“Good news, everyone!” – Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

The year 3000 in Futurama is Louis C.K.’s famous “Everything is great and nobody is happy” statement taken to its illogical, animated conclusion. Fry, the Professor, Lela, Zoidberg, Bender, Hermes, Amy, and a host of other ancillary characters (like poor Zap and Kif, picture) take the [...]]]>

“Good news, everyone!” – Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

The year 3000 in Futurama is Louis C.K.’s famous “Everything is great and nobody is happy” statement taken to its illogical, animated conclusion. Fry, the Professor, Lela, Zoidberg, Bender, Hermes, Amy, and a host of other ancillary characters (like poor Zap and Kif, picture) take the logic of Star Trek, combine it with a Flash Gordon-esque retro-future, a plethora of transhumanist tech (heads in jars, cryonics, nano, cloning, ad nauseam) and a huge grain of nuttiness, and you have what might be one of the best shows to ever be on television.

Futurama does Star Trek one better, however, in the category of making you forget anyone is different. The shows  have rough analogues: Professor:: Picard (bald leader); Zoidbert::Worf (alien); Bender::Data (robot); Fry::Wesley (child); Lela::Troy (pseud0-alien). Listen, I get it, the analogies aren’t perfect, you see the similarities. But while Star Trek hammers us constantly with the “Worf is a Klingon and therefore quite different from normal humans” and “Data is an android and therefore perplexed by things like laughter and figurative language” routine, Futurama goes in the opposite direction. All of the characters, human or otherwise, are so bizarre and ludicrous that we simply see their quirks as a virtue of who they are, not what they are. Bender is filled with vice, Zoidberg is a freak, and the Professor is a madman not because robots are amoral, aliens weird, or humans crazy, but because that’s just how those characters are.

In short, Futurama is the best example of, uh, entity-type-blindness; personhood, the value of the mind and person, is central to allowing the weirdness of the show to shine through. Can’t wait for the new episodes at the end of the month.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of those wonderful stories that everyone knows and that no one has read, much like Dracula and War of the Worlds. An epistolary Gothic novel, Frankenstein is largely considered one of the first pieces of science-fiction. Shelley’s meditations on the power of science, the origins [...]]]>

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of those wonderful stories that everyone knows and that no one has read, much like Dracula and War of the Worlds. An epistolary Gothic novel, Frankenstein is largely considered one of the first pieces of science-fiction. Shelley’s meditations on the power of science, the origins and development of humanity (and personhood), and how our minds treat the uncanny, sits at the center of so many science-fiction tropes it is difficult to summarize its range of influence.

The enormous cultural influence of Frankenstein is visible from the Universal Monster era (with his buddies, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, Dracula, and The Wolfman) through to Lurch from The Addams Family, Herman Munster, and even Frankenstein Wastes A Minute of our Time. But that’s not what makes Shelley’s masterwork important for transhumansim. It’s just why Frankenstein, the green, flatheadded, neck-bolted abomination is one of my favorite characters ever (though I do love the DeNiro version).

No, what makes Frankenstein relevant, nay, essential to transhumanism, and hence securing its position within The Canon, is that he is a monster of our own making in every sense of the word. The Monster did not ask to be created, nor did any of the various contributing members of his body ask to be reanimated. His existence is totally the result of an ambitious scientist who then, horrified and unprepared for what he had done, rejects his creation (see Caprica, Ghost in the Shell, and Metropolis). Without an intercessor, The Monster, thus labeled by both the author and the creator, goes out into the world and is equally reviled. Curiously, the function of science-fiction is to introduce us to the new, and it is this very introduction that The Monster lacked. The Monster had no guide, no center, no introduction, no home.

The central message of Frankenstein is not that science is evil or that we dare not overstep our bounds, but that we are responsible for what we create. We must guide it, introduce it to society and society to it, nourish it and make sure it develops properly and is good. No technology may simply be released unaccompanied into the world, lest it turn on it’s creator and the world that creator inhabits.

