1/ Super bummed I missed @ariellezuck’s talk this morning. But here's a transcript of her Slush 2016 talk that made a big impact on me when I was just getting into transhumanism. It actually led to me befriending the developer of the cochlear implant. https://12mv2.com/2020/07/02/transcriptslides-overcoming-human-limitations-through-emerging-technologies-arielle-zuckerberg/

2/ We're in a post-evolution era. Natural selection has run its course. If you don't believe me, ask your vegan friends. I believe that we are moving towards a transhumanist future and we always have been

3/ So another thing that improves, increases cognitive efficiency is of course mobile phones and the Internet. There's no excuse not to know anything anymore. This allows us to look up anything, anywhere, at any time

4/ In addition to extending and expanding our knowledge, mobile phones also serve as an external memory storage for things like our thoughts, ideas, the people we know, our friends’ birthdays

5/ So the people are already, you know, doing these procedures not just for corrective purposes, but to enhance beyond perfect. And I think we'll just see more and more of that. And you know, the question of whether or not this is cheating

6/ I think you'll just ask, and the answer will come. Hopefully like a Jarvis-style sidekick

7/ I think I can imagine a future where people choose to get these robotic limbs to replace their natural ones, even if they haven't had their limb amputated. Or you know maybe people will just want better functionality

8/ do people have an obligation to engineer the perfect child, or does, what are the child's rights or the parents’ rights? And I think as this technology becomes increasingly available, you know, will people have the duties to genetically enhance and modify their offspring?

9/ And the wealth concentration is increasing over time, and I feel like this will only further bifurcate humans into two groups: enhanced humans are people who have access to a lot of these improvements, and natural humans or people who don't have access to the improvements

10/ people who can afford these enhancements will hugely benefit and people who can't afford them will be left behind. So this is I think a huge issue that you know, we'll definitely have to think about and address going forward

11/ You can see the full presentation here:

End/ And if you wanna know why I’m bummed, check out this great thread by @youfoundanisha on this morning’s talk ( @ariellezuck any chance there’s a recording )

https://twitter.com/youfoundanisha/status/1278426856371351552?s=21 https://twitter.com/youfoundanisha/status/1278426856371351552