984).

We all know Tony Stark as the man of advanced technology and when it comes to artificial intelligence, Stark has nothing short of state-of-the-art technology in Marvels cinematic universe. One such artificial intelligence was the Even Dead, Im The Hero (E.D.I.T.H.) which we witnessed in the 2019 movie Spider-Man: Far From Home. EDITH is an augmented reality security defence and artificial tactical intelligence system created by Tony Stark and was given to Peter Parker following Starks death. It is encompassed in a pair of sunglasses and gives its users access to Stark Industries global satellite network along with an array of missiles and drones.

I Am Mother is a post-apocalyptic movie which was released in 2019. The films plot is focused on a mother-daughter relationship where the mother is a robot designed to repopulate Earth. The robot mother takes care of her human child known as daughter who was born with artificial gestation. The duo stays in a secure bunker alone until another human woman arrives there. The daughter now faces a predicament of whom to trust- her robot mother or a fellow human who is asking the daughter to come with her.

Wandering Earth is another 2019 Chinese post-apocalyptic film with a plot involving Earths imminent crash into another planet and a group of family members and soldiers efforts to save it. The films artificial intelligence character is OSS, a computer system which was programmed to warn people in the earth space station. A significant subplot of the film is focused on protagonist Liu Peiqiangs struggle with MOSS which forced the space station to go into low energy mode during the crash as per its programming from the United Earth Government. In the end, Liu Peiqiang resists and ultimately sets MOSS on fire to help save the Earth.

James Camerons futuristic action epic for 2019 Alita: Battle Angel is a sci-fi action film which depicts the human civilization in an extremely advanced stage of transhumanism. The movie describes the dystopian future where robots and autonomous systems are extremely powerful. To elaborate, in one of the initial scenes of the movie, Ido attaches a cyborg body to a human brain he found (from another cyborg) and names her Alita after his deceased daughter, which is an epitome of advancements in AI and robotics.

Jexi is the only Hollywood rom-com movie depicting artificial intelligence in 2019. The movie features an AI-based operating system called Jexi with recognizable human behaviour and reminds the audience of the previously acclaimed film Her, which was released in 2014. But unlike Her, the movie goes the other way around depicting how the AI system becomes emotionally attached to its socially-awkward owner, Phil. The biggest shock of the comedy film is when Jexi the AI which lives inside Phils cellphone acts to control his life and even chases him angrily using a self-driving car.

Hi, AI is a German documentary which was released in early 2019. The documentary was based on Chucks relationship with Harmony an advanced humanoid robot. The films depiction of artificial intelligence is in sharp contrast with other fictional movies on AI. The documentary also depicts that even though human research is moving in the direction of creating advanced robots, interactions with robots still dont have the same depth as human conversations. The film won the Max Ophls Prize for best documentary for the year.

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Vishal Chawla is a senior tech journalist at Analytics India Magazine (AIM) and writes on the latest in the world of analytics, AI and other emerging technologies. Previously, he was a senior correspondent for IDG CIO and ComputerWorld. Write to him at vishal.chawla@analyticsindiamag.com

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Top Movies Of 2019 That Depicted Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Analytics India Magazine

Fans of Ridley Scotts 1982 masterpiece Blade Runner returned to cinemas last month for an unusual milestone: history catching up with science fiction.

Blade Runner opens in Los Angeles, in November 2019. Furnaces burst flames into the perennial night and endless rain. Flying cars zoom by. The antihero film-noir detective, Deckard (Harrison Ford) has seen too much, drinks too much, and misses his mother between retiring replicants.

As in Back to the Future day, (October 21, 2015), which marked Marty McFlys journey into the future in the 1989 film, the Blade Runner screenings came with a flurry of discussion about what the filmmakers got right and wrong. Environmental collapse, yes. But where are our flying cars?

So: what now that the future is here?

Our current versions of near future stories - namely the television series Black Mirror (now on Netflix) and SBSs Years and Years - explore more extreme versions of the present.

