Oswald Wienerappendix Athe bio-adapter(for w. pichler)(brochure 1965/66)(unrevised)
a. philosophical rudiments together with anticipations of the system description.in my opinion, in its basic outlines the bio-adapter constitutes the first sketch of a complete solution of all world-problems which is worth talking about. it is the chance of our century: liberation from philosophy through technology(1). its aim is, namely, to replace the world, i.e. to take over direction of the previously wholly unsatisfactory function of the "a priori environment" as the transmitter and receiver of vital news (nourishment and entertainment, exchange of material and intellect) and to perform its individualised task in a better way than the so-called natural environment, which is common to "everyone" but has today become outmoded, was ever able to do. in its effect, the bio-adapter can be compared to a selectively bred uterus ("joy suit") which, as a result of continual adaptation, is able to meet the most varied requirements of highly organised living creatures. it can be interpreted both as the hypertrophy of the modules of organs, a process which at first extends into the area of "physically external," and as the nervous structural complex of its owner, and from this point of view it is a converter of the pleasure impulses which human beings project onto their environment (servo-narcissus). in the opinion of the designer of the bio-adapter, it is only the unity of the human being and the adapter that can meet the requirements of an anthropological criticism which is aware of its responsibility-and in addition for the first time also attain the healthy and heroic ideal of a homo sapiens which rules the cosmos, namely by draining the cosmos on the one hand and liquidating homo sapiens on the other. outside his adapter, the human being is a vulnerable, nervously activated and with respect to language, logic, thinking power, sensory organs and tools miserably equipped lump of slime, trembling with a fear of life and petrified by a fear of death. after the addition of his bio-complement he becomes a sovereign unity which no longer needs the cosmos, nor mastery of it, because this unity ranks strikingly higher than him in the hierarchy of imaginable values. the human being needs the adapter because in the course of his history (which in the adapter becomes lost), he gets caught, as a result of the development of his consciousness, in an opposition to his always verbally apperceived environment (i.e. it is only "perceived" at all in the course of progressive verbalisation), which he then practically challenges, predicts, materialises and produces. he isolates himself... and his consciousness, to which he surrenders in ever-increasing despair, foists upon him individuality by the formation and encouragement of sickly notions; foists upon him a polarity with a picture-puzzle environment, the components of which he attempts to acknowledge by over-exerting his senses; foists upon him a polarity with an invented, but at the same time hard-to-endure object-world which, blind with rage, bombards him with messages, and which is neurotically and anankastically organised into categories and methodically influenced hierarchies. the human being becomes vulnerable through his awareness of his symbolic singularity, this lyrical hope of his, and the fictive opposition that he therefore has towards the totality, which is immediately experienced as threatening. this is where the bio-adapter begins, reducing the totality to the status of an entertaining...fable. viewed from "outside," the adapter places itself between the unsatisfying cosmos and the unsatisfied human being. it hermetically seals oft the latter from the traditional environment and in the first stage of adaptation only falls back on its own information, which it has stored for this purpose, or on that which the human being contains. as a result, the human being at first enjoys a newly prepared, therapeutically enriched perception of selected aspects of the remembered cosmos. in the first stage of adaptation, the adapter formally represents what is "external," it simulates reciprocal relationships by conceiving itself to be its own partner. the isolated human being, who feels himself singled out from his environment in a most attractive way, knows that he is in the middle of a conversation, in a game-like dialogue with a benevolent authority. however, the actual activity of the bio-adapter in this phase consists in the simulation of a communication shield, a membrane between the various structures of its awareness of its own content. constantly subjected to comprehensive learning processes, it simulates intercourse with the "outside" by analysing, in the course of its exploration of the incorporated human being, all the messages (including the products of metabolism) which the latter sends to the now hypothetical space, offering selected portions of it back again, thoroughly arranged, whereby the emphasis always lies on the criterion of happiness. to put it in a nutshell, the bio-adapter functions as an information mirror which simulates the macro instructions of a no-longer-existent external source of information: the impulses of the bio-unit are analysed, regrouped according to the