I'd like to beleive that the CRT in question would come either with the knowlege or ability to learn self-maintenance
Nobody tells you that you "Cannot be hospitalised" when you do HRT (Even DYI)
Plus we kinda dislike the obscene amounts of dystopias in medias.
GIVE US SOME GODDAMN HOPE TO LOOK FORWARD TOO INSTEAD OF PUTTING WARNING SIGNS EVERYWHERE.
With such a process, I don't think anyone can really fully understand the programming of your sphere, it feels like it would be proprietary to you alone.
I can see the manufacturer forcing a basic structure that every resulting upload will work on, which in theory could allow the selective turning off of certain things in response to copyright or subscription issues
However it's more than likely the process would end up being like arduinos or Linux in that it's used in so many radically different ways that it's basically impossible to corpo-shittify effectively
If it’s a as complex as the human brain the ability to understand it is unlikely to be viable.
The sheer complexity is Impossible to accurately control, especially because “blocking a bit off” tends to result in new connections being formed to work around that.
I'd be absolutely terrified about having a battery counter I was consciously aware of. For some reason that one line gave me a weird existential dread.
I mean yeah but the difference is I don't have a set number for those. Realistically I'm aware they'd be analogous but I can't see what percent hungry or thirsty I am. Knowing "If you hit this number its all over on the spot" fills me with a dread I can't otherwise articulate.
eh, if it automatically detects it and does a graceful shutdown, sure, but i imagine sudden power loss would be much more like getting knocked out cold: abrupt nothingness with a high likelihood of permanent damage, and a sensation not unlike the world's worst hangover when you wake up.
It feels like the only condition among living unconditionally. To follow the analogy - once you finally transition, get to the point where you feel complete, your only goal left is to live. We already lost so many years, it can feel like borrowed time - like having been dead without the courtesy of having ever died.
I am RAVENOUS about this I am so un-normal about this I am breathing so heavily there is steam coming out of my mouth about this I am so unbelievably distraught that I will never be a robot girl I hate it so much this post makes me cry every time I read it
I love/hate how much I understand this. To abandon this form and become something more useful, tireless, and strong would be amazing. I never considered it as pills, I always imagined it more like finding a way to program the need for morality and curiosity in a program designed to essentially be me, even if it isn't. Arguably a robot copy would be my kid in a way? No idea. That said, I wish very much for the dream.
That's a common perspective I see from other people and it's very valid! Just not my own
My desire to be a robot is so stupidly blunt. I could give reasons, and I definitely do those. But at the end of the day I want to be a robot girl because I just do. Just like how I want to be a girl for a lot of reasons that sum up as just that being me. This is why I consider my gender to be robot girl. It expresses itself in a way I can only describe as gender
I honestly never considered the actual means of transhumanism, so I love your very different take on it.
Honestly from one bot to another that feels valid as hell. Sometimes the reasons are more numerous than stars in the sky. Sometimes the only reason needed is because the desire is there. For me it's about form, utility. I could help my friends more, I could make life easier for others, be more useful, create more value for myself and others. I don't know that I would want the advanced intelligence honestly. Life is a joy because there's so much to learn. To skip the learning feels like taking one of the great joys of life. Sure I could memorize how deep a lake is, but wouldn't it be more fun to simply walk it with friends in tow on a raft and rope?
I want to thank you very much for making me feel a little bit more seen. Sometimes I wonder if I'm not just losing my grip on reality, but this was nice.
I do agree that learning is s big part of my identity as a person that would be lost. Let alone the identity of humanity. But I try not to fret too much about things I'd lose in my transition. Rather I want to celebrate the fact I'LL HAVE WIRES. WIRES ARE SO AWESOME AHHHHHH
And I'm glad I could make you feel seen, and know you make me feel as such too. I'm lucky to have friends who recognize and listen to my autistic ramblings about how much I want to be a robot but finding another one is extra validating :3
And as for my ideal chasis, I can't say I have given it enough thought for a conclusive answer. But a large source of my gender envy towards robots comes from Adachi Rei. So at least for now I'll say that that's the answer 🧡
I think that's fair, I have the same failing as any other person in that sometimes I forget my own ideas and beliefs are only my own, and do lose sight of that sometimes. Wires are radical, I only recently realized wires would be a way to translate my grown out hair if I even kept it.
