Poll: Transhumanism: How Far Would You Take It?

[Prismwind]

I'm going 6 here, just because it fits best. Living cells have a lifespan... I wanna be immortal and that means nothing that's organic in the traditional sense left. I like the idea of a core that can be switched out between different robotic bodies for different tasks, or at least a body with parts that can be replaced and switched out. Similar to a pod from EVE online, except with bodies instead of ships and the pod IS me at that point.

Never dying of old age and infinite upgrade potential with time.

 

[TehCookie]

As of right now I'd only take a 2 or 3, but I'm healthy and young. As I get older and my body starts to fail I'd go more machine to a 6. Once my mind starts failing, it's time to die. If people could live forever the world would be overpopulated.

 

[LightningFast]

Option 2. To be frank, the only things I'd like to change are my height and vision problems. Feel pretty good about everything else.

 

[TWRule]

To surpass existing physiological limitations and inconveniences.

To what end? What's important enough to bother with it for you?

As treatment for encumbering and/or degenerative conditions. Huntington?s disease, Alzheimer?s (other forms of dementia,) blindness, deafness, and other myriad conditions. To provide protection against environmental hazards, ionising-radiation, toxins, drowning, etc.

I'm not counting things like this - these are obviously extreme situations, as it would extremely risky - my question was why someone would *want* to do this (provided they weren't placed in such a situation) - that's what everyone answering this thread seems to be concerned with...

"... it is certainly a quick and easy way to learn how to speak new languages, operate machinery, etc. On the other hand, interferance with the mind tends to cause personality disorders, problems with memory recall and occasionally total mental breakdown... repeated re-use accelerates the degenerative process."[/i]
- Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader: Technology in the Imperium

Yeah, I'm not seeing how this helps your argument, fiction or no. Frankly, I'm not convinced that consciousness works like transhumanists like to think it does (that is, how it works in sci fi).

 

[ezaviel]

I'd go option two voluntarily / unnecessarily.

But if medically required due to injury or for longevity, I would go all the way up to 6 as needed

 

[iblis666]

6 and 7 since I would want a entirely human body but completely infused with nano tech that keeps a up to date copy of my personality and memories in it. I would also use the nanites as memory storage among other things that you might think of if you have read a cyberpunk novel or hardcore scifi novel. Also if i was able to I would totally use an energy matrix to store my personality as a secondary back up kind of like an ascended being in stargate.

 

[TheUsername0131]

To surpass existing physiological limitations and inconveniences.

To what end? What's important enough to bother with it for you?

As treatment for encumbering and/or degenerative conditions. Huntington?s disease, Alzheimer?s (other forms of dementia,) blindness, deafness, and other myriad conditions. To provide protection against environmental hazards, ionising-radiation, toxins, drowning, etc.

I'm not counting things like this - these are obviously extreme situations, as it would extremely risky - my question was why someone would *want* to do this (provided they weren't placed in such a situation) - that's what everyone answering this thread seems to be concerned with...

"... it is certainly a quick and easy way to learn how to speak new languages, operate machinery, etc. On the other hand, interferance with the mind tends to cause personality disorders, problems with memory recall and occasionally total mental breakdown... repeated re-use accelerates the degenerative process."
- Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader: Technology in the Imperium

Yeah, I'm not seeing how this helps your argument, fiction or no. Frankly, I'm not convinced that consciousness works like transhumanists like to think it does (that is, how it works in sci fi).

It was in no way intended to help my presumed agenda, an argument would imply we were having a dispute. There is no dispute between us. That remark was intended to be humorous, by pointing out the fine print. All occupations have their hazards.

Your questions would require me to disclose my medical history. Something often regarded as private. However you've already answered one of your own questions. You asked, "provided they weren't placed in such a situation." My decision is based on that criteria you've decided on exempting from your question. If others should make that choice out of vanity, or on a whim, then that is their choice.

Should you still be involved, it would be prudent for us to continue this discussion in private messages. This thread is meant for merriment, not for melancholy.

 

[ShipofFools]

I'm hoping for a biological, technological, psychedelic and energized symbiosis that ends in a pan-galactic hive mind, indistinguishable from gods.

 

[Heronblade]

6 and 7 since I would want a entirely human body but completely infused with nano tech that keeps a up to date copy of my personality and memories in it. I would also use the nanites as memory storage among other things that you might think of if you have read a cyberpunk novel or hardcore scifi novel. Also if i was able to I would totally use an energy matrix to store my personality as a secondary back up kind of like an ascended being in stargate.

Yeah, there's a bit of a problem with that idea. A backup copy of you is not actually you. It is a new person with the copied memories and personality of someone else.

Let me put it another way, lets say you are helping test a new Star Trek style teleporter. Bright flashes occur, but nothing seems to happen. Before you can ask what went wrong, a call comes in. Its you, calling from the teleporter's destination, saying that you arrived safely. The only thing that went "wrong" with the teleport was that it failed to kill you and destroy the body so that your double doesn't have you competing for the same life.

Heh, come to think of it, if a new soul is created for each clone, the Star Trek afterlife must be a very confusing place. (and potentially quite horrifying, with a couple thousand Wesley Crushers running around...)

