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The Human Machine
This is a 15 minute documentary project created as part of a post graduate course in science communications at Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. Any views documented here, or techniques shown, are in no way to be considered as being endorsed by Imperial College nor indeed the creators of the video itself. My involvement with the project came about due to replying to a request in a Reddit subgroup dedicated to exploring Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the brain (tDCS) by three postgraduates: Aliyah, Letizia and Patrick (surnames withheld on request). They wanted to make a short documentary as part of their course and to feature such work…
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Why Transhumanism Is Not Private Property
Transhumanism (H+), has made some progress recently. Well, at least progress in creating careers, generating PhD theses, raising money and generally attempting to become mainstream. Indeed, I would not be surprised if as much as 1% of the educated population have heard of it. However, a price has to be paid and it seems to be that of giving up H+ and even in some cases appearing to oppose its traditional goals. The techniques of doing so involve a weird kind of cognitive dissonance. On one hand all the grand visions of artificial intelligence, uploading, raising the dead, re-engineering the cosmos and creating new species of PostHumans are being downplayed…
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Twenty Word Story – Can you write a story in 20 words or less?
The idea for such a short short story came from an advert I heard years ago. It used a string of single, almost unconnected, words to create an image and narrative in the mind of the listener. Subsequently I have occasionally tried my hand at doing something similar. For example: Ten Second Horror Story: Isolated. House. Night. Alone. Reading. Claw. Lightswitch. Powercut. Darkness. Growling. Screaming. Silence. The End. So what we are going to do on Wave Chronicle is take this technique and see what people can come up with using less than twenty words (excluding the title) based around the general theme of “Future” – which is a fairly wide…
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Surviving a Carrington Event and Similar Disasters
On 1 September 1859 Richard Carrington observed a series of major coronal mass ejections from the sun – massive solar flares, the largest of which it the Earth’s magnetosphere some 18 hours later (normally it takes around 72 hours). The result was massive auroral displays across the world, even close to equatorial latitudes, and disruption of the telegraph system in a number of nations. Analysis of ice cores suggest that flares of this magnitude occur every 500 years or so. If such an event happened now the consequences would be far more serious. The main problem would be damage to electricity grids worldwide. Such storms can trigger overloads by inducing…
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TechnoProgressive Iconography – Zero State and Public Use Logos
The political arm of Zero State is defined as a Techno-Progressive political party or organization. As such, its defining characteristic is the belief in the use of science, technology and rationality applied to government in order to achieve desired social aims through evidence based policy. We would also like to ensure that elected officials are not (as is generally the case at present) scientifically illiterate. Our modern society is, after all, unique in history because of the power with which science has imbued it. However, this article does not primarily concern definitions but the logos we have decided to use, and especially the basic logo we created for the Techno-Progressive…
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Unarmed Combat in Zero G
As far as I know, nobody so far has actually experimentally investigated martial arts in a weightless environment, other than under water. This article concerns constraints and opportunities presented by unarmed combat in zero-G environments without a spacesuit being involved. If one includes a spacesuit then we are in a situation analogous to knights in armor, where the only realistic option is a weapon, probably a reactionless pistol based on the Gyrojet. What is not an option are the “space axes” of the 1940s SF writer E E “doc” Smith! While some insights can be gained by practicing in a swimming pool many crucial features of true freefall are missing,…
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Just Do It – the Ethos of Zero State
What’s the difference between a dotcom billionaire and thousands of others who had the same idea at the same time, or even earlier? The answer is that the billionaire implemented the idea and the others did not. Well, that’s a bit simplistic but nevertheless contains a lot of truth. Ideas are NOT “The Big Thing”- implementing them is. Ideas are ten a penny, as are the people who come up with them. Putting them into action, putting in the work to make them real, is the rare skill. How often have you heard, or read, of someone saying “…something must be done”, or “why doesn’t somebody do something…”? Most people…
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Eugenics and Transhumanism
Eugenics, well it’s all about killing off genetic defectives, gassing people designated as insane or subhuman and giving lethal injections to kids with learning difficulties. Or at least it has become that in popular imagination. The original impetus for eugenics was the observation by certain members of Victorian era Middle Class scientific establishment that the feckless poor (and therefore stupid) were out-breeding clever people and thereby dumbing down Humanity as a whole and the “superior races” in particular. Ways had to be found of discouraging big families amongst the “wrong people” and encouraging the “right people” to breed a bit more. Since the “right people” were generally fairly intelligent, articulate…
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The Praxis
The Praxisi is the name of a book authored by myself that was created as part of the Phi Division of Zero Stateii and published in collaboration with Zero State Mediaiii as Project 011. The aim is to present aspects of Transhumanism in an explicitly religious and simplified context, then follow it up with the actual praxis itself i.e. the conversion of a philosophy into action. Since it has been reviewed by Giulio Priscoiv both here (IEET) and in his blog I will cover some of the features omitted by Giulio and only treat the remainder lightly. Briefly, since I assume everyone reading this is familiar with the standard tropes…
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DIY Solar Electricity – The True Costs
Anyone interested in self sufficiency will have looked at generating their own electricity, especially via solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. However, what you actually pay for a given installation capacity can vary wildly. This article looks at how to estimate the basic costs involved with buying the components and doing the installation yourself. Note that I am going to ignore a number of factors which can actually have a big impact on price. For example, local laws and insurance companies may mandate that the wiring is done by a qualified electrician. This will almost certainly be true if your solar PV array is going to be connected to the grid. I…