*"...trees that grow bacon..."* You have my full attention!

The problem with replacing your eyes or ears with cybernetics is that you're in deep trouble if the people making the cybernetics aren't completely altruistic. Dune has Tleilaxu ayes and Paul Atreides muses "Who knows what bondage goes with metal eyes?" Seems especially relevant now given the way big tech uses algorithms to shape the societal Overton window.

You had me at “Bacon Trees.”

So your telling me in the future I could listen to SFIA whist fighting mindless orcs in vr while also looking like a idiot flailing around the house

Sarif was right about one thing. It's in our nature to want to rise above our limits. Think about it. We were cold, so we harnessed fire. We were weak, so we invented tools. Every time we met an obstacle, we used creativity and ingenuity to overcome it. The cycle is inevitable... but will the outcome always be good? I guess that will depend on how we approach it. These past few months, I was challenged many times, but more often than not, didn't I try to keep morality in mind, knowing that my actions didn't have to harm others? Time and time again, didn't I resist the urge to abuse power and resources simply to achieve my goals more swiftly? In the past, we've had to compensate for weaknesses, finding quick solutions that only benefit a few. But what if we never need to feel weak or morally conflicted again? What if the path Sarif wants us to take enables us to hold on to higher values with more stability? One thing is obvious. For the first time in history, we have a chance to steal fire from the gods. To turn away from it now - to stop pursing a future in which technology and biology combine, leading to the promise of a Singularity - would mean to deny the very essence of who we are. No doubt the road to get there will be bumpy, hurting some people along the way. But won't achieving the dream be worth it? We can become the gods we've always been striving to be. We might as well get good at it.

Imagine improving upon the inferiority of flesh when you can obtain the purity of the blessed machine? -this post was brought to you by the Mechanicium of Mars Gang

This was so cool. Isaac let's have an entire episode dedicated to future horticulture!

I want to see the sitcom Kahn's Kids with a nosey neighbour who constantly yells KAHHHHNN!!! when they come across the kids plan for global domination.

Cody has probably inspired thousands of people to start beekeeping.

Human augmentation is always my favorite topic. So many philosophical cans of worms.

There is a great sci-fi series of novels called Hyperion which explores the concept of bio-forming as an alternative to terraforming. I highly recommend it. Another great episode!

Tbh I can't wait. I've spent way too much of my bodies best days working for companies that just use and discard you, can't wait to repair the damage from years of over work

Adam Jensen was probably the most realistic depiction of a cyborg (at least in western visual media), but even then you had to wonder how the edges of where his skin ended weren't continually getting infected...

Re “awkward, pointy bulges in your pocket”: Well, we are two wild and crazy guys. 🕺

I'm about to get that ECHO eye i've always wanted.

Hearing you shout out "codys lab" made my day, i love his channel.. great content.. thanks Isaac love you too haha

i have a stutter so i understand about living with speech difficulty, but you, sir, are in possession of a great gift. your speech patterns are endearing, easy to listen to, welcoming, and intelligent yet accessible. we can hear you smile, feel your wit, enjoy your situational comparisons, and the list goes on... no doubt you've received many messages like this but that doesn't make this one any less true. thank you

I'm excited for this future. I hope I live long enough to see this come to fruition

"Well, sir, we've been grown with the Gen-Five supergland. Whenever our model goes into overdrive, we get these cravings afterwards. No, sir, we didn't mean to do that to the prisoners, but we just couldn't help ourselves. Usually the MPs are on hand, but- Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir." - Corporal NB-SEK-0172, 152nd Paratroop Regiment, Felicia bioroid

Finally someone addressed the problem of gene interactions down the line with the weightlifter bitter example. Most people tend to think as genes as instructions that can be added and removed at will to get a singular result. But the reality is that the genome is highly interactive, interconected and complex system, where even a small alteration may lead to large unintended consequences down the line. When people think about messing with genetics, they should think of it more on the lines of how they think of making changes in the timeline in a time travel scenario with chaotic interactions being the real danger.

thanks for not being all fan bio. i'm so happy to hear someone mention that drawbacks exist and not all tech is wonderful

Ghost in the shell. Defense barriers always a must.

