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[Thecard]

Sex is easy. We have been refining out ability to produce artificial genitals for a while, and if you can eventually give somebody feeling in an artificial hand, then one limb is similar enough to another. Your Ipod doesn't do it for you because you can't trick your mind into thinking that you can reproduce with it, but given the prominence of something as abstract as pornography being enough to get some people off, I'm sure people will be happy with a substitute that they can actually interact with.

Honestly, someone's made suitably realistic genitals already.  Not entirely sure who or when, but it's statistically impossible no one has yet.   

But there's more to people than dicks and vaginas.  Some people will be thrilled with a substitute, some people won't.  Maybe there will be some big human/cyborg rights debate in the future, and hundreds of cyborgs will move to California, increasing their current number of terminators up from their current record of one.

[Max White]

And now everybody in the entire library is looking at me as I try to withhold this laughing fit bought on by that sharp wit. Well done, Mr. Card. 

[Thecard]

And now everybody in the entire library is looking at me as I try to withhold this laughing fit bought on by that sharp wit. Well done, Mr. Card. 

I've always had a dream of using a combination of genitals and Schwarzenegger to make someone socially disruptive.  I just figured it would have to be self inflicted.

[Itnetlolor]

I wonder how long until the world of Ghost in the Shell rolls around? Once we can telepathically chat and hack things, then I have a new avatar to use to keep my face obscured from others:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Well, on the telepathic chatting, we already have and are improving "mindreading" electronics that read your neuron signals and convert them into the desired action (rather disturbingly, someone has already used this to create mechanical brain-linked catears). So you could certainly start think-texting any year now, though that isn't true electronic telepathy.

[Thecard]

Huh.
It took me a second to realize that wasn't a cartoon penis.
I still haven't figured out what it is.
An anthropomorphic hotdog?

Also, am I the only one here who likes to collect my thoughts and format my posts so they don't come out all sloppy?  I'm a bit worried think-texting would destroy my grammar.

[Bdthemag]

Huh.
It took me a second to realize that wasn't a cartoon penis.
I still haven't figured out what it is.
An anthropomorphic hotdog?

Also, am I the only one here who likes to collect my thoughts and format my posts so they don't come out all sloppy?  I'm a bit worried think-texting would destroy my grammar.

Well, society has already been slowly sliding towards having terrible grammar and a terrible grasp of the english language. So I doubt much is going to change.

[Max White]

I worried that you plebs would all know what I really thought of you...
I mean fuck. God damn mind reading forums!

[Itnetlolor]

Huh.
It took me a second to realize that wasn't a cartoon penis.
I still haven't figured out what it is.
An anthropomorphic hotdog?

Actually it's called "The Laughing Man" from Ghost in the Shell. It's supposed to be a cheerful guy wearing a baseball cap with a quote from Catcher in the Rye orbiting it. Much of the series was philosophical on what defines humans after much of society takes up cyborg implants and such, as well as being able to transfer your brain into a brain-case, and be able to go all Cortex Command with it, and hook yourself up to a tank.

Much like our computers these days, even everyday citizens had their cyber-brains riddled with various kinds of firewalls and such; and that's just to protect their mind/memories on it's own when uplinked to a national network post-cyborg upgrade. Dealing with protecting our 4th Amendment rights will be more of a nightmare when this rolls along than it currently is already.

[Thecard]

I worried that you plebs would all know what I really thought of you...
I mean fuck. God damn mind reading forums!

Oh yeah.  Some of those too.  My initial reaction to bad grammar is to think someone is an idiot.  I've gotten better at stopping myself though, since I've actually gotten to know people who just have bad grammar but are nice guys and gals. 
Still... once, this guy was upset at me, and started correcting my grammar.  He only had two periods in his ellipses, instead of three so I called him out on it, but he insisted he always had three.  In that message, his ellipses still had only two periods.  I just stopped responding after that.


Ninja'd?

Huh.
It took me a second to realize that wasn't a cartoon penis.
I still haven't figured out what it is.
An anthropomorphic hotdog?

