The Next Generation

EReidJ writes "Washingtonpost.com has a story about what biotechnology means to being post-human. While the article gets a little dorky at times, and the comic-book references somewhat over-the-top, it manages to penetrate well past the surface of what most articles would do. (And come on, admit it, how many of us have daydreamed well into our twenties about doing the kinds of things they only comic book heros can do?) They reference a lot of good material, talk to Kurzweil and Max Moore, and use the excellent Science Magazine issue on this subject for a lot of their material."

Comments

resources

[EricBoyd]

I maintain a page on transhuman / posthuman resources, with lots of links and information. If you're at all interested, I'm sure you'll find something cool there!

Eric's Transhumanism Page.

Re:The main thing I think the article misses ...

[2nd Post!]

I strongly think the electric light and the power grid has fundamentally changed the daily course of daily events.

So has the watch and calendar.

As have the alarm clock.

Or feminism.

Let me count the ways:

Before electricity and the electric light, there really wasn't much you could do after sunset; 5pm in the winter, 8pm in the summer. You were forced to adopt the solar cycle. Now we can/have decouple ourselves (to our own detriment, of course) from the same old same old; get up at dawn, go sleep shortly after dusk.
Now think how long you sleep now, vs how long you would sleep without an electric light. I do 12am to 7am, my brother does 2am to 9am; but without electriciy and light, we would probably be forced on a 8pm to 6am schedule. And I would have no choice; without light, there's precious little I can do, at all.

Then there's the whole concept of swing shift.

Imagine genetic engineering allowing 100% decoupling from the solar cycle?

Okay, how about watches and calendars?

We would be reliant upon good weather and sundials. We wouldn't be able to predict the future at all, because we couldn't predict the present. The lowest granularity would be 'morning, afternoon, evening, bedtime', but now we can do better 'every ten minutes', 'ever 30 seconds', 'every three hours'.

Again, separation from the solar cycle. This allows us to do chemical reactions, physics experiments, planning into the future (meet tomorrow at 3pm'. Does this change the way we live life? Yes, it makes life more regimented and predictable (probably to our detriment)

Try an experiment; turn off or disable all clocks in your house for two weeks, it's actually very relaxing.

Or feminism: The very thought that a woman's body and life are her own.

Fundamental change: Childbearing age has shifted from 14 years old to much later; late 20s, late 30s, even the occasional 40 year old.

It means women have a choice how to live their life, instead of being tied to the social/cultural needs as dictated by men. It means they have a chance to dictate their own lives.

This probably comes from a combination of political though, abortion inducing technologies, and anti-pregnancy technologies;contraceptives.

I'm sure there are others I haven't thought of.