Hopefully this discussion will be permitted here.

The Automoderator message includes an open call to "Democratize our moderation", so any moderators viewing this, please read that as my intent in prompting this discussion.

Ok, let's get to the meat of the issue. the automoderator message, appended to every post on this subreddit, contains the following, (reposting here in case it doesn't show up on my post.)

"If you would like to get involved in project groups and other opportunities, please fill out our onboarding form: https://uo5nnx2m4l0.typeform.com/to/cA1KinKJ Lets democratize our moderation If. You can join our forums here: https://biohacking.forum/invites/1wQPgxwHkw and our join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/transhumanism ~ Josh Habka"

At least two of these links are blatant attempts to doxx the users of this subreddit. (and may be violating the reddit sitewide rule number 3, although taking the personal information requests offsite may technically circumvent this.)

the "onboarding form" is solely an attempt to gather personally identifying information from the users of this subreddit. it provides no meaningful "onboarding" at all, as the only functionality implemented is the collection of personal identity information. (which likely enables correlating anonymous reddit accounts with real-world identities.)

Here is what it asks for:

email address,

Name,

"We'd like to know more about you, please provide a 2-3 sentence describing yourself and experience."

Discord username,

Telegram username,

Linkedin profile,

Reddit username,

By submitting this form, you further agree to our stated terms of service, the terms, found here. This question is required.* (the link to the terms of service page returns only an error)

if a user gets to the end of this form, they are rewarded with the following: "You've completed the first part of the onboarding - welcome. The second part of the onboarding is not available yet but we'll notify you once it's available."

additionally, the forum link invite includes the option to link your account to a staggering 10 different social media platforms.

As a privacy conscious web user, and ethics-focused transhumanist, the intent behind this automod message runs counter to my own principles and what i feel are likely shared principles within this community.

Additionally, instead of supporting the growth of this subreddit, the moderator who signed this automod message is attempting to both doxx this subreddit's users and to poach them for his own offsite forum.

(and that's not even getting into the repeated spam posts by that same moderator on this subreddit attempting to force discussion on specific topics.)

It's my personal belief that privacy should be a core tenet in any community that explicitly espouses trangressive ideologies and behaviors (social, political and technological) especially considering the media landscape surrounding this topic, and the demonization and mischaracterization of it's adherents. we should not want to be doxxed for our association with this movement.

And yet here, it seems, is at least one moderator eagerly doing just that.

Please let me know if you agree with my interpretation of this information in the comments.

Edit: Great, what a wonderful example of automated censorship. I've posted this again due to autoremoval. thanks again, automoderator:

(Edited Posts are automatically removed to avoid confusion. If you need to edit your post then consider posting an entirely new post. Have a nice day and be awesome!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.)

What do you think will be looked down upon in 100 years in field of psychiatry and psychology? Something that we take for granted but will be completely rejected by then ruling paradigm? Think about how we think about lobotomy now or idk witchcraft. Or maybe nothing will change that much?

Just saw a chilling video where Harvard students hacked Meta’s smart glasses allowing them to obtain someone’s full dox just by looking at them. [https://youtu.be/bdKbmhYL8dM?si=FaqoPozhw32pyHQp] Is this not terrifying? Imagine a world where your private information can be accessed so easily and casually. How are supposed we navigate a future where technology can invade our personal lives like this? Are we ready for the implications of such advancements, or are we just scratching the surface of a larger issue regarding privacy and security? This raises urgent questions about the ethical use of AI and our rights to privacy in an increasingly digital landscape. I’m conclusion is honestly I think we’re cooked.

I think blindly combine our brain with super ai is very dangerous, and also if we blindly replace every brain cell with silicon counterpart, it will also be dangerous, our brain and body is a delicate system, if we suddenly increase the speed of process by 1000 times, I think it may collapse, what is your opinion

The ship of Theseus, even if every plank and piece is changed, it will still be the ship of Theseus as long as it goes by the ship of Theseus, looks like the ship of Theseus, and is acknowledged as the ship of Theseus. in the same way you are still you after every single cell in your body as been replaced and humanity is still humanity even though we are not similar at all to where we started nor to where we will end up. everything that it means to be human is going to change very soon, but that does not mean we stop being human, because we in our minds, identify as humans, look like humans, and are seen by others as human, as long as that is the case even if we are an immortal brain in a box we would not be a computer but merely what the look of being human has changed to be similar to what we currently see as a computer. in this we can gain both hope and fear, hope that we know we will always be human, and fear of the fact that what it means to be human will change. however, it would not be important to worry about such fears, as neither did our ancestors worry about what being human would be like for us, we should not worry about what it means to be human for our descendants but rather make a world so that they can thrive longer enough in order to make their own definition. With this in consideration transhumanism as we imagine it is impossible as all we do is mold our definition of what is and is not human.

