Transcending the Human, DIY Style | Hacker News Reader

Transcending the Human, DIY Style

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22 pointsMithrandir25 comments

Part of me is fascinated that someone would actually do something like that, part of me is horrified. For now the horror seems to win out. The price seems pretty excessive and in the end the only thing that changes here is the interface that you use to get the information. Want to know where magnetic North is ? Get a compass and look at it. That will tell you. A flux meter will tell you all you will ever need to know about the magnetic fields around you.

Our eyes and ears are high bandwidth and using custom made sensors that output images and sounds that we can interpret we can enter a very large amount of information about our environment without so much as a drop of blood.

To literally have a 6th or 7th sense is very interesting but it really is just another low bandwidth channel that can easily be simulated using some tech and our existing sensors.

What fascinates me in this article (and in other similar efforts), is the ambient nature of these new senses. While it is true that you can look at a compass in order to find the magnetic north, I'd imagine it is very different to "just know" where it happens to be at any given moment.

That being said, there is interesting stuff to be done without DIY surgeries. For example, Christina Kubisch used to auralize electromagnetic fields using some portable gear, and wander around urban areas listening sounds made by security systems, WLAN hotspots, and the like (see interview here: http://www.christinakubisch.de/pdf/Kubisch_Interview.pdf ).

Wearable see-through displays can also give this ambient sense. they're quite expensive(but getting cheaper) , starting at $2000.

You're missing her point. Usability is not why she's doing this. It's about curiosity. That makes this just a very early stage ventures to me, which might someday be more useful than we would've though initially.

If you want to transcend the human, just start acting more rationally than the average human. If you want to take it really far, get to the point where you are acting rationally almost all of the time.

As Cesar Millan says, where the mind goes, the body will follow.

Very interesting. A while ago I read about a belt that enabled the wearer to know true north and was very interested in trying to develop something similar (maybe the size of a watch).

This implanting sounds kind of cool (in a cyber punk sort of way). Guess deep down there's a trans-human in me wanting to get out ;)

Not sure about the pain, loss of digits, infections, etc...

Body mods have always sounded very cool, if they work properly. And what would happen if those EM-detecting discs were to rupture?

Unless I was blinded or loss of something, I'd not consider these mods. Now, if we're talking about a bionic eye that would fit after a mod, sign me up :)

Yeah, there's an anklet that vibrates on the north side continuously. http://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/ Eventually, your brain doesn't feel the vibrating anymore, you just "know" which way is north. Meredith Scheff mod'ed it into a skirt that lights up http://steampunkworkshop.com/north-skirt :-)

The anklet is fantastic. I wonder how many things of this type you could wear and integrate the information at once. For instance if you had the Northpaw and something on your other ankle that buzzed in the direction of the nearest wifi signal and a wrist band that vibrated according to some other measure, would you develop an "innate sense" of each of these things the people wearing the belt did, or would it be too much buzzing to handle? Cool stuff.

Your brain is already getting a staggering amount of information from various senses, and simply discards most of it. Over time, it just learns what's relevant and what isn't. You are not (normally) aware of the sensation of your shirt against your skin, but you can feel it if you want to. I suspect that processing these new inputs would rob neurons from processing other senses, but I doubt it would be overwhelming if you learned them one at a time.

"A while ago I read about a belt that enabled the wearer to know true north"

There's this:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html

and this:

http://www.monkeysandrobots.com/hapticcompass

Having an unflappable sense of direction/true north is not transhuman though. You just have to have been raised speaking any languages that uses geographic coordinates instead of the typical egocentric ones. Such as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guugu_Yimithirr_language#Gramma.... to form the required mental processes. If you dig deeper you find that although they also do also use relative coordinates, they are performing what sounds like crazy affine transformations when doing so.

"The apparently effortless conceptual operations required to employ these short and ubiquitous cardinal direction terms are complex, requiring not only a highly developed “sense of direction” (and memory for terrain, routes, landmarks, etc.), but a simultaneous merging or juggling of what appear to be separate frames of reference (in Levinson’s sense) embedded in even single lexical forms, which maintain the “absolute” orientation which is in principle independent of particular terrain or of any given reference point or orientation, with the “relative” calculation of origos and focus points, with the “intrinsic” geometries of natural landmarks and their orientations in space."

http://www.anthro.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Di...

Now that is truly fascinating, how would such a thing develop?

