How 'Technoprogressive' Transhumanists Are Enhancing Their Bodies With Technology
Rob Spence installed a wireless video camera in place of his right eye, reports CNN. And 29-year-old James Young's robotic arm "features a USB port, a screen displaying his Twitter feed and a retractable dock containing a remote-controlled drone..." "As biotechnology advances, so too may our ideas of what it means to be human." Today, we can alter our bodies in previously unimaginable ways, whether that's implanting microchips, fitting advanced prosthetic limbs or even designing entirely new senses. So-called transhumanists — people who seek to improve their biology by enhancing their bodies with technology — believe that our natural condition inhibits our experience of the world, and that we can transcend our current capabilities through science. Ideas that are "technoprogressive" to some are controversial to others. But to photographer David Vintiner, they are something else altogether: beautiful. "Beauty is in the engineered products," said Vintiner, who has spent years photographing real-life cyborgs and body-modifiers for his upcoming book, "I Want to Believe — An Exploration of Transhumanism." Made in collaboration with art director and critic Gem Fletcher, the book features a variety of people who identify, to some degree, as "transhuman" — including a man with bionic ears that sense changes in atmospheric pressure, a woman who can "feel" earthquakes taking place around the world and technicians who have developed lab-made organs... Though the photographer admitted that the transhumanists' claims can seem outlandish at first, he soon saw the appeal of technological self-enhancement. "If given the chance, how would you design your own body and what would you want it to say about you?" he asked.
from Slashdot https://ift.tt/3dnM4u6
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
from Slashdot https://ift.tt/3dnM4u6
0 Response to "How 'Technoprogressive' Transhumanists Are Enhancing Their Bodies With Technology"
Post a Comment