We have all seen it — soldiers in the scifi future carrying their phasers, lasers, disruptors, blasters and so on, yet failing to hit their targets as the hero does cartwheels and back-flips to dodge the fire. The stormtroopers in Star Wars are notoriously bad shots, for example.

In many ways scifi hand weapons are already outdated by the latest in contemporary guns, and the reasons why are quite simple.

First, a slug of metal traveling at a kilometer per second is a very efficient way of delivering devastating energy to the Human body. …

TLDR: Scroll down to Conclusions

Elon Musk has recently unveiled his company’s first Neuralink device implanted in an experimental animal — a pig.

To briefly describe the device for those without much technical knowledge, it is an invasive technology based on the concept of a neural lace, which is a mesh of perhaps hundreds of wires laced throughout the brain albeit with concentration of connections in certain areas. These either sample neural patterns or modify them. Needless to say, even the minor technical challenges are massive. For example, it involves brain surgery. Then we have bio-compatibility problems as typically implanted…

AI Avatars — from Clippy to Rommie and Beyond

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Avatar derives from a Sanskrit word meaning “descent,” and when it first appeared in English in the late 18th century, it referred to the descent of a deity to the earth — typically, the incarnation in earthly form of Vishnu or another Hindu deity. It later came to refer to any incarnation in human form, and then to any embodiment (such as that of a concept or philosophy), whether or not in the form of a person. …

Just Unlucky — the ultimate monster in the woods creepypasta

Listen up you social media morons — I will say this only once for your benefit. I am not a murderer and the police and prosecutors will not be pressing any charges. What happened was just an unfortunate incident I could not avoid. Anyway, this is basically the account I gave to the police and other interested parties at the time.

It all started when me and a couple of guys from work, Bob and Jim, decided to go on an overnight camping trip in the deep woods. Having grown…

I looked at the young woman sitting in front of me, although she was not what I would call a woman nor probably was she young. Another brainwashed drone who had sold their soul to the devil for a mess of pottage, to mix metaphors. Even I found what was on offer tempting — immortality, health, youth, knowledge and that most delirious of aphrodisiacs — power. But there was no way I was going to admit to that. It was probably pointless anyway, since she could undoubtedly read my mind. Laughably, the next thing she said was that she would…

[Part One is here]

Or not, as it turned out…

So here I was, lying in bed apparently aged five years old in England in 1958 with the mind of seventy three year old man from 2026 and no idea whether this was a super realistic lucid dream or… something else entirely. I listened to my parents, or close facsimiles, talking as they started to get up and get dressed for the day. The previous day is when I had arrived, being my first day at school and it had not gone terribly well. …

We often hear this word used in Transhumanist (H+) discussions, but what is meant by it? After all, if H+ is about using scitech to enhance Human capabilities via internal modifications what does it mean to go beyond these? In the following I intend to delineate possible stages of enhancement from what exists today to what could exist as an endpoint of this process in centuries to come.

Although I have tried to put it in what I believe to be a plausible chronological order a great deal depends on major unknowns, most especially the rapidity with which Artificial Intelligence…