
When man meets metal: rise of the transhumans - elsewhen
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/29/transhuman-bodyhacking-transspecies-cyborg
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simonsarris
As usual, most of the examples here are more performance art than
transhumanism, plus a submarine article for Eyeborg, which is somewhere
between performance art and a Google Glass -eye.

~~~

I wonder who we can consider the first transhumanist.

Farming is in my mind the original _hacking._ Some clever ancient fellows who
thought, "what if we can rig up our own food supply? Get some Aurochs (cows)
to hang out long enough, maybe grow some food for them."

Success breeds inventory, inventory breeds writing. The rest is literally
history.

The first _body-hacking_ is the guy that was able to drink non-human milk and
process lactose, 10,000 years ago near modern day Turkey. Maybe it was his
mother or father hacking the food supply at first. In any case so successful
was this guy that his genes spread like wildfire.

These to me seem amazing, game changing feats in human development. Who's the
real _transhumanist_ here? The person who can drink cows milk, or the person
who put a magnet in their finger? It just feels so very quaint. Putting a
magnet under your finger isn't even as impressive as the first guy to make a
_wrist-watch,_ something so amazing that it became ubiquitous enough to the
point where we've forgotten to even think about it.

I like the idea of transhumanism. If I had billions to fall back on I'd start
a prosthetics company in a (synthetic) heartbeat. But I think we've stalled
here, by and large, if we're still writing articles about "magnets and LED
lights inserted under the skin."

> a bionic arm, laser lit, and with phone-charging ports and a personal drone
> attachment.

This is the prosthetic equivalent of a sneaker with flashing lights in the
heels.

~~~
rusk
_the guy that was able to drink non-human milk and process lactose_

Could you go further back? To the guy who first figured out you could cook
meat?

This was a crucial development.

Cooking meat makes it more nutritionally available for our omnivorous
digestive system. Effectively pre-digesting it in a way other animals can't
match.

Being able to do this gave us the additional calories, and protein we needed
to get the edge over other animal competitors.

~~~
maxerickson
I wonder to what extent "modern humans" evolved as a result of earlier species
controlling fire.

~~~
rusk
do you think "modern humans" could have been possible without it?

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BjoernKW
I met Neil Harbisson in Brighton in September this year when he gave a
stunning talk at the Reasons conference. He's a true visionary, who really
pushes the envelope.

Not only does he perceive colours as single notes but assemblages of colours
become chords. So, faces for instance to him don't necessarily look pretty but
they sound good (he specifically mentioned Prince Charles, who apparently
sounds very pleasant ...). He also dresses in chords that fit the occasion and
showed a picture of a particularly gaudy dress he apparently wore at a funeral
because it sounds like C minor.

This certainly has mostly artistic value for now but it truly expands the way
we perceive and make sense of the world.

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mirimir
OK, but what about pacemakers?

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myrandomcomment
I keep thinking that the magnet in the finger would be a fun thing to try out.
Something that is pretty safe and reversible. Am I crazy?

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kobeya
Yes. Most people who have done the magnet in the finger rate the experience as
"meh, wouldn't do again."

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triplesec
Why do you say that? I have several friends who found it a great thing, though
as people they are definitely outliers, and I haven't asked them again in a
couple of years.

~~~
kobeya
There was an article on HN some months back where hey followed up with one of
the main body mod professional to do this work. He reported that most of his
business now is people requesting them taken out, and that new installs have
precipitously declined. It then went on to interview many people that had such
a modification and what they felt about it.

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jlebrech
i once thought of implanting a magnets to keep my glasses on.

