Cyberpunk Pt2: Of Cyborgs & Dirty Apes
Another week of the terrifying world of tomorrow.
Click for video
For years now, people have thought about cyborgs, cybernetic organisms, as something that’s only in the realm of Science Fiction… Techno-festishistic or techno-deterministic fantasies born out by people that wish they could be more than human.
But basic human cyborgs are already about the place, whether people realise it or not. We have people with dialysis machines cleaning their blood, cameras for eyes, microphones for ears, and small fishtank pumps for hearts that can keep the body alive even after it’s technically dead because it keeps on going and going and going… OI!
NOT Photoshoped
People don’t consider this stuff cybernetic enhancement of the human body. Rather, they consider it rectifying issues that exist. But why aren’t we using this technology to enhance ourselves? There seems to be some ethical reason why we don’t enhance our bodies to be superior than the original when replacing damaged parts, but no one seems able to tell me what it is. It’s ok for an amputee to be able to run faster than a regularly bodied athlete by having spring loaded legs… But it’s not OK to cut off healthy legs to enhance them in this way. Ironically, this guy is disqualified from competing in the regular Olympics.
So why can’t regular people have spring loaded legs as an option? Why can’t we insert recording features into our eyes, or the ability to filter out pitches and background noise into people’s hearing aids? Replacement eyes with night shot mode or zoom would surely be used for the benefit of everyone.
It’s like we purposefully want our cripples to remain crippled and not be able to surpass those of us that are “healthy” and “able bodied”. I think it’s about giving us someone to feel sorry for. No one wants to have a conversation that went “Oh, did you hear about how Jim lost an arm? Yea, the lucky bastards going to get a replacement that can crush granite!”… well, that just wouldn’t do now, would it.
US Army Surplus: Delivered to Australia in 2014
But here’s the thing, we’re getting closer and closer to creating tech that is far superior to our flimsy meat bags, and we should be ready to take advantage of it before something bizarre happens. Already monkeys are controlling robot arms through direct interface, feeding themselves bits of fruit. How long until monkey deathbots become part of the military arsenal? And what happens when they get pissed off because someone brought them bananas instead of mangoes?
Better yet, how long until this stuff is appropriate for human use? There are plenty of people that lose limbs every year due to accidents, and they’re left with horrible deformities due to this. Yet we know that prosthetics in movies are pretty damn good, and that robotic replacement arms look ok, and that monkey’s can control arms with their thoughts so surely this shit is ready for people too. Well, it is to some extent (Click pictured human prosthetic arm for video)
Click for Video
But these are flimsy substitutes, substantially weaker than the real life counterparts. Part of the issue lies with people not really feeling the weight of their own arms, thanks to the muscle and ligaments holding them in place. Another part has to do with the amount of weight these things can be before seriously weighing a person down. There are also some serious issues in power to weight ratios of the devices, although assisted hydraulics should theoretically be much more powerful than the average human being (that doesn’t spend large amounts of time at the gym) in terms of this. Masamune Shirow actually covers all of this in one of the sidenotes in the original Ghost in the Shell books.
You know, it kinda like those guys in Half Life 2
But surely if we’re going to lose out on power to weight, we could be making these arms out of ultra-light newer materials, such as carbon composites, to the point that being an amputee actually becomes fashionable. No, really. Think about all those people that wear vambraces and gauntlets out to a club *cough* If amputees could swap their arms over to already look good, then why not? It’d certainly give all the cyber-fetishists something to drool over.
This of course leaves a few questions:
- Would you be responsible for your actions if someone hacked into your system and starting making you do things, like a cyber-Tourette’s syndrome?
- Fine motor control is still beyond the grasp at both a technical level, cost level for the average amputee, and even physical rehab level. Even with a sexy arm, either realistic or techno-fetishistic, how are you going to be sensual with other people or even yourself?
- Is it cheating if you take of the hand and replace it with a masturbatory device such as a powered pocket pussy or dildo?
- Speaking of, people can get prosthetic penises. Lesbians use cheaper alternatives all the time, but transsexuals get the real deal. Would it be cheating to have combination of the two that allowed you to swap out and change so it remained appropriate to the situation at hand? i.e. could you get a 20 inch monster with a small pump inside it so that you could basically scare the crap out of potential high level business partners when going to the urinal in a break at a meeting? Would women consider having small pressure pumps or valve chambers installed to become better lovers?
Ultimately, prosthesis could replace an entire body, provided people plug themselves in before going to sleep every night. We’re going to end up with a society that’s reminiscent of Battle Angel Alita, or so I hope with no small degree of fervor.
You might also like to read:
November 12th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
[...] mentioned in the a previous post, prosthetic hands and other body parts are a pretty common theme. One of the things people seem to have had trouble [...]