In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too far?

[CannonFodder]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Telling someone to delete system32 as a joke would then be murder >_<

 

[Rilvor]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

We're working on growing organs and tissues, it's possible that down the line they'll be able to inject new neurons to repair the decay.

I suspect we will eventually have the choice of Flesh or Metal?

I believe I read that the first fully mechanical human heart is being tested in a live patient this very year.

 

[Kranda]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

One thing I would replace in a heartbeat would be eyes. Eyes that could see in the dark record images and video and acted like binoculars would be awesome.

 

[Hendly Devin]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Its too late to argue about the ethics now. The robo arms are already here!!!

http://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_previews_a_new_prosthetic_arm.html

But to be clear are you talking about prosthetics to replace missing or defective body parts? Or are you supposing prosthetic augmentation to better the performance of an already functional human body?

 

[Kyrodo]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Telling someone to delete system32 as a joke would then be murder >_<

Blue screen of -DEAD-

Was watching some movie in one of my not-so-recent classes. Heard they were already starting to develop mechanical "eyes". Well, mechanical vision anyway. Basically, they'd wire a certain part of your brain up to a cheapy camera or something. Obviously, still under development. It would help the blind get their vision back. And if they make "mechanical eyes", it would sure beat contacts XD

 

[Tycho]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

You want to be Inspector Gadget?

Go go gadget helicopter, fuck yeah

(No, really - if you ever watched that cartoon and you're telling me you never thought "that would be such an awesome thing to have" when you saw the crazy stuff he could do, you're a liar. A filthy liar, I say!)

 

[Kranda]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

I want Blind Mag eyes

 

[CannonFodder]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Its too late to argue about the ethics now. The robo arms are already here!!!

http://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_previews_a_new_prosthetic_arm.html

But to be clear are you talking about prosthetics to replace missing or defective body parts? Or are you supposing prosthetic augmentation to better the performance of an already functional human body?

Well obviously the prosthetics are going to go to those who need it for medical reasons first or for military purposes and then later on when it becomes cheaper it will become available to the public.

 

[Rilvor]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Likely there will need to be something done to prevent a new kind of "cybercriminal".

The kind where you are dealing with a man with a mechanical body that is definitely not someone to be put into a normal jail.

 

[CannonFodder]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Likely there will need to be something done to prevent a new kind of "cybercriminal".

The kind where you are dealing with a man with a mechanical body that is definitely not someone to be put into a normal jail.

We could put their bodies in storage and their minds in a virtual prison, slow down their mental clock so that on the inside they experience like a couple weeks to decades. Or if they would normally be on death row permanently put them in or put them in for such a long time. Like if someone commits a killing spree and is sentenced to 400 years in prison, they could actually be put in prison for that time. While it'd unleash a whole new level of ethics debates, it'd be a more human method to the death penalty.

 

[Stormtail]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Likely there will need to be something done to prevent a new kind of "cybercriminal".

The kind where you are dealing with a man with a mechanical body that is definitely not someone to be put into a normal jail.

Well, you know, If there are cybernetically enhanced criminals there will be enhanced vigilantes... like Iron Man.

Edit: Still, this would probably be a bad thing more than a good thing.

 

[Kyrodo]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Likely there will need to be something done to prevent a new kind of "cybercriminal".

The kind where you are dealing with a man with a mechanical body that is definitely not someone to be put into a normal jail.

Ha, perhaps we could give them an "off" switch and stash them away somewhere?

 

[Hendly Devin]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Well obviously the prosthetics are going to go to those who need it for medical reasons first or for military purposes and then later on when it becomes cheaper it will become available to the public.

So both augmentation and medical replacement of bilogical failure?

Unfortunately i feel like cybernetic augmentation sounds incredibly similar to the posibilities of eugenics and genetic augmentation in which it might very well be kept so expensive that only the richest of the rich can take advantage of its use.

So long as its all fair and affordable i got no qualms. Infact call me when they can dl my thoughts into a computer base and there by never physically age but instead live immortally via a digital self.

