There's also a cyborg theory/disability studies thing going on here, which reminds me that I should call Erin from Brandeis one of these nights and talk shop now that I've actually read any of this stuff at all. Prostheses become part of the body as they are used; I get this feeling sometimes about things I use/am, my bicycle in particular, once I'm on it I don't tend to think of it as a tool so much as I think of it as a posture. And that's, what, 30-60 mintues a day? I expect if I spent 8-16 hours a day using some sort of mobility technology I would integrate it way more.
I wish I could remember the book which I read that discussed how neurological pathways get reprogrammed to take advantage of prostheses (medical and not). Tried to look it up, but no dice.
"Responsibility is not the exclusive right, obligation, or dominion of humans." ...I'd really like to believe this but I'm not convinced.
I was thinking about this the other day after having read "Last Chance to See," which is about very specific animals going extinct and the very specific scientists trying to save them. I am not convinced that a small number of other species do not have some concept of responsibility (chimpanzee group, for instance, I don't think could function without some rudimentary understanding of "if I do this, you do that," which I think is the basic impulse that becomes responsibility in either its positive or negative forms) but I am becoming convinced that even those animals cannot take much responsibility for anything other than other members of their species (and, perhaps, a few specific other species). I am pretty convinced that humans are not the only ones with language, or tools, or some form of morality or responsibility--but I am becoming more and more convinced that humans are the only ones who have the capability of feeling responsibility toward things that are not like themselves at all (plants, for instance), or things that are inanimate.
I'm glad that she critiqued transhumanism that way; I always shied away from using the word because I wasn't the kind of dragon who wanted an iPod implanted into my skull.
no subject
I wish I could remember the book which I read that discussed how neurological pathways get reprogrammed to take advantage of prostheses (medical and not). Tried to look it up, but no dice.
"Responsibility is not the exclusive right, obligation, or dominion of humans." ...I'd really like to believe this but I'm not convinced.
I was thinking about this the other day after having read "Last Chance to See," which is about very specific animals going extinct and the very specific scientists trying to save them. I am not convinced that a small number of other species do not have some concept of responsibility (chimpanzee group, for instance, I don't think could function without some rudimentary understanding of "if I do this, you do that," which I think is the basic impulse that becomes responsibility in either its positive or negative forms) but I am becoming convinced that even those animals cannot take much responsibility for anything other than other members of their species (and, perhaps, a few specific other species). I am pretty convinced that humans are not the only ones with language, or tools, or some form of morality or responsibility--but I am becoming more and more convinced that humans are the only ones who have the capability of feeling responsibility toward things that are not like themselves at all (plants, for instance), or things that are inanimate.
I'm glad that she critiqued transhumanism that way; I always shied away from using the word because I wasn't the kind of dragon who wanted an iPod implanted into my skull.