Tools, systems, and protocols designed to modify, augment, or manage the biological and psychological capacities of individual human beings. This spans the ancient (yoga, meditation, mnemonic techniques) to the futuristic (cranial implants, gene editing, nootropics). Unlike Social Technologies, which target relationships between people, Human Technologies target the person themselves—their memory, mood, lifespan, or physical capability. They are the applied toolkit of self-improvement and, sometimes, self-transformation.
Human Technologies Example: The prenatal vitamin is a Human Technology—a mundane chemical intervention to optimize fetal development. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a Human Technology—a structured protocol for retraining maladaptive thought patterns. Both are engineering applied to the human organism, one biological, one psychological, united by the goal of improving human function through deliberate design.
by Dumu The Void February 11, 2026
Get the Human Technologies mug.1. A sci-fi ideology where humanity is viewed as the dominant or rightful species in a universe shared with aliens. Common in space operas, military sci-fi, and dystopian future settings.
2. Outside of fiction (theoretically), a stance that if intelligent extraterrestrial life were ever discovered, the preservation, survival, and continuity of humanity should take absolute priority over alien life — especially in situations of conflict, coexistence, or limited resources.
Where it’s mainly used:
Mostly in science fiction (books, games, movies, fandom discussions), especially in stories involving alien invasions, galactic politics, or interstellar war. Outside fiction, it appears in speculative debates about first contact scenarios.
Key distinction:
Not about Earth animals or real-world racial supremacy — it’s a humanity-first mindset in the context of extraterrestrial life. The core idea is preservation of the human species above all non-human intelligent life.
2. Outside of fiction (theoretically), a stance that if intelligent extraterrestrial life were ever discovered, the preservation, survival, and continuity of humanity should take absolute priority over alien life — especially in situations of conflict, coexistence, or limited resources.
Where it’s mainly used:
Mostly in science fiction (books, games, movies, fandom discussions), especially in stories involving alien invasions, galactic politics, or interstellar war. Outside fiction, it appears in speculative debates about first contact scenarios.
Key distinction:
Not about Earth animals or real-world racial supremacy — it’s a humanity-first mindset in the context of extraterrestrial life. The core idea is preservation of the human species above all non-human intelligent life.
Example 1:
“When the aliens demanded Earth join their empire, the council went full human supremacy.”
“When the aliens demanded Earth join their empire, the council went full human supremacy.”
by fatal alex February 19, 2026
Get the Human Supremacy mug.The foundational insight that studying human meaning, culture, and society requires attending to the ghosts that quantitative methods miss. These spectral variables include historical trauma that shapes community responses, unspoken power dynamics in an interview, the researcher's own positionality relative to those studied, the language gaps that lose meaning in translation, and the silenced voices that never make it into the archive. In social sciences and humanities, spectral variables aren't noise to be eliminated—they're the signal, or at least the key to understanding what the signal means. Good humanistic research maps the ghosts rather than pretending they aren't there.
Spectral Variables (Social Sciences and Humanities) "Your survey data shows 80% satisfaction. But the Spectral Variables tell a different story: people were afraid to be honest with government researchers, the translator softened critical responses, and the community's historical experience with surveys made them tell you what they thought you wanted. Your data is accurate and completely wrong—haunted by ghosts you never asked about."
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 23, 2026
Get the Spectral Variables (Social Sciences and Humanities) mug.