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.
Lotsa old people get hip replacements.
Stick to mechanical stuff that cant become enshittified later.
Is the hardware and software open source or otherwise not owned by a corporation. Then maybe.
No.
I've seen how often tech breaks, gets controlled, becomes unsupported, and can never really get things "right."
But like you said, if it's that or blindness, sure. But I'm not chopping off good parts.
I would need a few things met:
If all of these were met, HEEELLLL YEA
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.
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.
It depends.
If it is somehow able to be powered by the sugars in my body, doesn't need external recharging, and does not have any network connectivity, especially if it's an upgrade to what I currently have, probably.
If it fails any of those three tests, then probably not.
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.
For Funsies? Likely not, no.
For medical reasons like steering a prostetic, yeah, maybe.
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"
As long as it doesn't require a fucking WiFi connection and corporate account to use.
Yes, just seeing the headline was a yes - but yeah nothing for the brain, just robot arms and legs and eyes for now
Yes. But it must be superior to human flesh in every way, we have to have solved rejection, and for limbs, they need to be able to still have a sense of touch. Then I'd like to have a whole closet full of shells I can change daily, like Ghost in the Shell.
Im not against it, but im not rushing out to get them or anything.
Nice try, Sarif Industries. I've played some Deus Ex, I know how this goes.
Heavily depends on what they do, how reliable the tech is at the time, and who makes them, realistically for anything that I expect to actually become available in my lifetime, the answer is probably not
As a general concept, Im quite favorable towards the notion of using technology to change the human condition (Id consider myself a transhumanist), but that assumes a given change is both desirable and significant enough to be worth the personal risks (for example, of surgery), and I cant think of much that any relatively near future cybernetic implant would be likely able to do that would actually be a meaningful improvement. Restoring lost function is one thing, but at the moment I dont have any personal need for that. Most ideas Ive seen suggested beyond that boil down to "using your brain to control a computer", which well, is something your brain can already do, its just using your hands and senses in combination with traditional input and output devices to do it.
There are hypothetical things that one could imagine an implant doing that would interest me, for example, one could picture something that could add visual information of parts of the light spectrum one cannot currently see, or additional appendages beyond the natural number (maybe that goes beyond a simple implant though), or even more speculatively, one could picture some implant containing clusters of real or simulated neurons that can be trained to add additional capacity to the brain in some way. But, so far as I can see, nothing like that is realistically going to exist for quite a long time, and I would be extremely skeptical of anyone claiming otherwise, because modern technology companies love to sell hype.
Theres also the consideration that, well, you would need to really trust the manufacturer, programmer etc of any such device, the more so the more invasive it is and the more you anticipate relying on it if it is useful, and I would not trust, well, any manufacturer operating under the current economic model that would actually have the resources to develop and test such a device. For anything you incorporate into yourself like that, robustness, available maintenance and personal control over all aspects of the device are paramount, and those things are not the things that let a technology company maximize their profits.
Yes, if they're not owned and controlled by some corporate entity.
Considering how unlikely that is, I'll probably never get cybernetic implants.
Only if they're open source, and even then its a big if.
It would need to have a firewall, only allowing outgoing requests
Only if I can control the implementation, which means open source and selfhosted uplink
I mean, technically, I already have one. My heart keeps stopping so I have a loop recorder implant that talks to my phone and reports back to my cardiologists.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/implantable-loop-recorder/about/pac-20579708
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.
Edit: Thought about this a little more. I think a better frame for this question is whether or not you're comfortable accepting the flaws and limitations inherent in our bodies as they are. Obviously I, as an able-bodied person, am more comfortable accepting that my body isn't perfect. Someone with significant disabilities wouldn't hesitate to fix what causes them pain, discomfort, or applies cruel limits to the life they want to live.
I can accept that other people would choose to change, and their reasons are their own. I have no right to force them to accept a body that they hate, for the same reason no one should force me to accept a body that I hate. The Deaf community has had years and years to debate the ethics of cochlear implants, and their impact on their community's cultural values. I'm not Deaf, just a little HoH, but I try to pay attention to what they're talking about for reasons like this.