Charlie Brookers Black Mirror is an anthology of standalone episodes, produced between 2011 and 2019, each set in a slightly different, undated, near future.

Years and Years, written by Russell T. Davies, bravely spans 2019 to 2034 with each episode leaping forward a few years through striking montages of fictional news events: the collapse of the European Union, the US leaving the United Nations, catastrophic flooding, mass migration, widespread homelessness.

We are in a very familiar world. The near is depicted in a realistic way through identifiable locations, documentary-style visuals, news footage, and lifelike dialogue.

Back in the real world, the future in the 21st century is unfolding in the palm of our hands. Elections are won and lost on social media, Sydney is covered in smoke. The rate at which technology is altering our lives is rivalled only by the rate were transforming our planet.

These shows explore these rates of change. In a 2016 episode of Black Mirror, Nosedive, every interpersonal interaction becomes a transaction: an extreme version of Uber Ratings with Chinas Social Credit System.

Read more: Chinas Social Credit System puts its people under pressure to be model citizens

Lacie (Bryce Dallas Howard) is an ambitious young professional excited by the opportunities higher ratings open up, such as discounts on luxury apartments, but being pleasant to her barista and workmates only gets her so far. So begins a perilous spiral of trying too hard to be liked, echoing the personality-as-product phenomenon of social media influencers around the world.

The standalone episode format of Black Mirror means it can be challenging to develop empathy for characters, consequently the interest often rests on the single concept or final twist. The episode Striking Vipers explores the possibility of extra-marital love between best mates in Virtual Reality; Hang the DJ envisions dating apps as an authoritarian apparatus.

Most episodes are neatly wrapped up for viewers to escape to for pure entertainment but also to escape from each dystopian possibility.

In Years and Years, we follow one Mancunian family over 19 years. The series opens with Trump re-elected for a second term. In the UK, the unconventional populist Four Star Party, led by straight-speaking Vivienne Rook (Emma Thompson), rides to success on the back of social instability.

Sci-fi concepts are introduced early on so we can explore their evolution and implications. In the first episode, teenager Bethany declares herself trans. As progressive parents, Stephen and Celeste immediately comfort their child, who they presume is transsexual.

Bethany shrugs, Im not transsexual Im transhuman. A concept not lost on Blade Runner fans who may be aware of transhumanist gatherings in Los Angeles in the 1980s, transhumanism is premised on the idea that humans have breached evolutionary constraints through science and technology. Biology is a restriction to the possibility of eternal life.

Read more: Super-intelligence and eternal life: transhumanism's faithful follow it blindly into a future for the elite

Disgust and dismay ensue from parents unable to comprehend why their child wants to rid her flesh and live forever as data. Through the course of the series we see how Bethanys transhuman ambitions influence her personal relationships, health, career trajectory, and political activism.

It even starts to feel normal.

Years and Years delicately resists portraying a dystopia, allowing room for technology to demonstrate a positive influence on society. Seor, the ubiquitous virtual assistant, connects the Lyons family whenever they wish. Like Alexa or Siri, Seor is always at hand to answer questions but more importantly, facilitates an intimacy that could easily be lost to technological isolation.

In 2029, grandmother Muriel digs up the dusty digital assistant Seor because she misses its company. By now, virtual assistants are embedded into the walls and omnipresent digital cloud but the Luddite grandmother resists.

I like having something to look at, Im not talking to the walls like Shirley Valentine, she says.

Its moments like these that remind us of our agency over technology and hint at its revolutionary potential to connect us all.

While classics like Blade Runner looked to the future to ignite our technological desires, near-future fiction reveals how new technologies are injected into our lives with little choice as to whether we should adopt them and little thought to their long-term appropriateness and sustainability.

These shows ask us to be critical of what might seem like minor developments in technology and politics. In an age of rapidly changing political landscapes and the climate catastrophe, it can feel like we are approaching the final frontier. In creating stories set in the near, instead of the far, future, science fiction provides valuable lessons for the present.

