Whenever a group of people start thinking they're better than everyone else, the results are always the same.
(Captain Archer, Star Trek Enterprise)
That is, they start seeing everyone else as worse, less than human, and therefore not entitled to the same rights as everyone else. There's a very good reason cyborgs are generally depicted in fiction as negative. And yet...
I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-rays, and I want to smell dark matter !
(Cavil, Battlestar Galactica)
I would really like to experience new senses. I think it would be fascinating to directly sense ultrasound and have a 3D "picture" of the world constructed in my brain by echolocation, or to directly sense the magnetic field of the Earth or the electrical fields of other organisms. Or to communicate telepathically. Or to have extra eyes for omnidirectional vision. To have a sense totally distinct from sight, sound, touch, taste and smell...
Replacing humans with robots is one thing. But enhancing humans... that's a whole other kettle of fish.
Majorities of U.S. adults say they would be “very” or “somewhat” worried about gene editing (68%), brain chips (69%) and synthetic blood (63%), while no more than half say they would be enthusiastic about each of these developments. Some people say they would be both enthusiastic and worried, but, overall, concern outpaces excitement.
Majorities say these enhancements could exacerbate the divide between haves and have-nots. For instance, 73% believe inequality will increase if brain chips become available because initially they will be obtainable only by the wealthy. At least seven-in-ten adults predict each of these new technologies will become available before they have been fully tested or understood.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/04/why-americans-are-wary-of-using-technology-to-enhance-humans/
And then there's the problem with increasing inequalities, rushing products to the market before long-term (possibly detrimental) effects are understood, corporations using it to enforce customer loyalty through a mix of incompatibilities and programmed obsolescence, governments and corporations using it to collect an unprecedented amount of personal data, hackers engulfing in the countless security holes that will be left...
ReplyDeleteThe future may not be nice, but at least it's going to be interesting
(for reference, I'm both enthusiastic and worried about those)
It's because of the lack of critical thinking skills. Synthetic blood, really? Stop taking aspirin a and statins, then, and yank the plug on grandpas oxygen regenerator, and let the hearing aid batteries run down. People are reading this with contact lenses, scanning the news and communicating vast distances with the equivalent of tricorders, rolling on wheels instead of walking, while worrying about science.
ReplyDeleteIt would be really cool to experience new senses. The most fascinating work I've come across of recent memory is David Eagleman's non-invasive vest that turns data into a pattern of impulses you can feel, and your brain wastes no time in making useful interpretations from the inputs. The applications coming out from something like that would be interesting to see (beyond what he's demonstrating here) https://youtu.be/4c1lqFXHvqI
ReplyDeleteI want a Pokemon sensor.
ReplyDeleteI think there is genuine case for concern here. When people are injured or suffer a debilitating disease, no-one suggests they shouldn't be given treatment to restore their natural abilities. Or if people are born with disabilities, no-one suggests we shouldn't use artificial methods to give them the same abilities as almost everyone else has. That is equality. But giving people superior abilities, or wholly new senses ? Potentially that would cause inequality at an unprecedented, fundamental level. Potentially. I rather like the idea of a wearable ESP device, which would presumably be much more affordable than major surgery. Being temporary cyborgs would be a sensible, cautious approach.
ReplyDeleteNot that eventually we couldn't have body modification/enhancement without all the eugenics-like effects that history has shown tend to happen whenever people start believing they're superior, I just think a good degree of caution would be beneficial.
I look at evaluating if the potential postive impacts outweighs the negatives.
ReplyDelete