Winning Slowly

Bodily modification, from hip replacement to magnets in your fingers.

How should we think about bodily modification, on the range from replacing a hip joint or a heart valve to enhancing people well beyond normal human capabilities, to adding entirely new capabilities to the human body?

• The Olympics and body modification: Oscar Pistorius is an amputee with artificial legs
• Tiamat Dragon Lady
• Cambridge Analytica and #DeleteFacebook
• On the question of whether we’re already past “peak body hacking”
  • An early prognostication: “6 Extreme Body Enhancements to Expect in the Next 10 Years
  • “I Hacked My Body For a Future That Never Came
  • The Hype Cycle (and its “Trough of Disillusionment)
  • “Cyberpunk Yourself: Body Modification, Augmentation, and Grinders
• Ear gauges
• NFC
• The poll we referenced: “What Americans Think of Human Enhancement Technologies” (Scientific American)
• Transhumanism – and see also Futurisms, at The New Atlantis, an incisive blog criticizing transhumanism. (This post highlights some of the very same questions we get at in this episode.)

Matthew Lee Anderson’s Earthen Vessels is, sadly, out of print – but we know Matt, and he has some extra copies, so if you want one, email us!

• “Quartessence”, by Kerim König used by permission.
• “Winning Slowly Theme” by Chris Krycho.

Many thanks to the people who help us make this show possible by their financial support! This month’s sponsors:

• Andrew Fallows
• Kurt Klassen
• Jake Grant
• Jeremy W. Sherman

If you’d like to support the show, you can make a pledge at Patreon or give directly via Square Cash.

We love to hear your thoughts. Hit us up via Twitter, Facebook, or email!