[UPDATE:] I can’t believe I left out The Monster’s place in comedy. Yes, I mentioned his time wasting ability, but one of the funniest films of all time, Young Frankenstein, is built around just how preposterous the whole set up is. In YF, The Monster, played by Peter Boyle, is redeemed not by his personhood, but his, uh, shall we say his exceptional “manhood.” The other interesting part of YF is that it takes the most touching scene in the Frankenstein opus – dinner with the kind blind man – and somehow becomes more poignant in YF because The Monster has to tolerate Gene Hackman’s affable foibles in order to receive a modicum of kindness (the soup in the lap absolutely kills me). The Monster repeats this tolerance with the little girl who commands he sit on the see-saw. To socialize, and to forgive our fellow humans their quirks, is to be human. Young Frankenstein shows we’re all, perhaps, a little monstrous too.

The Kingdom of Nerd is divided on the issue of The Matrix and its sequels. Some find all three overrated, some love the first film but hate the garbage that came after, and some, like me, find the whole corpus fascinating. Among the extended works, The Animatrix is perhaps the most interesting, and [...]]]>

The Kingdom of Nerd is divided on the issue of The Matrix and its sequels. Some find all three overrated, some love the first film but hate the garbage that came after, and some, like me, find the whole corpus fascinating. Among the extended works, The Animatrix is perhaps the most interesting, and of it, the chapter “The Second Renaissance.” Set up as a crash course in the history of mankind’s relationship with the machines, the two parts create a mirrored story arc that reflects upon our inhumanity to our own creations.

In short, “The Second Renaissance” explains the creation of robotics and strong A.I. and its integration into human society. The robots are slaves, but are unquestioning, until one robot kills its owners out of fear of being scrapped. The result is an excision of the machines from human civilization and the creation of their own city, 01. 01 is productive and contributes greatly to the world, but is feared and denied access to the U.N. After the machines show signs of rebellion, the U.N. decides to scorch the sky, removing solar power. Undeterred, the machines war against humanity and are victorious, and the matrix is born out of a need to control those humans kept alive as energy.

The central theme of “The Second Renaissance” is that the machines were not inherently evil and, in every case, were acting in self-defense. It was human bigotry against machines, devaluing them as an intelligence and as persons, that caused the resulting conflict. The matrix itself is ultimately not their creation, but our own, a prison built of our own ignorance and fear.

[The Second Renaissance Part I]

[The Second Renaissance Part II]

Transhumanism spans a huge swath of intellectual territory, straddling bioethics, philosophy, science fiction, engineering, and computer science. Throw in conspiracy theories and cyberpunk nihilism and you have all the ingredients for Deus Ex. I have no doubt that this game played a huge part in my initial interest in transhumanism. A [...]]]>

Transhumanism spans a huge swath of intellectual territory, straddling bioethics, philosophy, science fiction, engineering, and computer science. Throw in conspiracy theories and cyberpunk nihilism and you have all the ingredients for Deus Ex. I have no doubt that this game played a huge part in my initial interest in transhumanism. A combination RPG and FPS, the game was a technological marvel. It blended two genres of gaming largely opposed to one another by introducing the first-person shooter to the grid inventory, upgradable weapons, the skill tree, experience points, and NPC interaction. Bioshock, Call of Duty:4 Modern Warfare, and Mass Effect simply would not exist were it not for this game. It also introduced concepts like enemy-line-of-sight (previously only found in Metal Gear Solid), branching story-lines, and in-game problems solvable with multiple, divergent solutions. Just as an example, Deus Ex let you use nanotech to modify your weapons.  Let’s say you found an assault rifle. Over the course of the game, you could add nano modifications that made it silent, tripled its ammo capacity, and reduced the recoil to zero. Suddenly, it wasn’t just a weapon it was your assault rifle, that you had customized, cherished, used to get out of untold sticky situations, and had buy your side for most of the time you’d been playing. Like the companion cube, Deus Ex taught you to love your technology.

Love your stuff, help it grow, make it better.

For its influence in the game world alone, Deus Ex maintains the reputation as one of the greatest games of all time [1].

