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.