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wolven7Biofeedback: A set of principles including and involving turning the body's experience of pain into energy and increased capacity for work. Monitoring and internally redirecting the body's functions, for conscious control.
Parkour: "The Art of Moving." Adaptability in motion, redistribution weight and force in the movement of gross bodily motion. Jumping, climbing, running, rolling, and generally moving in the most efficient way possible.
Cybernetics: Understanding and manipulating the structure of regulatory systems, in either living ogranisms, or mechanical and/or social structures. In the popular use, cybernetics is most often understood as the combination of organic and non-organic systems for the purposes of control, healing, and enhancement.
Shamanism: Practices designed to increase connection with the realms of spirit and nature, and to increase awareness of their intesection. Shamanistic practices include chanting, singing, dancing, playing music, and ingesting varying substances to aid in attaining mind altering states of consciousness. A shaman acts as the gatekeeper between the realm of the spirit and the realm of humans.
Werewolves: Literally "Man-Wolves." A subset of the overall class of "Shapeshifter," these are creatures who change between the form of a human and that of a wolf. Often depicted as having intermediate stages combining the features of both natures, and lore differs as to whether these changes can be made at will, orif they only happen involuntarily under the light of the full moon, or some combination of the two. Only able to be killed or controlled by the metal silver.
Now, if we allow for the advent of genetic trait splicing, via nanotechnological intervention (molecular riders, recombining and writing DNA, etc), then we have the means by which to more fully and usefully combine the above, into a new species of creature, a new kind of bodily awareness, being a new kind of awareness of the mutability of physical nature, in conjunction with a new understanding of our "place" in the metaphysical "order." Even without that advent, the practitioner becomes aware of the nature of her feedback loops, as well as the loops in which she is but a stage, and her incresed awareness of these steps and places allow her a wider range of control over them and their outcome and direction.
As the subject stages an increased effort toward control, the awareness of surroundings will become more instinctual, more like intuition, and the reaction to and action within them will simply happen, with awareness, weight, and deliberation occuring at a much greater speed. The consequences of actions and the moral/ethical predispositions of the subject will not be "altered," per se, other than a necessary deepening and enhancement of whatever they happened to be, as a result of a greater overall awareness. The subject may find that they are, at worst, more open to investigating their morality, while not "losing" it. To reduce ethical vertigo, it is suggested that the subject take each decision a step at a time, comparing and contrasting new physical, mental, emotional, and social consequences with old.
Musculature and reflexivity will take some getting used to, in order to fully control, but this is the same as with any new skill or ability, such as a martial art, dance style, or posture and motion correction, as in physical therapy. The sudden alteration of musculature will, eventually, be a litteral second nature, and one with which the subject is equally as comfortable as their first.
Greater ease of altering the mind in terms of its capacity for learning, multitasking, and linguistics will, of course, be a side-effect. In addition, during the first 5 months, the subject should expect a near-constant stream of unending nervous signals generally interpreted by the mind as "pain," in the course of any physical exertion. Some assistance may be required in using the restroom, showering, and sexual activity should at all costs be avoided until all alterations in feedback loops are fully and functionally integrated.
Kind of slipped into a weird "Care And Handling Instructions" mode, there, at the end... Strange. But This? Looking back on it, now, I can say that, as a kid, this is exactly what I wanted to be, when I grew up.
Parkour: "The Art of Moving." Adaptability in motion, redistribution weight and force in the movement of gross bodily motion. Jumping, climbing, running, rolling, and generally moving in the most efficient way possible.
Cybernetics: Understanding and manipulating the structure of regulatory systems, in either living ogranisms, or mechanical and/or social structures. In the popular use, cybernetics is most often understood as the combination of organic and non-organic systems for the purposes of control, healing, and enhancement.
Shamanism: Practices designed to increase connection with the realms of spirit and nature, and to increase awareness of their intesection. Shamanistic practices include chanting, singing, dancing, playing music, and ingesting varying substances to aid in attaining mind altering states of consciousness. A shaman acts as the gatekeeper between the realm of the spirit and the realm of humans.
Werewolves: Literally "Man-Wolves." A subset of the overall class of "Shapeshifter," these are creatures who change between the form of a human and that of a wolf. Often depicted as having intermediate stages combining the features of both natures, and lore differs as to whether these changes can be made at will, orif they only happen involuntarily under the light of the full moon, or some combination of the two. Only able to be killed or controlled by the metal silver.
Now, if we allow for the advent of genetic trait splicing, via nanotechnological intervention (molecular riders, recombining and writing DNA, etc), then we have the means by which to more fully and usefully combine the above, into a new species of creature, a new kind of bodily awareness, being a new kind of awareness of the mutability of physical nature, in conjunction with a new understanding of our "place" in the metaphysical "order." Even without that advent, the practitioner becomes aware of the nature of her feedback loops, as well as the loops in which she is but a stage, and her incresed awareness of these steps and places allow her a wider range of control over them and their outcome and direction.
