From: "John Marlow" <johnmarlow@gmx.net>
> Hey, I'm a techfan, and even I am very conflicted about this. Very,
> very conflicted. This is going to explode. Maybe not over the
> lampreys--but wait 'til they get to the cute-and-fuzzies. It's going
> to get violent.
You mean, of course, that PETA and other animal rights organizations (as well
as Unabomber types) will resort to open warfare against cyborg projects.
That's the de Garis scenario, with Terrans and Cosmists.
Then again, cyborgs may provide such spectacular entertainment (visualize
Battlebots literally on steroids with mammalian/reptilian organic brains of
their own), that it will make Roman gladiators look like girl scouts. That
kind of violence could spike TV network and cable ratings. Do you suppose the
idea for humanoid robots (robocops) came from cyborg lab experiments... or was
it the other way around?
Doesn't really matter, because the point is that if cyborginization can be
done with lamprey brains, it can eventually be done with human brains,
transhuman brains, and posthuman brains. Cyborgs will win because they can
outlive and outperform less robustly adaptive systems. (Less adaptive =
tending toward luddism.)
--J. R.
Useless hypotheses:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:47 MDT