"Human doings"--my God, you are a genius!
Well... what could it hurt?
I've been mulling over the ethical objections to this kind of enhancement.
One criticism that came to mind was "excessive adornment," which was a phrase Mom used back when my sisters were teenagers who didn't realize they were dressing like tarts. I suppose this gadget is a kind of vanity, especially if it is installed to increase one's Geek cred.
Another problem is the ethical prohibition against bodily mutilation.
However, if these gadgets are about as minimally invasive and gaudy as, say, ear piercings, I'm not sure ethical objections can hold up.
Sick. Does the phrase, "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated," ring a bell?
All right, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go against popular opinion here and say that there could be real benefits from a device like this. Imagine what this could do for people with diabetes. Instead of constantly having to prick yourself and check your insulin level on a test strip, you just go into the doctor's, get one of these installed and your blood is constantly monitored. Heck, maybe they could modify this to check for even more things, like blood pressure, cholesterol, alcohol content, etc. Taking alcohol for instance, perhaps one could make it sync with a car so that the car won't start if the person in the driver's seat is intoxicated. And of course, no more lost remotes...cause it's always in your arm!
And speaking as someone who's 25 and already had two pacemakers implanted, I'm really not seeing what the big deal is here.
Michael,
I'm sorry for your heart problems. May Our Lord grant you complete healing.
There's a difference between a device like a pacemaker, which is intended to correct or ameliorate a medical problem and restore correct function, and the kinds of implants discussed here, which are more like Borg implants.
I can imagine where this technology would have a sound medical application.
However, the example in the article is a bit yucky. Though that is me...I cringe when I see people walking about with those phones mounted on their ears. And why is it necessary to where it to church?
Rats! I hate being on Michael's side. You may find this creepy (I find more than one earring (more than zero for men) in the same ear creepy, but that's a far cry from worshiping false gods and Mark seems to think they're doing.
"You wear eyeglasses??!! Good God, what are you--half man and half machine? Adoring some false god of optical perfection rejecting your natural God-given ability to see at His chosen acuity? Disgusting!"
I think the problem isn't with this particular application (although I do think that adding something into the body that isn't designed to correct or compensate isn't a good idea) but rather with the general attitude of those who discribe themselves as transhumanists.
(see http://transhumanism.org/index.p...TA/declaration/
and http://www.transhumanism.org/ind...manist-values/)
Here is a quote from the second link "Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, technology, and other rational means we shall eventually manage to become posthuman, beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have."
If you've spent too much time reading/listening to transhumanist blather (extremely easy when interested in science fiction) then it becomes really hard to read this sort of thing without 'seeing' the transhumanists.
"You wear eyeglasses??!! Good God, what are you--half man and half machine? Adoring some false god of optical perfection rejecting your natural God-given ability to see at His chosen acuity? Disgusting!"
It's not so easy to decide which device is a prosthetic, like eyeglasses or a titanium knee replacement, and what constitutes the integration of an elective artificial organ into the body. Would you say that transplanting one's brain into a machine is a simple medical procedure? I think we need to decide what the motive might be.
My wife has type 1 diabetes and I don't think of her as transhuman because she uses and insulin pump. I actually hope that this type of technology will someday provide something like an artificial pancreas.
I guess the distinction is between using technology to create the superhuman as opposed to helping people with a particular dissability.
It's not so much the idea of implanting some form of machinery in the body that's disturbing, so much as what it's used for; there would be nothing unethical, as some people have mentioned, about using such a device to help people with diabetes, or other disabilities or diseases. But when the purpose of such a device is to permanently connect us to the "collective," or to somehow "improve" us, then that's just wierd, and, as some other people have mentioned, frankly rather Borg-ish.
At least that's what I think...
Eye surgery, etc... Enhancement for legitimate help is not evil.
Enhancement because "we humans need to evolve ourselves because we are all we can count on in this empty godless universe" is.
Motive counts a lot in life.
My point was I find men wearing earrings creepy.
Well, I can understand that. After becoming Catholic, mine broke and I let it close up. Kind of pointless really, once you get past the stage of wanting attention from peers badly. Kind of pointless before then really. 
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