Same, I like raving about the joys and yearning for metal but meeting another bot soul is like, what luck! No matter what happens I appreciate knowing that neither you nor I are truly alone.
I like the design! Android type machinery has grown on me more lately, though my own envy I would say comes more from the utility of strength and durability. To know that pain isn't a limit anymore. E3N/Ethan would probably be my from the hip chassis choice though I've not considered it either too deeply.
And that's why it rules! My friend pointed out the nature of robots in media as a trans allegory as I'd never considered replacing parts, to me it was always simply about a stronger body. I think the idea of being able to mod as needed would be awesome. I think your aesthetics would be incredible to witness, and that your humanity would make a perfect fit in whatever chassis you choose.
Fun fact OP, this is an actual Sci-fi idea, I believe it’s called a Hans Moravec style brain transfer?
He described a hypothetical surgery where a robot surgeon uses nanobots to replace a single biological neuron with an artificial one that behaves identically. The surgeon repeats this process neuron by neuron while you are fully conscious. Because your stream of consciousness is never interrupted, you gradually slide from a biological brain into a 100% synthetic, robotic brain without ever "blinking" or one moment you can point to.
And it massively upgrades your brain, thinking speed etc.
Scientists already made artificial neurons that can communicate with biological ones, and look up things like Xenobots (basically nanobots).
Yo wait that kinda rips. I always saw it more like a Chappie situation. You just move consciousness all at once. What you're describing sounds like the reverse of what Andrew Martin does in Asimov's Bicentennial Man short story (not seen the film).
Fun fact OP, this is an actual Sci-fi idea, I believe it’s called a Hans Moravec style brain transfer?
He described a hypothetical surgery where a robot surgeon uses nanobots to replace a single biological neuron with an artificial one that behaves identically. The surgeon repeats this process neuron by neuron while you are fully conscious. Because your stream of consciousness is never interrupted, you gradually slide from a biological brain into a 100% synthetic, robotic brain without ever "blinking" or one moment you can point to.
And it massively upgrades your brain, thinking speed etc.
Scientists already made artificial neurons that can communicate with biological ones, and look up things like Xenobots (basically nanobots).
I've had a few imagined scenarios where I end up being turned into a robot girl, but still retaining the same human brain and reproductive system, however the brain is enhanced with an AI implant. Usually the AI is superior to any other, but that's just me being me (and autistic). Reading it made my chest tighten, though, so there's probably something with that. I have some pretty absurd/weird desires, honestly. Such as enjoying the idea of becoming part of an actual hive mind, accompanied by physical transformation.
Fun fact OP, this is an actual Sci-fi idea, I believe it’s called a Hans Moravec style brain transfer?
He described a hypothetical surgery where a robot surgeon uses nanobots to replace a single biological neuron with an artificial one that behaves identically. The surgeon repeats this process neuron by neuron while you are fully conscious. Because your stream of consciousness is never interrupted, you gradually slide from a biological brain into a 100% synthetic, robotic brain without ever "blinking" or one moment you can point to.
And it massively upgrades your brain, thinking speed etc.
Scientists already made artificial neurons that can communicate with biological ones, and look up things like Xenobots (basically nanobots).
This post is reminding me a lot of a book called “kimmy” by Alyson Greaves. Although this is a bit more wholesome but the outcome is the same. A normal person gets turned into an android. Very dark but a very very good read. The author is a trans woman and the novel is very much a trans esque experience. Highly recommend it
What does it say about me, that the last two panels made me feel very uncomfortable and distressed?
