Voluntary Cybernetics

[Catalyst6]

Well, it's only a few short hours until the new Deus Ex game drops, and I'm certainly excited. However, a point.

I think that we can all agree that replacing lost limbs with cybernetics and allowing the deaf to hear through technology are great things. However, it seems like the Deus Ex series has always been about the utter dangers of transhumanism, especially when these modifications are not necessary but voluntary. You know, like replacing your arm to make it stronger, and so forth.

Personally, while I fully accept that the market could go out of control and end up with the companies/government/bullshit conspiracy running things, it seems like to big an improvement to give up for that kind of risk. Sure, things could go bad. Very, very bad. But people could be vastly improved in ways that we can't even imagine at this point.

But I'm just one person, so my question to you: are voluntary cybernetic upgrades a force for good or evil?

 

[Catalyst6]

Sorry, no poll. Site messed up.

 

[Aiedail256]

are voluntary cybernetic upgrades a force for good or evil?

Neither.

On the other hand, do I think that the benefits of embracing such technology will outweigh the drawbacks? Absolutely.

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

new technologies are and have always been a double edged sword. there are those who plan to use it for good and those who plan to use it for evil. a gun can be used to kill people or provide food, medicine can be used to save a life or to commit suicide, planes can be used as transportation or they can be used as vessels that deliver your bombs, rockets can be used to get to space or they can be used to blow other people up... cybernetics can be used to heal people and provide enhanced abilities for safety reasons or they can be used to create killing machines

a tool is just a tool, it is the person who wield the tool that defines its meaning, not the tool itself

 

[Loop Stricken]

I have no highbrow answers for you. People are people and as such can be saints or utter utter bastards regardless of what their bodies are made from.

Personally I'd get a new eye, and if possible, skull. Teeth included. Well, new teeth.
Arms, though. Cool and all but as far as I can tell you'd have to have your spine replaced too, otherwise your new super-arm would tear itself from your weak and fleshy flesh.
And I'm okay with that.

The new spine, that is, not the flesh-tearing.

 

[ultrachicken]

I don't really see augmentations dominating combat because being able to lift a car is, in fact, a lot less useful than being able to fire a piece of metal through someone's skull from half a mile away.

The only problem I see arising from this would be if there were cerebral implants to make you smarter, react quicker, that kind of thing. In a civilized society, strength is often exerted through intelligence rather than bombs and elbow blades. And if the implants are expensive, then only the rich can get them, meaning they can become more powerful while the poor are left behind, therefore widening the gap between rich and poor even further.

There would also be privacy issues to go with ocular implants that allow you to see through walls like in Deus Ex, which is an ability I'd love to have, but not an ability I'd want everyone to have.

Voluntary cybernetics would create a whole slew of legal issues, but ultimately, it's just a new type of tool. "A knife can be held by a thug or a surgeon."

 

[Cakes]

I think that we can all agree that replacing lost limbs with cybernetics and allowing the deaf to hear through technology are great things.

Actually there are deaf people who don't regard it as a disability, and are opposed to cochlear implants.

 

[Turing]

Cybernetic eyes would be cool, removing my need for contacts and giving me all sorts of vision modes like night vision, thermal and such and also acting as built-in sunglasses.

I have no illusions about the sanctity of the human form, body mods and cybernetic enhancement is a-okay in my book

 

[WhyBotherToTry]

I think they could only better man's situation. They would give paralysed people a chance to walk and let blind people see and deaf people hear. How could you see them as a force for evil?

 

[Ordinaryundone]

I think they could only better man's situation. They would give paralysed people a chance to walk and let blind people see and deaf people hear. How could you see them as a force for evil?

1. Only the wealthy would be able to afford them, especially the higher quality type. This would create an even larger divide between the wealthy and the poor, as now the wealthy would also have post-human abilities which would create an even larger discrepancy.

2. Careers, especially those that require physical ability, will become completely revolved around the possession of augments. How could an average human, say, construction worker hope to compete with some guy who can lift a ton and never gets tired? Many people would have to go out of their way to get augments, or would risk losing their job. Again, this plays into the price factor.

3. Criminals would inevitably get their hands on them. The police have enough trouble dealing with normal flesh and blood crooks, imagine if they hand to contend with that same super construction worker. Or some guy who had hidden weapons built into his body. The world of crime would become a MUCH more dangerous place, and would lead to severe escalation on both sides. This also ties into the the career=augs problem. Police and soldiers would HAVE to get augs, or else they wouldn't be able to keep up. And if they couldn't keep up, they'd be a liability.

4. It would inevitably lead to a social schism, which would probably end violently on more than one occasion. People would find reasons to oppose augmentations, be they religious, social, or otherwise.

I'm not saying prosthetic augmentations would be bad. In fact, they'd be great for improving the quality of life for many people who need it, and I don't believe they'd have any sort of effect on our "soul", or on changing the definition of human. However, if they did improve to the quality we see in DX without giving society the chance to acclimate and mature to their use they would inevitably lead to the above problems, amongst other things.

 

[Erana]

The notion of us extending our will to the degree that we can so greatly advance an individuals' physical state in such a short time is a beautiful notion in and of itself. The totality of human thought impressed upon the existing world, sister to the digital world that we would create ourselves.

My biggest worry is what inevitably drives this research- war and corporate greed. They will permeate and taint this effort, though to what degree, we cannot yet know.

Of course, to end the corruption of such an art, we would have to cease being human.