Technology @lemmy.world 101 @feddit.org 2 wk. ago

Cyborg: A Documentary – new film about first upgraded human asks whether we should just because we can.

theconversation.com Cyborg: A Documentary – new film about first upgraded human asks whether we should just because we can

From brain-controlled prosthetics to implanted blood-sugar monitors, we’re not as resistant to the idea of cyborgism as you might think.

35 comments

It's just living up to their part of the deal: if I'm going to get the dystopia part, I damn well better also get the cyberpunk part.
- My choom.
  
  I prefer the chummer variety of future cyberpunk-y dystopia.
  
  It has dragons!
The problem is that electronics make you dependent on a expensive, long and fragile and closed source technology. This is the opposite of liberation. Except for prosthesis of course.

Ideally we'd rather have 3D printed sensory and internal organs to augment ourselves. Things that don't wear out but can repair themselves and grow to become truly part of our body. Augments that last a lifetime and ideally extend our lifetime.

The ultimate would be a type of biocomputer that we directly control with our brain and that can alter our body. Which is science fiction of course, but imagine meditating to reconfigure your body in some internal space, like changing your sex from male to female and then slowly growing towards that over a few months. That is far off obviously, but it marks the goal we should move towards. Not electronics or mechanics as a foreign object, but biological systems that become part of us.
- The issue exists already in wheelchairs being hard to repair and internal pacemakers incorrectly shocking people with unmodifiable software. Most electronics suck in terms of ownership but there are some which do not. With the electronics inside you, and connected to your brain, it becomes even more important that the user is the one in control. I hope we can progress to that with cyborg tech too.
I've been ready to completely swap my body for a fully cybernetic shell ala Ghost in the Shell since, well, Ghost in the Shell.
- So did I. But after the new Deus Ex games and looking at the real tech scene evolve recently, I'm feeling more and more that just maybe Togusa had the right idea staying natural.
  
  Say what you will about his lack of robot body; but if had been using a normal automatic instead of an old school revolver, he could have put two trackers on the suspect.
  
  Deus Ex is fantastic. Does a great job of depicting potential future problems with human augmentation.
Neil Harbisson is the world’s first officially recognised human cyborg

fucking bullshit. stephen hawking couldn't function or communicate without his chair & computer. you’re gonna say that doesn't count? then i don’t trust your judgement
- I think the term cyborg is reserved for actual replacement parts or implants. Because if you count Hawking using his chair, you'd have to conclude that whatever caveman that first used a tool is the real first cyborg.
  
  why not though? i support cyborg caveman theory
- I know somebody who has implated hearing aids. If they're not a cyborg, I don't know who is.
  
  100%
- I call my hernia mesh one level of dermal plating
  
  hernia mesh brother! that's a great idea, I'm stealing it! my man
- I think generally, assistive devices like Hawking's wheelchair/speech synth wouldn't qualify one for the title of "cyborg", since they're replacing lost/damaged functionality, and didn't grant him any abilities not already available to the average person. Whereas Harbisson's modification is giving him additional abilities that he didn't previously have and are outside of the typical human experience.
  
  Replacing lost functionality is also acceptable for a cyborg, but Hawkings simply didn't replace any organic part of himself, he used external devices. Someone with cochlear implants or a total artificial heart totally should count as a cyborg though - they have integrated mechanical body parts (well, both are partly external I guess...)
  But it doesn't really make sense that just because this version of a hearing implant doesn't give you better than normal hearing, having an identical device that did would be the difference between being a cyborg or not.
- Those are a part of the image of Hawkings but not a part of his body.
Hearing colour might be cool but I'd really like to upgrade my memory storage, and rocket punch.
- hearing colour might be cool
  
  You could just do LSD to get temporary synesthesia for that. 🤷🏻‍♂️
  
  Infrared and ultraviolet though 🥺
- It's probably straightforward to map the wavelengths of the visible spectrum to the wavelengths of audible tones. But the choice of mapping is subjective and any further interpretation/effects even more so.
Ask Alt Cunningham if her soul is intact...
"upgraded", sure sure.
Wait... They did a remake of cyborg? Is Van Damme in it?
- Reading the article, it looks a lot more like The Terminal Man.
This is some "Terminal man" shit right here.

You've viewed 35 comments.