Re: [Fwd: [isml] BODY SHOPPING]

From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Thu Dec 28 2000 - 08:57:42 MST


Thanks for forwarding this 'gene. I was surprised that the journalist
didn't review "Primo 3M+" or even mention it, but perhaps he will after the
new release in January.

Natasha

At 02:03 PM 12/29/00 +0100, you wrote:
>
>(((fixed wrapped earl)))
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>From: "DS" <ds2000@mediaone.net>
>Subject: [isml] BODY SHOPPING
>To: "isml" <isml@egroups.com>
>
>>From The Chicago Tribune,
>http://www.chicagotribune.com/leisure/tempo/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV
-0012280052,FF.html
>-
>BODY SHOPPING
>FUTURISTS USE THE WEB TO PLAN A WORLD MERGING MAN, MACHINE
>
>By Dan Dinello
>Special to the Tribune
>December 28, 2000
>
>Imagine yourself a virtual living being, free of physical pain, able to
>repair any damage to your mechanical body and with a downloadable mind that
>never dies -- a post-biological human. Several 21st Century technologies --
>prosthetics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and
>robotics -- may define a new era in human progress, the Post-Human Era. With
>outposts all over the Internet, scientific idealists promote a positive --
>almost religious -- vision of these emerging technologies' potential impact
>on human evolution.
>
>Their outlook is in marked contrast to the often grim warnings about
>advancing technology. Science-fiction films, for example, from "Metropolis"
>to "The Matrix," remain firmly rooted in these fears. (A more comprehensive
>look at this technophobia will run next week.) Last year, computer scientist
>Bill Joy warned, in Wired magazine, about the dangers of uncontrolled
>technology: "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us"
>(www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html)
>
>But as evidenced by the following Web sites and books, the miraculous
>promise, no matter how theoretical, of these human-improving technologies
>draws a rapt audience.
>
>Prosthetic technology regenerates a damaged body with artificial replacement
>parts -- synthetic skin, mechanical heart valves, cochlear implants,
>titanium jaws, hips, arms, legs, hands, feet. The Global Resource for
>Orthotics and Prosthetics (www.oandp.com) provides links to numerous
>corporate and informational Web sites related to these currently available
>prostheses.
>
>Cutting-edge prosthetic research promises even more miraculous
>possibilities. Scanning these research Web sites reveals developments in
>working artificial devices for many organs -- kidneys, hearts, blood vessels
>and livers. Retinal Implant (www.uak.medizin.unituebingen.de/depii/g
>roups/subret/index-en.html) has developed technology that may provide sight
>to the blind in a few years; Bizspace Pharma (www.bizspacepharma.com/
>
>Technology20%Articles/hand.htm) details research on artificial limbs
>controlled by nerve impulses.
>
>Prosthetic research, with links to many research Web sites, is summarized at
>BusinessWeek online (www.businessweek.com/2000/00-12/b3673025.htm).
>
>These prosthetic innovations of techno-science encourage a dream of
>immortality through gradual replacement of all body parts.
>
>Biotechnology goes even further. Rather than provide a new artificial body,
>biotechnologists want to prevent or cure disease by managing the body's
>biological processes in ever-greater detail, leading to perfect health. Web
>sites such as Bio OnLine (www.bio.com/os/start/home.html) and the government
>site Biotechnology (www.nal.usda.gov/bic/) offer information about the
>methods of biotech -- nanotechnology, genetic manipulation and cloning -- as
>well as present and future applications.
>
>The many wonders of nanotechnology -- designing or evolving tiny machines or
>biochips that can be programmed to operate within the human body -- have
>been elaborately imagined by Eric Drexler in his 1987 book "Engines of
>Creation," available for free on The Foresight Institute Web site
>(www.foresight.org/EOC/index.html).
>
>Among other things, he envisions a nanotech diagnostic tool of the future:
>DNA-based computer chips, implanted into the body, will continuously analyze
>a person's entire genome, determine when something goes wrong and provide
>the information needed to apply treatments and cures.
>
>Other mind-boggling projections can be found at Nanotechnology magazine
>(http://nanozine.com/). A future nanotechnological cure for cancer might
>involve injecting cell-size nano-robot machines, or nanobots, into the
>afflicted person's body. Using genetic sensors, these nanobots may be able
>to hunt down and destroy every cancer cell. Other diseases may also be
>subject to nanobot attacks. For example, differently programmed nanobots
>might be sent into the body to loosen tiny bits of artery plaque and clear
>out clogged blood vessels. These and other intriguing nanontechnological
>developments remain at an early stage.
>
>Another biotechnological method, cloning, involves the regeneration of
>proteins, plants, animals and even humans from single cells. Brought to
>public attention by the movie "Jurassic Park" and the actual cloning of the
>sheep Dolly, current cloning practices produce antibodies used in medicine
>as well as drug manufacturing and disease diagnosis. Research, future
>predictions and lots of Internet links can be explored at the New Scientist
>Special Cloning Report
>(www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/clone/clonelinks.html).
>
>Besides the possibility of growing entire replacement arms, feet, hearts or
>livers, cloning may lead to human immortality through endless bodily
>replication - as long as one remembers to extract and store his or her own
>DNA. Gene banks for pets already exist on the Internet. Genetic Savings &
>Clone (www.savingsandclone.com) offers to extract DNA from your pet and
>cryogenically store it. Human Cloning (www.globalchange.com/clonlink.htm)
>provides visual explanations of the cloning process, future predictions,
>links, news and ethical debate; Slouching Towards Creation: Peer Into the
>Face of Cloning (www.pathfinder.com/TIME/cloning/dolly.html) provides
>visuals plus essays on questions such as "Human cloning: should it be done?
>If it's done, what would it mean?"
>
>Artificial intelligence and robotics experts envision an even more bizarre
>method of attaining immortality. Their post-biological utopia assumes the
>extinction of humans or, at least, their conversion into an almost
>supernatural post-human species. On his Web site
>(www.penguinputnam.com/kurzweil/links.htm), author and computer scientist
>Ray Kurzweil -- the inventor of the first reading machine for the blind --
>describes a future utopia in which humans live forever by becoming one with
>robotic technology. Rather than preserving our bodies, this method discards
>our death-susceptible physical form and aims to preserve our identity (our
>minds) by downloading consciousness into a computer within a robot body. A
>fascinating visual history and future projections of robot technology can be
>seen at Android World (www.androidworld.com/index.htm)
>
>No one follows this post-biological line of speculation with the mechanist
>abandon of Carnegie-Mellon robotics pioneer Hans Morevec
>(www.frc.cmu.ri.edu/(tilde)hpm/). Moravec first seriously proposed
>transferring our minds into machines in his 1988 book "Mind Children" and
>developed the idea in his 1999 book "Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent
>Mind." On his Web site, Morevec says, "By mid-century no human task,
>physical or intellectual, should be beyond effective automation." Moravec
>and Kurzweil both argue that humans should happily adapt to artificially
>intelligent robotic technology and gain immortality or face extinction.
>
>Perhaps the most zealous proselytizers for this new brand of Homo Cyber are
>the post-humanists known as the Extropians (www.extropy.com). The Extropians
>spend a lot of time plotting out neo-Darwinian future scenarios dominated by
>futuristic technologies. Navigating their Web site, you will find optimistic
>predictions of off-world space colonies, advanced robotics, artificial
>intelligence, nanotechnology and life extension through mental downloads.
>Like religious mystics, the Extropians meticulously plan for the day when
>technology will free us forever from the clutches of the earth, the body and
>death itself.
>
>--
>Dan S
>
>
>
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