Avian Gamers Network

Wanna come back to my place and ... swap MP3s?

Thought this was a pretty interesting article.

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Liro
"The english language is not a wedding gown, it doesn't get better the more lace you add. It is instead a thong. Less is more." From /.
I need to remind myself of this regularly.

Very interesting read... the last paragraph in particular caught my attention...



Sounds a lot like turning humans into robots to me...

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TheMole
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Well, not really as that secondary system does not have a link to the primary system that actually controls muscle movement. At least it does not have to.

However, data transfer between implants would be a lot easier than it is now.

Edward

Sure... we wouldn't be robots, yet... but it's a big first step towards it... I don't know, the mention of humans having computers inside them really creeps me out. I guess it's already happening with things like pacemakers though, just on a much smaller scale.

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TheMole
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Mole, Moon actually has a whole forum dedicated to these freaky chip things. Check it out if you're interested on a different perspective on it.

http://www.moonworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?showforum=15

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Moon,

From browsing through your forums (and you have some great stuff there)... I'm not quite sure if you're inviting comment, protesting against chip implants and tracking passports and government control, or glad that they're finally here...

You've mentioned you have "hippy tendencies" So I'm guessing that you're not going to be next in line to sign up for an RJ-45 connector into your occipital lobe... though you're online so much I never can tell.

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--The Hermit

Allright first off, I'd like to respond by saying: lol.

Secondly, you would never find me with a computer chip in my brain/neck/head. Even if it became mandatory by all the goverments of the world, you'd then find me living underground. You would definitely see me on the news as a rebel, blowing up buildings, and shooting at the police rebelling against these mandatory "brain chips". I'd like to stay Human please, 100% forever.

A few questions to ask yourself (I don't want the answers, just think that introspection is good in the face of blanket statements):

What about a replacement heart with a chip in it to regulate your beat?

What about if you were mugged and someone shot your knee and blew it off, relegating you to a wheel chair unless you had a replacement plastic knee (with a chip in it regulating it's movement)? This happened to my grandfather.

What if you become an Air Force pilot and were chosen to fly the new Joint Strike Fighters, or the next generation of USAF planes/low-orbit entry vehicles... and these required a chip implant that lets you control movements when you're under huge g pressure?

What if you were a pilot that was shot down and caught a big chunk of metal through your head (happend to a friend of mine). If an implanted chip let you keep your long term memory, would you take it?

What if you got hit in the head with something and it damaged your cochleal nerve... making you completely deaf. Would you get a cochlear implant in your head so you can hear again?

Do you like music? What if you could have speakers implanted in your ears to have a full time sound system?

Would you wear contact lenses that have displays and cameras on them that gives you full visual internet access anytime you want? What if they were actually implants in your eyes to give you the same abilities? What about neural implants so that you can instantly search any information at any time... play WoW while in boring meetings... Backup your personality or channel your emotions and feelings into your mate so that you feel everything they do for complete joining and understanding? Or just download your personality into a computer so that you can "live forever"?

I guess the basic questions are... is staying "100% human" more important than staying alive? Surviving to reproduce? Is it more important that pursuing your dreams of space flight? Is it more important than functioning as a completely whole human? Experiencing the wonders that life has to offer? Most people I ask these questions to answer Yes to most, but no to some.... I think the interesting point is finding out where the line is where people will go no farther.

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--The Hermit

I may be in the minority here, but as far as implants go, bring it on. The contact lenses/eye implants Yak mentioned? Sign me up. Subdermal phone? Gimme!

I understand one part of the the big fear of this is the government tracking you down or clamping down on civil liberties. There are plenty of solutions for them to (easily) do this now and there are just as many ways around those solutions. I wouldn't worry overmuch about laws running amok. Because while I get very annoyed and tired of the bipartisan bickering that exists from Capitol Hill to the office to the internet to washed up entertainers telling us what to believe, the two party system is an integral component of our government that ensures lawmakers can only go so far.

Lastly, I'd be interested to know if the argument/concern of "100% human" comes from a religious point of view or a "nature" point of view or simply that people don't want to be controlled by anyone?