 

[Tycho]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

I don't want to turn the thread into a total lowest-common-denominator jokefest, but...

Estimated time before the invention, sale and implantation of a bionic super-robo-mechapenis? Less than a decade, I wager. The people who produce these things are gonna want to tap that market eventually, and everyone knows it's there.

 

[greg-the-fox]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

I think it would be awesome but it has to be fully integrated into the nervous system and have the physical appearance and response of skin

 

[Hendly Devin]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Nah we just need robo cop.

Maybe a double post? Maybe not? Its a party lets see what happens

 

[TreacleFox]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

A brain with a combination of original human parts and computer parts could have massive potental. The main problems would be linking your brain to the computer because linking hundreads of nerves to a computer chip would require micro surgery in which you could not make a single misstake, and also finding some kind of computer software format that your brain could understand. If someone could make a computer powerfull enough you might be able to get around these problems by replacing your entire brain with a computer, this could also give you perfect memory. The thing with this too is that it could possibley allow you to live forever inside a computer. I doubt many people would find this appealing though. If a computer with a massive enough harddrive was made, I dont see any reason why someone with some kind of scanner couldn't scan and save the location and type of every atom in your brain and apply some kind of physics engine to it. This is all very impractcal though.

 

[Kyrodo]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Nah we just need robo cop.

Maybe a double post? Maybe not? Its a party lets see what happens

I have to admire you for taking your chances. XD

I can already imagine the annoying internet ads we'll see when they get a hold of this mecha-penis.

 

[M. LeRenard]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

I love the idea of being able to completely replace an entire person with a machine while still keeping the memories and personality exactly intact. You could augment the hell out of a man by doing that. No more of these silly chemical potentials over lipid membranes ruling the show: now your thoughts travel at the speed of light. You'd be able to process anything in a nanosecond, and your limbs could react just as quickly. It makes you wonder what a society of people like that would be like. Whatever happens, it would move really quickly.
But I think getting up to that point would be rife with problems. You know. Who gets to be the first to become a demi-god, once this technology becomes available? What would that person do with that kind of power? How would we know what that person might do, and how do you decide to go through with it if you didn't know? Would we extend it to other creatures too? Like, maybe give a rat a computer brain so that it can learn language and mathematics better than we can right now? Would there be any reason to do that? Would there be any reason not to?
And... you know. Some of these physical desires would become completely unnecessary, but would you want to keep them anyway? Like, what would happen if we programmed ourselves not to ever want sex, food, that fuzzy feeling you get from drinking hot cocoa on a snowy day, things like that? There are a lot of directions we could go. Would there be any reason to keep emotion in general? Aesthetics? Art, music, writing, curiosity, things like that?
But the really neat thing, if all went smoothly in procuring these technologies, is that we could choose every aspect of that path individually. So it'd be a neat world, for certain, and I'd be all for it if I knew we could get that far. And since humanity is such a diverse starting point, I'm thinking the amount of potential customization here would probably only serve to increase that diversity, so long as everyone was allowed to pick and choose his own characteristics. Could be a lot of fun.
But again, the problem would be in getting there.

 

[TreacleFox]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

I love the idea of being able to completely replace an entire person with a machine while still keeping the memories and personality exactly intact. You could augment the hell out of a man by doing that. No more of these silly chemical potentials over lipid membranes ruling the show: now your thoughts travel at the speed of light. You'd be able to process anything in a nanosecond, and your limbs could react just as quickly. It makes you wonder what a society of people like that would be like. Whatever happens, it would move really quickly.
But I think getting up to that point would be rife with problems. You know. Who gets to be the first to become a demi-god, once this technology becomes available? What would that person do with that kind of power? How would we know what that person might do, and how do you decide to go through with it if you didn't know? Would we extend it to other creatures too? Like, maybe give a rat a computer brain so that it can learn language and mathematics better than we can right now? Would there be any reason to do that? Would there be any reason not to?
And... you know. Some of these physical desires would become completely unnecessary, but would you want to keep them anyway? Like, what would happen if we programmed ourselves not to ever want sex, food, that fuzzy feeling you get from drinking hot cocoa on a snowy day, things like that? There are a lot of directions we could go. Would there be any reason to keep emotion in general? Aesthetics? Art, music, writing, curiosity, things like that?
But the really neat thing, if all went smoothly in procuring these technologies, is that we could choose every aspect of that path individually. So it'd be a neat world, for certain, and I'd be all for it if I knew we could get that far. And since humanity is such a diverse starting point, I'm thinking the amount of potential customization here would probably only serve to increase that diversity, so long as everyone was allowed to pick and choose his own characteristics. Could be a lot of fun.
But again, the problem would be in getting there.

