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[KaguroDraven]

How about your kid's eyes, which will end up 20/400 just like yours did unless you alter your germ line?

As someone with 20/50 20/400 eyes, I can say that that isn't very bad. Annoying, but hardly a burden.

I can't remember the exact point my eyes are at, but I can also say it's annoying but not a big problem. Yeah everything past a few feet gets bulry, but glasses fix it quite easily.

Ever notice that in games where you kill bioengineered soldiers by the truckload, you're almost always heavily modified or otherwise superhuman yourself?

Name some.

Prototype
Bioshock.

[Criptfeind]

Thing about the laws of physics is, there is no crack.

I recommend Asimov's The Last Question, by the way. In entropy, sure, there are no loopholes. But at least theoretically, it may be possible to escape this universe into one in an earlier stage of its evolution.

That's your master plan?  A hack short story by a chemistry teacher, whose master computer couldn't for grammatically correct error statements?  The moral of the story was mankind never finding an answer, melding into a singular supermind before merging into the Multivac collective, then sitting around in hyperspace for centuries until pulling the literal definition of a Deus Ex Machina?  And you wonder why people don't take this stuff seriously.

_{That was jesting by the way.  This is a touchy topic, I know.}

form even.

[nenjin]

An organism evolved under gravity doesn't do so well when it develops without gravity? Color me shocked. Next you'll be suggesting that alcohol isn't a good thing to have in the womb either.

Hey, you're the one that said immutable laws and philosophy have nothing to do with this. I'm just trying to tell you, you're talking out your ass because you think your pet philosophy is just so fucking amazing.

[Earthquake Damage]

Ever notice that in games where you kill bioengineered soldiers by the truckload, you're almost always heavily modified or otherwise superhuman yourself?

Name some.

Prototype
Bioshock.

Exception:  Return to Castle Wolfenstein

[nbonaparte]

Perhaps you're right about bending the laws of physics. But there's still the whole span of our universe to live in.

On blood substitutes, I'm having trouble finding that. Blood is mostly water, adding more hemoglobin could accomplish the same ends. But it's the same principle. Artificial legs are more capable than their human equivalents. You can run faster, and without tiring ankles. But nobody ever wants to replace their legs.

And aqizzar, I was about to go off on you about ad hominem, but then I noticed it was a joke. It's a good story regardless.

[Vactor]

I hit quote and see: Warning - while you were reading 4 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.

You talk about eliminating all the irrational things humans do, like playing video games

Actually I was referring to a specific type of video game, the rat race. There's a difference between exploring virtual worlds/enjoying interactive storytelling/experimenting with sandbox creations (Fallout series, Final Fantasy, DF), and pressing the same button over and over again to get the next level and its gear (low drop rates and level grinding, usually in MMOs). Being able to say "Wait. I've GOT to stop doing this. I'm just going through the motions because I keep thinking that the enjoyment will happen later, when it won't." is an intellectual hurdle. (Can you tell it's a hurdle I've tripped over?)

I'm thinking this is a good indication of where you're at.  It sounds very much like you're tripping over this same intellectual hurdle on a much larger track.  Your rat-race style video game is no better or worse way of frittering away your time than a sandbox type game, the only difference is that you're satisfying different hardwired desires, nothing you do in either of these games is bettering your position outside of it.  If you think about it deeply enough you realize that your life is also along these lines, by living as a technologically enlightened wonderpiece that exists to see millenia, you aren't bettering your position outside of your existence.  Your life becomes said rat race or sandbox, with no end payoff, either way you're just frittering away time.  The question is do you enjoy the time that you frittered.  Right now you enjoy playing sandbox games, but if you removed the instincts that are driving you to improve you won't.

[Criptfeind]

Artificial legs are more capable than their human equivalents. You can run faster, and without tiring ankles. But nobody ever wants to replace their legs.

How long does rehab/ghost pain/other crap last?

[Aqizzar]

_{That was jesting by the way.  This is a touchy topic, I know.}

form even.

Fuck you, I just noticed that.  I also used an unnecessary question mark.  However, the important thing is, I'm not a universe-straddling supercomputer on whose positronic shoulders all of humanity's hopes rest.  I'm at a lower standard of gramer.

