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(Hoboken, N.J. — Nov. 7, 2018) — In their latest feat of engineering, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have taken an ordinary white button mushroom from a grocery store and made it bionic, supercharging it with 3D-printed clusters of cyanobacteria that generate electricity and swirls of graphene nanoribbons that can collect the current.

The work, reported in the Nov. 7 issue of Nano Letters, may sound like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland, but the hybrids are part of a broader effort to better improve our understanding of cells biological machinery and how to use those intricate molecular gears and levers to fabricate new technologies and useful systems for defense, healthcare and the environment.

“In this case, our system – this bionic mushroom — produces electricity,” said Manu Mannoor, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stevens. “By integrating cyanobacteria that can produce electricity, with nanoscale materials capable of collecting the current, we were able to better access the unique properties of both, augment them, and create an entirely new functional bionic system.”

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Many scientists research the practical and immediate applications of bio molecular technology but it seems most fail to study our most important, and largest organ, our skin.


Who will officially be the first transhuman? Will it be you? Why wait decades? This article explains one approach to speeding up the process and also the challenge involved.

Defining the Object of the Goal:

Although the words ‘cyborg’ and ‘transhuman’ are often used interchangeably, and someone can aspire to be a combination of both, there are fundamental differences between the two — as has been articulated by Dr. Natasha Vita-More: The transhuman will be genetically programmed and otherwise equipped towards indefinite life extension and to attain a great many other physical and mental capabilities and other benefits. The transhuman also maintains specific transhumanist values and may actively foster the far-reaching humane goals of the transhumanist movement, including guaranteed social justice for all and highly-advanced space colonization to foster indefinite life, peace, etc. Whereas, a cyborg may not uphold transhuman values or goals, and may or may not seek to live longer or indefinitely, but will be fitted with a device or devices to acquire one or more enhanced capabilities (such as better vision and/or hearing, faster running ability, etc.).

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I was in a really interesting 1-hour debate yesterday with Jean-Francois Gariépy who runs a well-known YouTube channel The Public Space, sometimes associated with the Alt-Right. We discussed #transhumanism. I think the debate caught a lot of people by surprise. While I believe in and embrace total diversity, I despise the oppression of human biology and death, and advocate for any means possible to overcome it—including genetic modification and merging with machines. The debate makes me look like the aggressor. But it only proves what I’ve always said, that issues of race and traditional cultural bigotry are minor compared to the issues of humanity battling aging and death itself. All of us are currently in a war to not die:


An important debate on whether or not humanity should play with their own genes. Guest: Zoltan Istvan, transhumanist.

Zoltan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zoltan_istvan
Zoltan on the Web: http://www.zoltanistvan.com/

The Transhumanist Wager by Zoltan Istvan: http://www.zoltanistvan.com/TranshumanistWager.html

JF’s book, The Revolutionary Phenotype, is out!

I’m speaking next Friday evening, Dec 14, at 6PM then doing a panel at the NodeSF in San Francisco. Hosted by the Institute for Competitive Governance and Startup Societies Foundation, the event will discuss innovative approaches for new cities and societies. Join us in building the future! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/future-cities-distributed-socie…gFeha96wn2 #transhumanism


How are the future cities going to look like? Are they going to be sovereign states? Will people have decentralized governments? What is the future of law like?

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What would it be like to live through our own species’ evolution? The biological process of natural selection that gave rise to every species on Earth takes hundreds of generations to turn one species into another, but what if that process could be skipped entirely?


A look at the future of transhumanist technologies and what their evolution will mean for our society.

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Very excited to join IdeaXme (http://radioideaxme.com/) as Longevity Ambassador, utilizing this wonderful media platform to help expand global awareness of the people engineering a future free of aging, disease, degeneration, and suffering.

Ever since 2014, Italy-based Youbionic, which was founded by Federico Ciccarese and specializes in robotics and bionics, has been working on its 3D printed, robot-controlled, bionic prosthetic hand. The company started taking pre-orders for the bionic prosthetic two years ago, and has since been making improvements and updates to the original model, even coming out with a 3D printed double hand device for the augmented human. Now, Youbionic has released its latest bionic product – the Youbionic One.

“We believe that technology at our disposal today can be used for the increase in human capabilities and intervention in the replacement of parts of our body which are not working properly,” Ciccarese wrote in an email.

“Youbionic is committed every day to create technologies that can elevate mankind to a higher level.”

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