Hello again friends! Sorry I've been away for so long. Does anyone have any interesting information about social systems design? To be more specific: how spaces influence group and individual behavior, and how rulesets, discovery, and user matching influence group behavior (like on social media sites)?
Which brings me to a warning.
Tempting as it can be, under no circumstances should you use the instructions I’ve provided here to assemble your own personal arm of crows to carry out acts of unspeakable evil—or even to wage justified campaigns of retribution against your enemies.
Crows are wise birds, and they will catch own quickly. Once your crow army realizes that your seeming friendship is merely an instrumental ploy to harness their power to your own ends, may God help you—for I cannot.
One thing I find amusing is how the great defender of liberal democracy, Fukuyama, called transhumanism 'the world's most dangerous idea' despite the fact that, in its initial conditions at least, transhumanism imported so very heavily from liberal humanism. Given how near total pluralism flows from transhumanism, almost necessarily, it might be the most liberal idea in existence
My new world "Morph your friends" has been published to #vrchat ! This world can manipulate every avatar's vertices, making everyone in the room chonky, wide, twisted, and much more! You can check it out here: https://vrchat.com/home/launch?worldId=wrld_0d32dced-444b-4adf-9730-bf3da8c69db3
I published a #VRChat world that got out of labs in a record time.. 3hrs!
A cozy bedroom in the retrowave style equipped for a classic homeworld, this was done in ~10hrs for a world Jam!
Featuring 800+ videos, fully controllable screen & projector, props, playlists & more!
"Retrowave Cove" is fully compatible for #Quest and made with #Blender & #Unity
[24mb] Enjoy ^^
Preview (slightly outdated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXAoX93kyJ4
https://vrchat.com/home/world/wrld_d82757bc-c802-4d70-a34c-ce4b32fd2351
I think there's a schism forming in transhumanism that, by 2030, will be obvious to everyone. It'll be similar to classic vs modern liberalism, with classic transhumanists being the grinder/diybio/body freedom maxis, and modern being the WEF/Davos/AI Safety types. They'll both agree that radical tech can improve the human condition, but the modern branch will be willing to embrace totalitarianism in order to (as they argue) prevent global catastrophe.
2 reasons for this:
I know that the brain abhors a steady state, and 'keeping your finger on the button' will eventually result in downregulation
&
given the richness of everything I've experienced, in both sober and altered states, the idea of a 'single' pleasure state is just... completely wrong. There's 'firing on all cylinders' euphoria as well as 'melty warm blissful' euphoria at a very minimum
To do some utilitarianism for a bit: there's this really common idea that you can't ever abolish suffering without losing something, but I think this is misguided. I feel there's a cluster of positive-valence states that are roughly equal in value that can be cycled through, some of which entail zen-flow productivity, & any superwellbeing maximizer will optimally explore this space without ever getting caught in the dreaded 'pleasure trap,' and without ever having to fall into negative states
Transhumanism has long been pitched as 'the philosophy of the future,' with proponents wondering when they will get a chance to use radical technology directly upon themselves.
In my article, I propose that Virtual Reality will be where the rubber finally meets the road, and the challenges involved in delivering an ideal VR experience lead directly into body-modifying biotechnologies like BCI
https://arvrjourney.com/how-vr-could-bring-transhumanism-to-the-masses-553cb0a0e14e
One thing that really reminds me how far we have to go with VR technology is a night like tonight - 20 degrees F outside. Absolutely frigid. I can't imagine a feasible technological solution for full body programmable variable thermoperception. And the haptics for feeling wind gusts? How would you even do that?
VR dev. Transhumanist. Thinking about cyborgs and how to achieve human-machine symbiosis.