Power-Generating Cyborg Beetles
When I was myself but a larva, I would occasionally affix a length of thread to the leg of a green June beetle and toss it into the air such that it would instinctively take flight, and then walk around with it as it orbitied my head like a tiny helicopter.
That was entirely unproductive.
What I should have been doing is this.
At the age of 7 I would’ve had very little use for a cybernetically-enhanced, explosives-detecting beetle, I could’ve used a flotilla of 15,000 of them to power my portable cassette deck.
More Awesome Than Meat-Based Eyes?
Not quite yet. But! This guy has installed a digital camera in his ocular orbit. What did you do today?
Meet EYEBORG. He’s put together a fascinating brief film about present-day electronic body augmentations that titillated me to no end. Check it out here.
Hardware-based AI, alligator-fat fuel, and a defence of transhumanism as the next logical step.
Got some pretty good stuff, today…
Holy shit–IBM’s become interesting again, with the development of chips that work like brains.
My Vision of a Transhuman Future, and a Soundtrack to Evoke It
Hello fellow refugees! One of the things I would like to accomplish over the lifetime of this site is to compile a list of music and musical artists that evoke the feel of the the post-anthropological world, however we may envision that.
My personal vision is of a Gibson-esque corporate anarchy, though even MORE fractured, if that is possible. Biochemical/bio-electronic body-modification will be commonplace; at first only for the wealthy, but then rapidly pirated by black-market doctors and engineers for distribution to the common masses. Synthetic life-forms will be cloned and bred for the manufacture of biological technology. Some groups of humans [largely religious fundamentalists] will resist this trend and become a violent minority. A kind of technophobic prison-nation will be established for them, where they will be permitted autonomous self-rule and conservation of their lifestyle. This will not eliminate them as a problem, however, and isolated secret groups of them, outside the borders of their reservation, will provide a continuous terrorism problem.
On the brighter side, starvation will have been eliminated by the proliferation of genetically-engineered crops and livestock. Nationalism and national identities will have become irrelevant. A kind of grand cliquishness will instead be the primary culturally organising force– people will divide themselves by their [self-chosen] appearance, biological/biomechanical makeup and by their corporate loyalties. Think– Apple vs. Microsoft but with bioelectronic implants and custom embryos instead o f just PCs. Thorium reactors will have solved the energy crisis. Raw materials for industry will be mined on asteroids, the Moon, and under the oceans. Large-scale warfare with artillery and troops will be a thing of the past–instead, there will be inter-corporate cyberwarfare, inter-subcultural skirmishes, the occasional class-motivated attack, and, of course, the odd bit of terrorism from fundie wackos.
Transhuman cyborgs will be neurologically hardwired to wireless modems. Nanotechnology will have revolutionised medicine; the primary medical issues will have become computer viruses and shitty black-market implants. Recreational drugs will be eliminated and replaced by bioelectronic implants that allow direct control over one’s neurotransmitter levels.
That’s my vision of a trans-/post-human world. Say, 300 years from now.
Herein is a list of musical artists that I think already capture the aesthetic and feel of this possible future. As you think of your own, please submit them and/or a description of your own vision of the future, and I will post them.
If you wish to become more involved, and would like the ability to post your own articles to this page, contact me and I’ll see about making you a co-author.
Music for the world of Homo sapiens supersapiens:
Killing Joke
Clock DVA
Front Line Assembly
Psydoll
Big Black
Einstürzende Neubauten
SPK
Severed Heads
Portion Control
The Cure Three Imaginary Boys
Cabaret Voltaire
Joy Division
Xenomorph
Blue Oyster Cult — much of the first 3 albums, and all of Fire of Unknown Origin
The Stooges — Fun House
Mr. Bungle
The Pixies’ eerier stuff
Christian Death
The Plasmatics
Throbbing Gristle
Faith No More — first 4 albums
Buzzcocks — A Different Kind of Tension
Coil
Listening to the above stuff has a way of evoking the world I described. I’m eager for more. If we create a good enough list, I will consider creating a LastFM or other internet radio station for us.
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Traitors to our species...
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