Would you like to become a post-human?

imagine this:

it's the future, People are able to download knowledge directly into their brain, gene therapy can be used to overcome every illness. Advances in cosmetic surgery allows you full control over how you look, and can eliminate aging. Cybernetic and biological Modifications can be used to achieve superhuman intelligence, strength, stamina, agility etc. and grant you immortality. You may even connect to a universal consciussnes to hear the thoughts and ideas of people worldwide.

Question is, would you take part in it?

 

If you don't accept evolution, you are a sad sad creature. You've lost you're humanity already.

That being said, if you don't understand what you are doing, and I mean fully understand you are fucked. I think the question should be, would you partake in this when people are ready to partake in it.

 

To question the morality of disregarding the normal path of "mother nature" is to lose your humanity? I have no doubt that we will all eventually come to merge in a more complete form with technology, but I rather like the option of laying my completely organic, disease and bacteria-ridden body in some grassy field.
You would like this, though: http://www.hedweb.com/abolitionist-project/index.html

 

Didn't I just answer this on the unexplained-mysteries forum?!

Either way, the answers from both forums are deffinitely different. My answer was yes and no, and I stick by it.

 

I wanted to post it different places to see if views changed in different "circles"

 

Thanks for that. And what I mean is that, whether we merge with technology or not, i don't think it really depends on any kind of "mother nature" (sorry don't believe in that -- "peace sign " ) but the natural way of things, the way we choose is the way its going to be, while we can choose to live as we want to if there is the choice to evolve, to understand better, to become a part of something outside the human experience through which we become something else, very possibly for the better. I mean its seems a real shame if you don't.

PS.(maybe this might help explain my views a little better? )I believe that all "life" is evolving (even though evolution isn't a perfect theory) and the ultimate thing to be strived for is to become god, or some sort of definition of it. And i don't mean bible, quaran or whatever god, I mean something that we cannot understand now, but when we attain the status it will just be everything. Kind of hard to explain. :hat:

 

Then we're pretty much on the same ground my man.
I've been working on the idea of human progression pretty hard since last summer, I think one of the primary things I've come up with is the hive mind concept. Basically it entails a human, with brain or sensory implants, who can pull up a bit of information from a huge database in the same time as it would take to retrieve one of their own memories. The beta version of this source of all human knowledge is wikipedia. The beta of that would be an encyclopedia. Funny how human tools seem to evolve to meet human needs through human tinkering; I used to sharpen pencils manually, now I have an electric sharpener that meets my needs more hastilly, just as my genetically altered milk cows produce more and better tasting milk than before. Our tools are our way of altering the world around us to better suit our needs; the current idea of evolution relies on reacting to stimulus, but not interfering with it. To alter what already is is an action pretty Godlike in itself, perhaps we become more Godlike with time.

But still, a hive mind where each person's mind connects would be the same thing as "all-knowing". An idea that's been interesting me is how an entity comprised of every single personality would react to everyday stimulus, if it ever works out.

 

i'm afraid i don't quite fallow the options in the poll.

where is this humanity that is supposidly being 'sacraficed'? how is that being difined?

=^^=
.../\...

 

If you're embracing this technology you're going beyond humanity and becoming a new almost Godlike race

 

I'm not sure...some parts and not others?

#1 Downloading knowledge directly into my brain.

What knowledge? Paradigms shift. There's only so much we can be absolutely certain of. I guess I'd like to learn Kung-Fu like Keanu -- such technology might be practical for things like that. But even Kung-Fu is an art, and art isn't something you can download into your brain. You can't download individual technique, and you can't account for others' unique styles, since there are infinite variations.

#2 Gene therapy can be used to overcome every illness.

Kind of goes along with #1. We don't know enough about what will happen if gene therapy is used on a wide scale. I might risk it, though, if I had a disease. If there's a problem, it's just trading one disease for another.

#3 Advances in cosmetic surgery allows you full control over how you look.

I like the way I look. Most people wouldn't say I look absolutely perfect, but I would. It would be a bigger advance in our culture if we could mature as people and find the beauty in our diversity. When otherwise ordinary people undergo cosmetic surgery, I always find they come out uglier than before. They just look unnatural.

#4 Eliminate aging.

How will we control the population? No more child births? We need child births -- we need new people to see things in new ways. So every time a child is born someone else gets put down? Who? At twenty-seven, I think I'd like to live forever. At 127 I'm not so sure. There would come a point where the excitement of seeing what lies beyond death would outweigh any excitement new human technology could offer.

#5 Cybernetic and biological Modifications can be used to achieve superhuman intelligence, strength, stamina, agility etc. and grant you immortality. You may even connect to a universal consciussnes to hear the thoughts and ideas of people worldwide.

Is there such a thing as knowing too much? I don't think I'd mind if everyone were super intelligent, but I think we can get there without technology. Why not use technology? It may just be a matter of aesthetics. I wouldn't feel comfortable having a computer chip in my head. So while everyone else wandered off to be superhuman, I guess I'd make do as I could, and hope that with your great wealth of intelligence you would be granted the wisdom to allow me to live. Because I'm perfectly fine being a dummy.