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Liro
"The english language is not a wedding gown, it doesn't get better the more lace you add. It is instead a thong. Less is more." From /.
I need to remind myself of this regularly.

Me too!

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Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!

Yes, I have a religious, and "nature" point of view, and a very strong faith in God.

I don't like having "technology" inside my body, it's just how I feel. If I became blind, and had the opportunity to see again using some form of a implant, I couldn't tell ya if I'd do that or not. My above post was mostly referring to a tracking device put in all humans by the goverment. I apologize for any misconceptions or confusion.

All humans have souls, so no matter how many cyber implants you put in yourself, you'll always have you're soul, and you'll always be Human....in my opinion.

What if some type of a computer virus or a giant emp bomb went off and affected the whole entire world? What good would your cyber implants be then? Just a thought. Always think of the consequences before doing something, as I try my best to do before posting on the forums.

Me, three. I wanna live forever... most likely that's a bit of hubris, but I just like myself too much.

And, as someone who's extremely clued into how the US government tracks it's people... if you're a good person, you have nothing to worry about. If you're a mob... you're gonna draw aggro.

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--The Hermit

"Draw aggro." Nicely put there. .

I'd like to live a long life as well, perhaps to 130. I plan on doing this through vitamins, exercise, lots of sleep, leading a stress free life, eating healthy, being happy, exercising, drinking green tea with ginseng, my faith in God, friends/family, and a whole lot of other things. However, if I got the opportunity to die with my true love at 80 or 90, then I would gladly take it.

It is all about getting beyond the stereotypes and popular norms. Blood transfusions were considered "Unnatural", "Satanic"... now they are not. The same goes with organ transplants and surgery for that matter.

Yesterday it was fear of Frankenstein, today it is fear of the Borg… tomorrow it will be some other fear.

Quite right, Cyrus. Not long ago, there were many who believed it morally wrong to pursue space flight, even to the moon, interpreting it as a means of attempting to elevate humankind above god ala the Tower of Babel. I certainly do not hold that belief of space travel and I doubt many, if any, today do. Similarly, chips and cybernetic implants that lengthen or enhance natural life can, at best, do only that. I believe we each possess a soul and that, in God's time will return to Him for Judgement. I stress "in God's time" because I believe no matter what one does to does not do, our time and limits on earth are the domain and decision of God and God alone.

I realize I'm straying into 'no-no' country as far as discussions here go and will go no further in the faith direction of this conversation.

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Liro
"The english language is not a wedding gown, it doesn't get better the more lace you add. It is instead a thong. Less is more." From /.
I need to remind myself of this regularly.

You could die tonight. Or tomorrow. Through no fault of your own, you could be maimed, killed, or something could happen that radically changes your quality of life for the worse.

Thinking of consequences is fine for the most part, but if you let the "what if's" in life stopping you from enjoying it, then what's the point?

As for the implants that let me hop online and play any time I want... all I can say is "Point me to where I can get signed up!".

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Or what if there was a human-borne disease that whenever you had sex with someone who already had that disease, you ran a very high chance of losing the protection offered by your immune system, eventually dying of pneumonia or the common cold? Oh, wait...

(heh, sorry...I really need the servers to come back up! )

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Liro
"The english language is not a wedding gown, it doesn't get better the more lace you add. It is instead a thong. Less is more." From /.
I need to remind myself of this regularly.

Yes, thats why I started drinking Whiskey, intelligently of course. (I used to be against drinking...but I said what the hell...you've gotta enjoy some of lifes pleasures...)

Yell, I am a bit leery of implants because they can easily go wrong in so many ways. My mother had an implanted pump for dispening pharmaceutics and had all kinds of infections and weird rejection problems with them until they had to take it out again. If it's about medical implants I have no problems with them at all, if they solve problems that can be only be solved by implants. If it's just convenience or fashion I am not so sure about them. But then, I wouldn't even get surgery to get my eyes corrected, if I can just continue wearing glasses to the same effect.

Edward