If it'd be possible and what happened in EVA happen to us..

[JinKazama]

Would you accept the Human Complementation Project or anything alike which will evolve human by artificial means? And if you have the choice will you choose to refuse it?

Welcome all your thoughts on this one as well. 8)

[the_seventh_child]

I'd prefer to stay in reality,it's not that it sucks that much!

p.s EM has disabled the polls right?

[Defectron]

I don't like reality that much but I wouldnt want to merge with everyone else either. So I think I'll skip third impact.

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

One size fits all solutions to lifes problems never work. As Shinji discovered, complementation wasn't all it was cracked up to be. An enternity of listening to the self centered, overblown, angst ridden woes of my fellow beings as I tried desperately to retain what little privacy I had remaining is not my idea of a good afterlife.

[Digitalex]

OMF summed it up well.

It seems that HCP only shows the dark side. I prefer reality. Besides, I wouldn't want my ex-GFs to know my thoughts.

[Reichu]

Actually, if HIP went all the way, individual thoughts would no longer exist.

[Mr. Tines]

The original question

Would you accept the Human Complementation Project or anything alike which will evolve human by artificial means?

(my emphasis) is very broad. HCP doesn't last long enough to for us to see what the eventual stable state would be like (or a human-comprehensible equivalent thereof) - whether there would be a gathering of all the idividual streams of consciousness into some Stapledonian greater mind of the race or just remain as Sartre's Hell embodied as an eternal 2am at that sort of party where everyone is drunk enough to just start laying their issues on everyone else.

There are a broad range of scenarios for engineered post-humanity that I'd jump at like a shot (even the non-transcendent types like Egan's polis stories (Diaspora, Schild's Ladder) or, better the download into the αρχε in Permutation City, where one doesn't have to worry about maintaining the hardware upon which one is executing). Even the thought of dissolving into something finer has its appeal at times of world-weariness, when tired like Misato of maintaining appearances.

[JinKazama]

Thanks all of you who posted.

Yeah Satre's hell....We are all living in it, so are the characters from Evangelion. I guess I would like to get out of it if given the oppotunity(like what was happening in EVA 8) ) but its just my personal opinion, maybe you'd think differently, but I guess it's just because we live in this world so we'd like to call it reality, we don't have the courage to deny our senses or say we even fear to lose them as if without them we become nothing.

[JinKazama]

One size fits all solutions to lifes problems never work. As Shinji discovered, complementation wasn't all it was cracked up to be. An enternity of listening to the self centered, overblown, angst ridden woes of my fellow beings as I tried desperately to retain what little privacy I had remaining is not my idea of a good afterlife.

hmmm, good point, but I think we can only rely so much on reality to build our own concepts of privacy, thankx for submitting reply anyway. 8)

[Reichu]

Artificially evolve humans, huh? I'd like some things in the genome tweaked. First, give females more default muscle mass. Second, have breasts only swell during lactation. Third, eliminate the nuisance of menstruation -- have the body reabsorb the endometrium instead.

Actually, if I had to pick, I'd go with the third. ;)

[DieMuhKuh]

I would definitely stay in reality.

[Mr. Tines]

@Reichu

You mean all the benefits of being a well-ripped body builder without the work (actually in that case point#3 is cessation of cycles because the body fat %age is too low).

[Defectron]

Artificially evolve humans, huh? I'd like some things in the genome tweaked. First, give females more default muscle mass. Second, have breasts only swell during lactation. Third, eliminate the nuisance of menstruation -- have the body reabsorb the endometrium instead.

Actually, if I had to pick, I'd go with the third. Wink

Hmmm if were going to do that I also wanna change my genetics too, I wanna be able to regrow any limbs that get cut off and I also want to be able to generate electric current like an electric eel. And I also want a more powerful immune system so that I can eat raw meat without getting salmonella or some other weird desease.

[Reichu]

You mean all the benefits of being a well-ripped body builder without the work (actually in that case point#3 is cessation of cycles because the body fat %age is too low).

