Human Upgrades
 

http://www.humanupgrades.com/

I want to know what everyone thinks of this website.

It might be for real, but chances are it's a hoax. I don't want this discussion to be about whether it's real or not.

Do you think it's a good idea or a bad idea? Is it foolish to be editing and changing DNA and making odd modifications like this?

Don't you think the sexual modifications sound like fun? Why not?

Some of the facial mods would take some getting used to. That ear looks like it could hear better...

The 6 fingered and web-fingered mods don't interest me particularly, but they might be good for athletes. Would you consider that acceptable or would you want someone with webbed fingers to be disqualified from swimming, say, in Olympic competitions?

I don't know. I love the concept of cyborgs. Even though I don't think it will, if it brings upon the apocalypse, so be it. I want to see freakin' androids.

In all seriousness, the concept inches humanity ever closer to...badum-chee...singularity. But to stray away from overused loaded buzzwords, it would bring about massive social upheavals. And to me, it's inevitable. It'll be painful and disgusting and rife with debate, but people will always sneak past those bickering to the open door of implants.

I recently saw a thing on the Discovery channel where they planted an implant in a (paraplegic) guy's brain through trepanation, and he could then control a computer mouse just by thinking about moving it in certain directions.

The technology they used for it, certain neurobiologists extrapolated, could be used to 'jack in' to a 'second-skin' type cyborg suit, allowing the wearer such abilities as lifting up fucking cars.

I'm down. I'm sure those too optimistic will see the bad side (criminals acquiring the technology), those too pessimistic will fail to see the good side (great leaps for humanity), and most will miss the real answer: 42. 42 is reality, somewhere in the middle there, not that it makes much sense.

Fantasy: war between just androids and malicious androids. Ooh.

Okay, are we talking about genetics, technology, or both? As in, the difference between having gills, and having a device in your neck that basically does the same thing.

To me, the first one is far more dangerous. It's very simple to add something. It's much more difficult (and dangerous) to change something. We already have artifical hearts, metal for bones, so that area continuing is only a matter of time. As to how far, who knows? We certainly didn't know that we could realistically go into outer space a 100 years ago.

But genetics... That's a different matter to me. And since I haven't fully figured out how I feel, I'll bow out of this part of the discussion for now.

The Wandering God

EDIT: Doh!, meant to put 100 there.

I'll assume that's an error more grammatical in nature... I'm pretty sure that there have been humans in space more than a year ago. ^_^

I think the topic is really about genetic modifications - pushing the limits of biology. I don't think it can effectivly be done. I think there's a lot of unforseen consequnces that would make living with say, gills or webbed hands, or any other physical modification fairly cumbersome, if not downright difficult.

Let's say you make the ear more receptive - how does the brain respond? To enable most of the modifications shown, there would also have to be brain alterations to make them truly effective. Time seems better spent on endeavors that assist humans as they currently are.

Bah. Augments...

I've never been a huge fan of genetic engineering for the purposes of giving evolution a quick kick in the pants, myself. For me, it's all about old-school cyber-organics. Artificial replacement parts all the way, man. I'm going full cyborg as soon as the technology exists, and they're getting awfully close. Have you seen some of the neat stuff they've been trying with prosthetic limbs lately?

No, that Gattaca garbage leaves a foul taste in my mouth... but if that's your thing, go for it. I'll be over here with my robot arm and ocular implants, thank you very much.

I agree with Nique on this one.

It should be noted that your brain can, to a great extent, adapt to modifications that repair ailing organs and senses...so long as the brain was originally programmed to understand how it operates at full capacity. That's why, for example, eye laser surgery works. If you once had 20/20 vision, your brain was hotwired to understand and cope with 20/20 vision, so even if your eyesight diminishes to something like 20/40 over time, you can probably recover easily. Once your eyesight returns to 20/20 after the surgery, your brain will say "Ah! Just like it once was!" The neuronic connections are there, hence recovery is relatively stable.

Likewise, so long as you weren't born with any serious mental defect, I'm pretty certain you can even go from being blind to recovering vision, so long as your brain has the connections in place to re-establish a state of stability and order, per se, once the problem's fixed.

