"Transcending the Human, DIY Style"

[Bryan Bishop]

DIY transhumanism is super important to me, so hopefully I'd like to help put the Wired article (with the pseudonymed person @lepht_anonym) into perspective and share with the DIYbio community.

DIY transhumanists are not in it for the shock value. Maybe we'll get Todd or Quinn to send a short blurb about their neodymium implant surgeries-- nobody in DIY transhumanism (or DIYbio) is advocating unnecessary pain or body shock. We're in it for human enhancement, synthetic biologies, longevity, nootropics, software, prosthetics, tech development, yes even implants. Transhumanism itself refers to a whole philosophy of self-transformation and human enhancement.

Genspace wasn't established in a month and BSL1 rating didn't fall from the sky. Biocurious, under the direction of Joseph Jackson (who is by no coincidence also a transhumanist), is on its way for sure.

OK, so neodymium implants, ooh body shock. Not a huge deal, I agree-- didn't appreciate the pairing of "neodymium and pain"-- sane and reasonable people have done that before, again not a huge deal... it's like a less bioartsy Stelarc or something.

The other thing that caught my eye was when @lepht_anonym did a battery-powered Northpaw implant, which was not featured in the Wired article. As it would inevitably happen, the batteries died, and @lepht_anonym had to cut virself open again. A little foresight, planning, device design would have prevented this. It wasn't a shining example of an implant project, IMHO.

Other issues have caught my eye a few times that lead me to believe that @lepht_anonym is all around a liability to our communities:
http://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/2010/08/das-update.html
... "i have been known to slice my arms open for shits'n'giggles, sure, and do a fair amount of damage in the process (none of this emo cat-scratch bullshit, i've split my arm to the tendons like the little psychopath i sort of am), but this is not something i do when properly medicated. i need a better way of communicating that."

Here's more 'body shock' or 'internet shock': Screaming-in-pain video "homebrew neodymium node insertion by Lepht Anonym"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDIp_VzmRtg
.. which she has taken down according to YouTube.

Consensus says... liability. I suspect Biocurious will prove to be a strong player in DIY transhumanism in the near future. Along with Humanity+ there is growing support for transhumanists but at this point in time I think DIY transhumanist project participants need to take their work more seriously than @lepht_anonym has demonstrated for her own.

Anyone interested in my overview talk of DIY transhumanism can watch my talk from H+ Summit 2010 @ Harvard:
part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ex52LYDe8
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzUVd0skbc8

Humanity+ takes DIY transhumanism seriously and wants it to succeed in the best possible ways. You can become a supporting member by joining, which includes certain privileges like voting for DIY transhumanists on board elections. Another good way to get involved and put right in the middle of the action is the mailing list, which you can subscribe to over here:
http://www.transhumanism.org/mailman/listinfo/wta-talk
(There's also archives going back to 2003; the diybio group is better for getting in on the ground floor though :-).)

"""
This list is for all members of the Humanity+ (H+) to discuss topics relevant to transhumanism, and the activities of H+. Transhumanism is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the possibilities for overcoming biological limitations through technological progress. Transhumanists seek to expand technological opportunities to live longer and healthier lives and to enhance their intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities.

Humanity+ (formerly the World Transhumanist Association) is a nonprofit membership organization which works to promote discussion and development of the possibilities for radical improvement of human capacities using genetic, cybernetic and nano technologies. H+ is now growing faster than ever, and we invite you to join us in this important work. In addition to wta-talk, you may also enroll in one of our discussion lists and join one of our local H+ chapters, which can be found in countries and languages all over the world.

"""

Humanity+ has published a few of @lepht_anonym's articles in H+ Magazine, if anyone wants to read that.
http://hplusmagazine.com/articles/enhanced/scrapheap-transhumanism
.. or the magazine in general: http://hplusmagazine.com/

lepht anonym blog
http://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/

things i do for biohacking, part 1
http://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-i-do-for-biohacking-part-1.html

things i do for biohacking, part 2
http://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-i-do-for-biohacking-part-2.html

I think it would be helpful if Todd Huffman or Quinn Norton would pipe up with their experiences and how their implant procedures differed.

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

Assoc. Director of R&D, Humanity+
http://www.humanityplus.org/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Natasha Vita-More <nat...@natasha.cc>
Date: Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 11:05 AM
Subject: RE: [ExtroBritannia] Transcending the Human, DIY Style
To: extrobr...@yahoogroups.com
Cc: Bryan Bishop <kan...@gmail.com>


All of me is unhappy that there is someone pushing bad use of DIY for
his/her/its own recognition under the name of transhumanism.  This person is
not using DIY bio effectively or smartly.  She may possibly be a "cutter"
and lacking in any medical knowledge of batteries and the fact that the
battery will have to be removed, and she can easily have issues with
rejection.  (Stelarc has a major problem with his implant, and that implant
was his own tissue!).  I have had implants as a biological artist (bioartist
doing biology) and believe me, they are not fun or easy and are very painful
and my own body rejected the implant and I had months of pain and multiple
antibiotics to deal with my immune system and allergic reaction to the
medicine.