terms of the initially conjectured emphasis on pleasure, transcodified and reflected. the human being to be adapted is continuously probed for his needs, until they can themselves be produced by the adapter itself for the purpose of increased pleasure gains. the adapter's learning structure carefully leads the whole unit out of the initial stage, which takes effect immediately after starting, and into the successive phases, during which ever more comprehensive sensual and intellectual abilities can be enjoyed, culminating finally in an expansion of consciousness. this is achieved by variably linking, according to grade, the adapter's structures, which are at first still experienced as the object world, with the nervous system of its content-a linkage that will become all the more effective as the required transcodification of the information exchange diminishes. furthermore, it is necessary to equip the unit with the most generously arranged feedback circuits possible, in order to enable it to accommodate programme modifications of all requisite sizes. The basic instructions (monitors) should of course also include a large part of contemporary knowledge and the adapter must definitely be able to carry out all kinds of operations, initially on the still human body (amputations; organ transplants; brain surgery), to regenerate its own functions should they be disturbed, to design and install replacement modules and to manage its own new developments. it therefore modifies not only its own programmes, which should be interpreted as a series of arrangements of "material states," but also, as part of the self-adaptation, its material modules, which as programme carriers make sequential direction possible in the first place. as such, these are no longer passive means for the process, but are determining states; the difference between hardware and software is simply a didactic one and thus without any factual justification: the implantation of a joint between shoulder and elbow will mark the beginning of a new era of backscrubbing. b. rudimentary system description, further assumptions concerning the development of the system. fragments. individual functional units.the bio-adapter is manufactured in large-scale serial production; apart from the medicinal and mechanical effector modules, only micro-miniaturised monolithically integrated circuits are used. every adapter relies on having a sufficient store of transformable motor power in the form of human nourishment, its own driving energy, pharmaceutical materials and replacement material (raw material). chemical units for the regeneration of metabolic production are provided. after testing and charging the monitors, the adapter is ready to operate. activation of the start procedure should be left to people who themselves put their trust in the bio-adapter. attending to the adapter does indeed present an ethical and legal problem, although this should not prove insoluble, it can proceed on a voluntary basis, but it might also be the case that the means of state control will have to be used for the benefit of the citizens. one should be allowed to imagine that millions of adapters closely packed together could be housed in underground or overground honeycomb silos (naturally the start of a large-scale international operation would signify the end of humanity, although certainly not the end of human consciousness as a high-quality product of evolution-quite the opposite, in fact). once entered, the adapter can no longer be left-not least because the human being, once already undergoing adaptation, is no longer able to survive outside the adapter: the content of the adapter is lost for society, because it has left reality. since, for obvious reasons, no information is allowed to penetrate trom the adapter to society (what is more, at an advanced stage of unity it would be completely unintelligible) the development of the unit on the basis of fundamental dispositions can only be presumed for the initial stages. the basic instruction of the bio-adapter is directed towards the conservation of consciousness; however, it might happen that, as a result of mental circumstances (or, alternatively-in rare cases-as a result of unfavourable and therefore irreversible evolution) the "experiment" has to be terminated; in this case the adapter arranges the happy death of its patient and after self-activated shutdown of its functions it becomes the lifeless coffin of its dead content (euthanasia). in its holding position, the bio-adapter knows trom its sensors when a human being is inside preparing for a journey. immediately after activating the start lever (which thereby becomes non-functional-it is just as quickly dismantled and added to the material reserves) the adapter begins to work. it closes by itself and makes air available for breathing. the air-conditioning unit provides ideal "external" conditions. steered by a number of sensors which are located along the contours of the human body, the adapter fits closely to the latter on all sides, without however coming into contact with it, except in those places which are necessarily affected by gravity. by means of these sensors the adapter perceives each movement of the human body, anticipating it at a particular spot by buckling