Inspired by Cyborg Cadavers

Caro data vermibus
(flesh given to worms)

I’m inspired by the people I meet, the science I’m exposed to and the tech that might become, but it’s unusual for me to use art to inspire my near-future fiction. So, it was interesting to be asked to write a piece for Hallidonto’s latest exhibition – Cyborg Cadavers.

I read the blurb and pondered, studied the art and pondered and then had a few too many beers with the artist. Then, I let all that sink in and allowed a story to surface.

The result was Death Life Transfer and in the video below you can watch me reading it at the opening night of the exhibition, along with other contributors and Hallidonto himself.

The exhibition:

“Are we the fallen and in what image will be the re-imaging of our flesh.” Hallidonto 2019.

Hallidonto’s work explores these themes in an attempt to answer the complex questions that ever-evolving technology poses to humanity. In his latest work, ‘Cyborg Cadavers’ a series of nine pencil works that explore the very of concept of the body, and if we don’t choose wisely, we won’t be in a position to select the body we need or for that matter the body that is required. This poses deeper questions of we view ourselves within our technological world. Is the flesh redundant and shall we proceed with the morphological freedoms embedded within the post-humanist/ trans-humanist discourses where alteration and the evolution of body intertwined Halliidonto with other leading, artistic luminaries to explore the rise of the artificially sentient and the ascent of the cyborg. Hallidonto has curated nine speakers to respond to the work and pathos created by the artist.

You can find him at:

Website: https://hallidonto.onfabrik.com/ | Twitter: @Hallidonto
Insta: @hallidonto | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hallidonto/


Image: (c) Hallidonto

AI reflects the past not the future.

“Big Data processes codify the past. They do not invent the future. Doing that requires moral imagination, and that’s something only humans can provide. We have to explicitly embed better values into our algorithms, creating Big Data models that follow our ethical lead.”

Cathy O’Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction.

This is an easy book to read and it’s a difficult book to read. It’s easy because it’s well written with many real-life examples and extrapolations. It’s difficult because the examples show how pervasive and corrosive big data and machine learning has and can become.

However, the quote I’ve chosen gives an uplift of spirits; if humans take more interest, control and responsibility then the emerging world of artificial intelligence could be a good one.

I recommend this as essential reading for anyone with more than a passing interest in artificial intelligence and who wants to think a bit more about the ethical aspects of big data and machine learning.

After all as you’ve heard me say many times, ‘the future is ours and it’s up for grabs…’


photo credit: György Soponyai The Crystal Ball via photopin (license)