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CJay
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mankind's exoskeleton
#3815801 - 02/22/05 06:22 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Although many people see our technology as an abberation of nature, it seems to me and plenty of others that it is completely natural.
I feel as though humanity is only just being created, and that as we discover our epigenetic potential we are also discovering our wider selves as a social organism.
We are building a kind of species 'exoskeleton' (for want of a better word) made of technology. Not only that we are building a species wide nervous system that we all act as neurons in being a part of. Watching the www for the latest signals from other neurons firing into the epigenetic brain and reacting to the output signal our end as we might in our part.
What do you think?
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Gomp
¡(Bound to·(O))be free!
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: CJay]
#3815808 - 02/22/05 06:26 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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yes.
-------------------- -------------------- Disclaimer!?
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fireworks_god
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: Gomp]
#3816096 - 02/22/05 09:32 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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I was thinking of something along these lines tonight at work. I am frequently running a walker stacker, which is basically a small forklift, but you move it around by a handle (instead of actually sitting on the forklift). Its perfect for receiving/backroom area applications, of course.
Anyways, I bring a Zen-like aspect into it when I am using it, and I have a very refined sense of feel for it (whereas a lot of people don't like using it because they are afraid they will crash into shit ). I use it to build more understanding of the principles of motion and force, awareness, etc.... Someone tonight said "That thing has really become a third hand for you, hasn't it?"
"Third hand" really got me thinking. Technology is an extension of our bodies and our minds. It isn't really a new thought, but it is amazing to consider it. I'm straining myself to think of more to say on this, but nothing is coming into being.... so this is it.
Peace.
-------------------- If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 38,063
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like a coral reef we are human reefers? homo-reefus
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Sinbad
Living TheMoment
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'we are human refeers'
i wonder what cheech and chong would say about that.
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JacquesCousteau
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: CJay]
#3816456 - 02/22/05 11:03 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Yeah, I dig it.
Mankind is part of nature... therefore anything we do is natural.
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Alan Stone
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: CJay]
#3817459 - 02/22/05 03:20 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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It is not natural in the sense that it has come about by accident, like we have. It was created willfully, with a purpose in mind. It IS natural in the sense that is made up of materials found in nature, and they are an extension of us as natural creatures.
-------------------- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: Alan Stone]
#3817611 - 02/22/05 03:49 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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acidents are natural and part of nature and cheech and chong too!
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Zekebomb
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: Alan Stone]
#3817615 - 02/22/05 03:50 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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come about by accident, like we have.
have we?
...and maybe the term 'exoskeleton' might be replaced by the idea of cyborg... for me, anyways, it works a bit better
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: CJay]
#3818951 - 02/22/05 07:52 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
CJay said: We are building a kind of species 'exoskeleton' (for want of a better word) made of technology. Not only that we are building a species wide nervous system that we all act as neurons in being a part of. Watching the www for the latest signals from other neurons firing into the epigenetic brain and reacting to the output signal our end as we might in our part.
What do you think?
An intersting comparison indeed. We have replaced tooth and claw with technology to survive, and we are evolving rapidly. As to what exactly we're evolving into I'm altogether unsure....
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CJay
Dark Stranger
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: Le_Canard]
#3821250 - 02/23/05 08:04 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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yes - cyborg existence.
Maybe we aren't humans at all....maybe we are cyborgs. Or perhaps better put, humans are a type of cyborg.
Wow - the mind boggles as we grow (into) our technological reef
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dr0mni
My Own Messiah
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: CJay]
#3821910 - 02/23/05 11:28 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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I've thought of the same thing, but like this:
Our self-aware consciousness is a result of the structures and functions of our physical bodies, which are in turn a result of the natural patterns and relationships of atoms and molecules, which are a result of God (what I think of as relationship patterns).
We are order coming out of chaos. It runs in cycles.
When a self aware being takes something that is chaotic and puts it in order it is a godly expression of order from chaos. It is completely natural, or else it couldn't happen at all!
