Early this morning, somewhere around 3:30AM, I got to thinking about the developing medical science of body modification and repair. The current state of the art is pretty crude, it mostly involves cutting you up, lopping off pieces, stitching in donated organs, sucking out tissue, implanting crude replacement or enhancement parts, or tacking on various mechanical equipment such as glasses and braces and hearing aids, not to mention cosmetic modifications such as piercing, tattooing, and all the myriad things we do with hair. In the relatively near future, however, medical science will be able to grow complete and perfect replacement parts, bones, joints, hearts, kidneys, livers, skin, and so on, from a persons own tissue. Those organs will be healthy and free of defect and since they are perfect genetic matches theyll go in without danger of rejection. A bit beyond that, medicine should be able to grow more difficult items such as eyes and nerve tissue and eventually well be able to repair the degenerative damage caused by diseases such as alzheimers or structural damage to the brain and spinal cord. Further down the timeline will come genetic modification, seamless cybernetic enhancement, and expansion of sensory input including direct neural/network interface. One day technology may give us things like artificial immune systems, regeneration at the cellular level, and almost infinite life extension. All of these technologies are either in their crude first generation or on the foreseeable horizon. Eventually, well be able to remake ourselves in nearly any fashion at prices we can afford. And I thought, what would I change if I could change anything about my physical self? Of course, all you have to do is look around to see what humanity will do with this ability. Future generations will no doubt rebuild themselves as supermen complete with bulging muscles and full heads of thick auburn hair. They will one and all smile perfect blindingly white TV smiles. There will be a surfeit of dimples and granite chins and chiseled pecs and flat stomachs and smooth sculpted asses. And I suppose it goes without saying that our descendents will all have brontosaurus-sized everlasting willies (and)or massive perky boobs - and given what I know of people in general, the enhanced recreational equipment will also likely light up and play the fight song of their favorite sports team. But me? What would I change? If I could change only ONE thing, what would it be? Im happy with me. Theres plenty of wear and tear, but Im comfortable in my own skin. Everything works, maybe not quite to design spec anymore but close enough. I have little interest in any purely cosmetic change. I wouldnt mind a new shoulder, but its not an overriding priority. My hearing is going to shit, but its only an annoyance at this point and it mutes the jackasses to a dull roar so I tend to regard it as a feature instead of a bug. The nerve damage in my left arm and the pain in my hands is tolerable, mostly. Now, I do utterly hate my increasing middle-aged presbyopia - but not enough that Id waste my one precious wish on it. No, if I could change one thing, and only one thing, what would it be? Hmmm. Well, to be honest, I guess I would want to enlarge a certain part of me. At 3AM I was pretty sure I knew what organ that would be, but Im not at my cognitive best in the wee hours and I resolved to think upon it further at a more reasonable hour. But yeah, LARGER, thats the ticket. Now, sitting here in the cold grey light of this rainy Alaskan morning, with a half dozen cups of coffee literally sitting under my belt, I see that my 3AM logic was sound. Given the volume of coffee I drink, I measure writing progress by number of trips to the bathroom. And, just once, Id REALLY like to sleep through the night. Then I wouldnt be thinking about this kind of stuff at 3AM. _______________ How about you? If you could change one thing and one thing only about yourself, what would it be?
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 19:22:33 +0000
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