Training Transhumanism : I want to become a cephalopod

Abstract

Training Transhumanism is a psycho-physical training regimen for evolving the future of the human, developed in collaboration with the choreographer luciana achugar. The regimen seeks to develop within the human new sensitivities and capacities for a world marked by everincreasing ecological and technological change, based on the model of the cephalopod. We focus on three main traits: (1) Embodied and tactile awareness and cognition; (2) The resiliency of camouflage, defined as a hyper-awareness of one's local environment and the flexibility to respond swiftly by morphing one's perceived identity; and (3) a distributed intelligence (positing that the future of the human may include more than one "body" - how to then develop our abilities to push past negotiation, collaboration and into the forming of a single intention and/or organism with one or more people). Training Transhumanism is rooted in a body of research aimed towards developing an ecological, embodied and ethical approach towards the "the future". Using the cephalopod rather than the machine as the model for the future of the human, the work embraces the capacities residing in the biological human body and the pleasures rooted in bodily labors; explores the possibilities for mythological, embodied and indigenous knowledge for the project of innovation; posits the "model species" as a role model for a kind of humanity rather than only an instrument for science; and embraces training as a technology is rooted in practice, development of internal abilities, and equity in access.