Actually it's called "The Laughing Man" from Ghost in the Shell. It's supposed to be a cheerful guy wearing a baseball cap with a quote from Catcher in the Rye orbiting it. Much of the series was philosophical on what defines humans after much of society takes up cyborg implants and such.

Catcher in the Rye?  So I wasn't far off?
Ohh! 

I've never actually read it, I just know it was on a list of banned books.  Ergo, penis.
Is it any good?  Both of them, I mean.

[alway]

Huh.
It took me a second to realize that wasn't a cartoon penis.
I still haven't figured out what it is.
An anthropomorphic hotdog?

Actually it's called "The Laughing Man" from Ghost in the Shell. It's supposed to be a cheerful guy wearing a baseball cap with a quote from Catcher in the Rye orbiting it. Much of the series was philosophical on what defines humans after much of society takes up cyborg implants and such, as well as being able to transfer your brain into a brain-case, and be able to go all Cortex Command with it, and hook yourself up to a tank.

Also, you need to watch it. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in particular. IMO, the best sci-fi out there at the moment. So find yourself an english dub, and about 12 hours; you won't regret it. Then when you finish, watch Stand Alone Complex Second Gig, the movies, and read the manga. They are all amazing (well, the movies a bit less so; the TV series is where it really shines).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell:_Stand_Alone_Complex
It's extremely influential in this realm of thought. The Matrix was influenced by its style and themes; and GitS was even shown during the initial pitch for the idea of The Matrix.

[Itnetlolor]

Huh.
It took me a second to realize that wasn't a cartoon penis.
I still haven't figured out what it is.
An anthropomorphic hotdog?

Actually it's called "The Laughing Man" from Ghost in the Shell. It's supposed to be a cheerful guy wearing a baseball cap with a quote from Catcher in the Rye orbiting it. Much of the series was philosophical on what defines humans after much of society takes up cyborg implants and such.

Catcher in the Rye?  So I wasn't far off?
Ohh! 

I've never actually read it, I just know it was on a list of banned books.  Ergo, penis.
Is it any good?  Both of them, I mean.

I never really took the time to read CitR, but I did watch GitS, the movies, and both seasons of the show, not yet with the manga. Really worth the watch through. And they do address much of the concerns of this kind of cyborg stuff throughout, while also having an over-arching plot/case. All I can say is that as scary things are in our current meatbag state, adding some transhumanism (especially if/when we breach the uncanny valley where machine→human forms are concerned) into the mix will likely add another dimension in making life and rights and human/"human" rights that much more complicated.

* Itnetlolor got ninja'd by alway. Alway scores.

[FearfulJesuit]

I wonder if- eventually- we'll just all be uploaded to computers with "reality feeds" wired in. Tarn Adams, as one of the only true humans overseeing the project, will be charged with writing Slaves to Armok III, a procedurally-generated real world generator to create realities for the minds to live in. Quantum computing will ensure that each mind can be run, but not be fully conscious as in its main reality, in as many other people's realities as it needs to simultaneously without being aware of it. We will have consciousness down to a science, and our emulators will be sliced and diced so that we can send in formal requests for certain bits to be switched in and out. Robo-Santorum 3000 will loudly and eventually futilely campaign to have "humanity"'s stock of gay chips destroyed. Reincarnation of a sort will be emulated. If you are especially good in this life, the flash drive containing your mind will be taken by the robot overseers to run on one of the special CPUs in an exclusive warehouse, to live out your next life drinking wine, reading books and having sex with a harem of nubile young things. The especially bad will be the nubile young things.

[Thecard]

I wonder if- eventually- we'll just all be uploaded to computers with "reality feeds" wired in. Tarn Adams, as one of the only true humans overseeing the project, will be charged with writing Slaves to Armok III, a procedurally-generated real world generator to create realities for the minds to live in.

Real-life is ASCII. 
This is just an HD game.

[Fenrir]

If you make an unauthorized copy of a brain, is it piracy or kidnapping?