I like the idea of scanning someone's brain and saving the location of every atom and then having a computer apply some kind of perfect physics engine to it so it can simulate how every atom within the brain would behave normaly. This way that person could exists forever with unaltered thinking. The computer would have to be unimaginaly powerfull though.

 

[Tycho]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

I like the idea of scanning someone's brain and saving the location of every atom and then having a computer apply some kind of perfect physics engine to it so it can simulate how every atom within the brain would behave normaly. This way that person could exists forever with unaltered thinking. The computer would have to be unimaginaly powerfull though.

Funny thought - what if it DIDN'T have to be incredibly powerful? What if you could fit a person's mind into a desktop computer? Our brains are very complex and undoubtedly powerful "computing devices", but are we REALLY something only a Cray could handle? Supercomputers run rings around the most brilliant human mind for mathematical calculations, if that is a measure of computing power. How "high end" are we?

 

[CannonFodder]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

I like the idea of scanning someone's brain and saving the location of every atom and then having a computer apply some kind of perfect physics engine to it so it can simulate how every atom within the brain would behave normaly. This way that person could exists forever with unaltered thinking. The computer would have to be unimaginaly powerfull though.

Or export it in a way the computer could understand and run it in a virtual environment.

 

[Kyrodo]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

Or export it in a way the computer could understand and run it in a virtual environment.

I'm sure this is possible, as both computers and the brain essentially work on binary. Don't quote me on this.

 

[M. LeRenard]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

To be fair, supercomputers are good at doing one thing billions of times really quickly. But if you've ever written a piece of code, you'd know that computers get stumped if the instructions you give them aren't exactly right. In other words, right now you can't expect a computer to be able to think on its own and realize when you screwed up the code, and what you actually meant to happen when you wrote it. That's creative thinking, and that's incredibly tough to just program. After all, we aren't sure how our brains do it.
I'm thinking that the whole 'build a computer' approach wouldn't work to make an artificial brain, mainly because the brain doesn't work like a computer. It's a really complex system, in which every part is interconnected, and in which a lot of parts are capable of taking over for other parts if said other parts ever failed. A better method would probably be to just figure out how to grow one like nature does, except out of metals and plastics instead of lipids and water. Because otherwise, yeah, you'd have to come up with one hell of a complex computer system to mimic all those operations through simple yes and no switches like what we have in computers now. That'd be a problem most scientists would call reasonably impossible.

 

[CannonFodder]

Re: In the future would you support cybernetic prosthetics and how far would be too f

^Which is why I said that sort of tech is more than likely a century away, I'm sure we'll figure out eventually how to do so, but I'd be fooling myself if I had any idea of how.

I'm sure this is possible, as both computers and the brain essentially work on binary. Don't quote me on this.

I get your analogy, but with any analogy it breaks down the further you look into it, but I get what you mean so I'll just leave it at that.
I expect that the first version of what I'm talking about will be a really crappy program, basically Windows ME of virtual minds, and as time goes on they'll issue software patches and software upgrades to basically fix any problems that will arise until we actually get the hang of it.
To use a analogy-

MOVE "Brain: \mind" "Computer: \virtual environment"
C:\virtual environment\system32\wuapp.exe
C:\virtual environment\system32\wuauclt.exe /detectnow