Transhumanism

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Real life science is not a traditional game.
>>>/sci/

>>49949685
Go post this on /sci/
Unless you're talking about Eclipse Phase or Transhuman Space this board doesn't care

For a scifi setting I've been working on I had one species achieve it by scooping out the brain and hooking it up to a VR simulaor while the brain itself was suspended in fluids to keep it alive, theoretically indefinitely... a small percent of the population rejected the process and were forced to live on the fringes of their world's habitable regions, until a sizeable faction of "transhumanists"... or would they then be called "transxenos"?... anyway... they decided to force this process on that population. At that time a human exploration ship discovered the planet and helped the population relocate to another system. Since the Transxenos never developed FTL, they were left to their own devices and ultimately fade into obscurity, while the relocated population went on to found an interstellar empire of their own and advanced the field of robotics and cybernetics across known space by centuries.

Don't know how much this little digression has to do with OP's post but thought it would be good to share...

>>49949685
>transhumanism
>posthumanism
Disgusting, superhumanism is where it's at.

>>49949685
>>49950910
>samefag detected

>>49950927
>6 posts including OP
>6 posters
>samefag
Not even him, but wew

>>49950927
I posted >>49950910 but I have no idea who posted >>49949685 nor do I care much for his post.

Why would you think I was the same person?

>>49950949
>phoneposting does not exist
The fucker has the exact same phrasing as the OP, it's blindingly obvious they're the same guy.

>>49951034
Why do you care?

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>>49951034
Except Your conclusion is still wron because I'm still not OP, and just for you, a pic.

>>49949695
>>49950772

Tier 2-- related to stuff that's related to gaming. Shadowrun, Transhuman Space, Cyberpunk, Eclipse Phase-- all deal with issues of Transhumanism.

So OP is on topic and it's a worthwhile conversation.

I think we see different "rails" for transhumanism to follow. In general, each rail has two roads it can go down. 1. transformation (or integrationism), which is to say changing ourselves into improved and eventually ultimate beings, and 2. Supercessionism, where we create the ultimate beings which then replace us.

That's true whether you're talking genetic engineering, cybernetics, computers, biomodification, etc etc. Even superscience stuff like psi. Are we turning into an ultimate race or creating one to replace us?

The line between the two can be very fuzzy, since we obviously create our successors every time we have children. Also, a transformed being like a recorded/uploaded personality can live side-by-side with a successor being like an AI.

Depending on the technology, we may learn how to create successors before we learn how to transform ourselves into such a state. IE we develop AI companions. Then we learn how to implant computers, so for a while we have an AI assistant living in our heads alongside our own brains. Hopefully the relationship is cooperative. Then eventually someone develops the ability to integrate an implanted computer such that it enhances and extends the original brain, rather than just operating alongside and communicating with it.

So what happens to all the AI companion programs that have been happily cooperating with their human hosts? Obviously moving forward the integrationist position is to prefer enhancing human brains with cybernetics, but you have this legacy installed base of cooperator AIs who also think and feel and won't choose extinction.

Every technology first hits humanity in the context of some legacy pre-existing society structured around the predecessor tech.

>>49951142
>>49951364

Let's just ignore the trolls and have a nice discussion.

If you'd like, let's frame it in terms of Transhuman Space. It's a setting that's very hard sci fi, has a very wide variety of transhuman paths explored, isn't judgemental about which one is Right or The Future, and is supported by a game system that allows virtually anything. It's also written in part by real-life transhumanist scientists and futurists, so it has a solid foundation in seriousness.

So, /tg/, what's the difference between transhumanism and posthumanism? Need the former necessarily lead to the latter?

Is there an alternative to the two that improves the human condition and expands the boundaries of man, without making the individual inhuman?

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>>49950922

>>49953062
We had this discussion yesterday.
What is inhuman?
How can you say that the man that is more computer than meat has stopped being human, and be sure?
Where do you draw the line?

>>49954054
This is true. We've had about one transhumanism discussion a day for the past three days.

General talking points tended to be the Ship of Theseus, and the Chinese Room.

There was line drawn between superhumanism (best humans we can be, perfection in imperfection) and transhumanism (humanity isn't as important as progress).

Things wen't surprisingly well. Even the few transhumanists who openly didn't give a shit about humanity posited that they'd much rather just be allowed to do their own thing, and not force other people to be robots.

Also there was some discussion about hiveminds being a bad path for humanity, but psychic communication being helpful to determine whether something was "truly sapient" or not.

That's all I can remember.

>>49949685
Depends on how far into the future one imagines. Barring sudden extinction events we're basically set to develop technologically and scientifically for a long fucking time. All that "stronger faster" stuff I dunno about though, there probably won't be a lot of heavy lift duty to be done in the future, unless you're at a gym. I imagine it'll be much more centered around organ replacement and regeneration, getting rid of or at least spotting developmental dysfunctions early on. Cybernetics and such are a giving, we have them already to some extent. Consciousness transfer? Maybe far into the future, and lots of controversy surrounding it.