Strength, speed, stamina... Sounds okay, but just how strong do I need to be, anyway? I've gotten by fine so far without being able to lift cars over my head. I think I would like to be able to leap buildings in a single bound, though. I guess everyone in this superhuman future will be peaceful, since otherwise superhuman powers will be a very dangerous thing. So yeah, if we're all peaceful, then I would like some rocket shoes please.

Hearing the entire globe's thoughts in my head? There would come a point where everything went silent.

All in all, I think "post-human" futurism is just a disaster waiting to happen. Know-it-alls who are going to find out there's a lot more to life than what they had conceived of.

 

jesus, I was beginning to think I'd have to walk the earth alone as the last "classic" human. Thanks Lilunicorn, for coming in the defense of the other side

There are alot of reasons why I wouldn't do, some of them you already mentioned. It has mostly to do with substance and character. If all you know and every attribute you have came throught a single injection, you havn't accomplished anything. You have no substance. And as you said I don't need to be stronger or faster or any of that, if I wanted it I'd excercise.

and I'd rather be a unique individual than being part of a universal consciense.

and LanSLIde, thank you for that interesting read. But I'd rather have a life with drama, pain, sorrow and finaly death, than live in a world with nothing but constant bliss

It's all just taking the challenge out of life

Edit: Plus character flaws are awesome. They make people interesting

 

I'm with you, being a human being rocks. What is the big rush? Maybe we'll split into two different species, but either way we'll be perfected in whatever we are. Unless one side is planning on killing off the other. I just don't want to be on that side. Don't put me in a zoo, either, unless it's really big and I can't tell that you're watching.

 

Hey theres no rush, we're just saying as long as they get the facts right and execute it properly there is a way to succeed. I mean take a look at eating cloned animals, we've only recently been able to clone them and already we are planning on eating them. but there hasn't been enough research and the only real reason they are releasing these cloned animals for consumption is because of profit-- they are just greedy bastards. But lets say if we took our time, checked and rechecked these animals and the process of cloning, I'm sure one day we can create an animal that is as "natural" as they come. We just have to take our time and not worry about profits, the same goes for unifying our intelligence, technology, etc. --- there is a proper way to do it, and then there is a profit making way to do it. Basically we are going to have to come up with something better than capitalism haha.

 

Okay, just so you futurists aren't planning on forcing people to become cyborgs at gunpoint or throwing all of us primordial freaks into concentration camps or anything. Humans do have the tendency to leap into technologies head first, though.

 

Nah man, I'm all for natural flaws, how boring would it be if everyone was the same way - perfect? Ever read Calvin and Hobbes growing up? "It builds character". People who grow up facing challenges are often the most extraordinary that you'll ever meet.
Welcome for the read, glad you checked it out (think I even got it on this site somewhere); I'm not quite for it, but it offers some cool ideas that aren't too far-fetched. Something about the balance of life tells me that by overcoming all our pains, we'll lose on some ground.

As for your post, Floyd, the first step to achieving a world where every nation works together is a unified world culture. Never before the phone was it possible to share ideas with people across the globe in a heartbeat, and now the internet is doing the same thing in a more complete manner. A world-wide sharing of thoughts and ideas can eventually lead to a single culture on Earth, although this would still face some challenges, specifically language barriers. But if every person can understand others as if they were from the same culture, maybe working together wouldn't be such a hard thing. Greed being what it is, I can't see this happening soon, or happening in a world where people still need to fight to meet their basic needs. But I can't see a world where people have their basic needs fulfilled without a good bit of global cooperation.

 

This is on my assumption this is a personal choice.

If these were facts, or every single book and web page ever created.
I'd buy into that. Mmm to be fair I'd want to be a little more selective than to just have 'everything'. You are not very specific about this 'knowledge'.
Is it just things like, humans may, indeed more than likely, rose to the top of the food chain because they were bipedal, and that... well: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/food_for_thought1.shtml . And we all learn how to spell and use grammer properly?

How would we learn?

Fantastic.

Fantastic

Fantastic

What? like an I.N.T..E.R.N.E>T - as long as there is an ignore function.

Yes.

 

What I'm talking about here isn't learning by reading/doing, it actually isn't learning at all, just suddenly "knowing". Instead of 10 or so years of school, you'd know everything in the matter of seconds. But it's more than downloading facts, it would also be used to learn skills (swimming, biking etc.), and could also be used for therapy, curing fobias and what not.

I hope it's easier to understand now

 

Yeah...

I guess I was saying how would we learn, if we all had the same knowledge.
I guess if it is an ongoing process it just helps to be aware of things we did not know, but would.

 

I love the idea of being some cyborg with the ability to live forever, im surprised so many people would be against this sort of technology. I can see how if some sort of technology like this were to be created that only those with alot money would be able to afford it anyway, i cant imagine they would make the technology available to the general class of society. Also if that where to happen i can imagine society becoming a whole lot more lazy as there is no end so nothing needs to be done at a fast pace. The more i think about the society aspect of technology like this i can see more issues would arise than any sort of progression of the human race. On the other hand if i think about my self and leave the social aspect out i say id go with this technology as alot of selfish humans would.

 

I'm surprised so many are for it. I thought the idea was awesome when I was in junior high, but now that I know lot more about life, I would never give up my mortality or just "cheat" at life like this.

and BTW if society continues to be like it is now even with this technology, it wouldn't make my life any better, it would only rob me of my retirement.