That adjective might also obtain for James Randi. This could get confusing.
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It seems to me that Transhumanists are subjected to a lot of BS back seat psycho-analysis in a way that makes me think the opposite question: āWhy are so many people dicks to transhumanists?ā
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Whatever. Both groups are equally icky.
Do you worry what the ants think about your picnic, or are you just concerned with getting rid of them?
Wouldnāt that be Randiite?
I have been waiting for neural jacks since I read Neuromancer as a teenager. We got all the cyberpunk dystopia, but none of the cool shit. I wanna refund.
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Someone bought me Captain Cyborgās book for Christmas once. āGee thanksā¦ā
We certainly wonāt get them from the official system. The cool toys will be at best for military, at least in the beginning. Weāll have to make our own knockoffs.
The coolest stuff wonāt be doable in a garage. But thatās what Thailand clinics are for; transhumanist medical tourism for the win. There are countries where the ethical/cultural hangups are different, and they are just a flight away. And they have pretty good doctors and the doctors want money.
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I think we were lucky. I donāt want to have some bitcoin mining bot running on my brain.
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@GilbertWham actually, when heās not being a terrible publicity whore heās a nice enough chap. (aside: when they filmed all that stuff about the chip in his arm letting the department building recognize him, I think theyād already removed the chip and he had an RFID card stuffed in his pocket.)
And cosmetic surgery.
I donāt think thereās much of a western model of medicine that functions as an explicit philosophy. Sure, thereās hopefully ethics. ThereĀ“s also money.
Not an expression Iām familiar with, but one which I am officially stealing. Now I just need to get invited to a brisā¦
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I am deeply disappointed in the prejudice and open bigotry displayed in the replies here.
I have always taken an interest in how human beings enhance themselves. From eyeglasses and contacts to pain pacemakers, thereās been a continuous improvement to peopleās quality of life due to enhancement.
Even without technology involved, life hacking has faced prejudice and bigotry. Not long ago meditation, yoga, chiropractic therapy, and many other valuable contributions to quality of faced ridicule. Anyone admitting publicly to practice of these verifiable benefitial practices was considered a āflakeā. Yet currently these are all recommendations made to help chronic conditions.
I have Parkinsonās disease and Iām quadriplegic due to a motorvehicle impact.
I use assistive devices, aids for daily living, along with a Android tablet and phone to be independent. They make it possible to have at least some quality of life.
I look for new developments such as wearables, volunteer for testing of new therapies, offer to test ANY potential technology that may help, and for drug testing for Parkinsonās.
I have only two questions when I do this;
Could it help?
Will it hurt or cause damage?
If it wonāt hurt and might help, then I do it. To not try would be stupid. Not ignorant of the facts, not unknowing of the situationā¦ Stupid. Knowing something could help and then refusing to improve my quality of life because itās āflakeyā would be stupid.
I stopped actively participating in the Transhumanist Movement, now called H+ because of Grindr and egotism involved in the organization.
That doesnāt make the prejudice and bigotry posted here acceptable.
People with debilitating, crippling pain, and with little quality of life are allowing ourselves to be experimental subjects in hopes of improved quality of life.
To ridicule, berate, discourage, and disparage our efforts is wrong.
The posts that did so are a display of what continues to be the most repulsive, revolting, and disappointing aspects of human communication.
What will your do for a topper?
Stomp on puppies in front of toddlers or spit on soldiers crippled defending your country?
If they have any humane qualities at all they should be deeply ashamed.
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Australian slang. Donāt ask where I got it. Maybe that ill-fated longdistance relationship from late 90āsā¦
I think that would be a follower of Randi, not a resembler.
But at least you could tell a Randiite from a Randite.
Absolutely nothing.
And your stance proves that at least until our offspring grow different than us there will always be standoffish self supirrior assholes out there that feel they must elevate themselves by degrading others.
Please do not do that, especially here. Even if you intended it as a joke it comes off as veryā¦ Toxic.
We will do better together than apart no matter if youāve somehow gotten an iPhone wired into your skull or not.
Frankly Iāll be glad when medical technology gets cheap and reliable enough to make a lot of issues non-issues. Think better versions of the $300 3d printed arm. I mean better exists, but I want better and affordable. I also want a new set of eyes, and replacements for my joints that donāt come with a mile long list of possible complications and decreased mobility.
I want these nice shiny things to be avalible for everyone and without gatekeepers knuckle and dining the whole way because āthatās how things are.ā We need to fix society before we fix ourselves. I donāt want this to go the way of some lackluster SciFi novel centering on a special snowflake augment verses a cartoonishly villainous government.
Did you (Iām looking at YOU, Beschizza) use the picture of Bane to represent Grinders because Dark Knight Rises was filmed in Pittsburgh? Maybe he got his mask from Deeplocal or one of those crazy hack-it-all shops.
We wonāt fix society. Thatās work for several lifetimes and we donāt have these. The ones who can fix society, work on it; definitely work on it but the results will take their sweet time. The ones who can push technology forward, work on that; that can be done virtually day by day, the progress here is nonlinear. As long as at least the core part of the augment tech is published, everybody will benefit at the end. This is one thing where trickle-down actually works.
Somebody has to blaze the path. Donāt stand in their way.
The ādonāt stay in their wayā (and by extension in my way) applies to the govts too.
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We donāt have those yet; and never will, with that attitude. 
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The logical way is to go for life extension, and go for it aggressively. That buys time for the rest.
Edit: That includes diverting part of the effort to better tools and other force-multipliers. The cheap tools of the biohacking movement will be of great help here; the biohack/DIYbio branch gives a lot of synergy. Gaming industry provides fast computers with even faster graphic cards (OpenCL, here we are), and virtual/augmented reality for data visualisation and easier work. Conventional 3d printing from nonconventional materials can provide us with parts for cheaper instruments. Investing into tools can speed up progress exponentially.