Anyone working in DIY bio needs to have a little medical background.  Anyone
working in DIY transhumanism bio needs to know what transhumanism  means and
they DIY bio, if transhumanist in scope, is based on more than just putting
things in our bodies.

Natasha


Natasha Vita-More

-----Original Message-----
From: extrobr...@yahoogroups.com [mailto:extrobr...@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of estropico
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2011 3:21 PM
To: extrobritannia
Subject: [ExtroBritannia] Transcending the Human, DIY Style

Transcending the Human, DIY Style
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/transcending-the-human-diy-style/

Well... part of me is happy that there's somebody out there pushing the
envelope. Then again I can't help wondering whether this isn't just another
form of fetishism that just happens to overlap with our desire to be more
than human. More worryingly, this type of biohacking seems to have an
obvious downside that makes me simply shudder, as a
life-extensionist: "The medical consequences can be both severe and likely
to elicit hostility from doctors. She's put herself in the hospital several
times. She nearly lost a fingertip the first time she tried to implant a
neodymium disc herself. Various experiments with bioproofing have failed,
with implants rusting under her skin, or her own self-surgeries turning
septic." All this to know where North is of feel magnetic fields (see
article)!? Thanks but no thanks....

Cheers,
Fabio

[Bryan Bishop]

On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 1:27 PM, Bryan Bishop wrote:

DIY transhumanism is super important to me, so hopefully I'd like to help put the Wired article (with the pseudonymed person @lepht_anonym) into perspective and share with the DIYbio community.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 12:47:24
From: Eric Boyd <mreri...@yahoo.com>
To: "cyb...@lists.noisebridge.net" <cyb...@lists.noisebridge.net>, "Bryan Bishop" <kan...@gmail.com>
Subject: [Cyborg] Fwd: [Body Hacking] "Transcending the Human, DIY Style"

Response (see forwarded conversation below) to Lepht's Wired article on
the body hacking list.  This was also cross-posted to like half of the
transhumanist world.  Thought you guys might want to see it.

Despite comments below, my understanding is that Lepht has never
actually implanted the North Paw (or anything approaching it).  She's
talked about it, and I think she did once implanted a motor, but she
discovered (unsurprisingly) that transdermal implants are very difficult
to take care of.  She has plans to make a super-small version using
neuroelectrodes and induction power transfer, but she lacks the
electrical engineering skills to push that project forward on her own.
So either she gets help, or it's going to be a slow project as she
learns those skills...

If I was Lepht, it'd focus first on making a wearable version of the
electrode-based North Paw.  Once she's got it wearable and the code all
nice and cleaned up, and wireless reprogramming working, only then it is
even remotely thinkable to implant it.  I'd probably also prototype a
little first: maybe a single implanted neuroelectrode/induction pad,
using a PWM signal for North.  If that holds up for a bit, then go for
the 8-electrode version... frankly I'm glad I'm not not Lepht, because
pain and blood scare the shit out of me.

I am of course a strong advocate of "DIY transhumanism" myself.  My
personal angle of approach is wearable electronics.  I think it's a very
approachable path to transhumanism, and totally reachable from a
hobbyist level right now.  I think there is enough risk in the wearables
stuff: our understanding of brain plasticity is pretty weak.  One of the
reasons that I did the North Paw project is that I wanted to know if
e.g. the withdrawal symptoms from wearing such a device would be
significant.  They are not, but I didn't know that before I began, and
that's what risk means...

Eric

[Ruediger Trojok]

I heard of that stuff before and find it quite absurd and weird.
What is the point in trying to mod your senses with such primitive
methods.
It most likely is only a danger to your health and shocking to
outsiders.
There are by now quite a lot of real "transhumans" or "cyborgs" or
whatever you want to name them:
disabled people that have cochlea implants (http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Cochlear_implant)
or artificial arms/legs and so on. (also quite freaky:
http://www.nero.uni-bonn.de/index_nero.html)
I personally know a bunch of people with CIs and one of them
studies with me and do want to improve this technology, also by
undertaking self-experiments.
This is more promising to me than hurting yourself in DIY style.
Do you really think there will be any profitable outcome for society?
I am sceptical.

> Humanity+ <http://humanityplus.org/> takes DIY transhumanism seriously and

> wants it to succeed in the best possible ways. You can become a supporting

> member by joining <http://humanityplus.org/join/join-hplus/>, which includes

> certain privileges like voting for DIY transhumanists on board elections.
> Another good way to get involved and put right in the middle of the action
> is the mailing list, which you can subscribe to over here:http://www.transhumanism.org/mailman/listinfo/wta-talk
> (There's also archives going back to 2003; the

