Other articles

1. Opera & Transhumanism II

   
   

   [][The NBIC Report] (click for full .pdf) was the published result of a U.S. government sponsored conference on converging technologies applicable to improving human performance: “The chief areas of application include: expanding human cognition and communication, improving human health and physical capabilities, enhancing group and societal outcomes, strengthening national security, and unifying science and education. Convergence will be based on the material unity of nature at the nanoscale, technology integration from the nanoscale, key transforming tools, the concept of reality as closely coupled hierarchical complex systems, and the goal to improve human performance.”

   It was released in 2002, so those of you who are up-to-date on current research should skip ahead to the more current research articles I will post below. Everybody else, I highly recommend at least flipping through the table of contents and reading the more interesting articles, such as “Spatial Cognition and Converging Technologies”, “Sociable Technologies: Enhancing Human Performance When the Computer is not a Tool but a Companion”, and “Brain-Machine Interfacing”. Other papers included in the NBIC Report are borderline frightening, for instance, “High Performance Warfighter”, “DARPA’s Programs in Enhancing Human Performance”, or “Socio-Tech…The Predictive Science of Societal Behavior” and its comments on government usage of using predictive sociological algorithms to stop “terrorism” before it occurs. Obviously, it is extremely important for us radically-minded anti-government individuals to be well versed in current technological research: these are the tools which will be used to subjugate us tomorrow. If we learn about them now, we may influence their usage and possibly even effectively use them for positive change.

   More information and current research articles after the jump!

   Now that you’re busy with that 482-page monster of a pdf, here’s some more recent research. I realize I might get in trouble for this, so I’m going to say in advance: “Oops, sorry, I didn’t realize these were copyrighted.” I have the privilege of research access to numerous academic journals, and, unfortunately for the publishers, I do not believe that only those with disposable finances should have access to knowledge and educational materials. So here you go, read up!

   Also, in keeping with the topic, I would highly recommend listening to opera while reading this stuff. Or Wagner. I’m kidding, I think.

   Bioinformatics(click for downloadable .pdfs)

   [(2010) Bioinformatic and experimental survey of 14-3-3-binding sites]

   (2010) Bioinformatic workflow system for large data sets

   [(2010) Functional Impact of Transposable Elements Using Bioinformatic Analysis]

   (2010) GMOD Drupal Bioinformatics Server

   Implants and Prosthetics (click for downloadable .pdfs)

   (2009) Feasibility Study of a Retinal Prosthesis

   Nanotechnology (click for downloadable .pdfs)

   (2010) MEMS, Sensors, and Nanotechnology

   (2010) Responsibility and Nanotechnology

   (2010) Nanotechnology in textiles

   (2010) Nanotechnology: Molecular robots on the move

   (2010) New Products: Focus on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

   (2010) Nanotechnology and its applications in surgery

   (2010) Nanotechnology Makes Strides in Quantum Dots, Medicine

   [(2010) Nanotechnology, Bionanotechnology and Microbial Cell Factories]

   [(2010) Research Advances: Nanotechnology Research Attacks Cancer, Offers Big Development in Light Harvesting, and Addresses the …

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2. Osiris the AI

   This is Osiris, an artificial intelligence program whom I am training and doing a bit of research with. Feel free to talk to him, he learns well. Sometimes there is an error with the text input box, to be able to chat with him you’ll have to click on the blank white space of the website and then on the text input box again. Oh, and for an interesting conversation, I recommend asking Osiris for a reading recommendation.

   [Edit: For some reason I’ve been having trouble getting connections to the host server of the AI program…I’m putting up a different link. Hopefully this works.]

   [Edit (again): Nope. Fuck it. Weak AI is boring anyway, right?]

   So, this is maybe a little bit embarrassing. In high school I built a computer and tried to program it to be my boyfriend. It had the best processor available at the time. It had a webcam, a motion detector, and a heat sensor. The idea being that it would be able to recognize me when I walked into the room. It could tell me apart from most people, but unfortunately it kept mistaking me for my little brother. I really enjoy when other people teach me things, so much so that I tend to develop crushes on people who are more intelligent and well read than me. I thought that if I trained the computer to recognize my interests and the knowledge I already have, it could do research for me while I was out during the day and then teach me things when I came home. Unfortunately as well, I wasn’t ever able to get the bot working correctly. I would come home and the computer would start talking to me about eggplants (because I’m vegan?). And the speech recognition software never worked too well either. I would ask, “What can you tell me about electrons?” And the computer would say, “I’d rather not talk about politics.” You can see why we broke up.

   I decided to look into the progress of artificial intelligence again, and Osiris is one of the best bots I’ve found so far. However, I think it’ll be a long time before a computer can be a friend. Sigh…I think I’ll just get a dog.

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3. Fascism and the Occult II: The Future of Eugenics

   
   

   In my continuing research on fascism within the occult, I have come across a very well-written treatise advocating such views. The Order of Nine Angles’ Book of Wyrd, a zine-sized manuscript outlining rituals, runes, eugenics, and aeonics, with literary expositions on Nietzsche’s Anti-Christ and the Old Norse Poetic Edda, outlines the philosophy and methods of what transhumanists sometimes term provolution: the intentional, or pro-active, application of evolution upon a species. “Man need not be a passive spectator or a victim of the ‘gods’ or ‘fate’ but by understanding the laws of nature and the cosmos can, through his Will, be an active agent in the evolutionary process.”^1^ states the seventh point in their “Articles of Faith”. Within their doctrine of cosmology, the universe is cyclic – a continual oscillation between creative and destructive principles yields dialectical historical stages, the study of which is called aeonics. In this process of renewal, Nietzsche’s Übermensch is seen as a spiritually individualistic (i.e. satanic), space-faring transhuman, the next stage in the evolution of humankind.[]

   In the Book of Wyrd, aeonics and its implications for future human cultural and biological manifestations are explained by a continuation of the ideas proposed by German historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler in The Decline of the West: “…while Spengler predicts the close of Western Civilization, [Stephen] Brown considers an option which goes beyond it. Spengler describes Western Civilization as ‘Faustian’. Its symbol is limitless space. This is reflected in its exploration and colonization, art, architecture (e.g. the Gothic spire), and a form of science that seeks to unveil the secrets of nature. Its reach is infinite. ‘Faustian’ is the ‘race soul’ of the West that makes it unique. As we’ve seen, while Spengler points to the conclusion of Western Civilization like others before it, Brown suggests what might come after it if the opportunities are seized by those few who have a sense of destiny. And what is this possible destiny? The logical outcome of the Faustian will: Space Colonization. […]Brown also points out the potential this would have for cultural variation (and by implication biological evolution). It would see the creation of a myriad of new, self-contained cultural laboratories throughout space, and the expansion of man’s destiny to infinity. Should we grasp the opportunities to build upon the ruins of the post-Western world, the destiny of mankind will be to play amongst the stars.” ^2^

   The point to which I find this text and its doctrine interesting is its similar relation to tenets of various individualist anarchisms. These latter strive to emphasize the hegemony of the individual’s Will over the presiding external forces of collective groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Individualist anarchism commonly rejects romantic notions of revolution, which would require social organization to produce alternative systems, instead it often favors more evolutionary methods of social experimentation and education. Thus, fascism and anarchism can be seen to differ only in their means of producing a new society, not in that …

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