Prologue — Emerging From the Rabbit Hole

Biotechnology is the new digital.

 ~ Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman Emeritus of MIT’s Media Lab

This post is a prologue to a new series I am launching here at POM . . .

Have you ever met a person who had plastic surgery? If so, did he/she have only one plastic surgery? From my experience, many individuals who undergo plastic surgery for one body part, progress to enhance other body parts. Body augmentation seems addictive, and could potentially go on ad infinitum — that is, if the person has unlimited finances, and if doctors don’t issue restrictions. Epitomizing this obsessive undertaking is the account of the individual known as the “Human Ken Doll” (recently transitioned to a woman), who has willingly submitted to more than 100 cosmetic procedures. This phenomenon also reminds me of a Brady Bunch episode in which Carol Brady is inspired to paint one room of the house, and Mike Brady is highly reluctant, as he is concerned that once she paints one room of the house, she will feel the urge to paint another, and another . . . You get the point. Of course, in the fictional land of Brady Bunch, Mike Brady was both a professional architect, and a husband, and he aptly perceived where Carol could potentially get carried away with her house augmentation endeavor. 

A “renovation” theme is apropos given where my series is heading, as well as suited to the goals of the “Reset,” in which the central planners have delineated the retrofitting of humanity. In this particular instance, I am discussing augmentation of humans on the nano scale, in which the alterations may not be readily and immediately apparent. I plan to shed more light on this aspect, which may encompass a string of subtopics such as vaccines, gene therapies, gene editing (i.e., CRISPR), digital gene sequencing, digital twinning, biohacking, bioprinting, human-computer interaction (HCI), microelectronics, bio-MEMS, nanotechnology, Internet of Bodies (IoB), Internet of nano-things, transgenic mice, chimeric organisms, bio-surveillance (i.e., embedded watermarks), and programmable matter. 

The technocratic engineers seem intoxicated with an insatiable desire to augment society, including our genomics. As of now, there are very little regulations in place by which to tame them. COVID may be the the most significant catalyst to their global venture, which may result in the evolution or devolution of humans — depending on the angle from which it is being viewed. 

Continue reading “Of Monkeys, Mice and Men: From Natural Bodies to Digitized Bots” →