My random thoughts

Anything that doesn't quite fit in elsewhere...
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

Having a super-tough robot or posthuman body would lead to weird situations. Imagine being impaled through the chest with something, looking down at the object, mentally clicking off your pain receptors, and carrying on. Or how about being shot in the head, being consciously aware of the damage, and taking stock of how some of your motor functions, mental functions, and memories were off-line.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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If I were a smart politician watching current events unfold in Canada, I'd be thinking: "If all our trucks were autonomous, we'd never have to deal with this problem in my country."

And I'd be inclined to give permission to a big trucking company or a retail company with a truck fleet like Amazon or Wal-Mart to put driverless trucks on public roads.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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We assume that, once medical immortality and age reversal technology arrive, we'll be able to live successive lives doing different things we wanted to pursue. For example, I'd like to spend 20 years on a merchant ship, then 20 years in the military, then 20 years living in a hectic megacity like Delhi, then 20 years living as a farmer in Italy, etc., to immerse myself in each lifestyle and to understand each experience.

However, it's much likelier that brain cybernetics will let us quickly "download" memories, experiences, and skills directly into our minds, making it unnecessary to spend years attaining them the traditional way. You're likelier to end up as a brain connected to the Matrix, and for your personality to be radically different and more expansive than it is now.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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One upgrade I want for my posthuman body is the ability to digest any type of food and to drink any water. My digestive tract would be able to neutralize microorganisms and biotoxins that give regular humans food poisoning. Imagine if "food poisoning" became an obsolete concept, and if you could also turn off your taste buds at will to consume things that tasted bad, but were necessary for your survival.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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Rich celebrities lead the way using cutting-edge biomedical technologies. Consider the ones that use surrogate mothers to bear their children, and those who have cloned their dead pets.

Likewise, they will be the first to use DNA ova transfer to overcome their own infertility, and they will use human cloning.
TrueAnimationFan
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by TrueAnimationFan »

Speaking of posthuman body modifications, I honestly think there's a decent chance that within 100 years, at least one person will exist who can eat dozens of cookies each day without gaining any weight or getting a stomachache.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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I used to assume that android sex bots and hi-res VR porn would lead to widespread addiction problems, and that people would become unproductive as they spent hours a day indulging in both. But maybe the opposite would happen: If you could satisfy any sexual desire at will with future technologies, and get extremely good sex, then maybe it would be so gratifying that just one 20-30 minute session per day would meet all your needs, and you'd go on your way.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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funkervogt wrote: Mon Jul 05, 2021 4:18 am I've said before that posthumans would greatly benefit from the ability to alter their own gene expression at will, simply by thinking about it. Let me add that they'd benefit even more if their genome coded for traits taken from non-human species. For example, if a posthuman found itself living on an island, they could slowly grow gills that would allow them to breathe underwater and exploit whatever underwater resources there were nearby.
Relatedly, one fundamental disadvantage of our species is that we must pair up to conceive children. Posthumans will be able to reproduce asexually, through parthenogenesis. Less advanced posthumans will be able to make clones of themselves, while more advanced posthumans will be able to customize the genomes of their offspring in utero, creating humans that are genetically different from them.

The ultimate development of this will be the ability to generate any type of life form in one's womb. Imagine a posthuman with knowledge of thousands of types of animals. Simply by thinking about it, the posthuman could self-fertilize itself with a synthesized zygote of any human or animal.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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I think the movie Man of Steel is mediocre, but the beginning chapter on planet Krypton bears some similarities to what I think posthumans and the distant future will be like.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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If brain implants can be used to simulate any type of experience, then they can simulate the feeling of weightlessness, which would be awesome.
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