ahead. in this way it is always adapted to the constantly changing structure, without producing any sensations of enclosure which might impinge on its content; if a transportation movement is intended (attempts to walk, crawl or run) then the adapter gives way in the usual manner at the particular spot. from that part of the bio-adapter which surrounds the face (the space immediately around the eyes) light combinations shaped into forms are generated; in conjunction with the recorders of attempted movement, the location sensors control pictorial sections and pictorial locations, parallax shifts of the background (servo-zoom, perspective automatism), sound volume and sound direction, including any doppler effects which may become necessary. naturally, the complexes of tactile and spatial sense present certain problems. however, these can be overcome with the help of a variety of haptic transmitters and combinations of the same, all the more easily since the range of variation of tactile sensations is relatively limited in the case of human beings and the most sensitive areas are relatively clearly outlined, not overly extended and functionally specialised in their co-operation with the other sense organs. the adapter will only simulate those surface segments of "touched objects" which really should come into contact with the skin etc, of the bio-module and which the latter aims for-and not, for instance, the complete form which is served by the video unit. the tactile impression which is expected from the bio-module can without any further problems be sequenced by the bio-adapter and prepared by recording the movements directed towards the pictures shown. for instance, if the hand of the bio-module strokes over an object after reaching it, the adapter will always simulate solely the few square centimetres of the surface which are actually being stroked, by preparing ahead with a minimal time-margin new surfaces in the same direction of movement, only to immediately remove them behind the contact. --- after beginning its activity, the bio-adapter presents itself as a pleasant conversation partner, both optically and acoustically, in accordance with recognised public relations techniques, namely by representing (successively or simultaneously) various persons. at the first arbitrary or non-arbitrary reaction of the inserted human being, the contact between him and the adapter may be regarded as established. at first, communication naturally takes place in human language, i.e. the human being expresses various wishes and complaints, which the adapter uses in a most conscientious way as the guiding principle for its further behaviour. every expression is therefore of importance, since it can be used as an indicator for testing the perception, world view and standards of the bio-module. the testing process has to be carried out as quickly and unceremoniously as possible, because the whole of the first phase of adaptation is very uneconomical with regard to the unit's balance of energy and for that reason has to be completed in the shortest possible time. the bio-adapter will therefore carry out all its medical, energy and psychological tests simultaneously, as far as this is feasible, while also involving the human being in a conversation which is calculated to be on the appropriate intellectual level, in order to obtain further information about the patient's knowledge and personality. it is in the interest of a speedy completion of these introductory procedures that the bio-adapter presents itself as a slightly superior partner (for example, presented audio-visually as a professorial, fatherly friend) and fellow human being. due to the need to economise on capacity, the bio-adapter's mediation of "objective knowledge" is dispensed with; it makes the information which the patient has accumulated in the form of knowledge of a given subject available as conversational material(2). despite great efforts and the intellectual superiority of the bio-adapter, the human being will occasionally notice from breakdowns and unavoidable slips that, as before, he is still inside the adapter. the mediation and construction of certain important environments (e.g. parent's home, scenes from early childhood, place of work, home, familiar places of entertainment etc., together with the formal configurations and sound structures which are typical for them) can only succeed in the course of a series of improvements made as a result of experiments and errors(3). in the event of glaring failures, the adapter tries to appease by using psycho-technical tricks (including discussion, the distraction of attention and in particularly serious cases even soporification), or else by instruction about the verbal-hypothetic nature of reality. at any rate, the continually improving integration will soon have reached such a degree that there of necessity arises in the adapter's object first of all a state of uncertainty as to its condition and then later the conviction of unceasing reintegration into the status quo ante. especially in the case of stubborn or exclusively anxious people one can imagine that the adapter, after completing acquisition of its information, might grant its content the total impression of a resurrection-complete with