Queer Cyborg Collective

Donna Haraway's Cyborg Feminism meets Anarcho-Transhumanism and Queer Theory. Radical body autonomy, radical disability theory, feminism/post-genderism/transfeminism, queer theory (of course), addressing luddism/technophobia/anti-science/psuedoscience in radical communities, decolonizing technology and transhumanism and how to make hacker culture and our fledgeling community at large more open to people from a diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, as well as women and GSMs (Gender and/or Sexual Minorities). Also biohacking, alternative economies and infrastructure beyond industrial capitalism, personhood for animals and conscious machines, and lots, lots more fun stuff.

[theremina]

i-limb ultra by Touch Bionics

“With the i-limb ultra, your prosthesis looks and moves more like a natural hand than any other powered prosthetic hand. Each finger bends at the natural joints so that it can accurately adapt to fit around the shape of the object you want to grasp.

Powered by Touch Bionics’ unique biosim software, the i-limb ultra is the most versatile prosthetic hand available, providing you with the ability to customize the hand for your daily needs.

Choose from a wide selection of automated grips and gestures to help you complete your daily tasks, such as index point for typing, precision pinch mode for gripping small objects or natural hand position for walking or while at rest.

Utilizing its pulsing and vari-grip features, the i-limb ultra is the only prosthetic hand with the ability to gradually increase the strength of its grip on an object. This can be very useful in situations where a firmer grasp is required, such as tying shoelaces tightly or holding a heavy bag more securely.”

Articles:

 How to Build a Bionic Man

 16-Year-Old Boy’s App-Controlled Bionic Hand

[grinderbot]

The prevalence-verging-on-ubiquity of cheap, versatile, DURABLE therapeutic and augmentative limb replacement technology is only growing, year by year. And that’s Wonderful.

[acrossthru-deactivated20160512]

New #allthatsleft buttons for cyborgs finally… one inch jawns, two new slogans i’m testing out…

gonna be up on http://allthatsleft.bigcartel.com/ later today

[queer-cyborg-collective]

​The Worst Lies You've Been Told About the Singularity

You've probably heard of a concept known as the Technological Singularity — a nebulous event that's supposed to happen in the not-too-distant future. Much of the uncertainty surrounding this possibility, however, has led to wild speculation, confusion, and outright denial. Here are the worst myths you've been told about the Singularity.

How do YOU feel about the singularity?? Does it scare you? Are you enthralled, delighted, perhaps even mildly aroused by the thought of a self-improving machine intellect infinitely more powerful than anything we could even conceptualize today, driven by motivations and desires completely incomprehensible to our weak, feeble meat-minds?? Here are some popular misconceptions about the "rapture-of-the-nerds". 

[queer-cyborg-collective]

[queer-cyborg-collective]

Finally, An App To Fix Your Terrible Personality

While technology has given us more ways to talk to each other, it hasnt made us any better at it: We still rant, ramble, whine and generally irritate each other. So what would happen if we let software try to fix our sub-par conversation skills?

Beware of personality engineering software.

[queer-cyborg-collective]

Scientists hack a computer using just the sound of the CPU. Researchers extract 4096-bit RSA decryption keys from laptop computers in under an hour using a mobile phone placed next to the computer.

[queer-cyborg-collective]

[queer-cyborg-collective]

​Experts Gather at Yale to Discuss Whether Animals Are People

This past weekend, the IEET hosted the world's first conference dedicated to the topic of nonhuman animal personhood. Energized by the NhRP's recent initiative to have captive chimpanzees legally recognized as persons and not property, the event brought together legal experts, scientists, philosophers, and futurists from around the world. Here's a recap.

Just 200 years ago, only adult white men were considered "people" in western society. Before that, only free adult white men were. What if in the coming decades, we were to extend our definitions of personhood even further to include members of some other species??

[queer-cyborg-collective]

The Truth About Women's Complicated Relationship With Technology

A poll released today by the Huffington Post and Real Simple finds that technology plays an essential -- though complicated -- role in women's lives.

[queer-cyborg-collective]

Would it be evil to build a functional brain inside a computer?

There’s been a lot of talk recently about using supercomputers to simulate the human brain. But as scientists get progressively closer to achieving this goal, they’re going to have to consider the ethics involved. By making minds that live inside machines, we run the risk of inflicting serious harm.

[queer-cyborg-collective]

WATCH: 'Disabled' Mannequins Will Change The Way You See Beauty

It's no secret that the smooth, plastic bodies staring out of store windows aren't true physical replicas of the people who stare back at them. But there's no reason they can't be.

Mannequins are one of many ways in which our society creates and then normalizes unrealistic ideal bodies. This, in addition to be an incredibly beautiful and inspirational art piece, is a fairly impressive work of culture hacking. -Aisling

[queer-cyborg-collective]

India's Feminist Vigilantes

The Pink Gang takes a DIY approach to fighting rapists and abusers.

TW: DISCUSSION OF RAPE AND ABUSE

[queer-cyborg-collective]

16 Beautiful Portraits Of Humans Who Happen to Be Trans

Gender is more than what meets the eye.

[queer-cyborg-collective]

In this article it is my hope to highlight some of the most important aspects of gender and sexual identity within the confines of hardcore science: psychology, biology, and sociology. It is my personal opinion that we have not figured out the science behind gender, rather it be sociological or biological in nature. This article is simply an overview of how modern day scientists and sociologists look at gender and sexual identity. For all I know, we are all born genderqueer and pansexual, but biological science is showing us the rainbow of diversity which comes along with being a sexually complicated evolved species.

[queer-cyborg-collective]

Introduction: Science Fiction and the Feminist Present - Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology

Lothian discusses the intersections of science fiction and feminism and provides an overview of the third issue of Ada.

[queer-cyborg-collective]

Four ways trans people are changing the gender/tech debate

If tech diversity enthusiasts want to continue to expand the gender divide, then we have to begin to look towards the trans community as necessary investments in the broadest sense of the term.

[queer-cyborg-collective]

At the end of last month, I'd argued that our fixations on gender binaries resulted in a continuing line of cultural patriarchy, i.e. the commonly-held notion that "hitting women, under all conditions, is never okay," which can be read here. Though, as I look back over the last 24 hours during the heated conflicts of Texas legislators trying to limit, and essentially ban, abortion rights to women, I find myself falling back into gender binary politics. This will not do.