I was tripping once, and I was looking at a laptop and I realized that what this laptop really was, was a manifestation of human thought which resulted in the ordering of physical matter. MIND OVER MATTER! We can organize matter however we want and make it do anything if we just think about it hard enough!
The first order from chaos (organic life) lead to the replication of organic matter (more order). I think that humanities possible goal could be to recreate an ordered structure that supports self awareness. Not artificial intellegence, REAL intellegence. We have a certain degree of control over our bodies with modern medicine, but we can't restructure them. If we could built intellegent machines, they would be able to design their own bodies and adapt to any environment. These machines could survive in space, colonize other planets, and search for God long after we become extinct. Perhaps they would figure out a way to create consciousness without physical matter. We could become beings of light through our machines and life forever as one with God, without the pain and suffering of physical existance!
That's how I like to think of it anyways...
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Zekebomb
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: dr0mni]
#3821954 - 02/23/05 11:38 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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We can organize matter however we want and make it do anything if we just think about it hard enough!
of course, we also have to physically assemble raw materials, with our hands or what have you
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dr0mni
My Own Messiah
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: Zekebomb]
#3822740 - 02/23/05 02:34 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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our hands are neccessary only in the first steps of creating technology. Next we make tools that make tools. We can't turn a screw with our hands alone, we need a screwdriver. Also, a hand without a mind behind it is useless. We already have automated assembly lines with robotic screwdriver arms. The people are only there to make sure the machines are working right (maintaining order through thought).
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Zekebomb
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: dr0mni]
#3823242 - 02/23/05 04:19 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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right, I thought of that as I made that post, only I couldn't think of any graceful way to put it. thanks for doing it for me
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CaptainJailew
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: Zekebomb]
#3823587 - 02/23/05 05:33 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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I think you share thoughts with a relatively large group of people called Post-Humanists. Post-humanism just posits that the traditional human form has worn out its welcome and it is time to usher in an era replete with technological innovations and extensions of the human form.
If you get the chance you should try to watch The Matrix trilogy with the Philosopher's Audio Commentary on (Dr. Cornell West and Ken Wilber are Professors of philosophy and religion at Princeton and a critically aclaimed author respectively) throughout the movie they talk a lot about post and trans-humanism and what it means to be human. Very interesting indeed - here is more info on post-humanism-
http://mars.superlink.net/~neptune/Posthuman.html
-------------------- Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" - Albert Einstein
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CJay
Dark Stranger
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Quote:
humanities possible goal could be to recreate an ordered structure that supports self awareness. Not artificial intellegence, REAL intellegence.
To be honest I never got the 'artificial' bit on artificial intellingence.
Intelligence is surely Intellligence.
Perhaps it's just a way of distinguishing, or perhaps it's similar to the way thsome feel our technology is 'unnatural'.
To me it all sounds good. Intelligent even.
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dr0mni
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: CJay]
#3826879 - 02/24/05 10:27 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Well the first type of AI was simply reactionary. If X happens, the equation f(x) calculates a result, Y. If a machine bumps into a wall, the sensor tells it "X", the equation goes through, and the machine backs up and turns into a different direction (Y). This is Artificial intelligence. The machine doesn't know what a wall is or why it doesn't want to bump into it, it just knows that certain input creates certain output.
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dr0mni
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: CJay]
#3826890 - 02/24/05 10:30 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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yeah, half of this shit I thought about while tripping and thinking about the matrix/laptops/human survival/2001: A Space Odessy/ and 311 lyrics! LOL!
The connection is very clear to me between them, I don't know about you guys...
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CJay
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Re: mankind's exoskeleton [Re: dr0mni]
#3827278 - 02/24/05 12:14 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Well the first type of AI was simply reactionary
Thanks for the insight
What you describe reminds me of a human child though....which is a lifeform surely still considered intelligent. I mean a toddler knows not what a wall is, or anything. It walks about bumping into things, reacting, putting anything it can into its mouth to see what it is/does - reacting again. Much like you describe, but with more faculties.
But it learns I suppose....are machines not beginning to learn? I mean cutting edge AI? (I don't know much about where the current frontier is).
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