In other words: the choices we fail to stand up for in the near-future may prevent us from having a distant future at all.

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How our screen stories of the future went from flying cars to a darker version of now - The Conversation AU

Photo by Frank V. via Unsplash

Alexa seems to know what I want to watch and when, Google search seems to know my wishes too when I search for my favorite restaurant online and perhaps even more interesting is that even the success of my 401(k) investments will ultimately be influenced by artificial intelligence (AI) that seemingly is becoming more real by the day.

There are a growing number of hedge fund managers even who rely on AI to outperform the market and to complete trades faster than our human mind can contemplate. They tend to exponentially outperform their non-AI counterparts with super-human ability.

So when one reads about the idea of an AI God that gained steam a couple of years ago, when self-driving car engineer Anthony Levandowski opened The Way of the Future Church, it seems as though the future has easily slipped into our present day-to-day activities in the blink of an eye.

According to The Way of the Future Churchs website, it is a movement about creating a peaceful and respectful transition of who is in charge of the planet from people to people plus machines. It is about something called the singularity point a point in time that is fast approaching when machine intelligence will surpass that of its human makers. Remember The Matrix trilogy, anyone?

The classic line by the films hero, Neo, comes to mind: Ever have that feeling where youre not sure if youre awake or dreaming? Thats a whole other Silicon Valley philosophy that we are merely in a simulation. But thats another topic, entirely.

The idea of people and machines being in charge, however, seems far from comforting and far removed from a Lutheran ideal of grace in removing God from the equation altogether.

This month Lutheran theologian Ted Peters dives into many of the thorny issues related to artificial intelligence and how some in the transhumanism community view it as a way of advancing our humanity beyond our physical bodies.

Countless movies and T.V. shows have taken on this topic including a popular Netflix series called Altered Carbon, where society simply views physical bodies as sleeves for ones uploaded consciousness that can be slotted over and over again into new bodies. Of course, there are problems and ethical dilemmas that give way to a dramatic story line.

Still, technology always seems to have a way making us feel smarter (thanks Google!) and almost invincible. That in its own right can be problematic, which is some of what Peters writes about this month.

Whether it is a new medical device, an app on your smart phone or even your Wifi connectivity, it is well worth remembering all have a piece of Gods very creation within it as do the technology developers who creatively make the invisible, visible every day.

Considering technology as our ultimate savior and life-giver sans God is what is at issue. Worshipping a powerful algorithmic God is short sighted too as we realize that even within the code itself there is the hand of a human being created in the image of a loving God who in turn supports the human intellect that ultimately wants to surpass itself.

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Susan is an author with a long-time interest in religion and science. She currently edits Covalence, the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technologys online magazine. She has written articles in The Lutheran and the Zygon Center for Religion and Science newsletter. Susan is a board member for the Center for Advanced Study of Religion and Science, the supporting organization for the Zygon Center and the Zygon Journal. She also co-wrote Our Bodies Are Selves with Dr. Philip Hefner and Dr. Ann Pederson.

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Living in the real AI world - Covalence

This article contains spoilers for Season 4

The latest and fourth season of 'The Expanse' is all about the quest for transhumanism while Holden and Co. struggle to weather foreign planets and proto-molecules trying to sabotage everything they are fighting for. Amidst all of that crazy science and action taking place, it is the coming together of the two primary groups of rivals the Belters and the New Terra trying to take over Ilus and establish their authority on the planet, to fight the big bad that steals the show.

The focal problem that most of the action revolves around in Season 4 of 'The Expanse' is the evergoing struggle of human biology trying to survive in an environment best suited for the extraterrestrial. While humans aren't used to breathing the same air as other planetary species, it automatically becomes difficult for them to build a life on Ilus. Things definitely don't help the populace on Ilus the Belters, when the RCE or New Terra barge in on their territory, trying to do what would be called on Earth a brazen urbanizing or gentrifying of their community.