> diybio<http://groups.google.com/group/diybio>group is better for

> getting in on the ground floor though :-).)
>
> """
> This list is for all members of the Humanity+ (H+) to discuss topics
> relevant to transhumanism, and the activities of H+. Transhumanism is an
> interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the possibilities
> for overcoming biological limitations through technological progress.
> Transhumanists seek to expand technological opportunities to live longer and
> healthier lives and to enhance their intellectual, physical, and emotional
> capacities.
>
> Humanity+ (formerly the World Transhumanist Association) is a nonprofit
> membership organization which works to promote discussion and development of
> the possibilities for radical improvement of human capacities using genetic,
> cybernetic and nano technologies. H+ is now growing faster than ever, and we
> invite you to join us in this important work. In addition to wta-talk, you
> may also enroll in one of our discussion lists and join one of our local H+
> chapters, which can be found in countries and languages all over the world.
>
> """
> Humanity+ has published a few of @lepht_anonym's articles in H+ Magazine, if

> anyone wants to read that.http://hplusmagazine.com/articles/enhanced/scrapheap-transhumanism

> .. or the magazine in general:http://hplusmagazine.com/
>

> lepht anonym bloghttp://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/
>
> things i do for biohacking, part 1http://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-i-do-for-biohacking-...
>
> things i do for biohacking, part 2http://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-i-do-for-biohacking-...

>
> I think it would be helpful if Todd Huffman or Quinn Norton would pipe up
> with their experiences and how their implant procedures differed.
>

> - Bryanhttp://heybryan.org/1 512 203 0507begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            1 512 203 0507      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
>
> Assoc. Director of R&D, Humanity+http://www.humanityplus.org/

>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Natasha Vita-More <nata...@natasha.cc>
> Date: Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 11:05 AM
> Subject: RE: [ExtroBritannia] Transcending the Human, DIY Style

> To: extrobritan...@yahoogroups.com
>
> Cc: Bryan Bishop <kanz...@gmail.com>

>
> All of me is unhappy that there is someone pushing bad use of DIY for
> his/her/its own recognition under the name of transhumanism.  This person is
> not using DIY bio effectively or smartly.  She may possibly be a "cutter"
> and lacking in any medical knowledge of batteries and the fact that the
> battery will have to be removed, and she can easily have issues with
> rejection.  (Stelarc has a major problem with his implant, and that implant
> was his own tissue!).  I have had implants as a biological artist (bioartist
> doing biology) and believe me, they are not fun or easy and are very painful
> and my own body rejected the implant and I had months of pain and multiple
> antibiotics to deal with my immune system and allergic reaction to the
> medicine.
>
> Anyone working in DIY bio needs to have a little medical background.  Anyone
> working in DIY transhumanism bio needs to know what transhumanism  means and
> they DIY bio, if transhumanist in scope, is based on more than just putting
> things in our bodies.
>
> Natasha
>
> Natasha Vita-More
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: extrobritan...@yahoogroups.com [mailto:extrobritan...@yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of estropico
> Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2011 3:21 PM
> To: extrobritannia
> Subject: [ExtroBritannia] Transcending the Human, DIY Style
>

> Transcending the Human, DIY Stylehttp://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/transcending-the-human-diy-s...

[Bryan Bishop]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: phryk <ph...@phryk.net>
Date: Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 4:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Body Hacking] "Transcending the Human, DIY Style"
To: bodyh...@lists.caughq.org

Well, I'm not Quinn or Todd, but I can say that the insertion of a
neodymium implant is virtually painless, if done in a professional
environment. It also doesn't affect me when typing stuff.

Since I'm pretty squeamish, I was scared shitless before the procedure
was done. I consulted Lepht before having it done, and the description
did not give me any better feeling (wording was something alike to
"They hurt like a fucker going in"), but since I wanted it real badly
I set a date for the implantation and went ahead. When it was done, I
was positively surprised as to how easy, painless and short the
procedure was. It was simply opening the finger, putting the implant in
and stitching it.

I could use my laptop keyboard on the same day, not using the finger
that got the implant. After about three days I slowly started to use
this finger again, and after 10 days, I could pull the strings and type
completely normal.

All in all, I'd do it again, (and propably will, since I got a
positive answer regarding spacial perception with multiple implants) and
recommend it to anyone interested in this.

Only con is the price, I paid 200€ for mine, but normal price should be
around 150€ I think. Since I don't really see any value in money, I'm
not minding that much, though ;)

Greetings,
       phryk

--
http://phryk.net - eating your babies since 2009
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[moteyalpha]

 I have been following the process here and could provide some new directions to the research. I have done numerous experiments in the lab at Uni and have worked with the ideas for many years. The biggest problem seems to be the approach to the technology. I would like to make a LaTeX document that describes in detail the understanding of the subject from someone who has worked with nanotechnology, computer design, surgery, laser cellular reconstruction, cloning, and what I see as the potential for a new method of dealing with life enhancement on a cellular level. It seems to me that many people have become mired in the complexity of the systems as they exist in vivo.

 There are some very simple methods that allow the implementation of trans-human effects.
 
I have not yet had a chance to experiment with induced hibernation in mice, but it -also- seems the type of paradigm shift that would be very valuable in surgery. In surgery it is necessary to cut and paste elements while the body is maintained in its constant state of activity. If the organism was suspended in animation during a procedure, then blood loss would be minor, attempting to suture without pressure is much preferred, and if the constant stability problems and risk of maintaining a person at the edge of death is not necessary then some procedures that must be executed in haste can be done more safely at leisure.

moteyalpha

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