Slate's Superman series

From: Wei Dai (weidai@weidai.com)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 02:38:55 MST

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    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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