implanting technology into our bodies, yes or no?

[yenom]

I envision in the future that robotics and technology will play a more and more important role in our society. We would one day intergrate technology(non-biological components) into our own bodies. Would make us less human?

Do you support implanting machine parts into the human body to improve our abilities and performance, or do you oppose it? Would this move us more and more towards the Borg and less human?

 

[Resonance]

100% in support.

 

[INTP]

Only kind of robotics implanted to humans that im not against is when someone loses arm for example and they would make a robotic arm for him or pacemaker or something like that

 

[Randomnity]

I would be very worried about relying on technology to keep me alive, at least until we get software that doesn't crash or get viruses. A blue-screening heart would probably be bad.

Now an implanted debit card, that I could go for.

 

[Phantonym]

I do support it. Somewhat. Robotic limbs, joints and organs, when they are advanced enough to considerably improve people's life quality, I'm all for that. However, man-made stuff has this wonderful tendency to...break down or go kaboom. And, as usual, people have the tendency to abuse their creations and I'm much more wary about that. Improving abilities and performance to such a degree that it would most probably be harmful to others and without a way to control it, that is dangerous. Well, people can be dangerous nevertheless, with or without any robotic implants. Blame the brain. And tinkering with the brain, oh, probably not such a good idea. This is where the line starts to fade and once it is possible to "improve" the brain with gadgets and sort of hand over control in some ways...hello, my name is Borg, but you can call me Cy.

 

[Katsuni]

Hei the only downside is that it interferes with using magic... except we don't have magic, so that rules that out as a problem, now doesn't it? XD

Sorry, the topic immediately reminded me of shadowrun was all =3

I'm with randomnity though; stuff that may break... like a brain virus? Oh heeeeeeeeeeell no >.> I could do without that XD If it's going to be the difference between life or death though... I suppose it'd be better to rely on a heart that may shut down occasionally, than one that doesn't work at all and can't be rebooted.

There was an amusing case of this on an old tv show, think it was called space rangers (much better writing than the series name though XD ), and there was this one guy on it with alot of mechanical parts due to injuries... his heart would give out regularly, and he'd have to pull it out and hit it against something to knock it back into working again. Was really... odd.

But yeah, stuff like bank cards built into yeur body will help prevent identity theft significantly. Of course there are also people (such as my mother) who vehemently believe that those are the "mark of the beast", and anyone who gets such is going to hell >.>

Sooo there'd be a religious uprising of people who refused to get such things implanted, even if it was as simple as having a debit card implanted into yeur hand.

I dunno though... I think the idea of technology enhancements are great. They can improve us beyond where we are. Genetic modification is also welcome, at least, once we fully understand the effect of the genome... it's pretty difficult to do that though. We keep learning new surprises, how we thought we knew whot one gene did, then it turns out it controls a bunch more than we really thought >.> Would rather not end up smarter but end up loosing my arms in the process

But anyways, I think the idea's good, but the conservative members of society, and the hardcore religious fanatics, will strongly oppose such. Their loss.

 

[Daedalus]

Contrary to popular belief, with nanomachines, we don't need to have "robotic" arms or body parts as envisioned in the old sci-fi series. We could be human for all intents and purposes while having our blood, and body parts enhanced at the cellular and even atomic level.

furthermore, i think the merging of biological-nanomechanical technologies with human body is probably the only way we can keep abreast of the challenges/requirements we have to face in the distant future.

 

[Lateralus]

I expect to get some artificial eyes when my originals wear out in 200 years.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Very slippery slope.

 

[Katsuni]

I expect to get some artificial eyes when my originals wear out in 200 years.

Last I checked, they were actually making fairly good progress towards that.

The last I'd heard on the matter, was an article which had been mentioning they'd managed to make implants which were basically light sensitive receptors which fed the data back to the brain through the optic nerve.

They'd gotten a matrix of 24 points I believe to work fairly reliably, but it took a long time for the recipient to get used to the awkward new form of vision, and they could only make out basic shapes. For someone who had NO sight at all though, it was an incredible breakthrough.

They were supposed to be working on a matrix closer to 200ish points, to vastly increase the resolution.

