
Transcending the Human, DIY Style - Mithrandir
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/transcending-the-human-diy-style/
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jacquesm
Part of me is fascinated that someone would actually do something like that,
part of me is horrified. For now the horror seems to win out. The price seems
pretty excessive and in the end the only thing that changes here is the
interface that you use to get the information. Want to know where magnetic
North is ? Get a compass and _look_ at it. That will tell you. A flux meter
will tell you all you will ever need to know about the magnetic fields around
you.

Our eyes and ears are high bandwidth and using custom made sensors that output
images and sounds that we can interpret we can enter a very large amount of
information about our environment without so much as a drop of blood.

To literally have a 6th or 7th sense is very interesting but it really is just
another low bandwidth channel that can easily be simulated using some tech and
our existing sensors.

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noste
What fascinates me in this article (and in other similar efforts), is the
ambient nature of these new senses. While it is true that you can look at a
compass in order to find the magnetic north, I'd imagine it is very different
to "just know" where it happens to be at any given moment.

That being said, there is interesting stuff to be done without DIY surgeries.
For example, Christina Kubisch used to auralize electromagnetic fields using
some portable gear, and wander around urban areas listening sounds made by
security systems, WLAN hotspots, and the like (see interview here:
<http://www.christinakubisch.de/pdf/Kubisch_Interview.pdf> ).

~~~
ippisl
Wearable see-through displays can also give this ambient sense. they're quite
expensive(but getting cheaper) , starting at $2000.

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PlanetFunk
Very interesting. A while ago I read about a belt that enabled the wearer to
know true north and was very interested in trying to develop something similar
(maybe the size of a watch).

This implanting sounds kind of cool (in a cyber punk sort of way). Guess deep
down there's a trans-human in me wanting to get out ;)

Not sure about the pain, loss of digits, infections, etc...

~~~
Dn_Ab
Having an unflappable sense of direction/true north is not transhuman though.
You just have to have been raised speaking any languages that uses geographic
coordinates instead of the typical egocentric ones. Such as:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guugu_Yimithirr_language#Gramma...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guugu_Yimithirr_language#Grammar).
to form the required mental processes. If you dig deeper you find that
although they also do also use relative coordinates, they are performing what
sounds like crazy affine transformations when doing so.

 _"The apparently effortless conceptual operations required to employ these
short and ubiquitous cardinal direction terms are complex, requiring not only
a highly developed “sense of direction” (and memory for terrain, routes,
landmarks, etc.), but a simultaneous merging or juggling of what appear to be
separate frames of reference (in Levinson’s sense) embedded in even single
lexical forms, which maintain the “absolute” orientation which is in principle
independent of particular terrain or of any given reference point or
orientation, with the “relative” calculation of origos and focus points, with
the “intrinsic” geometries of natural landmarks and their orientations in
space."_

[http://www.anthro.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Di...](http://www.anthro.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Diags.pdf)

~~~
jacquesm
Now that is truly fascinating, how would such a thing develop?

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Dn_Ab
I'm neither a linguist nor a psychologist so I'm just going to chalk it up to
how amazingly flexible the human brain is. I found out about that language
from reading <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html>.

But I've had a long interest in how language can have a measurable effect on
what your default thought processes are, even if it doesn't limit what you can
express. This also folds back some interesting perspectives into computer
language debates and if the one you use actually makes a difference..

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stcredzero
If you want to transcend the human, just start acting more rationally than the
average human. If you want to take it really far, get to the point where you
are acting rationally almost all of the time.

As Cesar Millan says, where the mind goes, the body will follow.

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AngryParsley
They didn't link to Lepht's blog: <http://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/>

It's uhh... interesting, I guess. (Lots of stuff about opiate withdrawal and
complications from self-surgeries.)

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TheAmazingIdiot
I have taken a similar path of transcending the human element. However, my
path is much less glamorous than attaching neodymium/gold underneath my
fingers and such.

I'm studying the paths of eastern occultism, which direct control of the body
using methods passed down from teacher to student. I am also a Reiki master,
which has surprised quite a few people on what I have discerned.

I can manipulate my heart rate from 50 bpm to 130 bpm, just by concentrating
on a specific pattern. I also can adjust my core body temperature up to about
105F and hold it. I can, with touch, feel injuries on peoples bodies, even if
they have long since healed.

I know about my body.

I can tell if I am getting sick and attempt to prevent it. We know of placebo,
and how strong its effects are. I just forcefully tell my body that I will not
get sick. And I have not since I started practising.

Perhaps, it may be called the occult, but I believe we just do not have
appropriate methods to measure it. It works for me, and I keep the workings to
a very scientific mindset.

I'm sure I'll get mod-bombed for this, as people here seem very antagonistic
to anything of spiritual or esoteric origin... But I remain hopeful.

~~~
Mithrandir
I'm curious whether you've read "The Silva (Mind Control) Method". It's
similar to what you described.

<https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Silva_Method>

~~~
TheAmazingIdiot
I've read some of that. Much of his works are on basic applications (and I do
mean basic) of projection and mantras.

Projection is few different things: the key is that you have to believe, even
if it doesn't appear to work at first.

An art, called Tumo, is a way to generate large amounts of heat in the body,
so that you do not get cold. There is a complicated way of teaching the full
technique (which is known and proved in the annals of science). But try this:
go somewhere cold and then project that you are inside a fireball. And you
start feeling warmer.

Mantras are another interesting thing. Mantra repeating can force certain
brain states that are usually only obtainable in sleep. It's also a way to
investigate how sleep works, but from the inside out. Other interesting
abilities may pop out. I know of one person, while meditating, could see
infra-red. I found this out with a Wiimote IR pen for my whiteboard.

There is definitely something there... But we lack the scientific method and
grammar to explain it.

~~~
shadowfox
> An art, called Tumo, is a way to generate large amounts of heat in the body,
> so that you do not get cold. There is a complicated way of teaching the full
> technique (which is known and proved in the annals of science)

Any pointers to the studies?

~~~
moozilla
You might start here:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo#Scientific_investigation>

If you're interested in how to perform the actual meditation, this is a great
book: [http://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Inner-Fire-Practice-
Naropa/dp/08...](http://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Inner-Fire-Practice-
Naropa/dp/086171136X)

