Not necessarily a neuralink specifically, just any genre or type of cybernetic implants, if they were or will become available. I’m super hesitant on anything interfacing with my brain so I’d probably stay organic, except like if I lost my eyesight or hearing.
Watch the black mirror episode on that
I’ve been fixing machines long enough to know I don’t want to. Flesh is weak, but flesh adapts. It also doesn’t get an internet connection, which means I get to sleep at night.
Chop me up, doc. I’m ready to live life by the hot wire.
Not unless it was medically necessary, and they had open hardware and software for the parts. Otherwise, I don’t trust companies and the US government to properly regulate it, and I really don’t feel like having to play whack-a-mole with adblockers or whatever to keep my cybernetic parts from beaming ads straight into my brain, or doing other crazy stuff. I’d also be wary of companies just discontinuing support for the implants when it became too expensive for them to maintain, and being left with a useless bunch of metal somewhere in my body.
I used to be really deep into this rabbit hole. Theres a community of “biohackers” who do stuff like inserting rfid chips and magnets under the skin.
The magnet in the finger tip is what always interested me, but im too much of a chicken to seriously consider doing it because its not a medical procedure (you can’t just go to a doctor afaia and request to have it implanted - theyll just refuse to do it) so you need to do it with local anaesthetics that you can legally acquire, yourself or with a friend.
People who have done it have reported they became able to sense electromagnetic fields once they got used to its sensitivity, which is bizarre and awesome at the same time. They literally gave themselves a “sixth sense”
The magnet definitely intrigues me but I’ve had several fingertip injuries and the pain is not something I’m interested in voluntarily experiencing even though I’m good friends with someone with the surgical skills and anaesthetics.
RFID is also cool but tech moves fast.
RFID is also cool but tech moves fast.
the golden age of mifare classic is not yet over
RFID is also cool but tech moves fast.
Just install a zipper so you can hot swap
Definitely. I couldn’t afford to anyway, but I would not want to be one of the early adopters. But eventually, they’ll be hacked and it’ll be possible to remove any insidious corporate “features” and I’d be left with all the benefits.
I’d need to completely own it. I don’t want my extended memory storage to now also include product placement in my childhood memories or the cops can make my bionic legs stop working or whatever.
However, in the hypothetical situation where I completely own my augmentations, 100% I’m getting enhancements. In fact I would question the efficiency of giving me implants, it might just be easier to copy my brain into a completely robotic body.
The downside of copying your brain is that it’s a copy, you’ll have your original meat body and a separate mechanical body which minds which immediately start to diverge. They’re both still you, but meatman gets no upgrades. You could destroy your meat body as part of the transfer but then it’s reasonable to say you’re dead with a robot that thinks it’s you.
The closest you can get to a proper transfer would need an implant which works similar to how your body naturally replaces cells, the implant would gradually take over neurons until you have a fully mech brain which can be transplanted to a new body. You could argue that’s still just a destructive copy but I think it’s within most people’s tolerance.
Yeah but speaking as meatman I’m okay with meatman dying. Robot me will be the real me, meat me is ephemeral.
I don’t believe in souls. I view my existence as like a wave, I am briefly in this cohesive form and will inevitably break upon the shore and both cease to be a wave yet forever be the ocean. Continuously moved and reshaped and never the same wave I was.
A body that allows my perception of existence to continue would prevent that, I would be able to continue to “exist” as I perceive it for much longer.
So yeah for me at least you can skip the gradual stuff. Just ctrl + c, ctrl + v and recycle the original.
most people’s tolerance.
Most people do not have an existential crisis over whether a teleporter is teleporting them or killing and remaking them. It’s mostly a small subset of people who have that worry.
I’d be like Mr. T in space. You’d never get me onto one of those transporters unless I was dragged there while unconscious.
Lotsa old people get hip replacements.
Stick to mechanical stuff that cant become enshittified later.
Hip replacements with a step counter coming soon
RIP if you need a pacemaker
Yes, to solve a medical issue or to genuinely improve my existence.
But if we’re talking about something really advanced with software in it I need open source. I’ve already read real news articles about ocular implants where the company that supports them went out of business. Second Sight Medical Products.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to have an implant in my body that’s been bricked due to some corporate bullshit.
Yes, if they’re not owned and controlled by some corporate entity.
Considering how unlikely that is, I’ll probably never get cybernetic implants.
New Chrome? Well Cyberpunk made it seem fun, but in reality you’d get so many ads…
I would need a few things met:
- No data flow back to my brain
- Open source
- Not flagged as disallowed by TSA
- Programmable (kind of goes with OSS)
- Actually useful
- Extremely minimal maintenance
If all of these were met, HEEELLLL YEA
Can’t wait to accidentally brick my eyes trying to install an ad blocker lol
No data flow back to my brain
Isn’t that just a current generation prosthetic?
For Funsies? Likely not, no.
For medical reasons like steering a prostetic, yeah, maybe.
Is the hardware and software open source or otherwise not owned by a corporation. Then maybe.
My father ran a prosthetics clinic for 35 years. Before that he worked for his father doing very much the same thing for a decade prior.
His words of wisdom were, “The real thing is always better because you can feel with it.”
We may be able to make materials that far exceed the capabilities of the human body, but until you can wire up every single nerve and use the thing exactly like you would a real limb, prosthetics will ALWAYS be lesser, no matter their capabilities. There’s no point in having sword arms if you can’t be proficient overnight with swinging a blade with your elbow.
But, in good faith, yeah, I’d gladly swap my eyes for something better. Astigmatism sucks, and I’m damn near legally blind as it is. Not having to wear glasses would be amazing. Gimme some Kiroshi Optics any day! But, the only reason I’d want them is because they’d be better than what I have. Wearing glasses isn’t a huge deal.
Looked into Lasik surgery? My mom had severe astigmatism, and before surgery she couldn’t see the big E on the eye chart without her glasses. She did need reading glasses a few years after surgery though which is why I’ve never looked into it, I’d rather not play the “where are my reading glasses?” game.
Astigmatism in both eyes over here!
As a kid who grew up on TNG, I always wished my glasses were like Geordi’s VISOR….
Gimme some Kiroshi Optics any day!
I’d settle for some second-hand Hannibal Chews. Bifocals suck.
