Not necessarily a neuralink specifically, just any genre or type of cybernetic implants, if they were or will become available. I’m super hesitant on anything interfacing with my brain so I’d probably stay organic, except like if I lost my eyesight or hearing.
I’d need to completely own it. I don’t want my extended memory storage to now also include product placement in my childhood memories or the cops can make my bionic legs stop working or whatever.
However, in the hypothetical situation where I completely own my augmentations, 100% I’m getting enhancements. In fact I would question the efficiency of giving me implants, it might just be easier to copy my brain into a completely robotic body.
The downside of copying your brain is that it’s a copy, you’ll have your original meat body and a separate mechanical body which minds which immediately start to diverge. They’re both still you, but meatman gets no upgrades. You could destroy your meat body as part of the transfer but then it’s reasonable to say you’re dead with a robot that thinks it’s you.
The closest you can get to a proper transfer would need an implant which works similar to how your body naturally replaces cells, the implant would gradually take over neurons until you have a fully mech brain which can be transplanted to a new body. You could argue that’s still just a destructive copy but I think it’s within most people’s tolerance.
Yeah but speaking as meatman I’m okay with meatman dying. Robot me will be the real me, meat me is ephemeral.
I don’t believe in souls. I view my existence as like a wave, I am briefly in this cohesive form and will inevitably break upon the shore and both cease to be a wave yet forever be the ocean. Continuously moved and reshaped and never the same wave I was.
A body that allows my perception of existence to continue would prevent that, I would be able to continue to “exist” as I perceive it for much longer.
So yeah for me at least you can skip the gradual stuff. Just ctrl + c, ctrl + v and recycle the original.
How would you feel about your continuity if more than one robot copy/replacement is made? (at the same time all based on the meat version I mean, not as future replacement/upgrade bodies)
I’d be cool with it as long as they’re all autonomous. From my sense of continuity I continue to exist and there are other copies who share my experiences as meatman up to the point in time where we received our respective robot bodies. It’d be like gaining siblings. From their point of view they continue to exist and there are other copies like myself out there as well.
I’m also okay if I woke up in my robot body and found out I’m not the first copy. Knowing myself it would be more of a “fun fact” that someone is the original rather than something that carries any sort of weight.
Which robot would be you and which would be “the other copies”? I would imagine that from the descendants’ pov they’re all “you”, but I wonder if you would identify yourself with one over the rest 🤔
If the descendants continue to collaborate in perpetuity, maybe “you” is the swarm.
I think we’d just view it as a matter of perspective. To me, I’m me and they’re them. To them, they’re me and I’m them. We’d each identify ourselves as me.
But we would probably also enjoy being considered a swarm, I know I would.
Imagine experiencing a scism with yourself 😅
Someone hasn’t played the Deus Ex series…
No. Restoring human-like capability following some kind of traumatic event, sure.
“Nothing voluntary” and “nothing that grants superhuman abilities” are the bare minimum to make sure it doesn’t turn into an arms race, leading to a tiered society with the enhanced elite ruling over the organic poor.
As long as it doesn’t require a fucking WiFi connection and corporate account to use.
Heavily depends on what they do, how reliable the tech is at the time, and who makes them, realistically for anything that I expect to actually become available in my lifetime, the answer is probably not
As a general concept, Im quite favorable towards the notion of using technology to change the human condition (Id consider myself a transhumanist), but that assumes a given change is both desirable and significant enough to be worth the personal risks (for example, of surgery), and I cant think of much that any relatively near future cybernetic implant would be likely able to do that would actually be a meaningful improvement. Restoring lost function is one thing, but at the moment I dont have any personal need for that. Most ideas Ive seen suggested beyond that boil down to “using your brain to control a computer”, which well, is something your brain can already do, its just using your hands and senses in combination with traditional input and output devices to do it.
There are hypothetical things that one could imagine an implant doing that would interest me, for example, one could picture something that could add visual information of parts of the light spectrum one cannot currently see, or additional appendages beyond the natural number (maybe that goes beyond a simple implant though), or even more speculatively, one could picture some implant containing clusters of real or simulated neurons that can be trained to add additional capacity to the brain in some way. But, so far as I can see, nothing like that is realistically going to exist for quite a long time, and I would be extremely skeptical of anyone claiming otherwise, because modern technology companies love to sell hype.
Theres also the consideration that, well, you would need to really trust the manufacturer, programmer etc of any such device, the more so the more invasive it is and the more you anticipate relying on it if it is useful, and I would not trust, well, any manufacturer operating under the current economic model that would actually have the resources to develop and test such a device. For anything you incorporate into yourself like that, robustness, available maintenance and personal control over all aspects of the device are paramount, and those things are not the things that let a technology company maximize their profits.
I don’t trust companies to even give me usable software anymore, let alone functioning hardware.
they have no business touching any human in a medical sense… HELL NO
Nice try, Sarif Industries. I’ve played some Deus Ex, I know how this goes.
No.
I’ve seen how often tech breaks, gets controlled, becomes unsupported, and can never really get things “right.”
But like you said, if it’s that or blindness, sure. But I’m not chopping off good parts.
I get a kind of chafe, like that of clothes that don’t fit, for the normal function of my own body. Like some other arm I’ve never used is tied behind my back. So yes, but the cost matters more.
If I die younger for it, not worth it. If I give up my sovereignty to an amoral entity for it, not worth it.
So no hack jobs and no corporate bs, but non-invasive opensource projects like openbci and openmuscle? Awesome!
For it to be more mainstream I’d really support a well ran cooperative that supports these opensource projects and customers that have them.
Yes. I’m chronically ill with a lot of issues. I’d go down to Maelstrom’s territory at night alone and wiggle seductively. “Oh no, please don’t force chrome on me Mr. Maelstrom guy.”
Realistically, I have ADHD so having a neural interface to make sure I didn’t forget shit would be so helpful. I wouldn’t trust most devices though. It’d have to be free of the possibility of being enshittified, so I’d only be comfortable with it if I controlled the software.
My brain immediately went to cybernetic titties and I got lost thinking about what they might do.
Have you seen the people that use high powered LEDs on silicon implant to turn them into a light show?
I have not… So… Disco-titties?
Yes, just seeing the headline was a yes - but yeah nothing for the brain, just robot arms and legs and eyes for now
Out of curiosity, what advantages do you see yourself getting with robotic limbs? If I were to do a body part it would probably be spine for all around better body support.
You know that nut and bolt that’s in an incredibly stupid place and you’d need like 4 adapters and a swivel just to reach it but then you have to also hold the nut in place so you’d need pliers designed by Dr Seuss to be able to grip it without not getting in the way so you just tighten with the tips of your fingers in little wiggles and hope it will hold?
Fuck that, my finger and thumb have the torque of an industrial impact wrench and I can disassembled a fucking train like I’m opening soda bottles.
Lotsa old people get hip replacements.
Stick to mechanical stuff that cant become enshittified later.
RIP if you need a pacemaker
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