As the subject stages an increased effort toward control, the awareness of surroundings will become more instinctual, more like intuition, and the reaction to and action within them will simply happen, with awareness, weight, and deliberation occuring at a much greater speed. The consequences of actions and the moral/ethical predispositions of the subject will not be "altered," per se, other than a necessary deepening and enhancement of whatever they happened to be, as a result of a greater overall awareness. The subject may find that they are, at worst, more open to investigating their morality, while not "losing" it. To reduce ethical vertigo, it is suggested that the subject take each decision a step at a time, comparing and contrasting new physical, mental, emotional, and social consequences with old.
Musculature and reflexivity will take some getting used to, in order to fully control, but this is the same as with any new skill or ability, such as a martial art, dance style, or posture and motion correction, as in physical therapy. The sudden alteration of musculature will, eventually, be a litteral second nature, and one with which the subject is equally as comfortable as their first.
Greater ease of altering the mind in terms of its capacity for learning, multitasking, and linguistics will, of course, be a side-effect. In addition, during the first 5 months, the subject should expect a near-constant stream of unending nervous signals generally interpreted by the mind as "pain," in the course of any physical exertion. Some assistance may be required in using the restroom, showering, and sexual activity should at all costs be avoided until all alterations in feedback loops are fully and functionally integrated.
Kind of slipped into a weird "Care And Handling Instructions" mode, there, at the end... Strange. But This? Looking back on it, now, I can say that, as a kid, this is exactly what I wanted to be, when I grew up.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 05:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 05:35 am (UTC)My question is, with the kind of control, awareness, and adaptability detailed, above, who Wouldn't want to be a werewolf?
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 05:50 am (UTC)it seems much more sensible to take all that good stuff w/o having to change into animals to get it, which seems like the point to me: why shapeshift if I can be modified with animal like reflexes but stay human?
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 05:56 am (UTC)The point is that the ease of shapeshifting would be greatly increased with the full application and understanding of each of these techniques; that each of these are in some way enhanced by understanding the others of these.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 06:09 am (UTC)The reason we as humans aren't as reflexively and intuitively "aware" of the world around us is because ultimately that's the evolutionary trade off for increased processing power. One part of our brain was more useful so we built it while the rest slowly atrophied to the bare minimum required.
So in a sense, what you're proposing is increasing the reflexive functions which we've lost as a result of them being less integral to survival, while at the same time retaining the current cognitive abilities.
But I think the hypothesis that learning and linguistics will be improved by this merging of traits is actually counter to what would be predicted by the science. The traits of mentally plotting spacial relationships and reflexive acuity would probably have nearly nothing to do with linguistics or learning.
Multi-tasking would likely be improved, but lots of data currently implies that an increase in multitasking ends up having a trade off for processing ability on single problems.
However, if we were to increase overall brain size and find new ways of improving the efficiency of the neural network through artificial means then of course you'll see a net improvement in all of those things, which is fucking awesome to think about. But those two parts of the brain function don't exist in huge amounts in any one species currently for a pretty simple reason, from the evolutionary standpoint, which is just energy efficiency at the end of the day.
I must however raise an eyebrow at the "first five months of pain" assertion. I'd be interested to know on what you base that.
But when it comes time to start increasing neuron density, and efficiency, sign me up. And I'll take the werewolf body too, that'd be nifty.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 06:36 am (UTC)Re Learning: I think that the speed and ease with which we integrate new information, as a whole, will increase, as we provide greater ease of integration of spacial data, and an overall Increased Tendency for awareness and problem-solving. As we see correspondences in more and more places, and are better able to map those correspondences in meaningful and useful ways, the second-order learning of language (as opposed to the learning of a speaker in her native environment) should become easier. As more children are born/programed this way, at a younger age, more languages will become more easily integrated.
The multi-tasking and single-tracking centres just need better cross-platform compatibility. When we can understand and view combinations of complex tasks as single tasks, and single tasks as their intricate components, both and at all times, then we'll be better at all of the above.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 06:44 am (UTC)I imagine some discomfort would most likely be experienced were you to graft new stuff into my head, yeah. heheheh.
Re-learning and Multitaskin: Ok that makes sense. I think the current state of cross-platform incompatibility would be mostly solved simply by increased total processing power of each respective brain region, so yeah. Agreed. Increase neural capacity/density and/or efficiency and there ya go.
Well put response, thank you.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 02:49 pm (UTC)II) Do your glasses make you a cyborg? Does a flu shot make one a cyborg? ... previous class trying to be edgy and ask provocative questions, and used the word "penetrate" in every class. Treasure Planet got it right with identifying Silver as a cyborg, though.
III) Must be your skin / that I'm sinking in /
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 11:37 pm (UTC)Also, consider the notion that the world is, in actuality, and extension of the body - not in a solipsistic sense, but in the notion that perception is tautological.
Add to this the informational content compressed in symbolism, which bypasses the conscious mind - sigils, runes etc - combined with ancient recurring motifs, and you have something fairly epic lurking nearby.
"The body is inside the soul." - Tom O' Bedlam
"Thrice did I slip backwards into strange forms of myself, and thrice did my Soul save me." - AOS
PARKOUR!!
Date: 2009-09-25 01:47 am (UTC)...hope that doesn't make light of your post
no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 02:07 am (UTC)Thank you, for that link.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 07:09 pm (UTC)And Yes, they do. I am an AWESOME cyborg.
Re: PARKOUR!!
Date: 2009-09-25 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 07:38 pm (UTC)Wait, everyone does that...