With the atmosphere making it difficult for both the sections of human populace on Ilus to breathe, even with the partial oxygen that allows them to function properly, the fight for survival soon turns into a fight amongst themselves. The New Terra wants to establish their authority on Ilus and the materials it possesses, and the Belters aren't ready to give their land up. They feel threatened under the elaborate machines and mechanism of the New Terra, who even though probably mean well under Chrisjen's leadership, but come off as a fascist government trying to take over another community's life and livelihood.

While certain crucial plot points from the novel are definitely borrowed to escalate the story, the execution is somewhat swift without really delving deep into why the twists happened, or what the repercussions could amount to. It is only when Ilus, which is practically a colossal barren rock with alien particles sticking out, starts turning on the humans trying to make a home out of it, that these humans unite to fight back. Particularly, a giant explosion on Ilus is what brings the two forces of human societies together and that's right where things pace up to give us 'The Expanse' we have loved and adored so avidly since it hit the SyFy network back in 2015.

Sadly, we couldn't get much of a foray into what happens after the two join forces or how they overcome the explosive situation on Ilus due to the permissible episodes that were granted for early screening and press purposes ending right at this point. But it's safe to conclude that after five long episodes of just basically two rival parties fighting and holding each other off, this beautiful coming together is what has proved to be the highlight of the show so far.

'The Expanse' Season 4 premieres on Friday, December 13, only on Amazon Prime.

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'The Expanse' Season 4's biggest highlight is eventual coming together of Belters and New Terra - MEAWW

If the election of Donald Trump has proven anything, its that anything is possible. Could a Milwaukee candidate, part of a fringe party thats main interest is prolonging human life expectancy, be our next President of the United States? Absolutely not, but the U.S. Transhumanist Party, a mix of ideas that include libertarianism and sci-fi sounding future tech, hopes their campaign will draw attention to their platform.

The U.S. Transhumanism Party was founded in 2014 by Zoltan Istvan, who ran as the partys first candidate in the 2016 election. Zoltans vision was a party that would advocate for significant life extension achieved through the process of science and technology so people could live for hundreds and thousands of years, eventually making a breakthrough where we would be able to live to the age of forrrrrevvvvvvver years old. Imagine limbs being replaced with robotic parts, cloned organs being swapped out like an oil change, and an external hard drive for your brain.

Milwaukees Kristan T. Harris is one of the nine candidates competing to be the partys nominee for presidential candidate. Harris says that besides eternal life, Transhumanists are also interested in genome biohacking, cryptocurrency, weather modification, and creating designer babies.

All of these issues will bring up questions of ethics, which Harris hopes will lead to a healthy debate amongst Transhumanists in discussions about who will have access to eternal life, and how far we will go with artificial intelligence.

What the U.S. Transhumanist Party does is bring awareness of a very autonomous and robotic future thats on its way, Harris says. Its trying to develop ideas about what were going to do about those scenarios before we get there.

Harris works for a tech company by day and bartends at The Salty Dog, a tavern in Cudahy (and his sort of unofficial headquarters), where hes known by regulars for his passion in creating the perfect Bloody Mary with infused vodkas. In his spare time, Harris has developed an online following as the passionate co-host of talk radio show The Rundown Live, and his own program American Intelligence Report. Hes covered everything from ancient aliens to secret societies and government corruption. Milwaukee Record reported how hed found alleged occult symbolism in Veterans Park. All this has led Harris to be labelled as a conspiracy theorist, a term he shrugs off.

I always thought the term conspiracy theorist was a thought-terminating clich. It prevents people from recognizing their own cognitive dissonance or recognizing logical fallacies and its been shown in history that the term has been used mostly to cover up things they dont want people to look into, Harris argues. If someone calls you a conspiracy theorist, then nothing you say should be considered relevant.