Trees that grow candy... and bacon. I would grow an orchard...and also need three pancreas and a microbe that scrubbed out my arteries every other week hahaha

I would love to be one of the first humans to be experimented on, especially life extension and brain augmentation

I like that this episode explores territory that hasn't been covered as thoroughly as other topics. I like exploring the Fermi Paradox, for instance, but that is well explored territory for this channel and it is hard to find something new to say about it.

Been listening for years and this is a very good presentation, even by your high standards. Top notch!

One thing I think I've noticed about human brains specifically is they are extremely adaptable. I believe that if a human was born with extra limbs (like arms or fingers) which are in an operational state, the brain teaches itself how to control them by applying random inputs and keeping track of how the limb moves as it does. It does this until it builds the reflexes required to carry out what the mind wants to do.

🎶 Picture yourself in a boat on a river With candied pork trees and Magellanic skies Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly A girl with cuttlefish eyes 🎶

I have been drunk. A lot. But never anything harder. I was always worried about 'losing who I am' to an addiction. How much alteration I do to myself - is a big question. Learning that at 16 I could radically change my body by weight lifting was a massive door opener. Pulp fiction opened my eyes to ethics and civics. The future is going to be amazing. And just a little scary.

In answer to the first question of the video: YES, yes we should

this episode was awesome! I can't wait for the next ones

So am I the only one depressingly expecting to be dead before this technology is useful to us? I'm gonna be 34 at the end of this month. I want to live *way* longer than humans do (preferably a couple hundred years or more) just to witness/experience/use future technology we're almost definitely not gonna have in my lifetime. Yet I feel like I'm gonna reach "death by old age" before the technology to extend our lifespans by much longer even exists... and that makes me sad... Like I genuinely wonder if I'll even see cures for things like cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, dementia, etc in my lifetime...

Bones largely coated in adamantium, muscle genes from the German superboy, perfect eyesight, Lion nightsight DNA, pigeon magnetic field sensors in my head, lizard regeneration genes, 220IQ, psychopath genes for lack of fear, I know what I want to look like.

"...animals that need tungsten to live" Highly cromulent, Isaac.

"...it's hard to imagine much good coming of messing with one's sense of balance..." he says as I hit my bong and shoot tequila xD

Of note, it's not just the genome that can be exploited to be augmented, but also the epigenome. Heck, epigenome modification is potentially far more powerful than endogenome modification, and also noninheritable.

I wish to spread my wings and sail on beams of light. Listen to the songs of the spheres and bear witness to the beauty of Sag A's X-Ray plumes. Taste the first breath of a new born star and witness the death of warmth. I wish to be alien among aliens in home skies, yet familiar to all. I wish to stride in the dark places between cosmic pyres and be the youthful old, who dream forever but never die.

That bit at the beginning about making people as smart as the smartest person and as strong as the strongest person is the basis of two of my sci-fi characters. Both are the products of a now shut-down experiment. The first is physically "perfect." His bones are tougher. His muscles are stronger. He's basically got a combination of disorders working together to make a captain-america-ish body for an otherwise normal person. The second character is his little sister. (They aren't actually related at all.) She's designed for perfect recall and speed intelligence. She has a combination of perfect recall and extremely speedy neurons. I've also got characters with varying degrees of augmentation. The pilot for example has had his visual processing modified for a HUD and has a neuralink-style device that can control HUD like a monitor. Flying and EVA are both easier when you don't need to look away from what you're doing to see the instrument panels. The mechanic had a previous job as a "proxy." He was able to allow somebody else to "remote in" to some degree to either just ride along or even take the wheel for a set period of time. The copilot doesn't have any mechanical modifications, but she does have some gene tweaks for dealing with space better.

Hopefully your upcoming episode on Solar Flares also includes a deeper look at Mega Flares, Mega Filament CME's, and the potential of civilisation ending Micro Nova and Nova events where large portions of the stellar crust is ejected by recurrent nova stars like Sol. But not so much of an explosion that the star or it's solar system is destroyed.

This script is so dense I'm going to have to play it twice just to get my head around it.

We are probably going to need to genetically modify ourselves in order to live long term in space.

"Using pain damping to do stupid things" is the oldest, most low-tech form of AR in the world. Nowadays we call it getting drunk.

