LETTER: Liberty Augmentation responds to Mitcham’s column on ‘neural prosthetics’

“In the evolution of sports, will we ever see athletes physically altered through surgery to gain competitive advantage? Probably not.” (Mitcham)

While I agree there won’t necessarily be competitive advantages, I cannot help but predict that this future will happen. Sports have always been about trying to achieve the extreme, the best. What better way than to enhance our athletes with technology superior to the biological gifts of nature? Soon, world records on running the 100-meter sprint, or jumping hurdles can only be surpassed with the smallest of nanoseconds. If we have a chance as humans to improve upon these times with new surprising results for the public, we will grab that chance. I’m sure of it. Companies like Nike and Puma boasting about having the best running shoes will be replaced with bionics companies selling the best set of legs for intense athletic purposes for example.

“I see this as a potential type of steroid thing, where those who don’t use the new technology are left at a disadvantage. This will not be a “prosthetic” in the literal sense, but a type of physical addition through artificial means. Yikes, right?” (Mitcham)

This specific statement envisions for me the start of something I hope will never happen. It might even signal future happenings of a “Mechanical Apartheid” where bionics users are put into ghettos as if another segregation is happening all over again. Through this statement I can already tell the seeds for jealousy, envy, and anger have been planted, not necessarily by Mr. Mitcham, but subconsciously a large group of people will be afraid of this. Remember when specific cultural groups were the target of some larger population because they had or did something they couldn’t achieve themselves? Advanced bionics are the future, and it’s only natural that the entire world can’t change overnight. Some people will receive their “upgrades” earlier than others, but should we be jealous or hateful towards them for that? No. I believe we should instead direct our energy at making prosthetics more available for everyone through fighting for lower medical costs, more subsidies for bionics research and political change.

“Eric Leuthardt believes that in the near future we will allow doctors to insert electrodes into our brains so we can communicate directly with computers and each other. Ugh, no. Just no. I don’t want any part of that (mental augmentations). We talk about the coming age of artificial intelligence, as if robots may come to gain consciousness and may become so human-like that we can’t tell the difference. That scenario is very alarming.” (Mitcham)

To me this isn’t alarming at all, I can understand his initial fear, but this was a path destined for us since we stopped hanging on tree branches and picked fleas from our other ape friends. Mankind always had a desire to improve upon themselves, Nikola Tesla even referred to us as a spark that slowly but steadily turned into a fiery blaze. We started out slow but like a snowball rolling down the hill, we grow stronger and faster with our developments over time. Mr. Mitcham is disliking the fact that in the future we will communicate directly with computers. Isn’t that what we almost do already? Every day we walk with our smartphones in our hands plugged into various social media platforms. We talk to Google Home to open our programs, play music, or relax with our VR glasses. When the Wright brothers invented the airplane, did people really think we would one day reach the stars and set foot on another planet? I wouldn’t call this situation alarming, but rather exciting!

“I think it’s important to recognize the value in such things but to also see that there is a serious loss of human value if you totally submit to the power of the computer world.” (Mitcham)

What is humanity anyway? I’ve heard people say that “we shouldn’t go in against our nature,” but is that really what we’re doing? Nietzsche also described this to us. If you take a look at all other living species on this planet, we are the only ones who do not belong here. We have an advanced brain, have morality, judgment, emotions, a conscious and subconscious. We can think about what we thought. It’s like the world is a deck of cards and we’re the 11 of Spades that isn’t supposed to be there. I believe this is our human value, to exceed beyond our given bodies. If you face reality, we are intelligent but incredibly weak. Our bones break easily. We have no natural strength unless we conform to eight hours a day in a gym, and we’re extremely vulnerable to bacteria and viruses. What is our nature exactly? To get rid of these problems, to make the disabled able again, and mankind even stronger than before. Take a look at the increasing heat and rising water problems on our planet or the danger of living on Mars. We’re not fit for the future in our current bodies. This is why bionics are so useful to our progress, we need to evolve like this. Darwin showed us our natural evolution, and through that, we create our own mechanical evolution.

Sincerely,

Daniel Goené

Liberty Augmentation

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