Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Max White]

So in regards to these neodymium implant thingies, are they things people actually do?
I'm assuming you would need a professional to do it, but would they have to be a surgeon, or would somebody with experience in these sorts of body piercings do? I've seen all sorts of interesting things implanted into peoples foreheads and such for decoration...

[MetalSlimeHunt]

So in regards to these neodymium implant thingies, are they things people actually do?

Yes. Go to any transhumanist community on the internet, and you'll see people talking about it, posting after-implantation pictures, ect. My guestimations definitely put the number of people who have done this in the hundreds, if not the low thousands.

I'm assuming you would need a professional to do it, but would they have to be a surgeon, or would somebody with experience in these sorts of body piercings do? I've seen all sorts of interesting things implanted into peoples foreheads and such for decoration...

You will have to be a living god of persuasion to get a surgeon to do this. Thus far, all neodymium implants have been done by body modders. It's not impossible that you could do it on yourself, but that would take either seriously hardcore willpower or high-strength painkillers.

[Max White]

Damn, I'm the living god of snickers, not persuasion.

Also I wouldn't exactly be willing to do that myself, even on all the painkillers in the world. I can't even do that trick where you put a safety pin through a layer of skin to make it stick to your hand for squirming.

[Pnx]

There's also someone who grafted a special camera onto their eye socket, which is supposed to be the first step towards one of those nifty eye augmentations you see in fiction.

It's really not something I've been that interested in, enhancing my senses I mean, my current set of senses is enough trouble to deal with as is. I don't really want more of them to deal with. Heck I was actually kind of glad when I started losing my sense of smell. If I could change other things about my body though, I think I definitely would, I mean, to put it bluntly, I think my body is an ugly, awkward, heavy, sack of crap.

It's going to sound pretty weird to most people here, but I've actually had this sort of... fantasy for a long time where I've wanted to be able to replace my legs with something much lighter, maybe I'd even give the same treatment to the rest of my body. The body I'm in right now just feels constantly constrictive, I really hate it.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's going to sound pretty weird to most people here, but I've actually had this sort of... fantasy for a long time where I've wanted to be able to replace my legs with something much lighter, maybe I'd even give the same treatment to the rest of my body. The body I'm in right now just feels constantly constrictive, I really hate it.

Going to sound weird? You're in a transhumanist thread.

[Pnx]

Well it's something I suspect most people in general would find weird...

[Max White]

Do what I do, wear heavy steel capped working boots all day every day and climb over seven foot high fences rather than just open the gate. By the end of the day when you finally take your boots off you will feel like you can run up walls.

[Xantalos]

I'm personally waiting for immortality first. Then I'll screw around with everything else.

[alway]

There's also someone who grafted a special camera onto their eye socket, which is supposed to be the first step towards one of those nifty eye augmentations you see in fiction.

Actually, http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/19/health/fda-bionic-eye/
In February, the FDA approved its first cybernetic eye.

The device consists of a panel of electrodes that are surgically implanted in the eye, and a pair of glasses with an attached camera. The camera sends images to the electrodes, essentially bypassing the damaged retina and tapping into the optic nerve that signals the brain to "see" images.

Though that particular device is only 'enhancing' your sight if you happen to be blind.

[Frumple]

There's also someone who grafted a special camera onto their eye socket, which is supposed to be the first step towards one of those nifty eye augmentations you see in fiction.

From what I recall, we'll likely have replacements, at the least, within a decade, two on the outside (E: Ninja'd, and closer than I thought ). If my memory's not failing me, they're already making pretty good progress on resolution. Basic (replacement, if nothing else) cybereyes are going to be in most of our lifetimes if things continue apace. We've already got functioning (to varying degrees) linked up prosthetics, iirc. Another 20, 30 years... hell, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if we've got the raw technology (if not quite the methodology or will to go through with it) for a full or near full body replacement, right now.

It wouldn't work too well and probably wouldn't last very long, but...

Point being, limb replacement -- possibly even cosmetic or enhancement replacements -- is very, very close, at least insofar as the technology goes. Economical/legal/socially acceptable might be further off, but yeah. Even with all the incredibly stupid inefficiencies we've built into the global medical research field, we are doing some really absolutely incredible things right now, and either in the active process of making or nearing the cusp of making very serious breakthroughs in the realm of cybernetics.

[Max White]

Great! I'm all for the eyes thing.
You know somehow I get the feeling that if you extend the range that the eye can see, it won't give you new colors per say, just strech the spectrum a little. So you would see infra red as red, and red as a redish orange, and orange as a slightly yellowish orange, and so on.

Just my guess, being unable to imagine new colors...

[alway]

Also from February: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/real-million-dollar-bionic-man-built-goes-tour-1B8255395
Which is kind of a nice round up of the tech that's already out there in the medical field. Limbs, along with a wide variety of internal organs. With a bit of an interesting note from the guy who put it together:

“I’ve looked around for new bionic technologies, out of personal interest, for a very long time and … until five to six years ago nothing much was happening. Then suddenly we get this explosion of innovation,”

Then there's also the actual tissue growth, which continues apace, through companies like Organovo.

Also 3d printed parts: http://www.nature.com/news/3-d-printed-windpipe-gives-infant-breath-of-life-1.13085

From last year, the prosthetic limbs controlled directly by a neural interface, rather than through any muscular interaction; this one was on 60 minutes as well: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/17/us-science-prosthetics-mindcontrol-idUSBRE8BG01H20121217

Or from last month (more practical) rewiring damaged limbs to interface with sensors, with similar effect: http://www.wired.com/design/2013/10/is-this-brain-controlled-bionic-leg-the-future-of-prosthetics/

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Point being, limb replacement -- possibly even cosmetic or enhancement replacements -- is very, very close, at least insofar as the technology goes. Economical/legal/socially acceptable might be further off, but yeah. Even with all the incredibly stupid inefficiencies we've built into the global medical research field, we are doing some really absolutely incredible things right now, and either in the active process of making or nearing the cusp of making very serious breakthroughs in the realm of cybernetics.

Oh, make no mistake, nothing short of a civilization-ending catastrophe will keep this from happening. That's part of why I've decided to get in on the ground floor of transhumanism. These things may not be a serious issue right now, but it is something that will come up in the future. All the societies of the world are going to have to give their answers to questions we have never had to answer before.

I can only imagine how religious institutions are going to respond. Pew's study suggested they were for the most part alright with non-indefinite life extension, but that's just the start of things...

[WillowLuman]

All I want to do is project mental images onto a computer screen. Or even better, music.

[Max White]

Well my gut instinct tells me churches will complain, but then things like pacemakers have been well received over all, people accepted the internet with very little resistance, and we got used to the idea of always being on camera without a second thought... In general.

There will no doubt be people who think that such modifications are immoral, but that will dwindle over time...