Within a few years, should be possible to manage several thousand or million points, which would allow vision to be nearly that of normal once more, though I believe it'd be lacking true depth perception, and lacking colour. Even so, it's a nice step in the right direction. I'll see if I can find any more about that now while I think of it =3




EDIT: There we go! Founds it =3

nsf.gov - Special Report - Science Nation | Eyesight to the Blind

Camera attached to glasses gets worn, and feeds information directly to a microchip attached to the retina. Currently only has a 60 pixel resolution, but the hardware's designed to be able to accept software upgrades, so they could just replace the camera and software on the chip, and allow much better vision capacity.

Sight shows up as just flashes of light, and only shows in high contrast areas (an example being the moon vs dark night sky), but it's enough that they can 'see' basic shapes enough to avoid walking into a tree or such.

Very nice stuff, and would be nice to see that technology enhanced further.

Narrow the camera down from 'glasses' sized, to just 'contact lens' size, increase resolution, add colour detection and so on, and all of these things are possible over time.

Why WOULDN'T we want to be able to do this? XD

 

[Haphazard]

We already have pacemakers.

 

[ajblaise]

In the future when this is more of a reality, I think 95% of this technology will be strictly medical, and 99% of people will willfully accept it to be implemented on them, if it improves their quality-of-life.

But that 5% will surely be sketchy. Tracking, data gathering, spying, even weapons. The private and public sector both, could abuse it.

 

[Mole]

I envision in the future that robotics and technology will play a more and more important role in our society. We would one day intergrate technology(non-biological components) into our own bodies. Would make us less human?

Do you support implanting machine parts into the human body to improve our abilities and performance, or do you oppose it? Would this move us more and more towards the Borg and less human?

Our greatest invention was the printing press in 1440.

It eventually gave us universal literacy, and replacing the other senses, privileged the eye.

We make our tools and our tools make us.

My city, Canberra, for instance, was designed from the God's eye view.

But although Canberra was designed by the eye, it is now wired for the ear, for the only comparable invention to the printing press in 1440 was the invention of the electric telegraph in 1840.

And the electric telegraph, followed by the telephone, the radio, the television and now the internet, brings all the other senses into play.

So Canberra is a visual city morphing into an aural city.

So Canberra is morphing from a literate city based on print, to a spoken city based on the ear and the proprioceptive sense.

And the proprioceptive sense is our sense of dance.

So we started reading alone in Canberra and now we dance together in the streets.

 

[freedom geek]

As a transhumanist I support it.

 

[Arclight]

Very slippery slope.

And why?

I am going to guess it has something to do with this.

I am not talking about medical uses but rather technology that enhances one's inherent abilities.

The slippery slope begins here.
As with any new technology it's about who can afford it.
Because it will be incredibly expensive then only wealthy people will be able to have it. The class gap this would create would be wider than any seen in human history. essentially it will create a new race.
Can you compete with someone who has the Engineering implant if you don't?
What about someone with night vision? or enhanced strength,speed and dexterity?

It's like steroid use in sports or university students doping up on Ritalin.
It creates an uneven playing field. It diminishes the value of hard work and natural talent. Moralistically it's cheating.

The slippery slope is born due to Humans not being benevolent by nature, but rather selfish and self serving by nature.(not to be confused with good and evil).

 

[Moiety]

Only nanotechnology that would either replace whatever was behind a certain bodily function (like stuff injected into bloodflow) or prosthetic limbs.

Nothing neuronal.



Call me silly but I believe it could very well grant us immortality (not invulnerability) one day.

 

[The Outsider]

I of course support the idea. I think it's a quite natural step in our advancement.

 

[Tantive]

I found Ghost in the Shell quite an interesting take on what could happen.

 

[yenom]

The fusion of technology and the human body is inevitable. I am just curious about public reaction to it and the paranoia.

I think the most controversy arrives at the brain and neuroscience.

How would you feel if nanobots into your brain or they are used to modify your DNA structure? Or a chip is implanted into your brain so it can control what you think? Are we really ready for this kind of thing?
Would it give the companies that manufacture this kind of technology too much power?

Even as I look foward to it, I would feel sort of afraid if something like this is being done to me.

 

[Robopop]

Have you ever heard of Ray Kurzweil, he is an inventor and futurist who proposes that our society will reach a technological singularity by 2029. He proposes the idea that technological progress is exponential instead of the more "intuitive" linear view most people have of future progress, but he has his critics too.

I think the only informed people that would be totally against this homotechno transformation would be the neo-luddites and technophobes.