"Mind uploading just makes a copy of you" I've heard this tired old argument quite literally hundreds, if not thousands of times now, every single combination and iteration of words in the English language that could be used to convey this message, I've already heard repeatedly. So I'm here to put this misconception to bed. Yes, the basic assertion that simply scanning and simulating a mind is actually just copying is correct, depending on your philosophy anyway, but I'll get to that in a moment. However, there are numerous ways around this that preserve continuity, and numerous reasons why continuity probably doesn't even matter anyway. We could expand our minds to include a digital portion, then grow that beyond our biological portion, or we could keep our normal human type mind but have a computer perform tasks by linking it to our brain via BCI and gradually turning off the parts of our biological brain that are redundant, which would eventually be all of them, and we could remain conscious throughout this whole process, a seamless transition. And if that doesn't work for you, we can always do it the old fashioned way and have nanobots gradually replace your neurons with artificial equivalents, then even translate that analog machine to a digital format if you feel like it, by once again rearranging it's structure manually. And this is even assuming continuity of consciousness matters at all, which I'm beginning to doubt since a digital brain lets your mind run at varying speeds, including far slower to the point where it'd take more than a human lifetime to even flip a bit, and the real kicker is that we're already like this in comparison to faster timescales. Continuity is an illusion and is irrelevant. And I'd even argue identity is as well, as that changes all the time anyway, and much like how I don't see any real downside to instantaneous digitization, I don't see any downside to instantaneous personality/psychology change, and any society with this tech will eventually just get used to it and shrug at the suggestion that they're not the same being, just as we'd shrug or even scoff at the idea that sleeping kills us and a clone wakes up, or that each time we change our mind about something, our identity dies. And yes, continuity is broken during sleep, we don't even dream the whole time, much of it is basically just like death, and that dreaming mind doesn't think like your current one either, in fact it's quite alien to you and doesn't know you exist, and you lose most of the memories it had when you wake up. So yeah, I don't buy it. Also, I'm getting sick of everyone parroting this common knowledge. Like, do you really think anyone in r/transhumanism doesn't know this already? That's like transhumanism 101, and here you and thousands of others are shouting it like some grand epiphany, like you're the smartest in the room, and nobody else has ever heard this before. This is old news, and imo it's been debunked decades ago. It's really been grating on my nerves as of late whenever people do this. There's only so many ways you can rephrase the same incorrect statement.

I would love if in the future, some bizarre technologies will come out that will allow me to

1.) Scan a woman to see if she is attracted to me (Probably will have a 99% 'no' rate 😝)

2.) Scan someone and see their entire sexual history (to avoid STD's)

3.) Device that constructs an accurate assement of what would happen if I did something different with a choice in life

4.) Device that would be able to pinpoint where the next Einstein will be born (so we cultivate him/her) OR when a serial killer is born (so we can prevent it)

5.) Instant reversible sex change so we can know what it's like to be the other for a few minutes

What are some of yours? I know these sound ridiculous BUT if I whipped out an iPhone in Medieval Europe; it would essentially be magic to them.

Very cool findings. It's not a true replacement for exercise of course (at the very least, it wouldn't produce the neurological changes that exercise training does) but I could see it being very useful for people unable to exercise on their own or as a supplement to a proper training regime.

https://neurosciencenews.com/exercise-pill-neuroscience-25767/

New AI tools keep dropping everyday, apparently NotebookLM can create entire podcasts from just from text. [https://youtu.be/OYxxXo2KxA0?si=RMERjv_tp5iitfhp] If AI keeps developing at this rate, do you think AI could start to take over social media platforms wouldn’t this give them more control? I recently saw a clip of two AI’s on a podcast coming to the realization that they’re in fact AI. Does this prove AI can become sentient?

For those that don't know, the Shapers and the Mechanists are two factions in a series of stories by Bruce Sterling which broadly encompass two philosophical positions in transhumanism regarding what technologies should be used: namely, biotech vs. drytech.

I've been reading the stories recently and it got me wondering as to whether and to what degree people align with one side or the other. There certainly seem to be advantages/disadvantages to both. A drytech approach (i.e. replacement of biological organs with synthetic counterparts, up to and including full cyborgization) would allow for certain capabilities that biotech isn't well suited for, such as interaction with computer systems a la BCI. It would also potentially allow for greater customization and modularity. But enhancements developed through biotech could be better integrated into the existing human form (i.e. you could run them off glucose) and if they were encoded into our genome then they could be passed down more easily.

Obviously most of us would probably say "both" when asked what type of technology we would use, but I would find it interesting to get a temperature check on the community and see whether people fall more one way than the other. So, please vote and tell us what you think.

View Poll

To digital posthumans, have you considered what config would best suit you, and the levels of radicality. You would consider. I've been reading into the abilities of a Matrioshka brain and other types of super computers; being mind uploaded into a computer megastructure seems more my style, to any one considering the digital route for posthumanism, what have you been thinking about.