test 3

Question 1

Transhumanism

Answer 1

Meaning ‘beyond’ + ‘humanism’;
beyond human;
implies the merging of human and machine/artificial intelligence.

“The study of the ramifications, promises, and potential dangers of technologies that will enable us to overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies.”

Question 2

Computational theory of mind

Answer 2

a philosophical theory that the human mind and/or human brain is an information processing system and that thinking is a form of computing; that the mind/brain is a computer

(e.g. the brain is the hardware and the mind is the software).

Question 3

Artificial intelligence

Answer 3

-refers to the use of digital technology to create systems capable of performing tasks commonly thought to require intelligence;
usually involving developments in machine learning.

-AI can be used ‘beneficially’ and ‘maliciously’

Question 4

The 7 Forces that are Re-engineering Our Brains

Answer 4

1. Digital ‘Mirrors’
2. Automated/Autonomous Networks
3. Biometric Technologies
4. Adaptive Interfaces
5. Gaming Interfaces and Cultures
6. Immersive Reality Technologies
7. Neural Augmentation

Question 5

Digital mirrors

Answer 5

Algorithms that analyze and reflect back our digital activity to shape attitudes, behaviours, and identities.

e.g. health records, fitness logs, social contacts lists, media preferences; these digital artifacts will be mined to create digital mirrors of our lives.

Question 6

Automated/Autonomous Networks

Answer 6

Increasingly automated steady-stream networks that require no human overight or opt-in;

constantly creating new baselines for normalcy as users compare their own data with group or crowd-sourced data

e.g., buddy lists, contact lists, ‘networks at our fingers’

Question 7

Biometric Technologies

Answer 7

Sensory technologies that detect images, heat, motion and more; embedded in ‘smart’ objects; will create new ‘smart’ environments

e.g. border security technologies, self-driving cars, digital/mobile/geo-located advertising

Question 8

Adaptive Interfaces

Answer 8

Personalized user interfaces that adapt and change their layout and elements according to the needs of the user;
‘no click’ interfaces that make decisions for the user

e.g. Urbanspoon, a restaurant app that allows users to customize their search preferences by location, cuisine, price etc. and contains a special feature for iphones that invites users to shake their phone to get a random/slot-machine-style restaurant recommendation.

Question 9

Gaming Interfaces

Answer 9

Interfaces that are designed not only to entertain but to persuade and impart a point of view to their players through the ideologies embedded in their core logic and narratives

e.g. first-person shooter games into which are embedded particular military doctrines such as ‘pre-emptive war’; or casino-style gambling games that exploit user preferences for consumer luxury goods

Question 10

Immersive Virtual Realities

Answer 10

Tools that dramatically expand the capacities to visualize our environments and ourselves, from augmented reality overlays (e.g. from VR headsets to fully immersive simulated environments

• ’Proteus Effect’: a phenomenon in which the behaviour of an individual within virtual worlds is changed by the characteristics of their avatar.
  e. g. ‘Oculus rift’ headset, ‘healthy’ avatars, total immersive environments

Question 11

Neural Augmentation

Answer 11

Bio- and nano- neurotechnologies that are implanted surgically and are meants to intervene directly, especially within the emotional regions of the brain in order to augment intelligence and other neurocognitive processes.

e.g. neural interfaces, neuroprosthetics used to restore functions in stroke victims

Question 12

Persuasive Technologies

Answer 12

Increasingly ‘smart’ and intimate technologies that coerce, seduce, or otherwise move people towards a belief, position or course of action.

Question 13

Societies of control

Answer 13

an evolving form of power that aims to influence behavior by involving users in entangled and digitally connected networks and systems

-controls without confinement

Question 14

Neuropolitics of control

Answer 14

• the economic and social political condition in which
• consumer demand is manipulated, in a
• deliberate and coordinated way, on a very
• large scale, through
• neural-marketing techniques,
• to the advantage of sellers
• views humans as brains and neural networks that can be coded, decoded and recoded.

Question 15

Proteus effect

Answer 15

a phenomenon in which the behaviour of an individual within virtual worlds is changed by the characteristics of their avatar