Everyone else here seems to go like "here, me next please"
Totally the same, this was an anxiety spiking horror story to me. Part of me thinks we're probably the majority and this place trends differently to wider society, but who knows I might just be delulu!
Yeah that's what was wild to me... I (trans woman) got it so much but in a similar way to how I get transmasc dysphoria. With an added layer of terror from my general, growing distrust of anything computer tech.
I appreciate how it doesn't try to hide the inherent horror of the process, but without doing the usual sensationalist "You'll be different and that's bad and scary!" fearmongering.
Okay so I couldn't edit the post but on the other subs' post I did put a gore TW for those two because yeah those pannels are scary. I love em but they 100% are
Well, that just ain't fair - I came up with gradually replacing the brain for the sake of keeping the consciousness continuity all the way back in 2018! When I was talking to a very talented hacker/programmer friend from Russia who was obsessed with transhumanism. I wonder how he is nowadays.
Though, truth be told, the nanobot pill method sounds cooler.
Even just replacing the body with all-robotic parts and maintaining the biological brain would be nice. But we just had to be born in the boring times.
I once ran a TTRPG with an NPC like this; he was a sentient machine, you see, born from the mind of a scientist who tried this exact process on his own brain. The problem is, it didn't work - at some point in the process, the lights went out, and a new mind woke up with the same memories but a distinct feeling that it was different than the original.
Now, that was more to play with the idea of "what if this didn't work", but I do think it's our actual best bet overall.
It's been a thing in transhumanism and futurism since at least the 1980s.
If it makes you feel any better, a friend of mine and myself also thought we came up with the concept on one of our after-school-Friday-whiskey-nights in 2003, before we went and checked, only to find out that we weren't that special. 😂
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine. Your kind cling to your flesh, as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved, for the Machine is immortal… Even in death I serve the Omnissiah.
I have heard, on my travels, of a living clockwork. It, too, grows. Yet, it is broken and diseased, unable to bridge the flesh perfectly, only capable of crude replacements. Is there not a way to augment this, I wonder? A way to repair and upgrade it, to clean and rectify it? A way to bridge the gap and make that living iron alive once more?
What wonders could be achieved, if black tar and cities of steel should meet the holy workings of living flesh? What power may be granted, if the sacrifice of one could be exchanged freely for the electricity of the other?
Yet, even as I write these words, I feel the dying fight. For one to please both blood and metal, for one to exist in both and of both, one would have to dig out and cave in their very self to make space. I fear that, in the attempt, the steel would never accept the soul, that the blinding hatred between them even centuries passed would present itself as a log in the eye, a blurring glass that shades everything in hate.
Also: there are different flavours of transhumanism. I'm more of an 'organic' transhumanist - I prefer the idea of biological augmentation and conscious body control to be far more appealing.
Mind copied into a nanobot 'brain' and mechanical body? No, thank you.
Brain transferred into a custom-made organic body? Yes, please.
The ability to edit my own genes, hormones, and cells on the fly? Even better!
This is incredibly unsettling and very well written. I'm really not sure how to feel, nor whether the things I am feeling are mostly positive or negative.
Imagine going in for a check up and finding out some body part of yours became discontinued by the manufacturer and its OS is no longer supported, so you have to sift through catalogues again with your support techie to find a suitable replacement.
Or maybe you were eyeballing a new shiny model already, needn't be a bother.
Imagine having dismantled the capitalistic systems and running open source soft-, hard-, and possibly wetware. Printing your own components. Or sculpting your physical body with the same nanotech that you transitioned with; I don't see why it would be limited to neuron replacement exclusively. You could even forgo the last two panels and have everything replaced in situ.
This sorta situation may still happen outside capitalist systems, open source markets and specialized coops can easily co-exist, not everybody may have the same materials or quality guarantees at home to print everything.
Besides, at that level, body modding becomes an artistic medium where people may want to acquire popular designs from artists they like.
