Immortality and Killer Robots.

I just read the article "Body: Tomb, Temple, Machine and Self" by Anthony Synnott... and needless to say, it was quite the compelling read. I was intrigued by the last section of the work, which discussed recent paradigms, debating the body as plastic, bionic or holistic. After absorbing all this, I was hit with this impression: Should we be scared that we aren't at all scared that we are viewing the body more and more as something that should be bionic or plastic? The way I see it is this: the benefits of becoming 'cyborg' far outweigh the negativity of using this sort of technology at this point. So we all go along, jovially accepting that life is just what it is... I wear contacts, my sister has about a billion screws in her knees, and we all get in our cars and drive to work everyday, talking on our iPhones and paying the parking meter to dwell in a certain spot from 9 to 5. We are all cyborgs in one way or another. Just like any other completely natural way of living (one does not dwell of breathing) this is accepted and ignored.

So... maybe I'm paranoid, maybe I saw I-Robot one too many times, and maybe I need to remove my tinfoil hat and crawl out from under my bed, but there must be some distant future in which this plasticizing and metal work will be our downfall. As I see it, the more we rely on machines and surgeries to make us "better people", as opposed to our very own mind, body and self, the more we may ultimately become weaklings... a de-evolution. There is a famous evolution illustration entitled "The Evolution of the White Collared Man", where the picture starts out with a monkey, crawling on it's fists, then rises to the pinnacle of a tall well-formed man, and then back down again to a misshapen human, crouched over in the glow of his computer screen. Is it going to come to that? Should we not be more worried that it already has (thanks World of Warcraft and Facebook)? All these questions just lead me to more worrying and paranoia, and, really, who has time for that when there are legions of robot time-travelers to fend off? All joking aside, I do want to find more ways to re-humanize my own body. Our body has limitless powers, of developing and healing, if only we (I) would take the time needed to deeply work and grow. I believe that it is time that is expensive, and the normal/natural/expected thing to do is use enhancing outside sources to speed up the process. It is patience that we lack to more holistically approach our bodies, in healing, beautifying, and enhancing. I wonder if there was limitless time on this earth, would we all be Olympic status athletes, and altogether smarter and stronger? This perfect timeless world is starting to sound even more unbelievable than the robot time-travelers. For the present age and time, all we can do is what feels truly right and fulfilling for our own bodies, be it going the natural way to health or becoming the bionic woman.

I guess we'll figure out the whole future thing when we get there.