Before Harris hits the road to the White House to challenge Trump and whoever the Dems push through, he will have to outlive his eight USTP opponents, including San Franciscan cyberpunk Rachel Haywire, St. Louiss Jon Schattke (owner of Schattke Advanced Nuclear Engineering), and an extraterrestrial-human hybrid from Los Angeles named Vrillon. Not quite as crowded and eclectic as the Democratic lineup, but close.

Harris says hes gotten along well with his fellow Transhumanists for the most part, but in the past week he has developed a rivalry with Arizonas Johannon Ben Zion, who has an institute that focuses largely on left-libertarian and techno-optimist market solutions to contemporary problems. Harris says he got along with Candidate Zion until he decided to call me a technophobe cause I wanted to question ethics of Transhumanism and he says Ill ruin the party. The two candidates clashed on the ethics of designer babies and Harriss talk of naturally extending life. Thats the key word, I said naturally, then he said I was a technophobe, that I wasnt a Transhumanist. Harris challenged Zion to a one-on-one debate, which Zion declined.

Harris held his own in an online virtual debate on September 14 between five of the partys candidates, and is spending the rest of the week campaigning in preparation for September 21, when the USTP Electronic Presidential Primary opens online. Card-carrying (or e-mail-confirmed in this caseit takes about 10 seconds to join the party by filling out a simple form on their website) members who sign up by the 21st will have a week to vote for their representative for president.

If Harris doesnt seal his partys nomination, hell be able to try again in 2024. And if the Transhumanist agenda moves forward, hell also have a chance to run again in 3024, 4024whatever millennium seems like the right fit.

You can find Kristan T. Harriss Official U.S. Transhumanist Party candidate bio page HERE.

More here:
Long live candidate Harris, Milwaukee's US Transhumanist Party presidential hopeful - Milwaukee Record

Who doesnt want to live forever?

Every society has its own set of myths about finding eternal life: the Fountain of Youth for the Spaniards and Shangri La for the Chinese, for example. For the transhumanists, this myth may become a reality.

Dr. Jennifer Huberman is a cultural anthropology professor at UMKC whose recent research has focused on this emerging high-tech society. Initially, Huberman did not set out to study the transhumanists.

I came across a book by Martine Rothblatt calledVirtually Human, Huberman said. It was about developing technologies for mind-cloning so that we can live forever. I said, This is completely crazy.

But Huberman reminded herself that as an anthropologist, her job is not to judge other people, but to understand why they think the way they do.

According to Huberman, transhumanists view the body as a work in progress, and they place value on the mind over the body.

For them, the problem is our biology and our biological limitations, said Huberman.

Transhumanists have a post-human vision of the world where humans can design their evolution.

Many of the transhumanists are Silicon Valley techies, inspired by the works of science fiction authors. Huberman describes the stereotypical transhumanist as a kind of geeky, sci-fi, techie, computer savvy person. The group, as Huberman describes it, is a predominantly male, white, in many ways, elite kind of movement in the United States.

For any anthropologist, collecting data is tough work. The traditional study will bring the researcher to an exotic location, such as an isolated tribe in the Amazon. With the transhumanists, however, it isnt that easy.

There isnt one locale where they all are, she explains. A lot of their interaction in society happens online or at conferences.

Despite the difficulty transhumanists pose as a unique society, Huberman was able to collect plenty of data through her research because transhumanists are vocal and want to spread the word about their work.

A great deal of transhuman literature focuses on whether or not it is ethical, or even possible.

The biggest challenge was actually developing a proper anthropological mindset, Huberman said. That kind of judgmental thinking is antithetical to the ways that anthropologists usually work.

Huberman took this challenge as an opportunity to develop a book to equip the next generation of anthropologists with the proper tool kit to examine modern societies. Her book,Ancestors and Avatars: Anthropological Approaches to Transhumanism, is about using this very futuristic movement as a way to introduce students to the discipline of cultural anthropology, Huberman said.

The book applies anthropological wisdom to understand new and futuristic movements through its chapters by focusing on classic anthropological topics in the context of the transhumanists.

