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When Brains Meet Computer Brawn
prankster writes "News.com has an interesting story on among other things collective minds and nanotechnology based on the 405 page report "Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Cognitive Science," from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce. A quote: "The human body will be more durable, healthy, energetic, easier to repair and resistant to many kinds of stress, biological threat and (the) aging process." The story even mentions our favourite enemy - the Borgs."
There must be a free and rational debate about the ethical and social aspects of potential uses of technology, and government must provide an arena for these debates that is most conducive to results that benefit humans.
In other words, here are the options, now let's debate them. That's definitely the right approach.
It's good to see that we're not shying away from our ability (and, I would argue, obligation) to improve the human race through cybernetics and nanotechnology. Evolution works great when you have no one at the helm, but with Man's awareness of self, and the related ability to perceive our place in the world around us, we are capable of directing our own destiny. This is why we can (and should!) develop things like electronic enhancements. I look forward to a future when everyone is at least part computer, technology is embraced, and the worst and most dangerous jobs (e.g., soldiering) will be performed by mindless clones grown for the task rather than real people. We alone in the history of the world have the capability of determining our own destiny. Let us hope we don't squander it.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
It seems to me that this is the religion of the future.
When all of human consciousness is merged into a universal network, what exactly do we have? We have a huge, self-aware "organism" that contains all of human knowledge within itself, and is constantly learning and growing. The internet may be the birth of this future network.
What does this being encompass in a thousand years? A million? A billion?
In this scenario, the universe slowly becomes a self-aware entity. The universe is conscious. Could this be considered god?