Week 9 Tech Journal: Cyberpunk In Other Bodies
Although Patricia Melzer in “There is No Spoon” argues for The Matrix reinforcing conservative views of the body in which body modification and augmentation takes away from the pureness of the “untouched” or “unmarked” body, I feel that the intertwining of human and machine is inevitable whether or not we like it or not. My personal belief is that it is inherently wrong to modify our bodies to extents in which we can drastically change what we are capable of normally because, from a moral standpoint, I do not think we should take away what makes us human. Even though I would love to be able to have superhuman strength, be able to fly, or be able to see through walls or go invisible, this would create too many problems in society. Due to the similarity in abilities and capabilities are mostly the same from human to human, it makes it capable of governing mankind through law enforcement and government to ensure the safety of every individual. If every human had unique traits and abilities it would make it almost impossible to protect people and keep society safe because it would be impossible to have defense against every type of power or ability that law enforcement would have to potentially go up against.
I personally love technology, but I do not feel that it should be directly a part of our lives, but we should coincide with it and use it as a tool instead of it being essentially who we are. The moral dilemma that I have about serious body modification past things like prosthetics and other bionic limbs to help people who have lost body parts is that I believe God intended us to function in a certain way and it is almost sinful to attempt to change our capabilities. While it is great to give someone a chance to walk that could not otherwise because of an accident, we are going too far and being too greedy if we want, for example, super-vision or the ability to be invisible because this is just asking for in a world that is already ridden with crime and violence. No matter what we do, technology is inevitably going to get more and more advanced and powerful, it is up to us in regards to how we want to implement it into our lives.
