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Posted by Kris Krieger on February 25, 2008, 5:02 pm
>
>> ....say as little as 50 years from now when people will voluntarily
>> have their extremities removed because prosthetics will be far
>> superior to the hindrances you were born with?
>> Computer driven with all the bells and whistles with 1000gb of ram
>> and the ability to do that which even young people cannot do.
>> Run 1 minute miles with Michelin treads on your dawgz.
>> Read Britannica in 2 minutes.
>> Before going to bed you will program your extremities for the events
>> of the
>> following day so that you might get done all of the things you had
>> planned.
>> 120 wpm? right.
>> Why not 9000 words per minute?
>> Write 300 emails in 3 seconds.
>> Just sit there and watch it happen.
>> Think it and its done.
>> Artificial eyes that allow you to browse 500 blogs simultaneously and
>> retain
>> everything in your outboard ram which filters into your 1000
>> terrabyte swappable HD.
>> Nobody has time for grocery shopping anymore, get your chemical fix
>> online via USB 12.0.
>> Wanna buzz, hit F115.
>> The spine is the cortex, imagine flexible ribs, where with the blink
>> of an eye you can *swim*, underwater, to europe, in 15 minutes.
>> Faster than flying, and no cavity searches.
>> What cavities?
>> The ones packed with loonies of course.
>
> I think you've watched "The Matrix" one too many times.
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Have you seen that track runner thats been banned because he has 2
> prosthetic legs?
> It was in the news about a month ago.
> Seems he had a severe advantage over legged runners and is tearing the
> track up and breaking records.
> His mechanical legs cost $30k, each.
> (they sort of look like a veloceraptor legs)
> In 50 years prosthetic legs will allow the user to jump 100' straight
> up, run and swim 75 mph and they will be programmed for all sorts of
> stuff (they already have onboard processors on them).
> The world of prosthetics is in its infancy but with the advent of new
> materials and microprocessors the world is wide open.
> When it comes right down to it, all you need is a brain, all the other
> stuff can be replaced.
ANd when it all starts getting arthritic and creaky and achy (think about
the poor folks suffering with things like Rheumatoid Arthritis - not
*that*is a tough row to hoe...), I can well imagine that an advnaced
prosthetic that gives a person molbility would be preferable to being
confined to a chair.
THere is no clear either-or here - it's similar to "steroids" (basically,
testosterone). If one has hypogonadism, esp. if young, taking testosterone
to maintain normal physiological levels is a matter of health. OTOH,
someone who takes enough to reach many times the normal physiological level
is asking for trouble, because one *can* get "too much of a good thing".
You also can die from drinking too much water, really.
Humans have had the power to create their own nightmares pretty much since
the human brain *became* human. THey also have the capacity to create
their own paradise. Technology is merely the latest permutation, and
expression, of that ability.
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