But what merits its discussion here is the fact that Deus Ex is, in essence, a meditation on transhumanism. The player is JC Denton, a UN operative who has been enhanced by nanotechnology, effectively making him enhanced via both mechanical and genetic means. Denton is a v2.0 operative, with his predecessors using more rudimentary mechanical prostheses (still far more advanced than a standard human). Denton, over the course of the story, encounters nearly every possible sci-fi convention out there: aliens, A.I. (friendly and not-s0), cyborgs, animal chimeras, arcologies, sentient robots, bio-warfare, nano-warfare, and a host of in-betweens. All of these entities exist within the Deus Ex universe, which is a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream. Black helicopters, the Majestic 12, Trilateral Commission, Knights Templar, ECHELON, Men In Black, greys, FEMA and New World Order all play essential roles. The resulting combination leaves you not trusting anything or anyone, including yourself, while simultaneously being forced to make alliances with entities you may not entirely understand.

A single symbol representing the desire driving of all the world's conspiracies.

While the plot as a whole is largely unimportant for our discussion here, there are many elements that drive the plot that are incredibly intriguing for transhumanists. The first is that of jealousy. Not between “normal” humans and those with augmentations, but between v1.0 transhumans and v2.0 transhumans. Denton, a v2.0, is the subject of jealousy and derision on the part of his senior agents, both of whom are cyborg super-soldiers. Their disdain for Denton is one of the first elements of paranoia introduced into the game, where you learn that the very officers training you may be planning your death. Amazingly, the unmodified human characters are largely uninterested in their own “inferiority” in relation to the transhumans all around them. In fact, Deus Ex portrays transhumans as mainly military and government agents, with “normal” humans wielding the most powerful positions.

Another utterly bizarre moment is when two A.I.s with whom you have been interacting begin to battle one another, linking to one another through the only mutual connection they have, your mind. Named Daedalus and Icarus, the two A.I.s seem to have been helping you, respectively altruistically and selfishly, but helping none the less. The result of their confrontation leaves both destroyed, creating a merged entity that refers to itself as Helios. When before the only issue was to try and figure out what the A.I.s actually wanted, now the problem with Helios is that vis intention is quite clear: ve wants to merge with Denton and become the supreme dictator of the world, benevolent and all-knowing. What is terrifying is that Helios, in spite of sounding quite evil and insane, is constantly right in predicting events and protecting Denton from problems. Furthermore, Helios is interested in you, not just merging with someone, but you, whom, given your actions in the game, know to be working toward the good and protection of society.

Even outside of the major plot, there are lots of very interesting transhumanist issues. MJ12 troops are humans that have been cyborged enough to effectively become robots: unquestioning soldiers of extreme power. One of my favorite groups to interact with, though, were the Omar. Unlike typical gangs, the Omar represented a kind of posthuman cabal of traders. Modified beyond human recognition (most have faces like a gas-mask), the Omar have a hivemind that lets them remember you and how you treated their last interaction with them perfectly. Loyal customers get discounts, access to special stock, and may even be defended if an Omar is near by when said customer is under attack. Alternatively, try to pull a fast one on an Omar, or get rough, and you will find yourself either working very hard to re-earn their trust, or working very hard to stay alive in their presence. Like the Borg, the Omar refer to themselves in the third person or using the royal “we,” but do not look down on those who have not modified to their extend. They are something of a version of the Amish in reverse, instead of rejecting technology, they commit wholly to it, yet understand that there are others who do not share their vision and that they must share this world.

I could go on and on. The depth to be found in Deus Ex is astonishing. That it been nominated as not just one of but the best game of all time is a testament to the quality to be found, both in terms of fun and storyline. As transhumanists, it asks an unbelievable number of questions, presents a plethora of possibilities, and challenges every moral foundation you might think you have at every turn. An outstanding achievement and an essential entry in the transhumanist canon.

I like lists and I like things that are organized. I also like enormous, encyclopedic resources where I can go for everything I want to know. In that spirit, I’ve added a new page to Pop Transhumanism, aptly titled “The Canon.” I already have a pretty substantial list of stuff to put in [...]]]>

I like lists and I like things that are organized. I also like enormous, encyclopedic resources where I can go for everything I want to know. In that spirit, I’ve added a new page to Pop Transhumanism, aptly titled “The Canon.” I already have a pretty substantial list of stuff to put in there, but feel free to suggest anything you think would fit.