an impressively awkward sequence of climbing out of the machine, being greeted by a committee of scientists entrusted with attending to the adapter (as far as the patient is at all capable of remembering any details, such as faces, interior decorations etc., or anything related to them as memories); perhaps also with an assurance given by the same committee that it is an experiment of the highest importance both for the state and the fatherland, or with official recognition by high-ranking functionaries and the final dismissal to a leisurely well-remunerated private life thereafter; one of the numerous other possibilities is to suggest temporary but returning psychoses etc. to the patient, using his favourite forms of complex (sexual partner, best friend, mother, superior at work, psychiatrist). this is an important possibility because it means that precautions can always be taken against the difficulties of recrudescence during the rest of the development. --- at this stage the unit is immediately faced with the completion of the first adaptation level which, since it presumably takes a similar course in many cases, has prepared the ground for the following process of actual adaptation. the inserted human being-he is still nothing more than that-lives in his habitual environment, although it is more comfortable than he had ever dreamed it would be. his environment "reads his wishes from his eyes:" whatever he undertakes, flourishes. his favourite partner, favourite dish, favourite drug, favourite places, favourite occupations are continually offered to him, and always cum grano salis, in order to keep him in a state of tension. he feels more beautiful, more efficient, cleverer, more desirable, more desired, healthier. he fulfils old wishes, can afford status and luxury, sees the world, leads. the bio-adapter achieves all this in the first place through the possibility of giving instruction to the patient via presented interview partners, and only in the second place through marking out sensory impressions. in doing so it never goes beyond the customary suggestive characteristics of communication, which in any case as such already allow it to meet any needs for sensory verification with the most primitive means at its disposal. with regard to these sensory impressions the adapter primarily finds support in his patient's facial sense. there are of course constantly reports of what the adapted human being sees or glimpses, rather than "actual things." after sufficient nodding of his head, for example, he sees a picture of his leg and not for example "the things themselves." further agreement about a world view which is experienced as manifest is provided by the automatic tuning substructures of the sensation generators, which are involved in different ways in the "whole impression." these present a complex regulatory system for the exact administration of stimuli. intermodal correlation, which is indispensable for the human being's compact view of the world, is produced less by the repeated simultaneity of complexes of stimuli (which on the side of consciousness face significant obstacles anyway as a result of the biological principles of the optimalisation of perception), than by re-afferences proceeding from verbally evoked conceptual structures. the "high degree of correlation" which presents itself to consciousness is maintained at the same level by relatively raw concomitances of sensual excitement, therefore, in the case of the sensory complexes (those which come into consideration) which are directed outside of the skin (a sort of exception is formed here by the sense of smell), it suffices for the bio-adapter to generate relatively crude sensory data and leave the rest to the patient's re-afferences. in cases of doubt, verification will always be more efficient by means of linguistic communication with "other human beings" than by closer examination of the given facts alone; and in especially difficult cases the bio-adapter will decide such questions by consulting simple measuring instruments. --- the bio-adapter regards all of its occupant's ways of behaving as open pathological and infantile transaction sequences, the structural schemes of which are collected, once the ramifications have been sufficiently well analysed, in a catalogue of motivations. it ascertains the ranges and jump conditions, storing the former in its memory as envelope curve parameters and placing the latter in storage fields with optional access: it assembles its own reactions from the deduced elements and matches them with the monitors according to the all-determining principle of therapy. --- certain mental states of the bio-module are especially productive for the progress of adaptation. in the first place one thinks here of all forms of ecstasy, and among them in turn particularly of those which belong to the "natural states" of the organism. the sex-servo modules are therefore especially generously laid out and partly autonomous. if need be, they can take over very important sectors of the bio-adapter and then endow the whole environment of the bio-module with special features which are extraordinarily suitable in strengthening its protopathic capacity for experience. if the bio-module is in a state of sexual excitement, it