Posts about technologies promising to magnify human potential, transhumanism, and brain/memory studies.
As disturbing as it may be when you take time to investigate and think deeply about it, studies about the depth of inaccuracies we inadvertently create in our memories is quite fascinating. Julia Shaw’s recent book The Memory Illusion shows...
Westworld season 1 left me feeling lost (geek allusion intended) most of the season, which was undoubtedly J.J. Abrams’ fault (he wrote/directed Lost) but Westworld’s season 1 finale was so good and the payoff was so unexpected, I trudged all...
I’ve written a number of posts about memory implants, memory erasure, and mind control. Scientists have inserted a brain into a robot and done several other unbelievable things in the recent past so I thought I should write a little...
Richard Browning, a UK inventor, created a real life Iron Man suit he dubs “the Deadalus” and gave it a test flight in front of a TED conference last month. Even though the suit can fly around 200 mph,...
Whether you’re aware of it or not, artificial intelligence is all around us and what constitutes “artificial intelligence” is becoming as definitionally nebulous as … well, whatever. Should we call your thermostat artificially intelligent because it regulates temperature in your home...
Long before Shelley’s Frankenstein, we were sharing stories about changelings, transmutations, and various forms of magic that create new forms of life. As real science has contemplated the possibilities of real life Frankenstein breakthroughs, various transhumanist experiments in 2015 more than humbly suggested...
Jetman Dubai recently released a jet pack that has been lauded as the modern day Iron Man suit … and while that’s only marketing hyperbole at this point in time, there is little doubt that the real Iron Man suit...
I had a near death experience (NDE) years ago. I find it somewhat amusing that NDEs continue to ignite such intense controversy but recently, some German scientists determined the controversy wasn’t brewing hot enough so they made it boil over....
When Terminator first came out, the ideas behind it would have been laughable but for Arnold Schwarznegger’s boss appearance. Time travel and cyborgs were so far from realistic science ventures that we all watched the movie with our reality regulators...
Science Fiction has inspired many innovations over the past few decades. Cloaking devices, chameleon-esque camouflage, memory manipulations (including erasures and implants), suspended animation, artificial intelligence, underwater breathing without tanks, Jedi mind control (almost), total immersion gaming, mind controlled prosthetics, personal...
First, MIT came out with an unbelievably effective invisibility cloak and now, engineers from the University of California at Berkeley have created a new, very thin and flexible chameleon like artificial skin. Okay – it might not make you...
Dr. Denys Makarov would have Marvel fans pretty excited if they were paying attention. He’s recently invented a new “magnetic sensor, which is thin, robust and pliable enough to be smoothly adapted to human skin, even to the most flexible...
How is it that our PC saturated culture has created so few disabled protagonists in modern literature? After all, aren’t our heroes supposed to have some weaknesses that they have to overcome so they don’t become a stale character? Hat tip...
Suspended animation conjures images of a frozen Hans Solo, Avatar-esque space travel, and Star Trek’s infamous Khan. Doctors have been seriously experimenting with possibilities since the 1950s when space travel was first becoming a reality. Sixty years later, we’re still waiting for...
The rise of artificial intelligence is no longer science fiction. Scientists have replicated the machinations of a round worm’s brain and have given it a robot body. Okay, so watching the robot move is just about as boring as watching a...
Any great author must intimately confront the machinations of human nature in order to make characters believable. Sometimes, that means studying the thought patterns and habits of children, psychopaths, naive onlookers, cannibals, animals, and serial killers. There are several ways...
Breaking edge science can now create false memories, erase memories, and recover lost memories. Fascinating – and scary – scientific discoveries about memories abound lately. Fairly recent research from MIT discovered that memories are not stored in synaptic tissue as...
Star Wars depictions of diving technology may have been prophetic … so forget Harry Potter’s invasive spell for fish gills – that’s just uber unnecessary! The University of Southern Denmark has been developing crystals that absorb oxygen and then release that...
Ten years from now, teenagers may not believe Jedi mind tricks were once fiction – and it may not matter whether or not you are weak minded. I mentioned in previous transhumanist posts how mind controlled prosthetics are becoming surprisingly sophisticated,...
Gamers who play violent 3D living room gaming report higher levels of anger than gamers who only play 2D systems, regardless of screen size. The study found a strong correlation between levels of anger (as guaged by participants) and gamers’ perception...
Scientists have developed a prosthetic that allows amputees to regain sensations from lost limbs. Cybernetics – communication between machines and biological tissue – received widespread attention when the Empire Strikes Back hit the silver screen. Luke Skywalker received a prosthetic hand...
Scientists have successfully used light to erase unpleasant memories in mice. You’re next! Sounds scary? Well, maybe this sounds scary if you’re a conspiracy theorist or if you have enjoyed a blissfully happy life but if you suffer from PTSD and...
Proposals to produce a Jetson-esque flying car have flooded the industry but we’re just now receiving promising proposals. The European Union is now focusing on “MyCopter” as a solution to the world’s traffic congestion problem. Designing a flying car...
Verdict: Guilty by reason of brain waves. Sound implausible? Not for long. Science Daily reports that preliminary data from the Association for Psychological Science is hoping to keep us from ever lying again … well, at least they are hoping...
Are you looking to buy an invisibility cloak? Do you want to hide something really well? You might need to wait a few years but the technology to create outrageously effective camouflage is at our doorsteps. The key? Mother nature...
About fifteen years ago, I was wowed while traveling in Hong Kong – we rode on a hover craft ferry from one destination to another as if riding a normal boat. At that time, it seemed imminently inevitable that land...
For a brilliant moment, the movie Lucy was gathering an enormous amount of attention. Since I’ve been researching topics surrounding transhumanism, it caught my eye as well. I saw several discussions about the 10% brain myth but I liked this...
Lately, I’ve been watching several videos about breaking edge technology, transhumanism, and the like. Among the several video tutorials and documentaries that I’ve been watching, this video by Michio Kaku caught my eye. In high school, I was admittedly...
Last year, at WorldCon, I read Nexus by Ramez Naam. His presentation for Nexus was my first exposure to the concept of transhumanism and it was both thrilling and revolting at the same time. I suppose the same can be...
Today couldn’t come with more exciting news for every true sci-fi fan: NASA has announced plans to build a space ship that literally warps time and avoids Einstein’s relativity problems with space travel. Want to visit another solar system?...
The U.S. Army has announced intentions to change rules to enlistment: 25% of all applicants must be robots! Well, that isn’t quite the story but you can click on the image above for the full story. The gist...
Alright Sci-Fi fans – here is another reason to be excited about the future: shark skin swim suits! 3D printing has now replicated shark skins – a feat that scientists have failed to accomplish for many years now. Thanks to...