 

[Dragonbums]

I picked 2.

I love my body, and everything organic about it. There is nothing wrong with enhancing some features to make life a bit easier like better eyesight. However, I don't want to begin altering or replacing my body parts. That to me is a bit too much.

 

[TheUsername0131]

Yeah, there's a bit of a problem with that idea. A backup copy of you is not actually you. It is a new person with the copied memories and personality of someone else.

Is there a meaningful distinction?

Let me put it another way; if you where disintegrated, only to then near-instantaneously be replaced with a matching reproduction. And no one was there to witness the event. Then wouldn?t this new instantiation of ?you? be functionally indistinguishable from the ?original.?

Would an acquaintance, friend, or family member be able to make a meaningful distinction?

Epistemologically, we are only what we remember of ourselves.

 

[ForumSafari]

I'd keep my brain except maybe gradual conversion, I'd want a continuity otherwise I'd be dead and another identical person would walk away.

Other than that, full Phyrexian. Everything could be replaced and I'd be happy. I wouldn't mind looking like I do now but that's optional too.

 

[LadyMint]

I'm gonna go with Option 2... People have been "enhancing" themselves in various ways since the dawn of man, so I don't see anything wrong with a little minor help here and there. Option 3 would maybe be on the cards if it was necessary. A friend of mine recently went to the hospital for critical injuries that resulted in an amputation, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind having something to replace what was lost.

Many times I've pondered what my decision might be if we got to the point where you could download your brain into a robot body and "live forever" from that. The jury's still out, to be honest. As much as I enjoy living and have no desire to die, I've come to terms with the fact that it is a natural process that will one day it will happen. Some things you just shouldn't mess with, and IMHO, the constant renewal of life is one of them.

 

[Heronblade]

Yeah, there's a bit of a problem with that idea. A backup copy of you is not actually you. It is a new person with the copied memories and personality of someone else.

Is there a meaningful distinction?

Let me put it another way; if you where disintegrated, only to then near-instantaneously be replaced with a matching reproduction. And no one was there to witness the event. Then wouldn?t this new instantiation of ?you? be functionally indistinguishable from the ?original.?

Would an acquaintance, friend, or family member be able to make a meaningful distinction?

Epistemologically, we are only what we remember of ourselves.

There's still the problem of continuity. The fact that someone perfectly like me is taking my place is of some comfort, but it doesn't change that I'm dead and gone.

If you want to argue that the copy is me, what happens if this same tech is used to make 500 copies at the same time? Would you have a communal hive mind, or 500 very confused individual people?

 

[Jamieson 90]

I'd engineer my brain to make me faster/more intelligent and to prevent it wearing out or getting Alzheimer's and such.

My eyesight has always been incredibly poor so I'd augment them to get perfect 20-20 vision.

I'd replace my heart, lungs and kidneys with cyber implants to help me live longer. I'd also engineer myself to have the 'Centurion' genes (Scientists have actually found that Centurions have certain genes that help them live longer). So with the exceptions of eyes I'd look pretty 'human'.

 

[Pseudoboss]

For myself? Or as a society? (Is this the same thing?)

Myself, I would love myself an option 4 body. My central nervous system is kinda important to me, particularly my brain. If there're augmentations that go in my brainstem to do things like increase reflexes or process certain information that my brin isn't normally equipped to handle, i'm down with that.

As for my preferred type of technology; I would prefer bioengineering and nanotechnology rather than robotics. There're some "characters" that i've developed that I wouldn't mind walking around as (aesthetic and performance augmentations, not personality changes), all of whom are more biological in appearance rather than mechanical.

 

[MSTJedi]

I'd say 2. Some nanomachines that would tone my body while I sleep. Maybe stimulate hair growth for that male pattern baldness going on up there. Ocular implants for my nearsightedness. Maybe a small neural enhancement for memory function since my recall is horrible. Nothing that would make me appear or act less human, though.

 

[Rblade]

I could see myself becoming a robot with a full human brain. I probably wouldn't do it out of chickenness but I don't have any real problem with having a "prostetic body"

 

[Moloch Sacrifice]

I'm saying this based on the fact that not everyone tends to act nobly, when confronted with the ability to seize power. The posters joking about getting complete Eldritch replacements and basically turning into a sentient supercomputer thingy are what would honestly bother me, if this were a real possibility.

Who says we're joking? I can't speak for the rest of us, but I have ambitions that as are simply unattainable by someone with human limitations. I personally have non investment in 'humanity' as a value, so I have no problems with losing it.

As for seizing power, who is to say that once one reaches this level, lording it over the meatbags remains a meaningful goal? It would be like declaring yourself king of a preschool class; sure, you can do it, and none of them would have the power to stop you. However, other than sheer megalomania, there's nothing for you to get out of it; you have to handle all their petty disputes ("Sally pulled my hair!"/"Bobby won't accept my market orientated economy as superior to his collectivist economy!"), and there are things much bigger in the universe for one to spend time on, which you simply would not be able to explain to your underlings, as they lack the mental capacity to stop shoving crayons in their nose.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

Denton style nano-augmentation for sures, want to push the augmentation as far as possible while still looking/feeling human. The cake and eat it approach to trans-humanism.