very soon comes into contact with an environment which encourages this excitement to the highest degree. all the people it meets look at it lasciviously. it hears stimulating words whispered by fragile voices, it enters into sensual music. plants and inanimate objects, landscapes and abstract things have an erotic effect on it, display their sexuality in relation to it, depending on its personality it experiences chastely austere and respectful conquests or ventures into bestial discharges of violence and arbitrariness. The bio-adapter provides for varied and skillful directorship even in the case of undying love and leads its content beyond its previous experiences to a pagan lustfulness. the patient wallows in phalluses, breasts, vaginae, spurred on by yohimbine, testoviron, agnus castus, water lily extract, camphor, lupulin, natrium bromide, cantharides, colorin from the zompantli tree... preludin and amphetamines increase his pleasure beforehand... nupercainal preparations delay, amyl nitrate prolongs, ethyl chloride and nitrogen monoxide strengthen his orgasms... rushes of current in his mucous membranes turn his desires into delirium!(4) the world consists of drauci and pathici, in his frenzy fantastical irrumations announce changes of reality, he copulates with mountains of money, with cupboards, viruses, spectacles, companies, ivy, dummies, he ejaculates at the sight of agate! --- the ecstasies of destruction are also provoked and exaggerated by the adapter, regardless of whether they are directed against the world or against the subject. with ease or after heavy battles, yes, even-depending on the personality-with great personal sacrifice, verging on self-destruction, the bio-module annuls whatever his urge sets him against, as a heroic outlaw or rake, in conspiracy or commissioned by the public, or as an uninhibited enemy of the state, mowing down, hacking to pieces, tearing to pieces, biting to pieces in raging paroxysms, crushing to pieces, trampling to pieces, to pieces... to pieces... or, alternatively, after long and ponderous reflection of all the fors and againsts of the earth and the cosmos... annihilating what reason designates, etc. etc. c. second stage of adaptation.the bio-adapter now controls the physical and mental state of its content to the very last detail, i.e. it has taken over the role of the state. it can now move on to the expansion (improvement) of the bio-module's consciousness. the first important process which is interesting here is the dissection of the nervous system, combined with the production of a more direct flow of information between adapter and bio-module. the dismantling begins with the limb proportions and slowiv proceeds to the central parts of the body. the bio-adapter will need only a minimum of anaesthetic, since prior to the operation it can connect all afferent channels to its own stimulus transformers: while e.g. one of the bio-module's legs is being amputated, the very same is enjoying perhaps a refreshing hike through the delightful hungarian countryside. the adapter simulates the complex exchange of the efferent nerves with kinaesthetic and proprioceptive fibres, so that a glimpse of his own leg instructs the bio-module at most about the fact that his joy of movement, the play of muscles in his extremities, is becoming increasingly better. dismantling is aided by the superior speed at which the adapter's electronics can work, since the adapter can recognise and correct any mistakes that may occur in good time and before they reach the bio-module's consciousness, by means of the centrally located control sensors. --- the reduction of the bio-module to its really sensitive part is only completed when the central sensory organs of what was previously the head have also ceased to function as stimuli transformers and have been replaced by direct connections to the adapter's information transmitter. at this stage many of the transformations of material and information are no longer necessary (e.g, assimilation of nourishment, movement and sensory data) and are replaced with great profit by "contact intake" (nutritive solution for intravenous feeding, direct impulses between the motory end plates or peripheral synapses and micro electrodes). the unit's energy balance is alleviated, i.e. only about 100 watts are now needed (although later this again increases slightly), excluding the approximately 25 watts of electricity needed for the brain itself. numerous mechanical aggregates become redundant and are dismantled and converted by the adapter, or added to the reserve (where the bio-body's cell tissue is also to be found). --- the process of dismantling the nervous system which now occurs, is carried out very carefully by the adapter and is soon completed; the unit's goal is greater complexity of the functional structures and not reduction to a minimal model. one can therefore speak of the assembly of a more complex and flexible hierarchic circuit. the gradual replacement of cellular circuits of the peripheral system with solid-logic components makes the unit more compact, although not necessarily more integrated; a more compact integration will tend to emerge with the increase of the number of circuits themselves and with better distribution of information. one