Sometimes I think that people will change their bodies with biotechnology and nanotechnology into a direction that is inspired by animal parts and machine parts, but that somehow still fits together functionally and make an aesthetic pleasing impression on others. So, how would people upgrade their bodies?
Use feathers instead of hair? Because feathers are fractal and nice
Long pointed ears? “Feathery” ears than can detect ultrasonic?
Noses like those from dogs – only better
More eyes? Infrared vision? Ultraviolet vision? Even more parts of the light spectrum?
Magnetic sense?
Shark teeth or teeth that regenerate so fast that they never actually deteriorate?
Fluorescent colour shifting skin or fur?
More arms? Tentacles?
More fingers? More thumbs?
More legs? Claws? Hooves? Retractable wheels?
Tails? Long? Short? Multiple?
Biological bags and pockets?
Can digest plastics and cellulose?
Wireless nutrition / energy transfer?
Self-cleaning skin / hair / feathers?
Exoskeletons?
Drone launchers?
WiFi stations? Antennae?
Clothing that is connected to your nervous system?
Functional digital tattoos?
Perhaps our future bodies will one day be able to shift shapes quickly, but they would still assume some of several possible default shapes most of the time. How human will they be? How much animal? How much “robot”? Will they look good to us, or only to their evolved senses of aesthetics?
I would upgrade my body with the ability to sense wetness. I just find it interesting.
Also, I would like to upgrade my hearing with biotech that resembles these hereplus.me
Besides that, I think, in general a new sense most posthumans will have in the future, is a deep entanglement with programmable matter which will make up most of physical matter around us. Being able to interact with foglets via an interface connected to your mind, reprogramming matter however you want sounds pretty chill.
Interesting point. Can you elaborate on that? How would you like to perceive wetness?
That looks like a fun gadget to experiment with. I guess in the posthuman future everyone will be able to reconfigure their physical senses freely without much effort, or the requirement to use any kind of technology that’s not already in your body.
Definitely! That will probably change the way we see ourselves, though. At the moment, we seem to be restricted pretty much to our own bodies. If we also control the technologically animated environment around us with our thoughts, where does the border between “me” and “not me” lie? When I thought about this previously, I assumed that there would be some kind of dynamic “area of control” around each person in which that person can control the technological commons around her. It would be like an extended aura that surrounds each person, which defined access to the “motor controls” of the programmable matter within that aura. Of course, persons would be able to sense those areas of control around other persons.
A similar setup might be used for close range telepathy network control.
Sure, as you know, humans can’t perceive wetness, or how wet liquids are, we can only perceive things like a change in texture and temperature. I just wonder what it would feel like, it probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but as long as we keep augmenting our senses, the more information we will attain about our universe.
Yes, I’m waiting to get my hands on a pair, I’m going to ask some members on biohack.me what they think and how we could possibly start to implant part of the technology. I think it would be cool if more biohackers were in this forum, because there are so many great ideas here. It would definitely be an interesting amalgam.
That’s so interesting you say that! I hadn’t really thought of it that way, I was thinking more from a five dimensional perspective. If post humans are 5D beings, there’s no telling what the limits are, but some sort of aura would have to be in place, even for basic legal rights. That makes a lot of sense. I wonder how the auras would work in 5D? Multiple times, places/versions of reality at once? very cool. We should work to implement that “aura” security measure, it’ll definitely be needed. We can already see the beginnings of programmable matter with things like realityeditor.org
Could you please explain what you understand by “five dimensional perspective”? What kind of dimensions are those? Space? Time? Information? Something else?
The “area of control aura” is not so much a security measure, but more like an access control layer for programmable matter that is not privately owned. If you own programmable matter privately, you can control it via the internet from any place. But if you have public programmable infrastructure, it makes more sense to use something like a local aura for access control.
Not so much five dimensional, because time is really a distance not a dimension, so I guess you could call it 4D. But what I mean is, how do you establish bounds, or an aura, in a 4D world, with 4D beings (what post humans will most likely be), that encompass different derivations of reality simultaneously? I’m just trying to visualize what that would be like, because I feel like programmable reality, and the fourth dimension, will go hand in hand.
Space is a dimension. 5 meters are a distance.
Time is a dimension. 5 minutes are a distance.
Einstein’s special relativity theory puts space and time on the same footing, with the speed of light as “translation factor” between space and time (in reality, it’s a bit more complicated than that, because the “sign” of time is reversed, but that doesn’t change the fact that time is a dimension).
Where did you get the idea from that posthumans will inhabit 4 spacial dimensions?
Anyway, I’ve already experienced the fourth dimension by playing computer games that involve 4 spacial dimensions. They are pretty psychedelic.
Oops, meant duration not distance. But with different people interpreting it differently, to view the next dimension, it still has more or less the same meaning, bc of course we can’t even try to comprehend the next dimension without time or the previous dimensions’ constituents in place, so meh.
Umm, perhaps. It’s just hard to pull another dimension out of your magic hat, if you know what I mean. We seem to live in a 3+1D world. Wishing for more dimensions doesn’t make reality bend to your wishes, even if we get otherwise awesome technology.
Unless you are referring to virtual worlds. It would be possible to live in 4+1D virtual worlds. There has been some science fiction written about that. Perhaps that’s really the future. Perhaps not. Perhaps we will live to see it coming (or not).
