Lv. 3 Genasi Wizard
Going to pass on the offer. The nice thing about being human is that we're organic and blank slates. It allows me to develop myself as an individual however I want without resorting to technology. For everything else, I'm content with using external tools like humans always have. What we make should be an extension of ourselves, not be part of our actual selves.
The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.
Depends on exact changes. The changes that involve the loss of emotion or identity do not sound appealing. Changes that allow us to surpass our physical and mental limitations - sure.
edited 25th Mar '11 9:03:13 AM by Beholderess
If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common
Lover of masks.
Yes. That would be interesting. If I can escape the death of my body then it would be worth anything to me. If my existence was to be a box in the back of a lab forever it would not matter to me. Bring on the clinical immortality.
Please.
More like giant cherries
Lost in Space
I want to be transhuman, absolutely, without question. To live forever (or at least many multiples of a human lifespan), to see and participate in the unimaginable changes of the future, to be free of many of the handicaps of a frail mortal shell... hell yes!
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Lover of masks.
Hell yeah. If humanity has a future outside this blue ball, it'll be Transhuman.
Lv. 3 Genasi Wizard
Hmm, apparently my opinion isn't too popular. So what exactly kind of transhumanism are all of you even thinking about?
The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.
Captionless One
@Usht: Brain Uploading, for me.
♭What.
Lost in Space
The answer is highly variable. Transhumanism is literally defined as "beyond human"; that is, any of a number of technologies could count as long as they make us functionally different than we are now. They could include, in increasing order of difficulty/sci-fi:
- Clinical immortality - the capability to effectively live forever in the same bodies we were born with. Note that by "same body", I allow for the possibility of cloning for replacement parts and/or moderate cyborg enhancement. (This is the route we seem most likely to take in the near future, incidentally.)
- Clone transplanting - When you get old, you grow a clone and transfer your brain/consciousness into it. Like the above but it's more like serial body hopping than real immortality.
- Cyborg transformation - put your brain and other necessary organs into a constructed, long-lived physical body.
- Brain Uploading - either into a robot shell or some sort of Metaverse.
- Hive Mind - rather than keeping your body alive indefinitely or replacing it, your personality joins a group mind and can reside in whatever physical form it chooses.
- Instrumentality
edited 25th Mar '11 9:36:54 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
It's kind of hard to choose from limitless options. But I'll try to be more specific. What I'd want to see is
- Ability to change appearance and sex at will (yes, modern surgery can do it, but I am talking about changing it with an ease of changing clothes. Or avatars). So that sex and race finally become nothing but cosmetic differences. Purely Aesthetic Gender for the win! Yay, no more discrimination.
- Perfect memory and perfect recall.
- Better capability for introspection. To be able to see exactly where and how each of my thoughts and feelings originated and how they influence each other. To trace it like a code.
- Ability to turn off inherent and acquired reflexes and instincts when they become inconvenient. Note that it is not the same as emotions. Say, you wake up in a burning building. You can still fear for your life, but turn off the panic response and think clearly. Or you pass by a man that seems to be in need of help. Just turn off "herd behaviour" in order to not feel compelled to go along with what others are doing and act upon your sympathy.
- Ability to become a perfectly self-sustaining system if desired
Sneering Imperialist
Yes. I believe that Cybernetics Eat Your Soul is a crock of shit.
edited 25th Mar '11 9:40:40 AM by pagad
With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.
Oh My
If I get the ability to change my sex at will then yes. General appearance changing would be nice too, but the ability to change my sex whenever I so desire is a much more important concern to me.
edited 25th Mar '11 9:42:12 AM by Aondeug
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
An ideal outcome of transhumaism for this one would be: There is no aspect of body and mind left that is not of person's own choice.
If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common
See ALL the stars!
Some options I'd go for:
- Bio-optimized for space and non-Earth environments. Why go to the cost and risk of bringing bottles of Earth's environment with us on spacecraft and planets when we can just alter our own bodies to meet these new conditions. The laws of physics say every gram costs you in space, so the more you can leave behind the better.
- Altered perception of time. It doesn't matter if a space flight takes months, years, or millenia if you can "fast forward" most of it. If the rest of Transhumanity operates on this scale as well, you won't even have to leave behind your family and friends.
- Ability to extend the senses to a far greater range. Like seeing the EM spectrum from Radio to Microwave, and the mental capacity to descern it all. And:
- Ability to alter appearance and functional sex at will. What Beholderess said. And by this point reproduction would probably be easily available without mammalian intercourse, so sex becomes completely cosmetic like freckles or hair color.
@Yej
Hey, a girl can dream=)
If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common
Lover of masks.
I hope for robot bodies. Your legs get old and worn out? Replace. Screw you bio freaks. Machine interface for the win.
Please.
Yes. Although under some constraints. I think I'd pass on the bio-modifications. I'd want the ability to upload my brain into an autonomous spacecraft body; set course for some nearby star and not look back.
The Ant King
I'm hoping to become human first. One step at a time.
Kill all math nerds
Jupiterian Local
I already am, suckers. I have tiny plastic discs inserted into my eyes to enhance my visual acuity well beyond my natural level.
It's awesome. Y'all should get in on this shit.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Dog and Pony Show
Yes, if it means becoming a superman.
No, if it means abolishing manhood.
Geeks who dream of becoming computer software weird me out.
“Love is the eternal law whereby the universe was created and is ruled.” — St. Bernard
Jupiterian Local
How do you feel about non-geeks who dream of becoming computer software?
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Oh My
Actually no. I want to power to have a penis while still in a more or less entirely female body along with the normal "SWITCH YOUR SEX TO MALE OR FEMALE AT WILL!!" ability. With that I should be content with matters unless I get struck with some debilitating illness or handicap.
edited 25th Mar '11 10:20:04 AM by Aondeug
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
Exactly What It Says on the Tin, do my fellow tropers want to go past human limitations and become something more? And if so, why, and what, do you want to change?
edited 25th Mar '11 5:05:29 PM by Ekuran