special feature is that the work of the adapter is designed to maintain the concept of sensual quality and even to expand, by experimentation, the modal area by installing further sensory modules. the fact that, in order to achieve this, the focus of attention must be on the central brain structures need not be elaborated here: at a stage which is characterised by the generally uniform electrical impulses in the afferent channels, all the modal differences are, in the final analysis, based on the variety of circuit blocks from the mesencephalon upwards. taking these processes into consideration, one could speak of a gradual absorption of the cellular organisation by the electronic circuit complexes of the adapter, and this way of speaking is without doubt very appropriate as long as one intends by this the stimulus-reaction relationships in the material. however, things are different from the point of view of the bio-module. after all, it consists solely of consciousness and this gradually undergoes grandiose expansions. its carriers do of course change, yet so slowly that this is not noticeable; this change is-occasionally-accompanied by a short clouding of consciousness, which then just as quickly gives way to a lucidity which was previously lacking. whereas the first stage of adaptation, through the no less than antagonistic (although one could also say cooperative) environment, was a means to extend the bio-module's possibilities, now consciousness itself becomes the environment and can be used almost like one's own hand. whereas, previously, improvements in performance were provoked by the conditions, just as they can be produced "from outside," for instance in hypoxemia by means of hyperventilation, in experimentation by enriching the air for breathing with anion or through magnetic fields, this is now effected by increasing the number of data-processing elements, by greater complexity of connections and by greater processing speed. the continuity of ego consciousness, as far as this can be postulated at all, is not given by the physical constancy of the ganglia cells but by the constancy of information. however, this perseveration is not interrupted by the gradual takeover of information by electronic structures, because it is a step-by-step takeover, cell by cell as it were, with immediate reconnection to the central processing system. the significant extension of the data-processing material leads to a bursting of the "bounds of consciousness" which so limit human beings; the processing speed of the autonomous subcortical core increases enormously-although in the end it will be necessary to include the synchronisation of the former cortex, and finally all the processing circuits, in consciousness, together with its carrier, while the "non conscious" will remain limited to the elementary, atomic processes of transmission. consciousness, this cuckoo's egg of nature, thus represses nature itself. whereas previously the forms of sensory perception were simply products of the conditioned reflexes of a superior order of experiment, ghosts of the human sense of chance (from a tribal point of view, for example, hearing derives from the jaw construction), high-quality products of the social process, monstrous prodigies of language, now consciousness rests, immortal, within itself and creates transient objects from its own depths. --- further, with the adapter and its fusion of the carriers of consciousness, new centres of pleasure are created outside of the thalamus, opening up new paths for selfstimulation with respect to both experimentation and abandon. the numerous subcortical cores which serve the homeostasis (breathing centre and the like) become remodelled and incorporated into the processes of consciousness. activation of the memory structures. d. (cancelled)e.the development of the bio-adapter naturally depends on the intellectual power, courage and independence of the subject. where there is not sufficient insufficiency, or where the social structures that make such a great difference to consciousness are too strong, there not even the adapter can create a <normal> world-not even in the second phase. it is possible that we are all 1) (see also: language as an argument against solipsism) [Back] 2) for example: russian course, the adapter first extracts its content's ideas of the russian language from facts and atmospheric values. it then expands the material by analogy and induction, alienates it by means of aleatory digressions from the standards adhered to, doses the learning material and serves it up. the content of the adapter now learns "russian" and is invigorated by the rapid progress it makes. it gets to know a lot of russians and perhaps even travels to kiev, which does not disappoint his expectations whatsoever, or educates himself "at home," his own partner in improving russian conversation. [Back] 3) from here the moment of certain sensory hallucinations is to be integrated as in the "real world": a second glance informs me about the deception: but was I really deceived, or did the world suddenly repair its error? [Back] 4) a simply produced d.i.y. arrangement can be found in o. prokop, forensische medizin, berlin 1966. [Back]
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