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Trans-humans

Started by GrinningYMIR, February 17, 2014, 09:28:06 AM

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GrinningYMIR

I don't know if anyone has ever seen this before but I found this really interesting documentary while I was browsing youtube yesterday

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU1-YFbAifA


Basically it deals with how science is advancing at the rate that we will soon be able to augment and or modify our bodies far beyond that which people had dreamt of; whether through nanites, surgical applications, or even DNA augmentation. It's coming closer and closer.


It does raise some ethical questions of course; whether its morally correct to change an unborn child, or whether its morally correct to attempt to drastically alter someone's body

Not to mention that the religious nutballs will shit bricks if it ever becomes regular day

What do you think? Personally as someone with medical problems abundant, I would welcome such practice with open arms.
"Human history is a litany of blood shed over differing ideals of rulership and afterlife"<br /><br />Governor of the 32nd Province of the New Lunar Republic. Luna Nobis Custodit

Plu

Guess it's time for us to rethink what it means to be human, and we'll probably need to start that by rethinking what it means to be "me".

stromboli

I would not be surprised to see cyborg armies in another 20 years. The 6 million dollar man (based on the book "Cyborg" by Martin Caidin) is becoming more and more a possibility.

aitm

Humanity would scream that we cannot play god and change a person willy nilly, up to the very second they find out their child has an "abnormality" then...katie bar the door.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

AllPurposeAtheist

The thing is they still don't know how the human mind really works, where emotion, compassion,  hate and so on originate in us so cyborg armies may be a bit further away than you think. The idea of rebuilding combat vets might seem appealing,  but they can't erase the terror of war from minds and the lasting psychological effects.
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stromboli

Assuming we are rebuilding broken warriors, correct. But opting for enhancements that would make one more physically capable or have better vision, hearing, whatever, might not be too unpopular an idea.

The Skeletal Atheist

I think the day organs can be made to order will be sooner. We're already on the right track with it, the main problem being that donor organs still need to be used to provide a "scaffolding" for the cells. Once we get past that we're golden.

As per mechanical enhancements, I've always been a fan of that. I'd love to be able to replace my body with a biomechanical one, but that's probably far away.
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Jack89

So the rich will give themselves a greater advantage.  Nice.  Will they pay for your alterations?  I doubt if they'd be covered under Obamacare.

Shol'va

If Ghost in the Shell stuff comes to pass, I'd be all over that shit.
Human brain in prosthetic body.
I love the series and everything else tied to it. I feel it is a pretty realistic potential glimpse in the future.

Sal1981

IDK. I kinda liked the movie with Bruce Willis, "Surrogates" from 2009, a direct critique of trans-humanism where people used artificial bodies in place of of their own bodies, being "online" all the time and never leaving their home. It's an underrated movie, but whatthefuck do movie critics know?

Hijiri Byakuren

Quote from: "Sal1981"IDK. I kinda liked the movie with Bruce Willis, "Surrogates" from 2009, a direct critique of trans-humanism where people used artificial bodies in place of of their own bodies, being "online" all the time and never leaving their home. It's an underrated movie, but whatthefuck do movie critics know?
Probably the same critics who thought Star Trek: Into Darkness and Man of Steel were masterpieces. I don't place too much stock in critics' opinions these days.
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Plu

I actually saw Surrogates and I wouldn't give it more than an "eh" either. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't all that special either.

SGOS

#12
I pay closer attention to viewer recommendations.  Their one flaw is that viewers gravitate to specific genres, which can skew the results, but I try to take that into account.  Surrogates is worth a watch.  It's got an interesting premise.

GrinningYMIR

Unless it's a foreign made movie with gay guys and a suicide the critics will lambaste it

Ignore them
"Human history is a litany of blood shed over differing ideals of rulership and afterlife"<br /><br />Governor of the 32nd Province of the New Lunar Republic. Luna Nobis Custodit

Hydra009

While the documentary is great and all, I would like to nitpick some parts of it.  The biggest whopper I came across was in the world's longest run-on sentence:  "If we give machines a body, if we build embodied entities and let them right from the start be part of a community, if we make them learn interacting with us, learning to distinguish between themselves and the environment learning to then automatically things like love and stuff like that will emerge."  Bullshit.  What we call love is instinct and also a very complex behavior.  (It hits hard, then it slowly fades, leaving you stranded in a failing marriage.  Break the cycle, Morty.)  You don't get something like that from just introducing an intelligent robot to the neighbors.

Also, don't be too wide-eyed about the advances being made.  We're just scratching the surface on a lot of this stuff, and it's not even close to being reality yet.  We'd probably all be long dead before strong AI or moving human consciousness into a machine body is a reality.  Might want to lower the bar just a bit to something more realistic, like fuel cells, widespread use of 3d printers, and e-textiles.