QUOTE (Wounded Ronin @ Dec 1 2008, 05:57 AM)

You know, I never figured out why people who lose limbs are always bee-lining straight for the delicate neurological interaction stuff. It would be horrible to lose a limb, but if I did lose, say, and arm, why not just go for a prothetic with a lot of cool and convienient features that your meat arm wouldn't have?
Let's say that I lose my left arm. I could get a replacement arm that isn't necessarily intricate in terms of engineering or anything, but it could have a lot of useful devices in it. I'd want to get a small computer with LCD display and a wireless internet connection. I could use my right arm and a stylus to hit the keys and surf DSF all day on my arm. Since the computer would probably be built custom for the arm, maybe there could be a key I could hit that would automatically put "LOL LOL STFU NOOB LOOL LOL" in a text field. A GPS on the computer would be nice as well.
Oh WR you card, you make me cry tears of mirth.
QUOTE (Wounded Ronin @ Dec 1 2008, 05:57 AM)

I don't smoke, but if I did, I'd have a little built in lighter with a refillable fuel compartment. Along the same lines someone who hates insects or spends a lot of time in the outdoors could have a little bug zapper installed in their replacement arm.
Besides for all that, why not put a taser mechanism into the arm, or a OC spray mechanism, or maybe have some kind of derringer built in there? Everyone wants to pick on the handicapped dude until it turns out he has an arm cannon.
Basically, people want to look human. The majority of people are more vain than utilitarian.
QUOTE (Ancient History @ Dec 1 2008, 07:06 AM)

There's a sort of a parable in the old sci fi book To Open the Sky by Silverberg. The ultimate punishment for a body-modification cult is the removal of the ability to feel pain, the reason being is that it dooms the person to a slow and horrible degeneration: paper cuts that bleed and get infected because you don't feel them, teeth that rot because you can't feel the cavities, getting burned because you don't feel pain grabbing the pot, a thousand careless injuries that you can't sense and are hard-pressed to avoid. It's also addressed a bit in the old Cybertechnology sourcebook, but one of the reasons to forego cybernetic replacement in favor of organic organs is the full range of feeling available - no phantom limb syndrome, none of the detachment that comes from looking at the world through a pair of trideo cameras, etc.
Actually, phantom limb syndrome can be treated simply by fooling your brain into thinking you have an arm. The common treatment for those missing an arm, is to place their existing hand against a mirror, and imagine moving their other, missing, arm's hand to touch their fingers together. I imagine this could also be achieved with a motive prosthetic.
QUOTE (NetWraith @ Dec 1 2008, 07:27 AM)

My friends and I always joked that we'd be first in line for a datajack as long as it came with Tetris...
I've worn glasses all my life(I'd love to get lasik,) and I've always wanted replacement eyes... But then when you really think about it, how would it feel to have those in your sockets? Mentally what happens to you when looking out at the world it looks like watching TV or video game. You'd become desensitized to what you're seeing and detached from the world(I'm basing this just on my own thoughts on the subject.)
The closer it comes to tech reaching the point of mechanical replacement, it begs the question... What does it mean to be Human?
Actually, they're designing the cybereye as we speak, and it wires directly into the optic nerve, so it would be like looking out through a natural eye. The biggest hurdle they face is not getting a cybereye to work, but getting parts that will last a human lifetime in an eye-socket. The cyberear is already a reality. Can't find a link to the article at the moment, sorry.
QUOTE (TheOOB @ Dec 1 2008, 09:01 PM)

This is the kind of pro con discussion thats important for understanding how cybernetics are viewed in SR, and how they will be viewed in the future(it's only a matter of time people.) The fact is, there will be a difference between even the best cyber part and a organic part, cybernetics and computers are digital, and our brain is analog. Digital can get close to representing analog, but by definition you can never get a perfect analog experience from digital. Even if you can't consciously notice a difference between your real eye and your cyber eye, there will be some detachment that occurs from cybernetic vision because no matter how many trillions of pixels it gives you, it's not perfect because the real world doesn't work in pixels.
That's the thing though, the eye does see in pixels and frames, the mind just blends them into a seamless whole. Try closing your eyes, then flicking your eyes open and closed, once, very quickly. You'll notice the image of the world you were looking at takes a moment to fade. That demonstrates fairly obviously that we see in frames.
Personally, I want a second pair of (normal) arms. Or a tail. I'd say wings, but human bodies weren't really designed for the stresses of flying: there would be health issues in the long term.