Not necessarily a neuralink specifically, just any genre or type of cybernetic implants, if they were or will become available. I'm super hesitant on anything interfacing with my brain so I'd probably stay organic, except like if I lost my eyesight or hearing.

Yes, just seeing the headline was a yes - but yeah nothing for the brain, just robot arms and legs and eyes for now

Out of curiosity, what advantages do you see yourself getting with robotic limbs? If I were to do a body part it would probably be spine for all around better body support.

No.

I've seen how often tech breaks, gets controlled, becomes unsupported, and can never really get things "right."

But like you said, if it's that or blindness, sure. But I'm not chopping off good parts.

Someone hasn't played the Deus Ex series...

No. Restoring human-like capability following some kind of traumatic event, sure.

"Nothing voluntary" and "nothing that grants superhuman abilities" are the bare minimum to make sure it doesn't turn into an arms race, leading to a tiered society with the enhanced elite ruling over the organic poor.

Is the hardware and software open source or otherwise not owned by a corporation. Then maybe.

Both of those lines will be crossed of they haven't already

Heavily depends on what they do, how reliable the tech is at the time, and who makes them, realistically for anything that I expect to actually become available in my lifetime, the answer is probably not

As a general concept, Im quite favorable towards the notion of using technology to change the human condition (Id consider myself a transhumanist), but that assumes a given change is both desirable and significant enough to be worth the personal risks (for example, of surgery), and I cant think of much that any relatively near future cybernetic implant would be likely able to do that would actually be a meaningful improvement. Restoring lost function is one thing, but at the moment I dont have any personal need for that. Most ideas Ive seen suggested beyond that boil down to "using your brain to control a computer", which well, is something your brain can already do, its just using your hands and senses in combination with traditional input and output devices to do it.

There are hypothetical things that one could imagine an implant doing that would interest me, for example, one could picture something that could add visual information of parts of the light spectrum one cannot currently see, or additional appendages beyond the natural number (maybe that goes beyond a simple implant though), or even more speculatively, one could picture some implant containing clusters of real or simulated neurons that can be trained to add additional capacity to the brain in some way. But, so far as I can see, nothing like that is realistically going to exist for quite a long time, and I would be extremely skeptical of anyone claiming otherwise, because modern technology companies love to sell hype.

Theres also the consideration that, well, you would need to really trust the manufacturer, programmer etc of any such device, the more so the more invasive it is and the more you anticipate relying on it if it is useful, and I would not trust, well, any manufacturer operating under the current economic model that would actually have the resources to develop and test such a device. For anything you incorporate into yourself like that, robustness, available maintenance and personal control over all aspects of the device are paramount, and those things are not the things that let a technology company maximize their profits.

If I can build my own and mentally switch off any sensory input from them at will, probably. Otherwise I’d probably stray away from implants unless I really needed a prosthetic.

I’d also be much more keen on the idea if I knew i could easily fully swap bodies in the event I accidentally fuck one up with the mods. Like if it was more on the side of “Ghost In The Shell” cyber-brains (assuming sclerosis wasn’t a big problem) I’d be pretty stoked to get a full body prosthetic to avoid aging and such knowing I can survive as just a brain-case in an emergency.

If it were a long-term medical solution

Only if I can control the implementation, which means open source and selfhosted uplink

I don't trust companies to even give me usable software anymore, let alone functioning hardware.

they have no business touching any human in a medical sense.... HELL NO

I'll take blindness... at least I can still tell them to feknoff when they try to sell me more trash

It depends.

If it is somehow able to be powered by the sugars in my body, doesn't need external recharging, and does not have any network connectivity, especially if it's an upgrade to what I currently have, probably.

If it fails any of those three tests, then probably not.

You would kick so much ass at Beat Saber, you'd be the number one player in like a day!

Given that people lost their sight because a company went bankrupt, no.

Thats more a capitalism problem though. Literally any technology increases human capability in some way, its just usually not as visceral a way as something that modifies one's body, and then you still get the issue that those with wealth end up owning that thing and controlling what it is used for to their own ends, which generally dont include sharing that control with everyone else. Theres not some distinction between that capacity increase being external or internal that makes the latter lead to inequality but not the former.

Nope.

I mean like the way it is in cyberpunk I would be very resistant but it kinda seems like you could not get by in society without at least some. So I will resist as long as I can I think. Granted if im like disabled and it can allow me to function at non disabled level or better. then also I would get it.

Boy that’s a tough question because I actually am looking at losing my eyesight in a way that could potentially be fixed by such things, and I am generally supportive of the idea of being a cyborg (anyone with a pacemaker is already one, some of them get great joy from hearing that)

I think it depends if they can put me sufficiently under for the surgery that I’m not consciously aware of it. I don’t think I could undergo brain surgery awake. My anxiety is waaaaaaay too bad for that. I’d be a disaster.

I would also need assurances that the device would be useable for my entire lifetime, or could be replaced as needed, unlike joint replacement which you only get a couple tries with, IIUC.

I probably wouldn’t be super into replcing good parts, depends what the perk is.. but most of my parts are wearing out already anyway so thats only a concern for a short time yet.

Yes, I would; but not with any of the corperations that exist now. You have to be picky about what kind of IP/hardware you put into your body. Id also never get a v1 product if I could help it.

I'd need to completely own it. I don't want my extended memory storage to now also include product placement in my childhood memories or the cops can make my bionic legs stop working or whatever.

However, in the hypothetical situation where I completely own my augmentations, 100% I'm getting enhancements. In fact I would question the efficiency of giving me implants, it might just be easier to copy my brain into a completely robotic body.

