.:PHILOSOPHY:.
Transhuman
"
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as
H+ or
h+, is an international
intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the
human condition by developing and making widely available
technologies to
eliminate aging and to greatly
enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of
emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as study the
ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies.
[ They predict that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "
posthuman". Transhumanism is therefore viewed as a subset of philosophical "
posthumanism".
" -Wikipedia
Us vs. the Bitchun Society
We can die,
they cannot.
We age,
they do not.
It is considered immoral
to be dating someone 15% of your age,
in the Bitchun society this is just fine.
Age can be a barrier for us,
for them age is eternity.
Money isn't a problem,
but without anyones respect,
you are worthless.
I guess this means the end of scheming businessmen holding all the power...
What is a human?
Does it eat,
breathe,
sleep?
What about a conscience?
Does it feel guilt?
In the bitchun world, no one seems to feel guilt when they kill,
since there is no death.
In our world, punishment is jailtime.
Bitchun?
Punishment is exile.
No one acknowledges that you exist...
if your whuffie is low enough.
You could always choose to forget your mistakes and guilt.
You are a computer.
If you forget to save,
then the memory is lost.
Your body is worthless.
Forget what the dove commercials teach about self worth and body image.
You can look however you want,
never age,
and never die of illness.
Eat how you want,
live how you want.
Live each day like you are going to die,
since your body is so replacable.
Smoke some crack, its fine.
There's decaf too.
Wake up tomorrow,
you feel a little different.
But its the same you within your new body, right?
You can't gamble with your life,
but you can always live the crazy life and "forget" to do backups.
You might wake up to find yourself the you
that you once were 5 years ago.
Whatever happens,
you will still be alive.
That is what's most important,
right?.....
What is it to be human?
I'm not a scientist, but I do know that humans are alive.
We are animals.
Animals are made up of cells,
we reproduce,
we consume,
we excrete,
we change,
we use energy,
we respond to the environment,
we grow.
We die.
The people of the bitchun society are not human, because they don't die. They don't age either. The changes that they experience are either mentally, or mechanically. The metamorphosis of a transhuman is rather instant. There is no gradual change. You could wake up a new person, after deadheading for a few hours.
It is so close to being the real thing... what is lacks is what has been made obsolete. Death.
.:SOCIETY:.
Whuffie?
"Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based
currency of
Cory Doctorow's science fiction novel
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and his short story
Truncat. This book describes a
post-scarcity economy: All the necessities (and most of the luxuries) of life are free for the taking. A person's current Whuffie is instantly viewable to anyone, as everybody has a brain-implant giving them an interface with the Net.
The term has since seen some adoption as a synonym for
social capital, including its use in the title of the
Tara Hunt book
The Whuffie Factor." - Wikipedia
Introducing Whuffie!
A new way to value the worth of a person. This time, it does not involve a stupid material mean, like money. We have calculated how respectable of a person you are in the views of others! Do you feel like a loser? Guess what?! You probably are! No whuffie for you! LOSER!
(P.S. I made the comic! On PAINT!)
Whuffie is different from the concept of money since you cannot be born with it. You have to develop your esteem on your own. It does not just appear. This would destroy our current socio-economic boarders, but would create new barriers that involve personality types. Many people with mental health issues would be at a disadvantage since they may not be able to fully develop the needed social skills that are required to increase whuffie.
I like how the idea of whuffie was to create equality. The person with 0 whuffie's opinions would be the worth the same as the person with 1,000,000 whuffie.
You make/gain whuffie by doing good deeds, being creative, or what the general public sees as an agreeable decision/action.
Whuffie is different from money since there is a log that shows how the whuffie was earned, unlike money.
I think that I would enjoy a whuffie world as much as I enjoy the world today. My main issue with whuffie is that it is based on what the general public sees as a good thing. Therefore, activists who are fighting for certain rights would have a decrease whuffie, even if they were amazing people. Since everyone is guaranteed basic rights, there would probably be less activism though. Stuff to protest in a whuffie world: disney world, humanism, "the right to die vs. deadheading", etc.
There seems to be no privacy in your life if everyone can see how you gained or lost your whuffie. There would be less mystery when meeting someone for the first time. It is almost as if a novel has been written about you for all to read at their leisure.
-Lydia