But as a trans person, I can accept that my body isn't ideal. There are things I would happily change, for the sake of personal comfort. But having put a great deal of thought into it, I would be much happier to live in a society that understood and respected how I perceive myself, and how I want to be perceived. It would render the desire for those aesthetic changes a point of preference, rather than emotional necessity. An accepting culture has been better for my dysphoria than an acceptable body.
It is a complicated philosophical question. I think the right answer is that people should have the freedom to make that choice, and it shouldn't be mandatory, dangerous, or open a path to exploitation.
Yes, I would; but not with any of the corperations that exist now. You have to be picky about what kind of IP/hardware you put into your body. Id also never get a v1 product if I could help it.
If you're going to trust a corporation to casually touch your brain, you're not using it, so you should do it!
As much as the weakness of flesh disgusts me, I wouldn't touch cybernetics with a ten foot pole, unless they corrected a major disability/were lifesaving.
New Chrome? Well Cyberpunk made it seem fun, but in reality you'd get so many ads...
Only if the software stack was GPLv3 licensed (or whichever was the most aggressive version of the license) and the computational hardware was reasonably open as well, preferably completely open like RISC and maybe a fully open UEFI.
I need to trust anything that is going to become part of me.
I really wonder about the blindness one. Cameras are simple now, we just need a way to feed the information into the brain. It doesn't need to be anything as fancy as an eyeball, just glasses with a camera.
Someone hasn't played the Deus Ex series...
No. Restoring human-like capability following some kind of traumatic event, sure.
"Nothing voluntary" and "nothing that grants superhuman abilities" are the bare minimum to make sure it doesn't turn into an arms race, leading to a tiered society with the enhanced elite ruling over the organic poor.
I remember a thought from CGP Grey that went along the lines of..
At some point cybernetics will be like smart phones; people look at you weird if you don't have one.
No, because then it'd be like in the Genetic Opera where we don't own the parts we need to keep us alive. We'd have to pay those too, in absurd amounts. And if we don't, we'll just die. It's already looking like that anyways with the "Pay or Die" system we have in healthcare.
I wouldn't want them. Too much that can go wrong.
I don't trust companies to even give me usable software anymore, let alone functioning hardware.
they have no business touching any human in a medical sense.... HELL NO
Absolutely not
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60416058
These people permanently changed their bodies in ways that will have lifelong impacts (as one example they can never have an MRI) just to be abandoned.
Not sure what I would be able to get that's an improvement on my current body. Maybe something that behaves as a mouse/keyboard? It could be interesting to have something that skips songs playing or can click the TV interface but not sure why I wouldn't just get 5 mice or have a programmable IR blaster on the phone. Even something minor like a chip in the hand for RFID sounds better served with a smart ring since a power source, replacements and programmability sounds better than essentially just having a card chip in the hand. Make the ring into a solar panel with a physical on/off switch and it fits all my requirements.
So probably not anything, only possibility is that I lose something such as hearing, vision, leg and I get a replacement.
I mean like the way it is in cyberpunk I would be very resistant but it kinda seems like you could not get by in society without at least some. So I will resist as long as I can I think. Granted if im like disabled and it can allow me to function at non disabled level or better. then also I would get it.
Tail.
I used to be of the purely meat/unwired crowd, but that was a younger me. Now that I’m aging, I think I’d take my chrome and never look back.
You mean like the useful type we see in Ghost in the Shell or the shitty type that we'll see IRL?
Given that people lost their sight because a company went bankrupt, no.
If I can build my own and mentally switch off any sensory input from them at will, probably. Otherwise I’d probably stray away from implants unless I really needed a prosthetic.
I’d also be much more keen on the idea if I knew i could easily fully swap bodies in the event I accidentally fuck one up with the mods. Like if it was more on the side of “Ghost In The Shell” cyber-brains (assuming sclerosis wasn’t a big problem) I’d be pretty stoked to get a full body prosthetic to avoid aging and such knowing I can survive as just a brain-case in an emergency.