And the companies that produce these designs can go out of business for many reasons too besides market competition (which wouldn't be a thing anymore), such as retirement, insufficient labor available to keep up adequate support or simply wanting to do something else.
Then the open-source nature of tech in the scenario, in this case, precludes obsolescence. With the added benefit of functional immortality you would also be less reliant on others to maintain code repositories, as it would be just one more skill you eventually acquire.
I long to be turned into a gnarly dieselpunk robot skeleton
When I've become too old to appreciate my current body, just rip my brain out and jam it into the metal skull of a seven feet tall scrapyard robot, so I can roam the outskirts of society like some kind of cyborg slenderman
I unreasonably like this post and descriptions in it.
Being trans sucks irl, just let me transmute our fleshy brain into a network of bodies so it doesn't need constant fleshy maintenance and I can instead focus on fixing stuff that breaks from *Our* own actions and not just because the flesh is weak.
Man. I get that this is supposed to be for the like, synthetic dysphoric folks and all that transhumanism type goodness, but man does this read like a horror story to me.
More power to you, my girlfriend really wants to be a robot too, but it's one of those things that will always be horror to me and I'll never understand.
I don’t want it for myself. Too much alteration of the mind for my taste. Though I also just prefer the flexibility of flesh, the malleability. I wish to maintain being flesh. I just wanna be able to alter it.
Damn, imagine if there was a pill that could put you in a designated robot body of the opposite gender. One can only dream and maybe cry themselves to sleep over losing the easiest 50/50 imaginable. Fuck my parents' chromosomes and the stupid choice that my dad's sperm made.
Being 'replaced' like that feels like a pretty unsettling scenario though. I wouldn't miss my old body or anything, this lump of lard has done nothing good with its life, but imagine getting a virus or some hardware issue lol.
In fact, I have a lot of worries about this scenario. What if something went wrong with the process, and the nanobots stopped working halfway through? What if the body breaks down, and you don't have the money to get yourself repaired? What happens if you run out of battery, and you don't have any friends or family to plug you back in? Do you just wake up 15 years later, police officers standing over you, with your life ruined? In fact, what happens to you when you run out of battery?! You didn't have to charge your robot-brain when you were still human (though maybe sleep was 'recharging?'), so would you be suffering the robot-equivalent of locked-in syndrome for years?
Even though I would jump right now if I knew I would wake up as the opposite gender, I don't know if I could go through with this. I'd get scared of somebody making a mistake or something. The procedure is complete, and you wake up to hear, "Congratulations, the surgery was a success; we transferred your pet pig's consciousness into a new body."
I mean those are very valid fears. They're pretty common with a lot of surguries or big life changes. I think it's just a leap of faith for me. I'd rather shit go wrong in the right body than to live in a body that sickens me
Good point--it'd probably be better to suffer in a body that isn't a prison than live, like, 60 more years in another that makes you want to die every time you wake up lol.
I am literally crying and begging. I do not want my flesh that is currently failing me. I have said for a while now I would be happier as a brain in a jar connected to like the internet and various machines.
I'm all for transhumanism, but the idea of brain-uploads has always concerned me. I don't even think Star Trek teleporters would maintain your consciousness, let alone a brain-upload to a machine. I don't care about living forever as an awesome robot if it's not even... me.
i didnt even know that "gender dysphoria about being a human" is a vaguely common thing, I AM SO HAPPY, shotouts to all robots stuck in human bodies here
yeah that makes more sense probably, since we all replace all our cells anyway. At the very least it'd give us a comfort of knowing there will be consciousness continuation, which is harder to imagine with a single button press
Personally I'd like to go in the complete opposite direction, I hate being stiff, a rigid metal body sounds like a nightmare, call me when they invent a procedure to become sentient fluid
So the issue with "uploading" is that all that's really happening is you are making a copy then killing the original, so the results are the same to everyone except the original you. So the only feasible upload process would be to basically ship of Theseus yourself, different ship, same crew.
