Becoming the Borg

[TheNewTeddy]

Consider this.

We already have brain-scanning abilities (think: that funky helmet with the wires) that can almost read the words before they come out of your mouth. We have the ability to put visions (for the blind) and sounds (for the deaf) into your brain. All these technologies are advancing.

We are also working on wireless electricity transmission. We can already do this; some new-fangled TV sets come with this, and the newest part of these advances is biotech for medical reasons.

Artificial limbs are becoming better and better in quality, as well as easier to control and stronger.

Lastly, there are always new and unexpected advances in "wi-fi" technology.

I present to you the following possible future.

In 15-25 years, we could substitute just about every body part with a mechanical replacement.

In 20-30 years we could develop the technology to put a brain implant in your head that will allow you to access the internet directly from your brain.

And I thus present the following scenario.

Sometime in 2040, and many of us will be somewhat older, but, hopefully, still alive. Rather than logging on and going in to a chat room, where your interactions are limited, some people decide to try to make a direct connection between brains. This works. However the connected people's brains start to use each other for support, and thus, begin to think like a single large brain. Cloud Computing taken to the next level. Some who need medical help already have artificial organs and limbs, but the new "Cloud Brain" has an epiphany when one of it's members dies. Somehow, that person's consciousness is kept alive in the brains of the other members. This makes perfect sense given that brain functions had become partly shared, but it gives other members longing for immortality. They desire to replace all their organs, and to keep their brains forever going on this mega brain net, forever. Opponents however point to the old stories of Star Trek, and the Borg.

Rather than bog this down with endless explanation I will end it here. I'd like to get some feedback/thoughts on this. I think it is a very interesting moral dilemma that, if technology continues down the road it is on, we will be forced to face at some point in the next few decades.

Edited June 5, 2012 by TheNewTeddy

[Moonlight Graham]

Artificial limbs are becoming better and better in quality, as well as easier to control and stronger.

I think the future of limb/body part replacement is cloning a real human part (likely your own) by growing it in a lab and then surgically attaching this to your body.

That said, who wouldn't want to be Robocop?

[eyeball]

Sometime in 2040, and many of us will be somewhat older, but, hopefully, still alive. Rather than logging on and going in to a chat room, where your interactions are limited, some people decide to try to make a direct connection between brains.

Ewwwww...there are posters here I definitely do not want to mingle my thoughts with thank you very much.

I don't want or need no steenkin' Borg thanks very much. I don't think our social evolution will keep pace with our technology and I expect moral engineers will continue to insist that resistance, especially to them, is futile. I'm holding out for my own personal nano-swarm and striking off for the other side of the galaxy the second I'm uploaded to it.

[Guest Peeves]

B...Biological

O..Organism

R..Reconstituted

G ..Genetically.

I would gladly become a Borg

The thought of such is blissful

For if I were a Borg

Her resistance would be futile.

I think eventually we will be genetically altered as insects that we may regenerate lost organs.

Of course by then cockroaches will have evolved to rule the world.

[eyeball]

I would gladly become a Borg

So way down deep you're actually a commie? This thread could open a few weird little windows into our minds.

The thought of such is blissful

For if I were a Borg

Her resistance would be futile.

I guess collective bliss must be borgasmic.

[TheNewTeddy]

I would also sign up to become Borg.

[Guest Peeves]

I would also sign up to become Borg.

Ok then, I withdraw. I'm not that gregarious.

[Guest Manny]

The Borg were like mindless robotic automatons. They had no unique identity, and their society had no use for it. They only know of their duty as an obligation to the collective.

I propose some of us are already well along on this road, without the need to exchange body parts.

[bleeding heart]

I propose some of us are already well along on this road, without the need to exchange body parts.

Seconded.

[Guest Peeves]

The Borg were like mindless robotic automatons. They had no unique identity, and their society had no use for it. They only know of their duty as an obligation to the collective.

I propose some of us are already well along on this road, without the need to exchange body parts.

Ah, but..... 7 of 9

https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRapoDO5QQrSZPn9iJMPukS_ZverTDRN1Obe7F5kcoJ_U8nphUtyQ

[TheNewTeddy]

Free video about the Borg from Trek (official video, free)

For those who are unaware of the Borg from Trek.

[Argus]

I would not give up my individuality, but much of the rest will come to pass. I agree artificial limbs are getting better but I think that it will be a very long time before they can match actual organs, so the immediate future (for the next century anyway) is in growing organs to replace the worn out ones. As to implants to let you access the internet directly, yes, they will come, but not soon. In fact, as data storage increases in ever smaller chips you'll one day be able to add artificial memory storage with direct connections to the brain which will basically record everything you say, see, do and experience.

The ultimate future of course, would be brain transplants, but not the actual physical brain. After all, it's just a shell. What makes up you, your individuality, your memory, your personality, are stored electronic impulses. Once we can read, copy and transfer those you could have immortality.

Or could you. If something can completely copy your thinking, memories, personality, etc, and transfer them to another body, would it be you, or a copy of you? Personally, I'd say it's a copy. The original you would be in the old body, and would die with it. The 'new' you, would be a completely separate person who just happened to be, uhm, you. A photocopy, in essence. No one else would ever notice the difference, but really, YOU would be dead.