4 ms·

Cutesy, but I guess the problem with anything defined along aesthetic lines is that it averages towards the same standards or definitions of beauty, so ironical

Cutesy, but I guess the problem with anything defined along aesthetic lines is that it averages towards the same standards or definitions of beauty, so ironically they all look the same, i.e. their looks have underlying elements which are unvarying, and I think you can evaluate this with mathematical precision. But I guess that's just a human problem, i.e. as much as we like to say otherwise beauty magazines or "the media" did not condition us to like certain physical characteristics, though there are splits along different cultures. The point being that the transhuman beauty represented here is uninspiring as it mainly conforms to what we're used to previously in fashion, media or the zeitgeist. It's okay if it's pretty, but I question that it's novel. I think if one examines what designers have been presenting as avant-garde during the various previous fashion cycles, one would fine more inspirational transhuman beauty examples there, and ones that are more "alien" to the norm. I guess the other question is what's the point? This seems like an attention-seeking mechanism to keep up with the times/tech elites.

PaulHoule 3y ago
It connects in so many ways. I asked a coworker 20 years ago what comes after “postmodern” and she said “posthuman” which in turn connects with Schwarzenegger’s character in The Terminator and the future imagined by extinction rebellion. That is, for a long time, you have seen images like that on the cover of sci-fi books and in movies, video games, and such, There is a certain porn site that has A.I. generated images and they did a series that looked a lot like this. Their model already has trouble because it doesn’t really understand the relationship between the body and clothing but it really goes bezerk on images like that as instead of drawing somebody who is in cyber-armor surrounded by robots they wind up incorporated in some mass of machinery and instead of a person having sex with a robot the sex act is just part of a general envelopment in machinery. Which just seems so philosophical about what it is really about.
- lusus_naturae 3y ago
  I am not sure how integrating non-biological components into a human body makes one posthuman? Unless the integrated component changes how an individual's genes are propagated, they're essentially still human. So I think there are two requirements to conceive posthumanism: 1) a change in gene propagation, and 2) a change in how posthumans relate (biologically, culturally etc.) to populations of humans. Absent these two requirements its all just fashion and makeup. Edit regarding the AI generated sex scenes comment, that's just because the model isn't aligned with the needs of the viewer/requester.

PaulHoule 3y ago

It connects in so many ways. I asked a coworker 20 years ago what comes after “postmodern” and she said “posthuman” which in turn connects with Schwarzenegger’s character in The Terminator and the future imagined by extinction rebellion. That is, for a long time, you have seen images like that on the cover of sci-fi books and in movies, video games, and such, There is a certain porn site that has A.I. generated images and they did a series that looked a lot like this. Their model already has trouble because it doesn’t really understand the relationship between the body and clothing but it really goes bezerk on images like that as instead of drawing somebody who is in cyber-armor surrounded by robots they wind up incorporated in some mass of machinery and instead of a person having sex with a robot the sex act is just part of a general envelopment in machinery. Which just seems so philosophical about what it is really about.

lusus_naturae 3y ago
I am not sure how integrating non-biological components into a human body makes one posthuman? Unless the integrated component changes how an individual's genes are propagated, they're essentially still human. So I think there are two requirements to conceive posthumanism: 1) a change in gene propagation, and 2) a change in how posthumans relate (biologically, culturally etc.) to populations of humans. Absent these two requirements its all just fashion and makeup. Edit regarding the AI generated sex scenes comment, that's just because the model isn't aligned with the needs of the viewer/requester.