For more information on the transhumanist community, Huberman recommendedThe Future of Immortality: Remaking Life and Death in Contemporary Russiaby Anya Bernstein and articles by Jon Bialecki, who is currently writing a book about the intersection of Mormonism and transhumanism.

The transhumanists leave us with a lot of questions about our future. However, while those questions do not have immediate or simplistic answers, research like Hubermans does shed light on the futuristic topic of transhumanists.

hmgb87@mail.umkc.edu

Read the original:
Cyborgs and immortality: into the research of Dr. Huberman - University News | - University News

Glossary in the entrance area of the exhibition The Alt-Right Complex On Right-Wing Populism in the Net at HMKV in Dortmunder U (photo by Hannes Woidich; image courtesy HMKV in Dortmunder U)

DORTMUND, Germany The lexicon of tyranny has a long history, but perhaps an even more complicated present.An exhibition, The Alt-Right Complex: On Right-Wing Populism Online, at the Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) in Dortmund, attempts to shine light on the verbiage of alt-right movements, including 12 projects by 16 contemporary artists that unravel the ethos, ideology, terminology and aesthetics of contemporary right-wing extremism. Crucially, the exhibition also contains a glossary of 37 entries that offer a window into the alt-rights cryptic language, including words, symbols and phrases that members of this nebulous group use to promote an intersection of xenophobic, racist, libertarian, and ethno-nationalist ideas online.

The curator of both the exhibition and glossary, Inke Arns, admits that defining the alt-right can problematic. The term Alt-Right itself is controversial because it seeks to mask precisely these political beliefs; namely, Islamophobia, antisemitism, racist nationalism and contempt for the constitution, Arns writes in the edited text and glossary accompany the exhibition (available for free online).

Entering the exhibition, one is confronted with the glossary of terms and symbols printed on the walls of a transparent, illuminated tunnel. Words like transhumanism, cuckservative, and accelerationism describe the vocabulary the alt-right uses to promote ideas closely linked to their extremist political beliefs.

The word cuck, for example, from the old French word for cuckoo (cucu), has become a go-to insult that captures toxic masculine behaviours and incel anxieties that define the alt-right today. In online porn, a cuck is short for cuckold, a word from the same root referring to a man who allows his female partner to have sex with someone else (often Black). The term has evolved to encapsulate a political meaning, one that now equates mainstream conservatives with effeminate values, with the term cuckservative used to denote someone who willfully absorbs conservative values with a liberal/centrist bent.

The symbiosis of words, symbols, and visual culture at the heart of alt-right discourse is sometimes difficult to discern one case in point being the numerology of 168:1. The number is code for the Oklahoma City bombing in which 168 people died, identified in the glossary of the exhibition. When used on message boards like 4chan and 8chan, image message boards frequented by right-wing trolls, 168:1 gives fodder to would-be extremists who support mass murder, the same macabre glorification of neo-Nazi ideology promoted by the Oklahoma City bombings perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh. (The numerical code also appears on some of the poster motifs for the exhibition, embroidered on the collar of a black jacket wearing mouthpiece.)

The exhibition prefaces how the alt-right became an internet subculture dripping with irony by making use of techniques like trolling, meme-making and pranking. Using a combination of strategic words, symbols and memes, the alt-right disseminates extreme right-wing ideology first through forums like 4chan and 8chan, then through broader platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook, which sometimes then make it onto more mainstream conservative blogs, websites, and even newsrooms like Fox Newss. The trolls discovered that the best way to get lulz was to employ politically incorrect rhetoric and/or subject such a position and so raid existing online communities, Arns writes in her exhibition text.

Entering the exhibition, walking through the illuminated glossary, 12 projects and art works look into the rise of the alt-right not only in the US, but also in Germany and Europe more broadly. One project by the artist duo DISNOVATION.ORG, by Maria Roszkowska and Nicolas Maigre, presents a large scale cartography of alt-right memes in the form of a political compass, wallpaper, and poster. The graphic interface presents about 100 symbols and figures on a four-quadrant, horizontal and vertical axis divided between authoritarian and libertarian, economic-right and economic-left. Entitled Online Culture Wars (2018-1019), the work graphically interprets how brands, celebrities, and symbols become linked along an ideological spectrum.