[G-Flex]

On blood substitutes, I'm having trouble finding that. Blood is mostly water, adding more hemoglobin could accomplish the same ends.

If this were the case, your body would be doing it all the time. Yes, people's bodies in higher elevations do, or people who stress their cardiovascular systems more (probably), but there's a reason why it isn't everybody's body doing it; there's cost involved. It isn't free.

Artificial legs are more capable than their human equivalents. You can run faster, and without tiring ankles. But nobody ever wants to replace their legs.

This is quite bullshit. Even if you can sprint on a track in a straight line faster, artificial legs are nowhere as versatile or useless as the ones you develop naturally. You use your legs for more than sprinting on a hard, level surface in a straight line.

Your rat-race style video game is no better or worse way of frittering away your time than a sandbox type game, the only difference is that you're satisfying different hardwired desires, nothing you do in either of these games is bettering your position outside of it.

Categorically wrong. Even non-human animals play, and for good reason. We play games, and play with toys, in order to develop skills, including abstract skills such as problem-solving, hand-eye coordination, organizational thought, reacting to new situations, and so forth. Playing games is useful outside of the context of the game, unless you're playing the game past the point where you're getting anything new out of it and you're just doing it as an addictive/compulsive behavior, which was exactly his point.

[Earthquake Damage]

Artificial legs are more capable than their human equivalents. You can run faster, and without tiring ankles. But nobody ever wants to replace their legs.

Artificial legs can outperform natural legs in certain narrow circumstances.  That does not mean we have artificial legs that outperform natural legs in all circumstances.  Nor does it mean those legs are economically practical.

[Eugenitor]

Ever notice that in games where you kill bioengineered soldiers by the truckload, you're almost always heavily modified or otherwise superhuman yourself?

Name some.

Half-Life series. No two ways about it, Gordon's superhuman as hell. It's hilarious listening to Breen talk about "our post-human allies" when Gordon's the obviously most superior being in the room.

Quake 4.

Bioshock.

FEAR, if I'm not mistaken.

Halo.

Infamous.

Prototype. Oh God, Prototype.

Anything based on any comics franchise except Batman, who is superhuman-by-plot.

Pretty much any FPS or other hero-based game where the protagonist can soak up bullets enjoys superhumanity-by-plot. In the Doom movie they actually did come out and make the main character physically superhuman.

[nbonaparte]

I'd add Crysis too, although there aren't many others as capable as you.

[Criptfeind]

Hey, Aqizzar said Fuck you. To me. Yay...

However, the important thing is, I'm not a universe-straddling supercomputer on whose positronic shoulders all of humanity's hopes rest.

Eh? Really?

[Eagleon]

On blood substitutes, I'm having trouble finding that. Blood is mostly water, adding more hemoglobin could accomplish the same ends. But it's the same principle. Artificial legs are more capable than their human equivalents. You can run faster, and without tiring ankles. But nobody ever wants to replace their legs.

You're thinking of respirocytes, unless I'm mistaken. Unfortunately it's still a theoretical concept, though hardly more advanced than some of the stuff needed for DNI or repair drugs, hehe. We have developed blood substitutes that work, just not this kind of blood substitute. When it happens, rest assured you'll have plenty of diving enthusiasts and crazy transhumanists available to test it out, despite how batshit insane replacing your whole bloodstream with compressed oxygen tanks made of tiny carbon sphereoids is.

[nbonaparte]

Gah, fine. Performance enhancing drugs, then. they're shunned, even in environments that aren't competitions, like academic environments.

On blood substitutes, I'm having trouble finding that. Blood is mostly water, adding more hemoglobin could accomplish the same ends. But it's the same principle. Artificial legs are more capable than their human equivalents. You can run faster, and without tiring ankles. But nobody ever wants to replace their legs.

You're thinking of respirocytes, unless I'm mistaken. Unfortunately it's still a theoretical concept, though hardly more advanced than some of the stuff needed for DNI or repair drugs, hehe. We have developed blood substitutes that work, just not this kind of blood substitute. When it happens, rest assured you'll have plenty of diving enthusiasts and crazy transhumanists available to test it out, despite how batshit insane replacing your whole bloodstream with compressed oxygen tanks made of tiny carbon sphereoids is.

Yes, that's it. I'd do it. At that point, Id expect a nanotech immune system too.