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Pre-posthuman underground

Page history last edited by PBworks 18 years, 4 months ago

We can't expect the freedoms to enhance yourself to be fully provided by the "state" de jure just because of H+ pro-autonomy lobbying. That means that to meet the demand the "underground" (Internet pharmacies for designer drugs, black-market enhancement labs, P2P distribution of designs for brain implants and so on) will provide the de facto freedom.

 

This "pre-posthuman underground" is something we should definitely monitor and engage as much as possible; we're approaching a point where these technologies will begin to migrate (or are already migrating) from research labs to garages, much as computing did back in the day. The two historical parallels are:

  • early days of aviation
  • early days of home computing

 

We are not at a point yet where you can "hack yourself" in your garage to try and get an extra 30 IQ points or something like that, but it's certainly a possibility that sooner or later we'll get there. We should know who are the closest thing we have now to this kind of underground, what they are doing, etc. They will probably not be at the cutting edge of scientific research, but they will certainly be in terms of application... and they will be (again, assuming perhaps wrongly that this revolution will be similar to the last one) a rather anticipatory signal.

 

Possible candidates

 

There's a culture of informal drug use among especially the younger population, smart drugs included. Of course most of it isn't sustainable, due to side effects, especially long-term use. Something for well-informed users, and with moderation. Also, bodybuilders and professional athletes who love to tinker with themselves come to mind.

 

One of the places where this underground might emerge is biotech labs in universities. Perhaps we know someone (graduate or undergraduate student in a uni with a large and advanced bio faculty) whom we can ask for insight.

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