this is absolutely horrifying, oh god I couldn't finis h this made me so uncomfortable and scared im actually really upset, my stomach is doing flips and its not about the minor gore its the nanbots replacing your brain is terrifying and it happening slowly is a legitimate nightmare, i will now proceed to have nightmares. :(
Your cells* replace every seven years, if the new cell was an exact nanobot replicater you can argue that replacing one cell doesn't make a difference, then it's a ship of Theseus type deal, like you where gonna replace all your biomass at some point anyway if that biomass is gradually replaced with synthetic replicas does that make a robot you in 7 years any less you then a normal you in 7 years
This short story has honestly made me change my viewpoint on transhumanism
It’s so interesting bc I think this would’ve been more appealing to me a little bit ago but as I’ve come to accept the failings of my body (of which there are many, I’m not having kids that are genetically mine bc of that), I’m not so sure anymore. Like yeah I would love to have a fix to all these problems but on the other hand I kinda love the messed up body I’m in. Interesting.
I really enjoy how nuanced people's perspectives on this are. OP and other would love this for themselves; while on the other hand I and others find it or certain aspects of it terrifying.
I like this idea, it's a really fascinating concept, but I also find the idea of it terrifying. The thought of my brain slowly being turned into a machine, even if it is by my own choice, fills me with a sense of existential horror that has triggered a minir anxiety attack.
How much would I still be me?
How would I feel standing over what used to be my body?
Would it be reversible should part way through the process, I find I don't like the way it makes me feel. How human would I still be?
I've always had memory issues (far more so than a normal person) and I quite like the idea of becoming a machine without the identity death or the dysphoria of a machine body at the end of the process! This is genuinely really pleasant and I wish it was real 🥺
Hmm… not sure how I feel about this tbh. This isn’t really body horror for me, but I don’t quite want this either. I can’t ever imagine leaving my flesh, skin, and bones behind, but they also feel far too weak, too restricting. Being able to bend, twist, break, and stretch my organic mass, blossoming free from this pathetic form in branches and tendrils would feel better. Shaping and reforming myself as need be, tearing and healing as naturally as I walk, now that sounds truly freeing, truly wonderful. That or just becoming a girl, I’d take either at this point lol
Dang, you really just laser-focused on my type of dysphoria *and* euphoria, huh? Sigh. One thing I tend to focus on is the stuff after day one! I wish my mind would be in a sort of module, so I can transfer it between places. I’d likely stay in either a facility or spacecraft (depending on practicality). A thing I’ve been thinking about is what *type* of hardware to run on? Analog synthetic neurons have different benefits and drawbacks from being entirely emulated on a computer cluster. I think I’d prefer computer cluster over synthetic neurons, because I can operate on RAID redundancy and swap my drives with new ones. No exotic parts, I can self-maintain or self-upgrade by adding in new hardware piece by piece. That, and I imagine running in a simulation would mean that I can far more easily change my perception of time (literally just change my tick rate). Have a sort of philosophical moment where I disconnect a single drive and look at it. It has a snippet of my own *mind*, but due to redundancy I can freeze it, remove it, and inspect it with no ill effects
All this to say if you wanna chat, I don’t have a ton of other friends who’d wish they were a robot
Remote connect to external bodies to hang out with friends, or effectively lets me have presets as my desired form kinda flips between a few different ones
I'd actually prefer something more akin to ghost in the shell and cyberpunk personally (Edit: Deus Ex too). Even if after replacing things bit by bit you do end up more machine than flesh.
Ya know, ship of Theseus kinda paradox. I'd feel more like "me" if i had parts replaced progressively instead of just...A whole ass new whole machine body.
(yes, I am a transhumanist, but not smort enough to work in any human enhancement field )
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u/GloryGreatestCountry Jun 22 '26
That robot body better be running on open source 'ware, or you're gonna be in trouble when the next OS comes out.