My brain immediately went to cybernetic titties and I got lost thinking about what they might do.
No way. If RoboCop or Cyberpunk is anything to go off of, trusting a company to supply parts for your own body is not a good idea.
Besides, I've always liked my equipment in stock form, to really appreciate it for what it is at its core.
Chop me up, doc. I'm ready to live life by the hot wire.
The default MO for large tech companies is they are trying to screw me out of as much money as possible with each product I buy. In this current world, you'd have to be crazy to justify implanted tech. Maybe in a different world where consumers have more power, all tech products have laws similar to car lemon laws, and where open standards dominate over proprietary tech, it could be reasonable.
Lotta badasses in here who would never compromise on their ideals of software purity.
That is, until the very moment they became disabled or unhealthy in a way that an implant with proprietary blobs can fix..
Any mechanical only part without software. Nothing from head or spine.
I refer to my CGM as "my cybernetic implant", so I guess I already have one?
Boy that’s a tough question because I actually am looking at losing my eyesight in a way that could potentially be fixed by such things, and I am generally supportive of the idea of being a cyborg (anyone with a pacemaker is already one, some of them get great joy from hearing that)
I think it depends if they can put me sufficiently under for the surgery that I’m not consciously aware of it. I don’t think I could undergo brain surgery awake. My anxiety is waaaaaaay too bad for that. I’d be a disaster.
I would also need assurances that the device would be useable for my entire lifetime, or could be replaced as needed, unlike joint replacement which you only get a couple tries with, IIUC.
I probably wouldn’t be super into replcing good parts, depends what the perk is.. but most of my parts are wearing out already anyway so thats only a concern for a short time yet.
Yes. I'm chronically ill with a lot of issues. I'd go down to Maelstrom's territory at night alone and wiggle seductively. "Oh no, please don't force chrome on me Mr. Maelstrom guy."
Realistically, I have ADHD so having a neural interface to make sure I didn't forget shit would be so helpful. I wouldn't trust most devices though. It'd have to be free of the possibility of being enshittified, so I'd only be comfortable with it if I controlled the software.
I get a kind of chafe, like that of clothes that don't fit, for the normal function of my own body. Like some other arm I've never used is tied behind my back. So yes, but the cost matters more.
If I die younger for it, not worth it. If I give up my sovereignty to an amoral entity for it, not worth it.
So no hack jobs and no corporate bs, but non-invasive opensource projects like openbci and openmuscle? Awesome!
For it to be more mainstream I'd really support a well ran cooperative that supports these opensource projects and customers that have them.
Watch the black mirror episode on that
Right now, there is no such thing as a completely open source laptop/desktop computer. You can have an open source operating system. You can even have an open source bios in the form of libreboot. The hardware however, is impossible to have as open source too. intel, amd, and arm all have closed source binary blobs in them. Risc-v might be an option, but frankly, I don't expect any for profit company to make their hardware accessible in any sort of intentional way.
I will never willingly put any tech inside my body that isn't entirely open source. (Just you watch, i'll make a fuss about the pacemaker tech I need to have installed in 50 years!) Since this currently excludes every major hardware company in existence, I don't expect to ever answer this question positively.
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 feel like... cybernetic implants will be here in a few years. They'll be designed by AI and incomprehensible to any human. They'll also be unaffordable to you, or anyone close to your age, allowing boomers and billionaires to outlive the children whose future they stole, again.
Oh, sorry, would I? Nah, I'd never be able to afford it.
Depends on the definition of "cybernetic". Is a cochlea implant cybernetic? Is a replacement lens one? A tooth filling?
My shoulder is busted so yes please I would like a robot arm 🦾
Deus Ex.
Nope.
If it meant I could download language packs, likely yes. Otherwise probably not. And not in the current setup where some company could likely turn off your brain if you missed a payment.
like the borg?
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