Alongside the political compass, a hacked version of the immensely popular board game, Life, by the artist Simon Denny, offers a speculative post-national future in which colonies at sea and in space vie for supremacy on a planet in which the welfare state has collapsed. The goals of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor, Peter Thiel, which the exhibition leans on heavily, include the idea that transhumanism mixed with temporary libertarian autonomous zones can facilitate a future society in which the individual reigns supreme. In Dennys apocryphal board game, Game of Life: Collective vs Individual Rules (2017), the end-game of Theil and others like him are inscribed into the rules itself, offering a speculative scenario in which players are tasked with disposing of nation states via Cloud Lords who utilize tools like deregulation, optimism and R&D (research and development) to fight against unadaptable monsters like legal systems beyond the expiry date, transparency, democracy and fair elections.

In a work by the Canadian video artist Dominic Gagnon, a montage of censored amateur videos from YouTube is interspersed with footage of conspiracy theorists known as preppers, people who live in perpetual fear of an eventual doomsday scenario. Like Peter Thiel, preppers project a fundamental mistrust of the current political and social system. Informed by an intense wave of paranoia, rage, and suppressed anxieties, preppers tend to espouse views deeply critical of migrants and a fundamental distrust in mainstream narratives, using these ideas to give fodder to post-apocalyptic near future scenarios in which only the rich will survive.

In a dual-channel video work by the Hungarian artist Szabolcs KissPl, From Fake Mountains to Faith (Hungarian Trilogy) (2016), the focus shifts beyond preppers to understand how grand narratives and national symbols of authoritarianism intersect. Looking into his native Hungary, KissPl posits how quickly democratic societies can devolve into illiberal democracies, often under strong-man leaders, such as Hungarys current Prime Minister Viktor Orbn. The docu-fiction brings to light an imagined scenario involving a museum that seeks to counter the ideological foundation of race and nation. It deconstructs how forms of ethno-nationalism manifest in supposedly neutral institutions, but also how this becomes a romantic myth that supports political references in support of the nation state, and with it forms of political belonging and social communities therein.

Not far from these ideas, a project by Vanja Smiljani examines how religion and nationalism are used to reinforce one another based on a comparative investigation into the internet-based movement of the Cosmic People and the Flag Nation Society, a Christian community that bases its ideology around allegiance to an ominous flag. Taking up the mantle of a Minister of the Cosmic People for the countries of ex-Yugoslavia, Portugal and the former Portuguese colonies, the lecture performance and documentation offers a buoyant and timely criticism responding to dangers of worship, albeit here in a dystopian, cyber-ruled world.

In Jonas Staals 10-channel video installation Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective (visual ecology) (2018), the artist presents a visual encyclopedia of visual tropes taken from Banons work as a Hollywood filmmaker. The work consists of 10 separate screens Staal filmed and edited between 2014-2018. In them, we see how the cacophony of right-wing ideology is filtered from fringe groups and message boards all the way up to the mainstream media. It narrows in on Steve Bannon, the veritable architect and propagainst-in-chief of US President Donald Trumps successful campaign in 2016, who prior to that served as executive chairman of Breitbart News. Staals work offers a timely and potent examination of Bannons ideology through the prism of film and cinematic editing and references, it is very Eisenstein or Michael Moore-esque, with the end result being scenes that employ visual references to themes and mythologies long since debunked. One of these themes involves the false and often cited narrative of the triumph and former golden age of Western white civilization. Here, we encounter how Trumps problematic narrative feeds into alt-right groups who often attempt to prolongate a false ancient mythology in order to reinforce ethno-nationalist and xenophobic world views today. (The pseudo-historiography of white erasure and Western civilization has been debunked numerous times, including in the annals of Hyperallergic by the Classicist scholar Dr. Sarah Bond, whose recent article The Origins of White Supremacists Fear of Replacement argues that the fear of being replaced can be traced to the French far right, but racist fears regarding supposed White genocide, and invasion by varied ethnic groups, go back centuries). In Staals work, we encounter how Bannons scripted ideological narrative continues to obfuscate the truth, with the purpose of furthering a highly divisive political ideology.