Thanks, Isaac! I got my PhD in biology recently, and look for jobs in biotech now. By the way, can anyone recommend any books or blog posts about history and structure of modern biotech industry?

I think all risks are worth it to get cat ears on people. I mean, we need Catgirls. :-)

Imagine not understanding the weakness of the flesh, and not being digusted by it. Imagine not having the purity of the blessed machine This comment was brought to you by the cyborgization gang

A friend recommended me this channel and I am so glad that he did

I'm always surprised at how much we question the motivations of those who wants to enhance the human form and how little we question the motivations of those who wants to prevent it.

Been waiting for more topics about the future look of life as we advance.

Pain dampening would be extremely useful for any kind of surgery and even small things like repairing teeth cavities and even injections.

I am just picking up beekeeping, myself. Go Sarah, it’s such an exciting concept!

These videos are sdding so much depth to my experience of the anime. I never thought about it previously, I should be looking at manga summaries of the chapters of the anime I am in. It really helps that you tie your videos into the release schedule. So if you're up to date with the anime, you don't face spoilers. Love your work. Thanks!

To be able to turn off the steady whine of Tinnitus... that would be a little bit of Heaven right there!

My weekly highlight! Together with event horizon, which should come soon

the section just after 13:11 where he talks about connecting the brain to computers and stuff, reminds me of the anime shows "Ghost in the Shell" and to a lesser extent "accel world". the former explores a future world where cybernetic brain/machine interface is common and the social consequences. the latter has devices called neural linkers that serve as personal computer pugged in to the the Brian via back of the neck, and used to play VR games.

Well the first Augments will be modified to be more attractive. As augmented technology improves it'll move into muscle mass and improved athleticism. After that it's open season on anti-aging and prolonged lifespans.

I often tell people we have not yet had our Wright Brothers moment with medical technology.

Looking forward to the day I get my Kiroshi optics, second heart, titanium bones, smart link, mantis blades and fortified ankles irl 😏

So when can we expect the eugenics wars of 1997? I guess we have to get through the 1984 world first.

I think that the risk of this kind of tech is not a hacker plugging into your mind/senses, but the potential for unauthorized data gathering (as many companies do now) or spam. It's one thing to ignore an ever growing email list but to have spam directed into your brain is another.

OH MAN, I am right in middle of "The Rise of Endymion" this ep is SOOOOOOO well timed.

Human augmentation has always interested me but gene editing has interested me more than cybernetic augmentations has. Sure it would be cool to have all the perks cybernetics would have but theres a sense of pride the natural way. Just imagine if humans had the physical attributes surpassing every animals. I guess it’s not natural because it’s still using technology but it would still be interesting to see just how far we can push the limits of the human flesh.

Awesome episode Isaac. Good day to you :]

This is probably your best biotech episode yet, every time you speak you seem to get a better grip on the subject. Speaking as someone involved in healthcare (hospital administration, so I get to listen to all the new things my healthcare network is up to) this IS an exciting time for biotech... or at least it will be in the next five to ten years. The groundwork is being laid as we speak. Unfortunately your audience is still very much in the stone age when it comes to this topic. Many of the comments show no understanding of even basic medical or biological ethics. Things they assume would be "no brainers" are actually stupidly complicated matters, at least from our current muddled perspective...

In theory, a direct connection to a single nerve ending ought to allow a person trained in morse code to serially communicate in both directions up to around 30-40 words per minute. A better result would be five such nerve endings being connected to let the wearer operate a basic parallel code such as Baudot. Direct byte transmission and reception at say 20 baud would be awesome!

I read an innovative book called The Persimmon Sequence where a blind person had a tactile 30 x 30 pin matrix strapped against the inside of a thigh. This connected to a camera. While it was low-res and monochromatic, it let the wearer walk around without bumping into things. Much better than total blindness.

I was luckly enough to met the land of the Human Genome Project at the local university in the 90's. My mind that blown to learn that 90% of our genome is dedicated the most complex thing in the known universe, the human nervous system. Arthur C. wrote that the a lifetime of experience contain about 10^15 bits...and that was before. Hameroff and Penrose proproses that the nervous system has vast more power than dreamed before - several orders of magnitude. WOW!

