Well. This is different.
Cyborgs, self-mutilators, and the future of our race
Heeeeeeere’s Cat Man!
On a projection screen at Stanford Law School, an auditorium full of nerds stared at a picture of a guy who’d done himself up like a cat—not with makeup, but with tattoos and surgery. The guy’s whiskers were implanted. His nose had been converted to a cat nose. His teeth had been filed into the shape of cat teeth. His head has been flattened, and he was looking for a doctor to implant a tail. And that’s just the tip of the freakberg. Behind him, there’s Lizard Man, Amputee Online, the Church of Body Modification, and Suspension.org, the Web site for people who like to be impaled on hooks.
Our guide to the self-mutilators, professor Robert Schwartz of the University of New Mexico, wasn’t trying to gross us out. He was trying to show us the irrationality of regulating body modification based on grossness. Why do we shrug at botox, liposuction, and circumcision? Why do we think it’s no big deal if models, actors, and athletes have themselves cut open for professional advancement? Why did tattoos remain illegal in parts of the United States until three weeks ago? Why did we have “ugly laws” that ordered maimed people off the streets? Why did we operate on sexually ambiguous infants to “correct” their gender, often with disastrous results?
That’s the curious thing about the folks at the Stanford conference. Some were from the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, an offshoot of the World Transhumanist Association, which advocates the transformation of our species through drugs, “genetic engineering, information technology … nanotechnology, machine intelligence, uploading, and space colonization.” Others were from the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, which wants to use “neurotechnologies” to “foster the unlimited potential of the human mind.” Lunch, featuring chicken, was provided by the ExtraLife Foundation. These are weird people with weird ideas. But sometimes it takes a weirdo to see what’s odd about what the rest of us call normal.
Actually, there was a Transumanist Day event help to celebrate the opening of a Transhumanism “sim” in Second Life on Wednsday. There were representatives from IEET and the WTA on hand who all seemed normal enough. About as weird as it got was a long chat with an advocate of cryogenic suspension. Even if this works why would anyone bother to resurrect you in the future? A couple just for a hoot I can see but thousands of pre-posthumans? Maybe to restock the zoo!
Here’s a link to a short bit I wrote on the affair (see below). My favorite quote from this post is “…sometimes it takes a weirdo to see what’s odd about what the rest of us call normal.” That took a while to run through my logical analyzer!
http://tinyurl.com/fv7ho
Will
Someone wake me up when my perfect android body arrives. It will be the one that looks like a velociraptor and speaks with a British accent. Thanks.
Well, I don’t know about adding a tail to anyone, but if theese kooky people can come up with advancements in medicine and cybernetics that can help people with real disabilites, then maybe we should let them.
I guess it all comes down to the right to do with one’s body as one wants . We all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Seems like these people are taking their rights to the extreme, as long as they are not hurting others then I don’t think these people should be stopped.
After eight years at sea in the U. S. Navy I emerged tattooless. Everytime I got drunk enough to want one I was unable to crawl into the nearest tattoo parlor. To this day just the thought of sticking anything in me that didn’t come with me gives me the heebie-jeebies.
How soon before they start demanding their own bathrooms and other conveniences?
Or am I thinking of a South Park episode?
If I can be a cat and laze around all day while people take care of my every need, I’m all for that.
My cat is prettier than him!!
excuse me? i’m sorry, but your all a bunch of jerks with no imagination to others feeling? so stop being stiff moronic stuck up snobs and see the beauty in people who change their appearance, we all have lives and feelings like you and it’s not us who are freaks, it’s you if you really think about it.. We’re connected more to nature than you and we have a better outlook and respect for life so shut the hell up and open your eyes