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Re: Whatever, Let's Have A Goddamn Blog Thread, But Try And Keep It Reasonable, pt B
Alex C:
See, I always get really excited about the idea of transhumanism. I guess I don't view a body as being much more than a largely demystified tool.
Christophe:
Over the past several months when I have idle-time in my mind, I always imagine myself playing a video-game version of my life. Kind of like The Sims but oh, I actually control my own actions and stuff. This coupled with the few things I remembered from that Cognitive Science class I took my Freshman year of college has led me to some serious thought about this topic. I suppose that where I am right now is that there is a significant difference between the human mind controlling the human body, and the human mind controlling human hands controlling a video game via a keyboard/mouse setup or a control pad--being that in a video game, you can only assign so many commands to a control device, so that instead of actually throwing your elbow down into a windshield to break a car window and actually hotwiring it, you just press Triangle. The controller on a video game console as well as what you see and hear on the TV screen is really all you have to be able to experience the world portrayed within the video game. That's three whole senses being neglected when you play a video game: taste, smell, and touch (unless you count rumble-pak feedback). Would being able to actually fulfill tactile feedback in a video game change the nature of the experience you gain?
Rereading the science-fiction short story "For A Breath I Tarry" about a world without humans and a robot which seeks to understand humanity gave me a little more insight:
--- Quote from: Wikipedia ---Along the way, the story explores the differences between Man and Machine, the former experiencing the world qualitatively, while the latter do so quantitatively. "A machine is a Man turned inside-out, because it can describe all the details of a process, which a Man cannot, but it cannot experience that process itself as a Man can." This is illustrated by a conversation Frost has with another machine named Mordel.
"Regard this piece of ice, mighty Frost. You can tell me its composition, dimensions, weight, temperature. A Man could not look at it and do that. A Man could make tools which would tell Him these things, but He still would not know measurement as you know it. What He would know of it, though, is a thing that you cannot know."
"What is that?"
"That it is cold."
--- End quote ---
Perhaps I will live to see the day when the video game controller will be obsolete and we'll actually control video games by actually doing the things we see in the video game rather than pressing a combination of buttons.
tl;dr why didn't I major in Cognitive Science?, or I am a dork.
tania:
i like transhumanism too! the book i am reading is on the technological singularity, specifically, and it is probably the most fascinating thing i've read all year but for some reason i am only capable of having terrible and really weird dreams about nanobots slowly taking apart my brain from the inside and machines trying to kill me. i'm thinking maybe spending time with my family is what's making me edgy and nervous. or maybe i am just a person who has some problems. possibly both.
ViolentDove:
Mannnn I'm watching the boxing-day test match, and then I'm going to the beach in a canoe. I feel so stereotypically Australian right now it hurts a litte. Maybe I'll go punch a kangaroo or something to top it off.
Inlander:
No! Fill a kangaroo's pouch with ice and use it as an esky for your beer!
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