But once you get into the realm of, for example, advocating improvement of hearing to cover ranges beyond a human's normal wavelength capacities, etc, (basically meaning you'd hear a higher range of sound), that gets into tricky territory. You can alter your ear so you can recieve the messages. But can you alter your nervous system so that it'll comprehend it? Can you alter the appropriate neurons in your brain to respond accordingly to it? Human brains aren't hotwired to have any capacity to hear a dog's range of sound or smell a dog's range of scent. Enhancing the sensory regions but leaving the nervous system out of the process is like targeting the means without considering the ends.

You'd basically need to find some way to 'upgrade' the entire body, or at least the entire nervous system, to function at a level far higher than human beings are normally capable of attaining. The body, after all, works as one interconnected machine, not just a bunch of independent parts.

And I'm not sure if that's even possible. Could scientists ever even properly identify what specific neurons to 'enhance' or 'impact' in a mature adult's brain?

In theory, the technology enabling that will be invented at some point, but to me that's kind of like the sigularity thing... we're currently so far from such advances that it's impossible to predict with any accuracy at all what might happen in that specific field or when.

I think that basic modifications are possible - increasing stregnth, enhancing growth, correcting minor hearing & seeing ailments... It's when you push those beyond what the human brain can adapt to that you run into trouble.

I have to percieve these upgrades with extreme skepticism. They might seem like good ideas to make our lives less difficult and prolong our lifespan, but do humans actually understand, not just know but understand, enough biology to control it? It's been every human's gut feeling that technology will eventually be able to manipulate nature and evolution, but fear overtakes our minds when confronted with the issue seriously. It's not an unprecedented risk, it still has indeterminable complications. The thought of the vainglorious mad scientist comes to mind, who believes that his theories are perfect and absolute, and that he knows all that will happen.

I think there is only one resolution to this problem, and that is to go through with the task filled with fear but with enough courage to neutralize it. A fearless approach often leads to reckless careless mistakes. Even with fear, mistakes are bound to occur, but courage will keep the mind calm, steady, alert, sharp, and decisive. Scientists will become pioneers that will venture into unknown territory once again, and the most fortituous will become our heroes and leaders.

Ha ha, it's not as risky and unknown as the fearful percieve it actually, but various unknown trifle variables will definitely be our burdens. A perfectionist attitude won't help much. Live with what comes your way, and mend its defects over time while taking in new pieces. Such is the way of the adventurer.

Mistakes will come, and we will be in the care of wise men. Mistakes will come, and we will be in the care of foolish men.

About the approach to human upgrades: I don't really agree with the piece by piece approach. If a piece is added, it needs the body's permission to stay; otherwise, its destroyed by the body's immune system. It's like immigration laws. Why only upgrade one place at a time? If anything is upgraded, the brain should be upgraded too. Our evolved bodies are balanced harmoniously in a deliberate manner so that if new functions are added, they will go through countless trials before proving themselves, if old functions are removed, countless trials will be given to assure safe removal. These upgrades skip all the trials.

God. Should we still look up to the divine for guidance? Or should we take the reigns of destiny for our own? I believe the more we put faith in our knowledge, the more the gods ridicule us. The more we put faith in the divine, the more aggravated they get. How to impress those that are superior? Strength of mind, will, and reaction.

In short, my opinion is I don't know if we should do this, but will never know until we try. And let's try to keep our worries in control. Bad stuff will happen, but strength will bring us through tough times with ease. And the final question we should ask is: what's next?

PS: It seems all the sexual modifications are applied to women. Why not men?

This would be a serious issue if it was real! :p

I read in a new scientist magizine some time ago (I lost the magazine, so don't quote me on this!) that scientists had put camera's on the back of people's heads and had the signal go through a vibrating palett put under the subject's tongue or on their chest.

After a certain amount of time, the vibrations from the palett were interpreted by the brains visual cortex. And the subjects were able to see a lit candle or catch a ball thrown at them from behind.

The scientists had plans to do a similar experiment, with forward facing camera's that detected electromagnetic waves or infrared.

Maybe the brain is a lot better at adapting to new inputs than we think...