I'm neither a linguist nor a psychologist so I'm just going to chalk it up to how amazingly flexible the human brain is. I found out about that language from reading http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html.

But I've had a long interest in how language can have a measurable effect on what your default thought processes are, even if it doesn't limit what you can express. This also folds back some interesting perspectives into computer language debates and if the one you use actually makes a difference..

They didn't link to Lepht's blog: http://sapiensanonym.blogspot.com/

It's uhh... interesting, I guess. (Lots of stuff about opiate withdrawal and complications from self-surgeries.)

I have taken a similar path of transcending the human element. However, my path is much less glamorous than attaching neodymium/gold underneath my fingers and such.

I'm studying the paths of eastern occultism, which direct control of the body using methods passed down from teacher to student. I am also a Reiki master, which has surprised quite a few people on what I have discerned.

I can manipulate my heart rate from 50 bpm to 130 bpm, just by concentrating on a specific pattern. I also can adjust my core body temperature up to about 105F and hold it. I can, with touch, feel injuries on peoples bodies, even if they have long since healed.

I know about my body.

I can tell if I am getting sick and attempt to prevent it. We know of placebo, and how strong its effects are. I just forcefully tell my body that I will not get sick. And I have not since I started practising.

Perhaps, it may be called the occult, but I believe we just do not have appropriate methods to measure it. It works for me, and I keep the workings to a very scientific mindset.

I'm sure I'll get mod-bombed for this, as people here seem very antagonistic to anything of spiritual or esoteric origin... But I remain hopeful.

I'm curious whether you've read "The Silva (Mind Control) Method". It's similar to what you described.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Silva_Method

I've read some of that. Much of his works are on basic applications (and I do mean basic) of projection and mantras.

Projection is few different things: the key is that you have to believe, even if it doesn't appear to work at first.

An art, called Tumo, is a way to generate large amounts of heat in the body, so that you do not get cold. There is a complicated way of teaching the full technique (which is known and proved in the annals of science). But try this: go somewhere cold and then project that you are inside a fireball. And you start feeling warmer.

Mantras are another interesting thing. Mantra repeating can force certain brain states that are usually only obtainable in sleep. It's also a way to investigate how sleep works, but from the inside out. Other interesting abilities may pop out. I know of one person, while meditating, could see infra-red. I found this out with a Wiimote IR pen for my whiteboard.

There is definitely something there... But we lack the scientific method and grammar to explain it.

What you're saying is very interesting to me. What skills did you learn to be able to control your heart rate in that manner? Is there a name for the skills that you developed, some school of thought or teaching.

I've had to blend some arts together in a mismatch of methods. Unfortunately, there is no method that is guaranteed to work. One plays with the techniques and furthers the ones that stick.

One that I've found is a tome of stuff to try is Osho's "Book of Secrets". There's 112 techniques, with extensive commentary.

Another is an older book "Tibetan yoga and secret doctrines" by Wentz. It is a treatise on the steps to take of successive body control. It goes from as simple over the physical body all the way up to controlling dreams.

One thing that esoteric hinduism/buddhism warns is that controlling the body will get you hung up on these "powers". Remember, they are searching for the way to remove themselves from the cycle of rebirths. So, it would be wise to study a multitude of 'occult' systems to discern the truth, for there is _much_ crap. And for proof, one must do, not read.

> An art, called Tumo, is a way to generate large amounts of heat in the body, so that you do not get cold. There is a complicated way of teaching the full technique (which is known and proved in the annals of science)

Any pointers to the studies?

Errr, not really. You need to do and experiment. My path won't work the same as your path.

Tumo is well documented on the process which monks (names including repa indicate mastery) use to practice in the strong cold winds of Tibet. One thing that helps learning is that of necessity.

One of the first things to learn, in order to do tumo, is that of grounding, centering, and shielding. Then, after that, you learn how to go in a strong meditative trance In which you control parts of your subtle energy. Once you learn that, then you can direct the subtle energy in such a way that brings the psychic heat forth.

I also live near Bloomington,IN and also receive help from the Buddhist monestary here. I would recommend that you find a temple and request help along this endeavor.

You might start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo#Scientific_investigation

If you're interested in how to perform the actual meditation, this is a great book: http://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Inner-Fire-Practice-Naropa/dp/08...

if a stock human can do it, doesn't that make it intrinsically not transhumanism?

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you and how long have you been studying this? Also how did you find a qualified teacher?

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