Biotech is extemely important - we as a species must prioritise it over AI research. For if we create an AI superintellegence we need to greet it as an equal - as bioengineered superhumans. If we dont it could easily mean extinction.

we can do anything,thats the best part ,We can live forever, as soon as we break down Matter and put it back together, Where to store you ? I wonder.

Arthur C Clark, Gene Rodenberry, Jerry Pournelle, David Niven. Greg Bear, Robert Heinlein, etc. all discussed this in their stories, mostly as science fiction…all with warning

Sarah the blueberry farmer. Not on Ceres, just yet? Thanks as always!! Great stuff!!!

Bodybuilder zombie like people, sounds like an interesting plot for a movie

I just want what everyone wants, to be attractive, fast, coordinated, perceptive, strong, intelligent, and immortal. However we can accomplish that, let's do it.

New organ transplant technology would be a great improvement over the current options. Especially for children intestinal transplants.

You are the only channel I actually have to pay attention to while listening at 2x speed. Your ideas are so varied, it's lovely listening to.

As a transhumanist this is the episode I've been waiting for. My main concern in the short term at least would be the near certainty of exploitation of biotechnologies (and by extension, people whose bodies are altered by such tech) for corporate interests, but assuming that risk is neutralized in the future I'm very excited for the possibilities in this area Edit: oh, and eugenics. That's my other big concern. Still, cyberpunk augmentation without the hypercapitalist dystopia? Sign me the fuck up already

I love your tuhston dependency example. Because it addresses the flaw in the lysine failsafe in Jurassic park. Then again the point of that failsafe failing is to demonstrate hamknd's hubris And i absolutely see people cosplaying the mechanics.

Does DNA/biochemistry suffer from the halting-problem, or would it be possible to pre-calculate the outcomes of any modification to look for potential undesirable consequences?

Messing with the sense of balance would be real useful for pilots, astronauts, and those prone to motion sickness.

Happy Arthursday everyone!

Life extension, corrective surgery for my flat left foot, non asthmatic lungs and non-colorblind eyes. That's a good start for me. 👌 Yet another fantastically informative episode as always Isaac.

Future brain implant will let me listen to SFIA whenever and wherever I want....high hopes.

I for one can’t wait for Human Augmentation, I’m sick of us being the Weakest of the Great Ape family.

15:21 That wiuld be so annoying for people without the augmented reality, but I believe it, since it's like TVs and DVD players where many controls are only on the remote and not on the machine itself, which is also annoying if you lose the remote or it breaks and you have to get a new one to be able to do basic things.

15:19 That stock footage irks me. Who would ever be pouring plain water out of a Moka pot?

I was under the impression that crispr & cas9 were able to make ex vivo edits very accurately as opposed to older forms of gene therapy where they basically just threw edited DNA and hope it sticks. Which is very easy to see how that could cause more random harm than good, but that was before they discovered the crispr pattern. Sorry if I misunderstood or am posting this comment too early, genetics is definitely something I'm behind on having a basic understanding of where we are at today. I'm really glad you chose this topic.

As someone who has a family history of incurable genetic issues (including some that kick in well before adulthood), I'm somewhat more open to germ-line editing for known and understood genes to remove known genetic diseases.

and with airships you can create even more space for wilderniss and keep the knowledge alive.

the girl at 15:21 has made clear coffee. this future is not acceptable

i cannot wait for this technology

This is my favorite one 😁👍

Woooooo Hoooooo. It must be Thursday!!!

Cody and Brian are awesome. Great minds...

What were the wireless earphones that Isaac recommended/sponsored a while back?

Why stop at mere bacon trees? Why not bacon trees that cures heart disease? The doctor prescribed a diet of bacon for the next week.

Generation 1: Barbie dolls and Conan Generation 2: Blue elves and pink gnomes Generation 3: Normal looking people saying "God, the (20)70's were weird."

Moving farther into the country to grow more blueberries and raise more bees. I think you might have the dream life mate.

a few years back there was a very interesting series on yuotube called h+. it was on nano bot augmented humans an what happens is someone lets loose a computer virus. after this i am going to re watch it.

Fantastic episode. I'll surely watch it again. I want chromatophores in my dermis.

As long as we have a James T. Kirk we don't have to worry about Khan Noonien Singh.

Havin reserve key from appartment so that you can change food if necessary.