I was thinking more like the benefit of being an ordinary male. My brother doesn't do ANYthing -- at ALL -- and he is, of course, stronger than me. The whole predicament was put best in "Nescaflowne"...

Hitmi: I think you're a great sprinter, and I wish I could run as fast as you.
DaMann: Well, Hitmi, it's because you're a girl.
Hitmi: What?
DaMann: The female body has a lower percentage of musculature. It's true. And you lack mental focus, what with your unstable hormones and all. Furthermore, it's a known fact that your heaving bosoms are aerodynamically inefficient. Though, in your particular case... I suppose you have no excuse.

Also, I was thinking not so much the cessation of menstruation, but the body dealing with it in a less obnoxious manner. One wonders how on Earth hominids got as far as they did with females dribbling a blood-rich substance on a periodic -- no pun intended -- basis. That's just BEGGING for the predators to come after you.

Hmmm if were going to do that I also wanna change my genetics too, I wanna be able to regrow any limbs that get cut off

Why, do you plan on losing limbs anytime soon?

and I also want to be able to generate electric current like an electric eel.

I just got my larf for the day.

And I also want a more powerful immune system so that I can eat raw meat without getting salmonella or some other weird desease.

Ask the vultures for their secret. They eat far fouler stuff, after all.

[Mr. Tines]

Also, I was thinking not so much the cessation of menstruation, but the body dealing with it in a less obnoxious manner. One wonders how on Earth hominids got as far as they did with females dribbling a blood-rich substance on a periodic -- no pun intended -- basis. That's just BEGGING for the predators to come after you.

Two obvious mechanisms exist in that scenario to suppress the flow - low fat %age, so infrequent ovulation; and pregnancy. Switching off the cycles - say ovulation on demand - would have the side effect of smoothing out the hormonal turbulence too.

My own favoured minor upgrade would be new teeth every 10-15 years - but that's small potatoes compared with HIP.

[Digitalex]

My own favoured minor upgrade would be new teeth every 10-15 years - but that's small potatoes compared with HIP.

LOL! You can have new teeth every year if you want. They'll just be artificial.

[Soluzar]

My own favoured minor upgrade would be new teeth every 10-15 years - but that's small potatoes compared with HIP.

LOL! You can have new teeth every year if you want. They'll just be artificial.

Replacement parts is a favourite dream of mine. Not entirely artificial, not entirely biological, but better than either. Real flesh, genetically mine, grown over titanium bone and carbon-fibre sinew. Muscles made of artificial fibre that make me ten times as strong as any body builder. Eyes and ears that have limits far beyond those of mere humanity. All grown partially from my own living tissue, so that I become THE NEW FLESH!!

I think that one of the greats of hard SF implanted this notion in my brain, but I'm not entirely sure which one. Too many books, over too many years.

[AchtungAffen]

New teeth would be cool. Replacements are not an option. Even though they can survive the atomic explotion, the process of putting them is very expensive, time and money demanding...

I'd also like nervous system complete regeneration, and fast recovery even in the case of myelin inflamation. Recombinants take a long, very bothering and sometimes hazardous treatment.

[Reichu]

All grown partially from my own living tissue, so that I become THE NEW FLESH!!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Technically, you don't need to look to sci-fi solutions to make yourself better than the rest of humanity. Heck, just look to nature... Genetic hybridization! Olfactory capacities of a turkey vulture! Visual capacities of a hawk! Aural capacities of a canine! Respiratory capacities of a whale! Penile proportions of a horse! Strength of ... hmm, just about ANYthing that isn't human. (From what I recall, we're one of the lamer animals out there in terms of physical strength.) Granted, you'd probably look pretty funny after the required gene therapy, but, hey, all in the name of progress, right?

[Dave]

Screw bodies, no matter how well built they are; their stability over long periods of time is pathetic. Non-corporeal existence is where it's at.