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Brilliance from Quiet Babylon:

• If unborn have rights, what about the indefinite number of future generations?
• By going vegan, you’ll help reducing number of born animals..
• Can you preserve animals in order to be able to hunt them?
• Are vat grown people born or not?
• What about failed fertilisations - how many unborn are killed?

Read on!

Tim Maly of Quiet Babylon had a series of articles around cyborgs in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the word. Personally, a lot of it was too abstract to be useful.

However, this essay from Eleanor Saitta, as part of that series, highlights some of the points and ends in a for me quite thought provoking conclusion:

The old cyborg is a disconnected, technological powerhouse, and one was worried with how a cyborg’s humanity would be affected. Now we realize that the more common form of cyborg is the networked human, using technology to extend its senses and thoughts across internet. What effects will that have on humanity? When nothing is hidden, everything is shared, opinions and half-truths everywhere. Perhaps that will be much more challenging to our feeling of humanity.

Out of coverage, roaming, technical errors. There is a risk - that will gladly be taken - to keep the mind on the network. What happens when it does not work? Well, that is something for sci fi writers to consider.

extropism:

by Hank Hyena

As an Extropist parent, I feel comfortable telling my children that they will probably not die due to scientific advancement that will grant them immortality. This is, of course, a big relief to them. When they ask if I am going to expire, I tell them about cryonics and I remind them; “Hey, don’t forget to take my brain out of the freezer.”

For the full story of my death-conversations with my kids, click on the headline above.

A must read directly from Futurismic. This is why augmented reality is so important. Now it seem useless - but when usability is given, what is next? A truly different world with millions of parallel virtual universes.

Bear with me on this fairly heavy reading, but it points out the very interesting topic of moving through urban environment without using the intended routes - roads, elevators, bridges etc.

Instead, you find those spaces architects have created for other purposes. Parkour, John McClane (Die Hard), the Israeli Army all do it. And for any urban future, finding new paths through the concrete jungle is key. Read it!

I find it highly post-cyberpunky (and dystopic) to have a world where cruelty and predatorial instincts have been genetically removed from all animals (does that include humans?). Welcome to the lion petting zoo!

An interesting read from Gizmodo’s theme This Cyborg Life. Amputee and proto-cyborg Aimee Mullins brings a number of interesting things to the table, such as:

- In swimming, is it cheating to reduce breast size for faster times?

- The famoust story how carbon fiber legs were rejected for the olympics

- The fact that Tiger Woods depend heavily on two LASIK surgeries giving him best possible human vision

It is a long read, but well worth it!

So the question is - is the reality or Google correct? When the world relies more and more on digital maps, at what point are they considered more authorative than reality? And how can underground communities use the discrepancy between maps and reality - if they live in community not in Google Maps, do they exist? (via Futurismic)