Leaving the exhibition, I was reminded of the unnerving parallels between the alt-right online and in real life. 8chan, the image and message board modelled after 4chan, has recently been in the news after the revelation that the El Paso shooter used the forum to post his far-right manifesto moments before his killing spree, which marks the third time a right-wing mass shooter has posted plans and/or manifesto on the site. Hence, the title of the exhibition, The Alt-Right Complex, is an exhibition that draws nuanced parallels between hateful ideology and imagery online, bearing in mind the psychological minefield that transcends the internet and enters into mainstream consciousness and into real life political events.

The Alt-Right Complex: On Right-Wing Populism Online continues at HMKV Dortmund until September 22, 2019.

Read more here:
Entering the Echo Chamber of the Alt-Right - Hyperallergic

What would a future in which you could charge a phone with your heart look like?

Home-grown contemporary dance company Raw Moves looks at transhumanism and artificial body parts in Being, And Organs, an experimental "research and design" work that runs from Thursday until Saturday.

The 75-minute work is conceptualised by Taiwanese artist Paul Gong, 30, whose work involves speculating about the future of humans and machines, and how they might meld.

This is the latest chapter of his work, which has featured different body parts in various locations.

In Taiwan, he focused on armpit hair; in South Korea, the appendix. In Singapore, it will be the heart.

"If we see the body as a machine, the heart is the engine or motor that powers it up," he says.

He wants to explore the notion of the "currency heart", an organ that is self-sustainable and produces its own energy.

The performers imbued the work with their own opinions of transhumanism.

Matthew Goh, 26, embraces the concept. "I want to find the human-ness in transhumanism. I believe that through it, we can be more connected with human society."

In one of the work's "experiments", Goh invites audience members to sit across from him at a table and "charge" their phone by sustaining unbroken eye contact with him.

It is a process for which he has to emotionally prepare himself. "It can go from calming to unsettling. It's a roller-coaster ride."

His fellow dancer Pichmutta Puangtongdee, 23, who goes by the moniker Dada, has her doubts about incorporating technology into the human body, which she fears will threaten what makes one human.

WHERE: Multi-Purpose Studio 1 and 2, Block O, Goodman Arts Centre, 90 Goodman Road

WHEN: Thursday, 8pm; Friday and Saturday, 3 and 8pm. Friday's 3pm show is sold out

ADMISSION: $28, $25 (concession) from beingandorgans.peatix.com. For more details, e-mail rawmoves.tix@gmail.com

INFO: http://www.rawmoves.net

To depict her uneasy navigation between humanity and technology, she balances on two exercise balls, her body stretching and twisting as she tries to keep herself atop the rolling balls.

Audience members may roam freely through the space during the work and are encouraged to interact with the performers and examine archival documentation, video footage and even a 3D-printed heart Gong has supplied.

Being, And Organs is the latest in Raw Moves' arc of work this year, "System", which explores how emerging technology could affect humanity.

Earlier works included Ghost Call, a collaboration with playwright Nabilah Said about one-sided communication and missed connections; and Subtle Downtempo No by Australian-Japanese group Murasaki Penguin, about how systems can isolate individuals.

"Sometimes, we want to be efficient and we use technology to help us, but sometimes, we're at the mercy of these machines," says Raw Moves artistic director Ricky Sim, 49.

"We talk of Smart Nation, but are we prepared as human beings, as individuals?"

More here:
All charged up over body parts, Arts News & Top Stories - The Straits Times