Posted by Kromey at 1:10am Sep 4 '11 (Simple example: you can't stay as a sportsman if the limbs you require get blown off.)
Oscar Pistorius would seem to disagree; he failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics (not Paralympics, but the "real" Olympics) by a mere 0.70 seconds, although so far he is on track to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.
There's that guy who wired up a magnetic field sensor to some part of his body (fingers, I think), and astonishingly quickly the brain worked out how to process that input to help with direction finding.
It was a set of neodymium magnets that he self-surgically inserted under the skin of his fingertips. Which, I suppose that technically qualifies as a "magnetic field sensor"... Anyway, yup, he did learn very quickly how to interpret that new input.
So any 'aug' that gave you extra senses or powers would affect your perception of the world, which is a big part of your humanity.
Hm. Interesting viewpoint. Strange that I hadn't considered it myself, given that I very fully believe that who you are and how you perceive the world is a direct result of, well, your perceptions. So, yeah, changing your perceptions would necessarily change who you are, much more than just the physical "you have a mechanical arm" or whatever.
Oscar Pistorius would seem to disagree; he failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics (not Paralympics, but the "real" Olympics) by a mere 0.70 seconds, although so far he is on track to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.
There's that guy who wired up a magnetic field sensor to some part of his body (fingers, I think), and astonishingly quickly the brain worked out how to process that input to help with direction finding.
It was a set of neodymium magnets that he self-surgically inserted under the skin of his fingertips. Which, I suppose that technically qualifies as a "magnetic field sensor"... Anyway, yup, he did learn very quickly how to interpret that new input.
So any 'aug' that gave you extra senses or powers would affect your perception of the world, which is a big part of your humanity.
Hm. Interesting viewpoint. Strange that I hadn't considered it myself, given that I very fully believe that who you are and how you perceive the world is a direct result of, well, your perceptions. So, yeah, changing your perceptions would necessarily change who you are, much more than just the physical "you have a mechanical arm" or whatever.
Re: I think it does - Kromey