If you do a Google search for “transhumanism”, this is what you see: Three heads pop up. Let’s take a closer look: They are all pretty similar. All women, which is curious. All have shaven heads -- also curious. Finally, all have weird things sticking out of their heads. Curiouser and curiouser.
Need to take inspiration from Soviet propaganda posters, most normies don't give a shit about cybernetics but they want a world where everything is more beautiful and there is a bright future for themselves and their families.
We need an alternative imagery project. We could just upload images tagged with the correct keywords. So when folks google Transhumanism they don't only see the scary stuff
There is an understandable tendency to show transhumanist augmentations as obviously visible. Until we reach the point of major transformations of biology, augmentations will be largely invisible. Bodies will be more durable, live longer, have stronger immune systems, reinforced bones, use some artificial organs, etc. None of that shows from the outside.
Yeah, that makes sense. By the way, I try to avoid major post-publication modifications of what I've written, but I added a cover from the first Humanity+ magazine that is really nice. It uses text to describe hidden augmentations. (I'm a bit incredulous that a tiny stud of metal could be a cell phone, but it's thought provoking at least.)
It's interesting how the Humanity+ cover is almost the opposite of the visual issue you initially identified - rather than a weird-looking face with prominent and unusual augmentations, it is a beautiful face with deliberately subtle augmentations.
Very interesting piece. I am often blind to aesthetics, but I share your impression that they're especially bad for transhumanist stuff. I think part of it may be that many transhumanist augmentations don't always produce visible changes. If you genetically enhance your children to be happier and smarter, they won't necessarily look any different, so it's not straightforward to literally capture that in an image. If you get a few phased array ultrasound emitters installed in your skull to improve your mood, productivity, and sleep, it's invisible from the outside. I think a lot of the robot-like imagery related to transhumanism is a ham-fisted attempt to convey changes in internal state. "Keeping Away Death" and "Keeping Away Old Age" are beautiful examples of how transhumanism can be portrayed beautifully using figurative imagery instead, I think it would be neat to have more transhumanist art in that vein. I also thought the artwork you included from Joshua Mays was really beautiful.
- The Fountain of Eternal Life sculpture in Cleveland seems to nail the aesthetics, and feels very similar to "Keeping Away Death"
- The aesthetics of Deus Ex: Human Revolution could be inspiring; it's similar to the world of Ghost In The Shell but they go out of their way to make augmentations and futuristic architecture look beautiful. They even released a promotional video where they built real-world prosthetics inspired by the game for charity.
- The Cybathlon is a European sports competition between people with prosthetics and could also be inspiring.
Dresden Codak is a transhumanist comic book author who makes absolutely beautiful comics.
https://images.app.goo.gl/Ucx3borZURHa3bVH7
https://www.google.com/amp/s/dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/173883922001/cyborg-time-with-kimiko-rossdark-science-85-is/amp
You're right, thank you! Yes, I've seen that comic before and read a bit at one point.
Need to take inspiration from Soviet propaganda posters, most normies don't give a shit about cybernetics but they want a world where everything is more beautiful and there is a bright future for themselves and their families.
Yes, Soviet posters occured to me but I didn't bother to try to find any. If you come across anything let me know.
We need an alternative imagery project. We could just upload images tagged with the correct keywords. So when folks google Transhumanism they don't only see the scary stuff
There is an understandable tendency to show transhumanist augmentations as obviously visible. Until we reach the point of major transformations of biology, augmentations will be largely invisible. Bodies will be more durable, live longer, have stronger immune systems, reinforced bones, use some artificial organs, etc. None of that shows from the outside.
Yeah, that makes sense. By the way, I try to avoid major post-publication modifications of what I've written, but I added a cover from the first Humanity+ magazine that is really nice. It uses text to describe hidden augmentations. (I'm a bit incredulous that a tiny stud of metal could be a cell phone, but it's thought provoking at least.)
It's interesting how the Humanity+ cover is almost the opposite of the visual issue you initially identified - rather than a weird-looking face with prominent and unusual augmentations, it is a beautiful face with deliberately subtle augmentations.
Very interesting piece. I am often blind to aesthetics, but I share your impression that they're especially bad for transhumanist stuff. I think part of it may be that many transhumanist augmentations don't always produce visible changes. If you genetically enhance your children to be happier and smarter, they won't necessarily look any different, so it's not straightforward to literally capture that in an image. If you get a few phased array ultrasound emitters installed in your skull to improve your mood, productivity, and sleep, it's invisible from the outside. I think a lot of the robot-like imagery related to transhumanism is a ham-fisted attempt to convey changes in internal state. "Keeping Away Death" and "Keeping Away Old Age" are beautiful examples of how transhumanism can be portrayed beautifully using figurative imagery instead, I think it would be neat to have more transhumanist art in that vein. I also thought the artwork you included from Joshua Mays was really beautiful.
Yeah, I had the same thoughts while working on this piece. I'm really glad you enjoyed it and found it interesting!
Great article about an important topic.
Some preliminary thoughts in this direction:
- The Fountain of Eternal Life sculpture in Cleveland seems to nail the aesthetics, and feels very similar to "Keeping Away Death"
- The aesthetics of Deus Ex: Human Revolution could be inspiring; it's similar to the world of Ghost In The Shell but they go out of their way to make augmentations and futuristic architecture look beautiful. They even released a promotional video where they built real-world prosthetics inspired by the game for charity.
- The Cybathlon is a European sports competition between people with prosthetics and could also be inspiring.