Im not against it, but im not rushing out to get them or anything.

You know that nut and bolt that's in an incredibly stupid place and you'd need like 4 adapters and a swivel just to reach it but then you have to also hold the nut in place so you'd need pliers designed by Dr Seuss to be able to grip it without not getting in the way so you just tighten with the tips of your fingers in little wiggles and hope it will hold?

Fuck that, my finger and thumb have the torque of an industrial impact wrench and I can disassembled a fucking train like I'm opening soda bottles.

I'm so tired of not being able to have amazing things because a few hundred assholes want to cosplay as Smaug...

Yeah pretty much what you said, better body support to help with aging... fuck that sounds so lame compared to me wanting robotic limbs in my twenties so i could jump really high and punch shit

Lotsa old people get hip replacements.

Stick to mechanical stuff that cant become enshittified later.

You mean like the useful type we see in Ghost in the Shell or the shitty type that we'll see IRL?

My father ran a prosthetics clinic for 35 years. Before that he worked for his father doing very much the same thing for a decade prior.

His words of wisdom were, "The real thing is always better because you can feel with it."

We may be able to make materials that far exceed the capabilities of the human body, but until you can wire up every single nerve and use the thing exactly like you would a real limb, prosthetics will ALWAYS be lesser, no matter their capabilities. There's no point in having sword arms if you can't be proficient overnight with swinging a blade with your elbow.

But, in good faith, yeah, I'd gladly swap my eyes for something better. Astigmatism sucks, and I'm damn near legally blind as it is. Not having to wear glasses would be amazing. Gimme some Kiroshi Optics any day! But, the only reason I'd want them is because they'd be better than what I have. Wearing glasses isn't a huge deal.

I mean, technically, I already have one. My heart keeps stopping so I have a loop recorder implant that talks to my phone and reports back to my cardiologists.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/implantable-loop-recorder/about/pac-20579708

Yes. But it must be superior to human flesh in every way, we have to have solved rejection, and for limbs, they need to be able to still have a sense of touch. Then I'd like to have a whole closet full of shells I can change daily, like Ghost in the Shell.

You mean like glasses 250 years ago?

Right now, there is no such thing as a completely open source laptop/desktop computer. You can have an open source operating system. You can even have an open source bios in the form of libreboot. The hardware however, is impossible to have as open source too. intel, amd, and arm all have closed source binary blobs in them. Risc-v might be an option, but frankly, I don't expect any for profit company to make their hardware accessible in any sort of intentional way.

I will never willingly put any tech inside my body that isn't entirely open source. (Just you watch, i'll make a fuss about the pacemaker tech I need to have installed in 50 years!) Since this currently excludes every major hardware company in existence, I don't expect to ever answer this question positively.

I would need a few things met:

• No data flow back to my brain
• Open source
• Not flagged as disallowed by TSA
• Programmable (kind of goes with OSS)
• Actually useful
• Extremely minimal maintenance

If all of these were met, HEEELLLL YEA

Can't wait to accidentally brick my eyes trying to install an ad blocker lol

Deus Ex.

The downside of copying your brain is that it's a copy, you'll have your original meat body and a separate mechanical body which minds which immediately start to diverge. They're both still you, but meatman gets no upgrades. You could destroy your meat body as part of the transfer but then it's reasonable to say you're dead with a robot that thinks it's you.

The closest you can get to a proper transfer would need an implant which works similar to how your body naturally replaces cells, the implant would gradually take over neurons until you have a fully mech brain which can be transplanted to a new body. You could argue that's still just a destructive copy but I think it's within most people's tolerance.

For Funsies? Likely not, no.

For medical reasons like steering a prostetic, yeah, maybe.

RIP if you need a pacemaker

I'd like to live as long as possible. I'd definitely replace any part of my body with anything that makes that a reality.

As long as it doesn't require a fucking WiFi connection and corporate account to use.

most people's tolerance.

Most people do not have an existential crisis over whether a teleporter is teleporting them or killing and remaking them. It's mostly a small subset of people who have that worry.

No data flow back to my brain

Isn't that just a current generation prosthetic?

Nice try, Sarif Industries. I've played some Deus Ex, I know how this goes.

Yeah but speaking as meatman I'm okay with meatman dying. Robot me will be the real me, meat me is ephemeral.

I don't believe in souls. I view my existence as like a wave, I am briefly in this cohesive form and will inevitably break upon the shore and both cease to be a wave yet forever be the ocean. Continuously moved and reshaped and never the same wave I was.

A body that allows my perception of existence to continue would prevent that, I would be able to continue to "exist" as I perceive it for much longer.

So yeah for me at least you can skip the gradual stuff. Just ctrl + c, ctrl + v and recycle the original.

Lotta badasses in here who would never compromise on their ideals of software purity.

That is, until the very moment they became disabled or unhealthy in a way that an implant with proprietary blobs can fix..

Yes, to solve a medical issue or to genuinely improve my existence.

But if we're talking about something really advanced with software in it I need open source. I've already read real news articles about ocular implants where the company that supports them went out of business. Second Sight Medical Products.

I can't imagine what it must be like to have an implant in my body that's been bricked due to some corporate bullshit.

Gimme some Kiroshi Optics any day!

I'd settle for some second-hand Hannibal Chews. Bifocals suck.

Astigmatism in both eyes over here!

As a kid who grew up on TNG, I always wished my glasses were like Geordi’s VISOR….

I really wonder about the blindness one. Cameras are simple now, we just need a way to feed the information into the brain. It doesn't need to be anything as fancy as an eyeball, just glasses with a camera.