Transhumanism Might As Well Be In The Dictionary!!

I recently learned a new word while searching for more good books about the future of humans and robots.   The word is, "transhuman."

Y’know, like transvestite?  Transexual?  Transpose?

Transhuman.

I am talking about humans turning parts of themselves into machines.  It’s probably going to be a reality by the time I die of old age.  Or I could be wrong.  But at my age I can live just long enough to take advantage of robotic medicine (is that accurate to say?  Cybernetic implants/augmentation would be considered robotic medicine, right?  Is there a medical billing code for that?  Sorry, my new career path just sort of made me enjoy asking that question out of the blue.)

Someday there will be such medical procedures as cybernetic augmentation (aside from what the military may be experimenting with behind our backs).  Right now, these are what are known as prosthetics, and they are not augmentation—they are replacements for limbs that are lost or organs that need replacement as well.

I am a bit scared of the idea, even though to me it is an exciting, fascinating and rarely discussed topic.  To be honest I don’t enjoy thinking about my future too much, not when it comes to health.  I’m not so old, but I am not that young either.  Of course I’m going to feel like taking better care of my health.

But suppose the conversation of robotic replacements for lost limbs or sick organs did turn to cybernetic augmentation.  Currently robotic prosthetics although expensive, are replacements for lost parts.  But in the future, robotic parts may become an option along the lines of breast implants.  People will want stronger (and lead to faster) legs, or sharper eyes, or super hearing.

So…transhumanism.  Or trans-humanism, I don’t know what would be the correct spelling of these for now.  They both seem acceptable…

There are many films that tackle topics like this.  Transcendence and The Prototype are two of them being released this year.  I am especially interested in The Prototype (it’s more of an action/thriller story), but Transcendence I might wait to see later.  They are both good ways to start, or continue, the conversation about what happens to the person when the body is deteriorating but their mind is fully active.  Something else also: how this transfiguration will affect the people they know, and perhaps the people on Earth.

Of course, this is not the end of the conversation...

I want to come back to it again.

Progress so far on research

I’ve been reading Cyborg Citizen for the past week and a half, and it has a lot of great stuff. I was especially intrigued about how soldiers in the military are becoming cyborgs as "human-weapon systems". That section made me think about war in a different way, particularly modern war. It also made me think about some of the war-themed video games that have become so popular lately: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the SOCOM series, to name a couple. I just found out from the E3 Expo news that there will be a Medal of Honor video game that will take place in modern times rather than in World War II, which was also a time of technological advances in war for its time.

What really captivated me was the section of the book in which Chris Hables Gray writes about a Cyborg Bill of Rights.  There are ten amendments, but the one that really shouts to me for the fiction I am writing is the fifth amendment, “the right to life”.  I must say this amendment struck a chord for the cyborg novel I am writing.  Here is a sentence of this amendment that I really liked:

 

“Individuals shall retain all rights to modify their bodies, at their own risk and expense, through pyschopharmological, medical, genetic, spiritual, and other practices, insofar as they do not threaten the fundament rights of other individuals and citizens.”         (Gray, 28)

So maybe Gray’s proposed Cyborg Bill of Rights may have been written, but would everyone who becomes an obvious cyborg follow these rules, let alone want to learn about them? Perhaps being a cyborg can make that person feel powerful when they become a tool, or worse, a weapon.

Which brings me to another subject. I watched the first two episodes of Cyborg 009, and in episode 2, the cyborg Albert, or 004, tells Joe (009) that they are supposed to be weapons. The cyborgs, against their will, became enhanced weapons; in other words, they became weapons but still have human feelings. The person behind this, Black Ghost, doesn’t care that this experimental transformation of these nine human beings makes them useful,  as long as he gets results. But if the cyborgs had to be weapons, they would fight for the greater good, rather than increase the power of war. They don’t want to oppress other people just because of their cybernetic enhancements. If they have to use their abilities, they will use them wisely, as a citizen helping other citizens, not as weapons made for war.

I want to talk more about Cyborg 009, but it will have to be later. I want to watch the next episodes, and maybe the first two episodes again if I must.