Artificial Vision

Scientists have created higher definition eye implants to restore vision in the blind.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/december7/curvable-retina-implant-121009.html

Let's subtract some H's!

The human race ought to be decimated. This result can be derived from a number of ethical theories. I've outlined a couple of them below.

• 
  Consequentialism
  

  Human beings tend to act in ways that cause pain and suffering to other beings. Think about how we buy products from Wallmart and other businesses said to abuse humans. Think about how we support governments and other groups that abuse humans. Moreover, consider the way we treat animals (or support products that involve the inhumane treatment of animals). About a third of all black males 18-25 years of age are incarcerated. About 30,000 children die per day of starvation and malnutrition. About 40% of the population of South Africa has HIV, yet we withhold drugs that could help them treat the disease while funneling our money into new baseball stadiums instead of helpful research. At least 25% of women in the united states have been sexually abused. One can rattle off statistics for pages, but you get the point: life is nasty, brutish, and short—and we make it that way.

  
  

  It isn't just the particular acts of suffering that I'm worried about. It's the fact that we're often traumatized by harsh circumstances (like rape, war and abuse), and in turn we pass it on. (Most abusers have been abused, etc.) Very rarely do we have the fortitude to avoid psychological damage in such harsh situations. It isn't clear how humans can snuff out such a insidious and inherited psychological poison.

  
  

  Clearly, the world would be a better place if, say, all of the mean and stupid people were killed off. (It would be even better if the remaining humans were somehow augmented; but not just physically and mentally, but in goodness.) So if you're interested in maximizing overall goodness in the world, the human race needs to be decimated.

  
  


• 
  Deontology
  

  There are many deontological views, and it is difficult to cover all of the most popular ones. I will limit myself to two here: retributivism and FLO theory.

  
  

  Retributivists believe that crimes deserve punishment. One type of retributivist maintains a sort of "eye for an eye" view, where punishment should be in kind with the crime. Consider (1) the evidence presented in the Consequentialism section above and (2) the fact that we ought to know better than to act as we do. We're as responsible for our actions as humans can be (it's not like we're very rational, so how can we be responsible in the Kantian sense?), so we're responsible for the death and intense suffering (often worse than death) that we cause, so most of us deserve and ought to be eliminated.

  
  

  The FLO theory states that robbing individuals of a future of value is seriously wrong. Again, the Consequentialism section above outlines a few ways in which we're very good at robbing people of futures of value. And we have plenty of reasons to believe that we will continue to do so. The most effective way to stop the problem is to eliminate the most harmful of us. If that's not convincing, consider the following. Who says we have a future of value, anyway? By the look of things in that Consequentialism section, plus upcoming problems like global warming or nuclear holocaust, it looks to me more like we have FLAss (Future Like Ass). Using the same approach as the FLO theory, the FLAss theory entails that we very much ought to eliminate the misery somehow, and the most promising way to do that is to selectively decimate the human race.

  
  


• 
  Virtue Ethics
  

  Do you care about the developing a virtuous characters as individuals and as a race? Then killing off the most stupid, vicious people is for you. After all, you're not very virtuous if you don't think that the atrocities mentioned above in the Consequentialism section are tolerable, so if you care about being virtuous, you'll want to rectify the problem in the most effective way possible: killer robots.

  
  

That's all for now. Enjoy.

Fusion Power anyone?

Dyson Spheres? No need. Let's hope this is just the beginning.

Motivation?

If your are in need of some motivation, my ascending colleagues, then click play on the video below!

Transhumanism was famously summed up as

1. The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.
   
2. The study of the ramifications, promises, and potential dangers of technologies that will enable us to overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies.

Carbon Fiber Bones?

I have been wondering about the possibility of medical science making breakthroughs that allows our bodies to utilize carbon in various ways other than how it currently does. Various types of carbon are among the strongest and hardest of substances. It seems quite likely that our bodies could be caused to utilize carbon in ways that are advantageous to us. Imagine having tendons that are reinforced with carbon nanotubes; or bones reinforced with carbon fiber or synthetic diamond (or both). Since carbon is such a common element in the human body already it might not be too outlandish to expect carbon variants to be biologically grown by us.

Just a thought for the day.

Here is a transhumanist analogy. I am sure that some of you are familiar with the character of Sylar on "Heroes". This guy's mission in life is to collect superpowers by acquiring them from others. The transhumanist ideal is similar. We can see the potential for biological improvement in the many different species of animals. Many of these have "super abilities" such as heightened senses and athletic abilities far surpassing our own. Since they have demonstrated what is possible we can aspire to improve on our own biology in ways that will change our lives for the better. Case in point: the optical capabilities of birds of prey. Hawks have a built-in telephoto lens that increases magnification by 40%. Their acuity is 3x greater then our own due to better placement of blood vessels in the eyeball that do not interfere with the absorption of light. The muscles of the iris is made of faster twitch fibers than our own, giving them the ability to nearly instantly adjust for varying levels of light. Falcons can see into the ultra-violate spectrum. One example of a super-ability that we can copy from animals.

Here is a nice little blurb in popular science on a newer compact nuclear battery.  This is the same type of power generator used in some currently operating space probes, although those have a much larger size.  This is a great power generating technology for cybernetic uses since the power generation lasts much longer than current batteries (decades) and is much more efficent.  Of course there is a risk of contamination from the radioactive materials that are used.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-10/scientists-develop-penny-sized-nuclear-battery

Weekend Problems

I was planning on solving a number of problems and answering a few questions this weekend. The list of problems included moderately difficult problems and questions such as:

1. The Mind-Body Problem
2. What will sex be like after the singularity?

Unfortunately, more pratical problems will consume my time, but maybe I'll have time to think about these problems a bit. The practical problems include:

1. Reading a paper by one of my colleagues
2. Writing a paper on Pre-Socratic Philosophy (H-)
3. Reading more material on probabilism.
4. Studying for a Classical Greek exam.

Now, I am looking forward to (1), but (2)-(4) have me bored and I haven't even started working on them. So, if I end up spending too much time on the blog this weekend you all will know why...boredom.

Anyway, what's keeping everyone else from contributing to the progress of the transhumanist movement?

Defining 'Improvement'

The idea of improvement of the human condition seems obviously desirable. However, I have heard some people question the legitimacy of "improvement" in such a way as to suggest that any conception of 'improvement' is arbitrary. I propose that any physical or cognitive advantage for the individual is an improvement in the sense that I am suggesting. What will constitute an advantage will vary depending on changing environmental conditions; however, our environmental conditions seem stable enough to fix this idea to the extent necessary. The idea is to give individuals capabilities which they do not currently have.