From: Wei Dai (weidai@weidai.com)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 02:38:55 MST
http://slate.msn.com/id/2079099/
Building a Better You
How you'll become stronger, faster, smarter.
By David Plotz
Sooner or later-and probably sooner-science will be able to make you a
better you: or at least a stronger you, a faster you, a you with perfect
eyesight, excellent hearing, and a remarkable memory. I'm not talking
about a clone (though that's coming, too), but rather-to use the euphemism
of choice for those who want to tinker-an "enhanced" you.
...
Slate's "Superman" series takes an unusual approach to the ethical
questions about enhancement. I am going to ignore them for the moment.
Superman begins with the premise that before you can take a position on
the morality of enhancement, you need to understand what you are
moralizing about. Rather than start the journey in the bog of ethics, I'll
begin with the practical (and much more fun) questions about how humans
might improve and how we won't. Over the next five days, I'll speculate
about what's possible, what isn't, and when the possible might finally be
real. What are the obstacles to human enhancements? What are the
physiological and psychological costs of enhancements? Then, after a week
of thinking about the practicalities of enhancements, I'll return to the
ethics. Suppose we can make ourselves better: Should we?
http://slate.msn.com/id/2079371/
I Spy With My Eagle Eye
The quest for supervision.
By David Plotz
Supervision is the indispensable comic-book power. Superman sported X-ray
sight. Other superheroes were gifted with night vision, eagle eyes, or
even eyes that fired deadly laser beams (a kind of Lasik surgery, whacked
inside out).
...
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